Page 192 - Musings 2021

Martha: (crying and tears are rolling down her face). Robert, don't leave me. Stay with me.
You’ll be okay. John is safe, don't worry.

Robber 1: (grinning under his mask). Well, this is horrible. Oh, I know, why don’t you join
him as well? “Till death do us part” right?

(Robber 1 shoots Martha in the head and she falls forward onto Robert’s corpse. John is in
total shock. Reuben is comforting John and the robbers locate the manager and open the
vault. Once the vault was opened, they shot the manager as well.)

Reuben: (hugging John at this point, unable to find the right words to say). It will be okay;
everything will be okay.

John: (starts sobbing uncontrollably). But Mom… and Dad… why? WHY?

Reuben: (scouts the area for the robbers, sees they’re still inside the vault). Come on John,
you must be strong for me okay. We need to get away from here before the robbers come
back.

John: (staring at his parents’ corpses in disbelief). I can’t just leave them like that. I can’t
believe that they’re dead.

Reuben: (Angrily). We can’t do anything about that now. We need to move. Right now.

John: (nods hesitatingly and mutters faintly). Okay

(Reuben realizes that the robbers are amateurs because they had not left a person to stand as a
lookout. He picks John up onto his feet and runs to the manager’s desk, where he presses the
emergency button. This button acts as a fail-safe and locks the vault permanently. The only
way to open it then is to force it open with explosives or weld the lock open. It also sends out
an alert to the nearest police station. The vault closes and locks the robbers inside, and they
proceed to shoot the vault door with their guns. The bullets ricochet off the metal door and
end up hitting themselves. And the robbers start cursing and screaming in pain. People in the
bank start rejoicing.)

Reuben: (in a moment of satisfaction, looks to John). We did it! They’re done for. The police
will be here any minute.

John: (staring gloomily at the vault, speaks in a slow-paced tone). But those screams were
just like my mother’s. And she’s dead now. My dad too. All because of me. Because I
overheard their conversation. I killed them.

Reuben: (kneels to match John’s eyes). Don’t you ever say that? It was not your fault. Your
parents died heroes. They saved you and the other people in the bank. And that’s what I want
you to remember them for.

(John starts crying and falls into Reubens’ arms. Reuben knew he had to make sure John did
not feel at fault at all. Because if he did, then he would spend the rest of his life blaming
himself and that should never be a way to live one’s life. His parents may not have done
much but to John, they were his heroes and they will always be his heroes. The police arrive

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