This is my favorite part from my 4th book (It's long) [View all]

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Out of all four books, this was one of my favorite parts to write. It opens with Randy insisting that Beth prove how good a shot she is...


“She’s going to do this blindfolded?” Zack asked with astonishment, and then added, “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe it. Even without a blindfold, that’s impossible. No one can shoot like that. Even the best sharpshooter in the world can’t do it, because if you’re off by just a hair of a millimeter, at fifty meters, that’ll throw your bullet way off.”

I just smiled right along with Pee Wee, Mouse and Darryl. We’d already seen her do exactly what I said she’d do, but as the Cat came trotting back to join us, I had to add, “You mean impossible, like talking Cat impossible, or just your plain everyday impossible, like magic or predicting the future?”

I looked at Randy before saying that last part, but he just shook his head, put his hands up and said, “Call me a skeptic if you want, but I’ve still got to see this, and if she’s as good as you say, it’ll be good to know.”

“No sweat buddy, you’ll see it,” I told him.

The Cat wanted to know, “What’s going on?”

I told her, and she nodded her head, “I have no doubt that she can do it. Beth’s a very special person.”

“I don’t know, Amy,” Jack said. “I’ve actually studied the problem, and even her heartbeat can throw the shot off, never mind the recoil. The odds are really stacked against her.”

“Well, we could talk about this all day,” the Cat said, “or we could just get this show on the road and prove it.”

And on that note, I secured the Mobile, and then we were gone, except for the Cat.

She decided to stay behind and guard her dwindling supply of liquor.

“How much do you have left?” I asked.

“I’m down to my last two cases.”

“Jesus, Cat, you make it sound like you’re almost out,” I said, and then opened my backpack, tapped it a couple times, and in baby talk, said, “Come on, kitty. Let’s go for a ride, kitty. Come on, kitty.”

“Oh, can that shit,” the Cat said in disgust, and then headed back into the Computer Room.

Once outside, Randy got behind the wheel, and Pee Wee took the shotgun side.

The rest of us climbed into the back, and surprisingly enough, it was quite comfortable.

If this had been a normal SUV, it would’ve been crowded, but instead of one, there were two back seats, and they faced each other.

On the way, Jack kept explaining how impossible all this was, but I just smiled, and Beth kept staring blankly out the window.

When we got there, Randy explained to the guy behind the counter what the circumstances were and even threw his buddies name in.

“Yeah, I remember Spunky. How’s he doing?”

“He’s married, with a kid on the way. Can you believe it?” Randy replied, and then got back on track by adding, “So, what do you think? Can we get this done or not?”

“I don’t know,” the guy said. “She might kill someone if she’s wearing a blindfold, especially if you’re going to spin her around like a top.”

Zack plunked ten, one hundred-dollar bills down on the counter, and asked, “Does this help any?”

The guy looked at the money hungrily, but still shook his head.

There was a display of dark sunglasses on the counter, and Randy grabbed one.

“How about if she just wears these instead?”

The guy thought about it for a minute, and then grabbed the money.

“That’ll work.”

The guy followed us inside, and then warned everyone about what was about to go down.

They just laughed, and someone even hollered, “For Christ sake, Joe. She’s just a girl.”

I could tell that got Beth mad, and through gritted teeth, she asked the counter guy, “How far away can you put that target?”

“A hundred yards is the max,” he answered.

“Do it,” she said, and everyone laughed even louder.

He held up the undamaged target, and when it reached the very far end of the range, everyone got silent and waited.

Beth put the glasses on, and I spun her around.

She stopped herself, fired four rounds, spun herself halfway around again, flipped the guns, and fired four more rounds backwards.

Her guns disappeared, and then she slowly took the glasses off.

While waiting for the target to return, everyone talked excitedly about how fast she was, but that turned into stunned silence when Joe held it up.

“All eight shots form a perfect circle around dead center,” he said, and then shook his head, before adding, “You can actually see each entry point, and I still can’t believe it. Do you mind if I keep this?”

She nodded, I gave her a hug, everyone started cheering, and she did something that she never did when she was putting on one of these displays.

She smiled, and I yelled, “My girl is better than all us guys put together,” and she hugged me again.

“I still don’t like doing these things,” she said to me quietly, “but that guy really pissed me off.”

“I don’t blame you,” Randy said and shook Beth’s hand, “and for the record, I’m glad I was wrong. Especially since it put that asshole in his place.”

Some of the other guys came over to congratulate Beth, and one of them was a woman.

“I’m Priscilla, and that was my husband with the big mouth,” she said and gave Beth a hug.

“Never thought I’d see the day that someone could shut him up. First time in twenty years, but you did it, and I thank you,” she added and gave Beth another hug.

After Priscilla went back to hubby, Mouse also gave her a hug and with a wicked grin, said, “Guys like that really make me sick... Oh, oh, big boy at your six o’clock.”

Beth turned around, and this big ol’ boy was stomping his way over to her, and I swear to God, that’s what he did, stomp.

He stopped, took the toothpick out of his mouth, and offered Beth his hand.

“I’m the loudmouth that my Priscilla was talking about, and she made me come over to apologize. Well, I usually don’t apologize for shit like this, and I don’t care if you’re a girl or not, but anyone who can shoot like that, deserves my respect, and I apologize.”

“Thank you,” Beth said, and then shook his hand, “I really appreciate it.”

I could see Priscilla giving Beth a thumbs-up, and I think her hubby also saw it.

He let go of Beth’s hand.

“Yeah, well, I may be an asshole sometimes, but I do love my little Priscilla,” he said, put the toothpick back, and then stomped away.

After hubby left, we all congratulated Beth again, but Jack still couldn’t believe it.

“That’s impossible,” he kept saying and adding, “I saw it, but I still can’t believe it.

“How do you do it?” he finally asked.

“I don’t know really,” she answered, and then added, “except I just know where to aim. My brain must be able to calculate it all out, including the gravitational drop and recoil affect. I just don’t know how else I could be doing it either.”

“Maybe you’re some kind of savant,” Zack said thoughtfully, and then added, “except instead of playing the piano, you play with guns.”

“Could be,” she said and shrugged her shoulders. “I just don’t know what else to say. It’s a mystery to me too.”




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http://www.atomadness.com/Chap-48.html

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