The Post Fable
Created | Updated Oct 27, 2004
Eyewitness Account
Beep. Beep.
Whirr.
Clunk.
That's all I hear most of the time. Unless it's the inconsistent rustle of the commuter trains, or the steady hum of city traffic passing by. Deadly exciting hmm? Yes, I can imagine you are amazed at my busy and wonderful job. What do I do? Oh, I'm a teller at a bank. Am I happy? Oh, it's a job isn't it? The days go by. Everything just runs by, automatically. Automatic? Yes. Mostly the same thing from dawn to dawn.
But, this morning... Thursday isn't it? No? Oh. It was yesterday then. Time rolls on. Yesterday morning, it was different. Much different. I was going through the regular motions, you know. Look left, look right... all the same black and whiteness of the suburb around me. The staleness of early morning cement mixed with the fading glow of the streetlights. A little depressing I know, I much prefer the rush and pillage of the shopping hours. It was greying down nicely when he approached. Fumbled a little with his wallet, got out his bankcard and gave it to me. He seemed tired, his face was gaunt. I guess everyone gets that way towards the end of the working week. You'd think most of the people I saw had not slept. But that's city living. Weekends are different. Everyone seems easier, happier. Even the ones with lots of children. Children... sometimes they are lovely, sometimes not. Lost track of ice-cream sticky fingers making a mess on my desktop. But there's no children on a Thursday morning around half past five. Or anyone really.
Except my customer. I see him quite often, same time each week day. I gather he works in the city, he's here just before the noisy 5:49 goes from the station. At least I assume he catches the train, he might just wait somewhere and car pool. Anyway, I digress. Nice boy though. Never taps his fingers noisily at my panel, or huffs impatiently. Oh. Sorry about that, where was I? It's just some people, oh they are just so terribly frustrating. I can't do things any quicker you know? Yesterday? That's right. I get carried away with other thought processes sometimes, I guess it's just the way I think. Right, yesterday morning.
My customer was just through putting in his P.I.N when I saw a couple of other people come up behind him. Now I'm used to this, people always seem to stand right up close to one another when they're waiting... I assume it's a mix of impatience and eagerness and not wanting to lose their place in the queue. However, as I went through the files just to double check he was who he was...I knew he was, but the main database in the city didn't, so security went ahead as usual. While I was waiting for the response from City Central I just passed time watching the group behind him.
Another person joined them, a girl I think. I didn't see very well. My customer glanced at them, then started to press in the amount of cash he wanted. The people behind were whispering together and seemed
nervous about something. Young they were, all blonde and blue-eyed. A
bit scruffy. One of the boys was wearing a very bright coloured T-shirt too. Some of the people I see... strange what they wear. But, I don't worry about the fashions. I just do my job. Easier to think about that than what people are wearing from day to day. Oh, and it was a girl with them. She seemed younger, quite pretty actually. I briefly thought about why they would be out at this time too. Too early for the bleakly uniformed children that passed by on their way to school. Maybe they had been out during the night? I wondered if they were friends with my customer, but that thought quickly dissolved as one of the boys grabbed my client by his shoulder and spun him around.
I tried to see what was happening, I know there was yelling and then the other boy began to punch at my customer, damaging him quite severely. His face was cut up, the boy must have been wearing a ring or something. My customers face was running blood and all three of the youths were yelling. They wanted him to get them more money. Blood leaked quite dramatically over the keypad in front of me as the three yelled at him some more, and jostled him mercilessly. He was very shaken, I don't know how he did what he did with them pushing and shoving and yelling. It was awful. He crouched over the keypad and pushed the buttons quickly.
Beep.
Beep.
I could see that his assailants were all bug-eyed and seemed to move in hurried motions, nudging and casting glances all about them, as if they were waiting for something. My customer seemed to sigh as I gave him the money he requested with a quick clunk. He handed it over to the group of youths and I saw all three run off quickly, screeching wildly. I guess they thought they had won a victory of some sort.
My customer leaned against the wall beside me, I could see his shadow out of the corner of my eye. He then took his card away from me,
staggering a little. His blood ran down his face, a pattern, dark against his features. I then saw another young woman approach him. She wasn't like the other three, she seemed very upset and was reaching for her mobile phone. Why is it that so many people have those tiny little things now? Horrible noisy things they are. Why can't they just hum quietly? They make me itch. Anyway, she seemed to be talking hurriedly into the little 'phone as she took my customers shoulder, then they were both out of my sight. I finished his transaction and let his account balance slip out, then waited patiently for the next person to approach.
Beep.
Clunk.
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