His Whole World Watching

His Whole World Watching

Many years ago the whole wide world was watching, as the man tried to make it to a new way of life. When he was born his parents didn’t give him any advice on life; not how to live it, work it, or make it work to his advantage, not even with education. He felt betrayed, and wondered why his parents even bothered bring him into a world, that he noticed, no one was comfortable with, but they were given a better chance at it, than him. However, he was expected to be respectful of others, but he noticed they weren’t respectful to him, but he was young and found out that he needed to take a good look at himself before he could judge anyone else. Life was difficult growing up in a black ghetto, while he noticed that a lot of families struggled to survive, but in order for them to survive, he figured they must have disrespected someone down the road, or they wouldn’t be able to feed their families. This was his rationalization for what he was to become.
He robbed his first bank, at the age of 21 years old. No one got hurt, and for him, it was considered successful robbing banks, and allowed him to leave his small hometown, in Upstate New York, to go to a small town, outside of Detroit, Michigan. He had enough money, from the bank robberies, to buy a home; he got a job working for a successful law firm, whose clients were from the contractors of major automotive industries. He got married, and had two kids and kept up with the mortgage payments on the house. He was satisfied with his life, and paid attention to his family members, his wife and two kids, and his mother. However, something, he believed was missing from his life, and he couldn’t put a finger on it.
He left his family with the bank robbery fortune, and went back to Upstate New York. He visited and met up with some of his old friends, that didn’t know him as a bank robber, but they suspected him of being a shady character. When he wasn’t around ,they would agree, with each other, that he did do something illegal.
He decided to rob another bank, and he again got away with it, but this time he had to shoot a guard in the leg, and he remembered the guard, who was a friend of his from the past.
After the robbery, he ducks in a bar that wasn’t very far away from the bank he robbed. There was a man sitting at the edge of the bar, and a couple sitting at a well lit booth, waiting for the waitress to have lunch. Being that it was early; the bartender didn’t expect any customers until 2:00p.m., the bank robbery took place at 10:00a.m.
Robert Martin was a thin man, but he was fast, and accurate with a gun, that he learned how to shoot as a young boy. He had a colt 45 automatic that he got from a gun shop, that was robbed, during a riot, by the older teenagers in the neighborhood, during the mid 70’s. The teenagers took what they wanted, and before the police arrived, Robert was able to take the colt 45, from the display case, and he’s had it ever since.
The man that was sitting at the end of the bar then says, “Hey, can I buy you a drink lad?,” in a loud voice, with an Irish accent.
Robert felt his gun that was inside his leather jacket, just in case he had to use it. Then there were sirens coming from outside, while Robert watch the police pass buy, then he looks at the old man and says, “sure. I’ll have a Budweiser, he said hopping off the stool, sitting closer to the old man, turning his back on the front door, as two foot patrol officers pass by glancing inside the bar continuing to walk by.
Jim O’Leary was in the bar for a purpose. So was Robert, but the truth was that the whole world was in the bar, and the rest of the story teaches Robert a vital listen.
The couple, at the booth, were ordering something, when an old lady, and two children, a boy and girl run over excited. “Mommy, Daddy, they said in unison, as though they were twins. Their parents got up from the booth , and the children rapped their arms around their legs, while the old women was now approaching with shopping bags, full of many different items.
Robert glanced over his shoulder with a baffled look on his face, starring at the family in the booth, when O’Leary, brings him out of his reverie and, says, “my name is Jim O’Leary. May I ask your name?,” he said, not really looking like he cared. “My name is Robert Martin pleased to meet you”, Robert said, looking again at the family that were now all sitting at the booth, while the waitress finished with their orders.

It was now 2:00p.m., and people were beginning to fill the bar. Most of the people were wearing business attire, and worked in the business area. Robert shrugged his shoulders, as if he saw someone that was in the bank he robbed. He then took another drink of his beer, the third Budweiser, and says, “does this place get this busy all the time?” Jerry, the bartender then says, “you bet it does”, with a smile on his face, wiping down the bar with a clean white cloth. People then began to sit at the bar, and there was only one stool vacant, from where Robert was sitting. An old man occupied the seat one away from Robert, while he cleverly put his cane on the side of the bar stool.
It was about three o’clock and Robert says to Jerry “where is your restroom?” hopping off the stool. “Back in the back, you can’t miss it” Jerry said, not looking at Robert, while taking the old man’s request for a Bloody Mary.
Robert went towards the back, and there was a double glass door and a ballroom that was huge. There also was a dance floor, and a stage, with stage lights hung professionally. Robert was on the wrong side of the ballroom, as he stared at the chandelier walking blindly, and almost went to the ladies bathroom by mistake. Then he looked across the ballroom floor and saw a sign, on a door that said gentlemen. Robert took the foot long pouch that was a foot wide, out from under his 36inched leather coat. He opened the pouch and saw, to his amazement ,all $1000.00 bills. There was $100,000,000 in the pouch. Robert closed the pouch, and headed back to the smaller part of the bar, and sat at his seat, and ordered a Budweiser, and told the bartender to give O’Leary what he wanted, sitting, anxiously, thinking about what he was going to do with all that money.

He then looked at the old man, sitting to his right, and was about to ask him if he wanted another Bloody Mary, while he watched him finish the one he had, when a stunned look came on his face, when he saw that the old man was one of his boyhood friends, and the bank security guard, he shot in the leg, at the bank, during the robbery. Robert then looks back at the table, and noticed, that the family sitting in the booth, was his, when he looks at the father, and it was him. “Hey, what’s going on here?,” he says, perspiration running down the side of his face, when he gets up from the bar stool, and noticed that everyone he passed looked like people from his past, and the people at the bank he robbed.
The people began to look like they were in slow motion. Robert got closer to the door, when he passes a man with a long black stretch of hair, that ran straight down his chin 3 inches and a mustache that was curved up at the ends. The man wore all black. He looked to be the devil. Robert noticed, that he too, was in slow motion, looking checking his body, walking in slow motion. Feeling afraid, he reaches for the brass handle, on the wooden door, but it won’t open.
Robert then walks back towards the bar, still in slow motion, but he seemed to adapt quickly thinking about getting out of the bar,turning his head, looking back at the man that appeared to be the devil, when he makes it back to the bar, and says, “your front door is jammed!,”in a loud voice. Jerry appeared not to hear him, while he was talking to O’Leary, who said, “just ignore him", while his back seemed to be moving oddly to Robert, but he couldn’t tell because O’Leary had a suit coat on. Then all of a sudden O’Leary’s suit coat began to tare at his back, and something feather- like started to show. Robert then pulls out the Colt 45, and says “Let me out of here or I’ll blow your freak ‘in head off!, pointing the weapon at Jerry’s temple. Jerry didn’t finch a wink, then the weapon miracuously disappeared.
Robert felt faint, and fell to the floor, but when he woke he was at the bank, on the floor,shot in the head, by the security guard, and then he died. The security guard, bent over, holding his leg, where Robert shot him, limped over,because of the wound to the leg,takes his hand off his leg, and puts his bloody hand on Robert’s carotid artery, and pronounces him dead.


Robert was miraculously back at the bar, sitting on the bar stool, while he drank his never ending Budweiser, and the people in the bar were still there, while he kept glancing back and forth at himself, setting with his family, Jerry the bartender, O’Leary, who now had shown all of what was on his back, under his torn coat, and the familiar people from, his life,the people from the bank,the man that looked like the devil,feeling the pouch, that was now empty, for all eternity.