Green Ice [The Great Depression]

The mood was frosty. I took my place on the other side of the table while she surveyed me with her piercing, blue eyes, radiating her cold aloofness.
The atmosphere could have been diced.
‘Yes,’ she managed.
‘I’d like to withdraw my money.’
‘You as well?’
‘It’s on the news. You’re freezing customer accounts and holding onto their cash. I can’t afford it.’
‘Very well.’ She took my card and processed the transaction. ‘Counter four,’ she told me.
Another casualty slipped into my place.
From the next queue I heard her saying ‘All accounts are now frozen.’
Stocks fell further.