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He sobs. “It’s already too late. I’m gonna go to jail for this.”
Larry grunts. “Damn right you are.”
“Shut up, Larry,” Lorelei snaps.
“It’s only a wounding!” I point out. “You’ll serve a little time and then you’ll be out. You’ll be here for her. But you have to let Larry live.”
Rick rocks forward, his whole body shaking with sobs.
Slowly I move toward him. The gun dangles from his hand,the barrel drooping toward the floor. I wrap one arm around his shoulder to hug him, and with my free hand, I reach down and gently take his gun. He surrenders it without a fight and drops to his knees, crying. The sound is heart-wrenching. All I can do is keep hugging him as his face presses against my shoulder, as his tears soak through my blouse. I forget I am still holding the gun. I can focus only on this broken man shuddering in my arms and I think about what lies ahead for him. Even though he’s shot Larry, at least he hasn’t killed him. He will go to jail for a while, I suppose. He will lose his job, and Jackie will probably divorce him. But one day he will walk out of prison a free man, and if his daughter, Tricia, isn’t the little snot she sometimes seems to be, then she will be waiting there to help him get on with his life.
And I’ll try to be there as well. I know all about heartbreak and I know how to survive it. He’ll need a friend, and that I can be.
Footsteps thud into the house. A voice screams: “Drop it, lady! Drop the gun!”
I turn to see two Revere police officers, their weapons pointed at me. They are young, nervous. Dangerous.
I’d forgotten I was holding the gun. Slowly I place it on the floor.
“Now get away from it! Lie down, face on the floor!” the cop yells.
Really? I think. You’re really gonna make this grandmother lie down?
That’s when Agnes steps in. She clomps into the room on her orthopedic shoes and plants all 110 pounds of herself between the cops and me. “Don’t you boysdarepoint your guns at her!” she croaks in her cigarette voice. “Can’t you see she’s a fucking hero?”
