Benny and Roberto decided that taking money from a dead man was not stealing, if he had no documents to say what to do with the money or any relatives to leave it to. The government would just withdraw the 10 million dollars from the dead man's bank account and put it in theirs. That was the real stealing. So Benny and Roberto were actually protecting the dead man's money.

"And that's a GOOD thing…" said Benny, holding up his beer, and biting a piece of cheese.

"And taking this money is no insult to the dead," said Roberto, looking down into his wheat beer. "I think this man, if he was a good man, would have wanted my Sonia to have a skirt for her birthday."

Roberto's wife Angela and daughter Sonia did not know Roberto had just lost his job. But there was also something Benny and Roberto did not know: At this very moment Sandra had just come from visiting her mother in prison. Now she and her father were looking over the bank as if they were just normal customers. Sandra was spying to discover which tellers seemed to handle the most traffic when the noontime mob came in.  Her father watched motions of the guard, and fat old man in uniform who always looked half-sleeping. Sandra and her father were minor robbers, a small gang of two.

"Looks pretty easy if you have the guard tell everyone not to press any buttons on the cabinets." Sandra said. "Avoid a crisis, avoid a jury, Mom always said."

"Too bad she didn't." her father said, with a blank look on his face. "Well, she's probably happy in prison."

"Also," Sandra continued, "When the civilian employees think their guard might be hurt, then I can go ahead and have them fill my bags with money. They'll be affected then by his danger. So then they won’t revolt and betray us. I hate it when that happens."

"Did I ever tell you that you were my perfect, smart daughter?"

"No debating that …I knew I was anyway. Now you'll have a rich daughter as well."

"For a week now, I've been watching when the truck is transporting money. It comes in a little after 11 o'clock and leaves again by noon," said her father. "So by noon in the morning the new money is all in one place, before they channel it out to various offices in the bank. That's why we want to do this…project… in the early afternoon. Our goal is to go in after the truck leaves, but before they divide the money out."

Meanwhile, Benny was in a conference with Roberto giving him directions on how to put the dead man's money in another account. With a careful script for their actions, they would move it into  a special account Benny had created. Benny the bank owner would, of course, be called to approve of the signing, and to help with the process so that no one would challenge it.  All of the exchanges would be done by a computer program. They would never see any money.

"Probably the afternoon would be best. Workers have their heads in a fog if they have had a big lunch. And they will be glad that I know exactly what to do."

"But why won't you get in trouble?" asked Roberto.

"Because the government won't find out until the end of the year. That gives me 6 months to sell the bank and buy a big house in a small island country where I have bought the whole government…fertile fields, army, navy, global treaties…everything."

"How about me?"

"You will just get consulting fees from the bank."

"For what?"

"For your nerve…well, on the books, for testing our security systems."

"$2,000,000…That's a lot for security systems."

"Not if they work," Benny smiled with a little radiation again. "Let's not have lunch together before. We shouldn't be seen together just before we do this."

"OK," said Roberto. "But I'll check with you the morning, in case anything changes."

That evening Sonia sat with Roberto as he read her a story. "Daddy," she said, "I'm going to get a big girl's skirt for my birthday, aren't I?"

"Yes, my dearest, and much more…."

Roberto's wife, in the other room, heard this, and wondered. Had Roberto perhaps found a better job than the one he had? It was time he made his mark on the world…Later, she wanted to know.  "Is it a better job?"

"It might be" he said, "We'll have to see. A friend of mine from high school…He has a bank I might work at."

"What do you know about banks?"

"You don't get your hands dirty." He turned back the bed covers. "And…You get to talk all the time with people who have money. Sounds all right to me." 

"Me too. I knew you were better than that job you have now. Now you're showing it. I like that." She smiled very broadly at Roberto as she slipped into bed beside him.

The next morning, the rolls at Sandra's hotel were cold. The coffee was cold. The air from the window was cold. "Why do we have to stay in places like this?" She asked her father.

"Because we haven't taken our money out of the bank yet," he said. "Tomorrow night we'll stay in a better place. I promise. Now make a fist."

Sandra made a fist with her right hand.

"Now hit me as hard as you can."

She hit his face. Blood was running from his nose.

"I meant 'hit me in the stomach'."

"You didn't say that, Daddy," she smiled, waving her finger. "A failure to communicate."

"Did you do your push-ups?"

"50 this morning, Daddy."

"That's good. Sit-ups?", he asked.

"100 when I got up. But Daddy, I don't mean to be offensive, but….Why do you have me do these exercises and you not?" Sandra asked.

"Soon enough you will be fighting off young men," he said. "Especially if you are rich."

They had lunch in a shop across from the bank and watched for the money truck to come. Sandra saw a  woman was sitting in a corner booth. She was looking in the direction of the bank as well and then she looked at her watch. And looked back toward the bank again, like someone who had an appointment she would keep soon.

Sandra thought that was understandable and did not investigate more.  We have an appointment as well, she thought. We're going to make a cash withdrawal today.

Ready-to-Use

a.      easy: take it easy     "I'm just going to lie down and take it easy."

b.     blank: blank page   "Students start with a blank page and write a paper within one hour."

c.      script: transcript  "Schools you attend will provide a transcript of your performance."

d.     challenge: take up a challenge  "Every year, more people take up the challenge of politics."

e.      goal: achieve your goals  "To achieve your goals, it's important to know what they are."

f.      debate: have a debate about something "We could have a debate about the importance of Phrasal Verbs."