Kate was running late. She knew it would happen this way, too. She had been to lunch with Brian at
The Right Stuff, a trendy restaurant that specialized in different varieties of baked potatoes. Brian had
been continually asking Kate to go to lunch with him for several months, and she had finally run out of
excuses. She figured that it was only lunch and maybe she could get him off her back if she went once.
Unfortunately, she also had to make a deposit at the bank and Brian had yammered on for way too long
about his mother?s impending surgery on her hip, as if that would convince her to date him. Kate sat at
the table, amazed at how dull he could be, and just knew that she would be late returning to work.
Finally, the lunch ended. It was supposed to snow in the afternoon, so she put on her winter coat and
gloves, left Brian with the check - there was no way she was paying for the privilege of listening to him
talk - and hurried to her car. On the way she wondered if she had been rude to Brian, but then decided
that she didn?t care.
She hopped in her four year old Civic and headed for her bank. It hadn?t started to snow yet, so she
thought that she would be able to make pretty good time. Luckily, the bank was on the way from the
restaurant to her work, so perhaps she would only be a few minutes late and no one would notice.
She pulled into the bank?s parking lot and around to the drive-thru windows. The lines were unusually
long at the drive-thru, so she decided to drive back around to the front and go into the lobby. There
weren?t many parking spaces available on the front side of the bank, but someone had left their car
running in the no parking zone at the curb by the front door. Kate decided that she would only be a
minute and if someone else could do it, so could she.
She pulled behind the car that was idling on the curb, a green Ford F-150. Force of habit stopped her
from leaving the car running as the other bank patron did. Instead, she shut the car off and got out,
putting her keys in her pocket. She wondered how anyone could leave their car running; anyone could
just walk up and drive off with it before the owner would even notice.
She hurried around the front of her car and started towards the front doors. A step before she reached
the doors, they burst open and a man ran through them while looking back into the bank. Kate was
surprised and didn?t have time to react. The man never even saw her. They collided and both went
sprawling to the ground.
Time seemed to stand still for Kate. She was vaguely aware of her surroundings, but couldn?t figure out
what had happened. She was lying on the right side of her body, with her feet pointing at the front door
of the bank. She rolled over and sat up so that she was facing the doors of the bank. That was when
she noticed the handgun on the ground next to her.
The man that had run into her was about five feet away, on his hands and knees, facing away from the
bank. He was bleeding from the nose and mouth.
Suddenly it was as if someone turned on a switch in Kate?s brain. The cobwebs cleared and the
situation became apparent to Kate. The man was robbing the bank. That?s why the drive-thru lines
were backed up. That?s why there was a car idling in front of the bank. That?s why there was a gun
within her reach.
Kate picked up the gun just as the man looked back at her. He was regaining his senses, too. Kate and
the man stood up simultaneously and Kate noticed that he was holding a duffel bag.
?You fucking bitch,? the man said, ?give me my gun.?
Things were still moving in slow motion for Kate, but her mind was as clear as it had ever been.
?Fuck you,? she said, pointing the gun at the man, ?you give me the money.?
The man was startled. He hadn?t expected Kate to be aggressive. He tossed the bag halfway in
between them.
?Now what?? he said.
Kate had never been in a crisis situation before. She had never considered how she would react if ever
faced with such a situation. But she didn?t hesitate. She lowered the gun and shot the man in the upper
thigh.
He screamed and fell to the ground grabbing his leg. Kate picked up the duffel bag, calmly opened the
trunk of her car and threw in the bag. She looked around and saw no one but the bleeding robber
rolling in pain on the sidewalk. She dropped the gun on the ground, got in her car and drove back to
work.
Kate heard on the news later that the bank robber had told police that he had been shot by a woman
who then took the money. The police didn?t believe him. The police assumed that the man had an
accomplice that had double-crossed him. They found the gun in the parking lot, but the only fingerprints
on it were the robber?s. The people inside the bank heard the shot, but didn?t see anything because
they had been instructed by the robber to lay face down on the ground.
The robber was sentenced to twenty years in prison for armed robbery and the case was closed without
the money ever being recovered.