A Painful Duty by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911591184
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

John Spera

John Spera was a careful man. He staked out the Newton Center Savings Bank. He sat in the lobby. He watched who came and who went. He eyed the tellers. He sat there two or three times a week, watching, eyeing.

A neighbor from Thompsonville came into the bank once a week. He nodded to John. He went straight to the teller’s cage. When he left the lobby he nodded to John again.

Two weeks passed. The neighbor was visiting the bank. John Spera sat in the lobby as usual. He did not nod to his Thompsonville neighbor. He patted the seat next to him, as if to say to sit down.

John Spera leaned to the neighbor’s ear. ‘This bank is stronga?’ he whispered.

The neighbor understood. At the outset of the recent depression banks had crashed like ninepins. John Spera wanted to be careful.

On his next visit to the bank the Thompsonville neighbor spotted John Spera on his bench. He surveiled the bank. John Spera motioned again, sit here with me.

Nothing was spoken. John Spera waited for a moment of stillness in the bank’s activities. He took his time, weighing up what he wanted to say.

He raised an arm. He swept it in the air to indicate the row of caged tellers. He lifted his chin. In his throat he made the sound Italians make when they know something but are of two minds whether to reveal it.

‘These people have been to college,’ the neighbor said.

‘Hah, college,’ John Spera said. ‘College for foola the people.’

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