spacious skies - 28. a great game

by american joe

part 28 of 40

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henry texted back - that was a great game. that was a great game! two months earlier bill and henry had gotten together in the shadows behind henry’s house. henry’s wife had gone to visit her mother in columbus ohio, and bill’s wife was working late so they took this opportunity to get together, man to man. bill had been worried that the bank might be monitoring their texts and e-mails , and he thought it might be a good idea to have a code word or phrase that they could use to warn each other if they had some solid or scary evidence that this was happening. henry thought that the bank would not be bothered with monitoring two such harmless and inconsequential entities as themselves, but he went along with bill’s suggestions as he almost always did as bill was a much worse person than himself and therefore, as in most cases of this kind, had a stronger personality. the phrase they decided on was - that was a great game, and here was henry - the skeptical one - warning bill that he thought something was up! bill texted back - yes, it was a great game. sorry, old buddy, but something has just come up and i got to go home. catch you later. without looking over at henry - which was easy enough to do, because henry and bill hardly ever looked at each other during working hours except when they were dealing with bank business which of course they had not been doing much of lately - bill got up and oh so casually sauntered over to the desk of daphne, the branch manager. a family emergency has come up, bill lied shamelessly, and i have to go home. daphne looked up at bill with her blue eyes as clear as the skies over pitcairn island. that is all right, bill, she replied guilelessly, i am well aware of the fact that you have not taken any personal time off this fiscal year. and with that, daohne turned her attention back to her laptop and bill was free to walk out of the bank and on to the street. and where from there? bill knew that he would never return to the bank, and he felt a tsunami of adrenaline surge through his soul. next