The morning after the robbery I walked into the kitchen in time to hear Mam and Dad discussing the Rolands’ robbery AT OUR BREAKFAST TABLE!
‘How many of them were there?’ my mam was asking as I entered the kitchen.
‘At least two, maybe three,’ my dad said.
‘Poor Nellie,’ my mam said.
I grabbed some toast and said nothing.
‘She’s some woman,’ my dad said. ‘She was out of that back window like Jack Flash and chasing the little gurriers off.’fn1 I’d never been called a gurrier before, at least not that I knew of. I didn’t like it.
‘How much did they get away with?’ Mam asked. I sat next to her, facing my dad and trying my very best to butter my toast without giving away that I, Jeremy Finn, was one of the gurriers they were speaking of and a fugitive from the law. Be cool, Jeremy. Just be cool.
‘Could have been thousands,’ my dad said. Eh, no, Dad, not even close!
‘And they found pepper spray at the scene,’ my mam said.
‘Pepper spray?’ my dad repeated. ‘What is the world coming to?’
She shook her head. ‘Some people really are disgraceful,’ she said. Eh, it’s your pepper spray, Mam! I thought. I did not say anything.
‘Is the lady all right, Dad?’ I asked, and my dad looked at me and smiled.
‘Yeah, son, she’s fine. She just got a fright, that’s all.’
‘A fright at her age could kill her,’ my mam said.
‘Well, it didn’t,’ my dad said. ‘Still, it was a terrible thing to do, and when Ireland were on the field! Desperate times,’ he said sadly. He shook his head from side to side and sighed.
My mam nodded along. ‘I hope they do time,’ she said.
I felt sick again.
‘You OK, Jeremy?’ my mam asked, feeling my forehead.
‘Yeah,’ I said.
‘How’s that stomach of yours?’
‘Grand,’ I said, but it was doing somersaults again. I left before she could put me back to bed.
It was another really warm day, blue skies and birds singing. I could feel the burn through my clothes as I walked into the forest. Walker was already there, sitting on the bench and using his inhaler.
‘Stupid allergies,’ he said, before blowing his nose and examining the contents of the tissue. I sat down beside him on the bench and leaned on the wooden picnic table, resting my head on my hands. We didn’t talk, he just spun his inhaler on the picnic table and I closed my eyes and listened to birds chatter above us. Johnny J and Charlie were the next to arrive. Sumo was last to the table. He squeezed in beside Walker and Charlie. Johnny J was next to me. I raised my head. Walker stopped spinning his inhaler and we all faced one another. We talked about the robbery and about how scared we were.
‘When I saw the man, I weed myself a little,’ Sumo admitted.fn2
‘When I went to check on Jim Roland’s granny and she jumped out the window at me, I nearly died!’ Johnny J said.
‘Running out of the shop with the bag of money, my knees wobbled all the way to my bike,’ Charlie said.
‘Cycling away from the scene, the fastest I’ve ever cycled in my life and terrified I was going to have an asthma attack,’ Walker said.
‘Cycling away for me too, terrified we were being followed! It was the most scared and excited I’ve ever been, just like a roller coaster.’ The word ‘gurrier’ rolled around in my head.
‘Except for it not being legal,’ Charlie said. ‘A roller coaster may land in you in hospital, but not in prison.’
‘Yeah,’ I agreed. Everyone talked about how buzzed they were during the robbery. Nobody said how depressed and sad they were when we all realised that we hadn’t scored enough money.
‘What now?’ Charlie said.
Johnny J shook his head. ‘Nothing. We should just give the money back.’
Walker stood up. ‘We’re not doing that,’ he said. Everyone looked his way. ‘We have to do it again,’ he said.
‘No,’ Johnny J said, shaking his head from side to side.
‘We can’t,’ I said. I couldn’t imagine going through all that again. ‘I can’t even think of where. It’s just impossible.’
‘I can,’ Walker said, and he started to pace around the picnic table as he spoke. ‘You know that my dad drives the money van for the bank?’ He stopped walking and looked at us all.
‘So?’ Charlie said.
He started circling again. ‘So he keeps a spare set of keys to the van in the house. Usually there’s three of them – my dad drives, a big fellow called Tom goes into the bank and collects the money, and there’s another little fella, they call him Titch, he stays in the back of the van. He takes in the money and secures it in a safe built into the floor. While my dad’s in Italy at the matches, they can’t find a replacement, so Tom is driving and collecting the money and Titch is still inside the back of the van.’ He stopped.
‘So?’ Charlie said again.
He took off again. ‘So I know the code for the van depot. We could let ourselves into the van. When the little fellow jumps in, we can tackle him and tie him up.’
‘What about Big Tom?’ Johnny J said.
‘He drives, collects, pushes the money through a slot; he doesn’t go near the back of the van. When Tom collects the money and pushes it through, we grab it and as soon as we’ve got enough – one bag should do it – we wait till he stops at traffic, jump out and make a run for it.’
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘Have you fallen on your head?’ I asked, because that’s what my dad asked me every time I did or said something stupid.
‘I’m deadly serious,’ he said, and he stopped moving and finally he sat down.
‘But you’re too smart to go to jail,’ Charlie said sarcastically, but Walker was serious.
‘Is her dying a fact?’ he asked quietly. He didn’t make eye contact with Johnny J, but I did. He looked like he was going to fall apart into a million pieces.
‘Fact,’ I whispered, and the word burned in my throat.
‘We have to save her,’ Walker said, and he shrugged. ‘We just have to.’
I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t have the stomach for it. I wanted to cry. I wanted to run away.