The Boy and the Bank Office

The Boy and the Bank Office

旁白：李广英 Boy:周世倩

Narrator：刘鑫 Office:邓启慧

旁：I have a friend who hates banks with a special

passion. ―A bank is just a store—like a candy store or a grocery store, ‖he says, ―The only different is that a bank‘s goods happen to be money, which is yours in the first place. If banks were required to sell wallets and money belts, the might act less like churches. I Began thinking about my friend the other day as I walked into a small, overlit branch office on the West Side. I had come to open a checking account. It was lunchtime and the only officer on duty was a fortyish black man with short, pressed hair, a pencil mustache, and a neatly pressed brown suit. Everything about him suggested a carefully dressed authority. This officer was standing across a small counter from a young white boy who was wearing a V-neck sweater, khakis and loafers. He had sandy hair, and I think I was especially aware of him because he looked more like a kid from a prep school than a customer in a West Side bank. The boy continued to hold my attention because of what

happened next.

B: I don‘t understand that I opened the account, but why I can‘t withdraw any money?

O: I‗ve already explained to you that a fourteen-year –old boy is not allowed to withdraw money from his parent.

B: But that doesn‘t seem fair, it‘s my money. I put it in. It‘s my account.

O: I know it is, but those are rules. Now if you‘ll excuse me.(转过去对着N说) May I help you ,sir?

N: I was going to open a new account, but after seeing what‘s going on here, I think I‘ve my mind.

O: Excuse me?

N: Look! If I understand what‘s going on here correctly, what you are saying is that this boy is old enough to

deposit his money in your bank but he‘s not old enough to withdraw it. And since there doesn‘t to be seem to be any question as to whether it‘s his money or his account, the bank‘s so-called policy is really ridiculous.

O: It may seem ridiculous to you, but it‘s the bank‘s policy and I have no other alternative but to follow the rules.

旁：The boy had stood hopefully to me during this

exchange, but now I was just as hopeless. Suddenly I noticed that the open savings book he continued to grasp showed a balance of 100 dollars. It also show that there had been a series of small deposits and withdraws. I had my opening.

N: Have you withdrawn money before by yourself? B: Yes.

N: How do you explain that? Why did you let him

withdraw money before, but not now!

O: Because the tellers were aware of his age and now they are. It‘s very simple.

N:(转向小男孩并耸肩) You‘re really getting cheated, you ought to get your parents to come in here and protest.

O: You know? You are really shouldn‘t have interfered.

N: Shouldn‘t have interfered? Well, it damn well seemed to me that he needed someone to represent his interests.

O: Someone was representing his interests.

N: And who might that be?

O: The bank.

N: Look. We‘re just wasting each other‘s time. But maybe you‘d like to explain exactly how the bank was

representing that boy‘s interests?

O: Certainly, we were informed this morning that some neighborhood bully has been shaking this boy down for more than a month. But other guy was forcing him to take money out every week and hand it over. The poor kid was apparently too scared to tell anyone. That‘s the real reason he was so upset. He was so upset .He was afraid of what the other guy would do to him. Anyway, the police are on the case and they‘ll probably make an arrest today.

N: You there is no rule about being too young to withdraw money from a savings account.

O: Not that I had ever heard of. Now, sir, what can we do for you?