She handed Maureen to me and took off running across the room. Billy
got her once or twice—Brian stood up to try to draw the fire—but she
made it upstairs to the second floor. Then she came down again. She had
Dad's pistol, and she pointed it dead at Billy.
"That's just a toy," Billy said, but his voice was a little shaky.
"It's real, all right!" I shouted. "It's my dad's gun!"
"If it is," he said. "she ain't got the cojones to use it."
"Try me," Lori told him.
"Go on, then," Billy said. "Shoot me and see what happens."
Lori wasn't as good a shot as me, but she pointed the gun in Billy's
general direction and pulled the trigger. I squeezed my eyes shut at the
explosion, and when I opened them, Billy had disappeared.
We all ran outside, wondering if Billy's blood-soaked body would be
lying on the ground, but he had ducked under the window. When he saw
us, he hightailed it down the street along the tracks. He got about fifty
yards away and started shooting at us again with his BB gun. I yanked
the pistol out of Lori's hand, aimed low, and pulled the trigger. I was too
carried away to hold the gun the way Dad had taught me, and the recoil
nearly pulled my shoulder out of its socket. The dirt kicked up a few feet
in front of Billy. He jumped what seemed about three feet up in the air
and broke into a dead run down the tracks.
We all started laughing, but it seemed funny only for a second or two,
and then we stood there looking at one another in silence. I realized my
hand was shaking so bad I could hardly hold the gun. A little while later,
a squad car pulled up outside the depot, and Mom and Dad got out. Their
faces were grave. An officer got out also and walked alongside them to