Of Mice, Men… and Wally (Six Crooked Highways Min Min Challenge – 20th January 2023)

Photo Copyright Niki_Emmert

The plan was

not to have a plan.

Wally’s idea, that.

As a concept, this suggests the virtues of extemporisation are paramount to the success of an operation.

But this was not, if it ever has been, the case that day.

What we did know was the bank was staffed by only one cashier during the lunch period, a 55 year old woman with a hearing-aid probably dispensed in the late seventies, and a pronounced nervous tic under her right eye. 

Wally, who’s a stranger not only to reality, but coincidentally to the truth, had told us she flirted with him whenever he went to draw out money and er… ‘case the joint’ as he called it.  This was Ashton-in-Makerfield, you understand.  In Ashton-in-Makerfield joints don’t get cased, they get roasted with two veg and a ton-and-a-half of potatoes.  Not that most people in Ashton-in-Makerfield ever saw a joint of that nature, probably being more familiar with the ones smoked furtively under the canal viaduct on a Friday night.

I digress. 

I often do.

And now I have the time for it.

Because what we didn’t know was that the bank vaults automatically lock during the lunch period.  And, to compound our ignorance, that any dialogue over 70 decibels automatically alerts the police.

Wally was right about the cashier though.  She did fancy him.

She visits him regularly.

And she brought a cake with a file inside.

We need a plan now.

Not one of Wally’s though.

Some other plan.

To commemorate Burns Night, this week’s Six Crooked Highways Min Min challenge relates to Rabbie Burns’ poem “Of Mice and Men”. And Wally. If you want to see what this 250 word weekly challenge is all about, click on the link above. If you want to enter or read other entries click here.