Flash Fiction by David MacPherson

How to be Calm

 

If anyone asked, Ray would say, “The most important part of getaway driving is looking calm while waiting for them to come back. When they do return all crazed and hopped up, that’s when you are your most calm. That’s when you just go with it, whatever it is.”

 

He remembered this as he waited down from the jewelry store. It was a big store. one of the biggest he’d seen. In his head, Ray began to list all the songs by the Rolling Stones that he could think of, which was his trick for looking relaxed and in his place.

 

The back door opened up and three people jumped in. They peeled off their masks and stored their guns and one of them barked, “Hit it.”

 

Ray looked in the rear view window and then turned all the way around. “Wait a minute, who are you guys?”

 

There were three men, all who were strangers. The guy in the middle, with the long stringy hair, “Damn, we went into the wrong getaway car again.” The other guys groaned.

 

Ray shouted, “What do you mean wrong getaway car? How many getaway cars do you think there are?”

 

The round guy on the left shrugged. ‘I think there were three robberies going on when we came in. So maybe four getaway cars probably. It’s a big store. It does a lot of volume.”

 

The tall guy on the right looked behind him, “Can we get going already?”

 

“I’m not your getaway driver. Find yours, I’m waiting for my crew,” Ray said.

 

The middle guy said, with a little panic in his voice, “I’m sure they’ll be fine. There’s always cars ready to book out of anywhere. Look around you, there’s a ton of cars. So now you are in our crew. Let’s go, you’ll get your cut.”

 

“But they are my bros, I’ve been with them for ever.”

 

The tall guy said, ‘Really your bros? They didn’t look down on you? They didn’t make fun of the guy with the car? They wouldn’t leave you here?”

 

Ray turned back to the wheel and thought. His crew had three guys. Frank threw cigarettes in his direction. Jimmy called him an idiot grease monkey and Mike never even looked at him. His crew, looking for any convenient getaway car.

 

Ray popped the clutch and shot the car into traffic, going wherever you go when you need to flee.