CRIME
A short recounting of the time I almost went to prison, or thought so. To may friends in my home town, this happened at the old Lion Oil Station at Fifth and Pine and is true best I remember.
My father decided, the year I
turned fifteen, that a summer job would provide just the catalyst through which
to redirect me from a life of idle languor to one of resolute achievement. He
was, he assured me, there to help. Little did he know that his efforts would nearly
veer me into a life of crime.
It happened this way. Daddy
procured for me a job at a “filling station” in downtown Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
It was during the late 1950s and life was slow and predictable, particularly in
the summer months. The station employed two full-time attendants plus me and a
college student, the son of a multi-millionaire cotton farmer, a father who
also saw work as curative. The college kid arrived at work each morning in a
brand new Corvette Stingray that probably cost more than the annual salary of
one of the regular workers. My sister dropped me off on her way to work at a
bank in the family car, an old purple Pontiac my classmates dubbed “The Purple
People-eater.” Life can be sorrowful for a high school kid with a color-blind
father.
Social disparity aside, we were a
happy crew. When we weren’t serving customers, we washed cars, the college kid
and I. When there were no cars to wash, we greased vehicles that were hoisted
on racks like kings on their thrones. When there were no cars to grease, we
learned things that would, the older guys assured us, stand us in good stead in
later life—like shooting craps, doing card tricks, and learning how to spot
girls who lived “on the spicy side of life.” What, one might ask, could go
wrong?
It had to do with the FBI.
Two Special Agents, both bachelors
(I think maybe all the agents were then) roomed in a boarding house two blocks
from the station. It was our privilege to maintain their vehicle, a powerful
Ford, in peak condition from which to fight crime, ferret out the Communists
lurking in Pine Bluff, and keep the region safe.
The agents left that car in one of
our vehicle bays at night and that is where the trouble started.
During the day, the car sat on the
street, ready for action in the event of a Communist uprising or a chase after
known criminals. It came to pass that it was my lot one hot summer afternoon to
move the vehicle from the daytime spot to the vehicle bay. Like a good scout, I
drove the car into the bay, left the key in the ignition as I had been taught
to do and, having been told not to forget to close the bay door, followed that
instruction. Then I was careful to lock the bay from the inside.
By exhibiting such a high level of
professionalism, I could already visualize being accepted as a Special Agent myself,
with all the glory that such a life promised. Certainly I would achieve a
grander post than a sleepy Southern town, maybe New York. Just wait.
What no one had told me was that,
due to a lack of criminal activity and the sleepy nature of our city, the
station owner had agreed that the vehicle bay door wouldn’t be locked at night,
just closed. This presupposed that nobody would be stupid enough to prowl
around where an FBI vehicle was parked.
Wouldn’t you know it? That night,
the only bank robbery that I remember occurring during my entire time of
growing up occurred. It was in a little farming town with a branch bank some
thirty or so miles away.
I knew nothing about this until I
slammed the door on “Old Purple” next morning, ending some argument with my
sister, and walked into the station.
Somber can’t describe it. All three
of my comrades were leaning against a counter looking at me as if I were
carrying a violin case and a copy of Das
Kapital. I nodded but not a single one of them nodded back. They just
stared. Finally the one we called Boss spoke.
“Where were you last night?”
“Me? At home.”
“Can anyone prove that?”
I knitted my brow. What business
was that of his? “Sure, the family. Why?”
“What time did they go to bed?”
He knew what time my parents went
to bed. “With the chickens,” as they say down South.
“Your sister there?”
“No, she was on a date.”
“Hmm,” he said. “You better get
your story straight.”
“My story?”
“Your story.”
“What,” I said, “on earth are you talking
about?”
“Somebody robbed the bank at
Sherrill last night, just as they were closing.”
“Really?”
“Really. Guess what else happened?”
“What?”
“Somebody locked the FBI car in the
bay here and the FBI guys had to walk all the way back home and get the key or
they might have gotten over there in time to catch the robbers.”
The weight of the world began to
lower on me like one of our fully loaded vehicle hoists. I said nothing.
“Don’t leave,” Boss said.
“What do you mean, don’t leave?”
“The agents want to take you in for
questioning when they get back.”
“Questioning? Why?”
He looked at me as if I had just
asked where sunlight originated. “Because you are the one who locked the FBI
car in the bay.”
I couldn’t speak. I tried but my
vocal chords just made a little squeaking sound like a screen door being opened
on a hot summer day.
“They are pretty sure,” Boss said,
“that you were in on it.”
Robinson Crusoe, on first reaching
shore, could not have felt more abandoned and alone than I did at that moment.
“Don’t worry,” the college kid
said. “We won’t get to listen to them.”
I finally found my voice. “Listen
to them what?” I said, a half tone below “High-C.”
“Interrogate you,” he said in a
grave voice honed by years of hazing fraternity pledges. “They are going to
take you to the Police Station. That way they can just go ahead and lock you up
if they decide to.”
“Lock me up for what?”
Boss said, “Aiding in a bank job is
a pretty serious offense.” He told me that he had assured the agents that all
his employees knew not to lock the bay at night. Mine was clearly a renegade
action. With that, they all found something to do that didn’t include me. I moseyed
around, bumping into things, until I finally found a quiet place to sit and
await my doom.
Maybe prison wasn’t so bad, I
thought. Maybe I could learn to sing there. Elvis did in some movie. Or maybe I
could escape. As the minutes evaporated, so did my options, until only dark
despair remained. Then I heard the sound.
It was the dark rumble of the FBI
car’s powerful engine. The car came into view, lumbered alongside a gas pump,
and stopped. It didn’t occur to me to attend it until I looked around and saw
nobody else in sight. I was alone. The agent driving honked and it evoked the sound
of a large creaking door closing on my life. I wandered out.
The driver rolled down the window
and smiled. “Hey sport,” he said. “We drove this old gal a piece today so fill
her up.”
“Fill her up?”
“Fill her up, and check the oil.”
“Yes sir,” I said. “Anything else?”
I would get this thing over with, once and for all.
“Windshield’s dusty,” he said.
“Oh…” Here it came. I froze. “They forgot to tell you but you don’t lock that
bay door at night. Saves us some time and trouble.” With that, he turned to the
other agent and began to compare notes. I moved to the gas pump.
As the pump hummed to life, my life
hummed afresh. I even whistled. Then I saw three heads peer from the back of
the station, laughing like they might never have another chance. I squeezed the
pump handle like it was the hand of a lover, took in the smell of gasoline as
if were the scent of roses, smiled at the three guys, and nodded. That was a
good one, all right.
