by Miron Huhulea

Created on: January 06, 2009   Last Updated: March 19, 2009

.357 Hollow Point

The name of the establishment is Rock 'n' Roll Pizza. There's a man out front smoking a cigarette who looks like a certain Italian type that is less common: very slight, no more than five-foot four with a slim build, clean-shaven pleasant face, wide forehead and small pointed chin. It's almost a child's face - aside from the thinning, mostly-black hair parted across the top - one that I know not just from patronizing the establishment but also because he's often out here, smoking cigarettes and talking about the weather. A pair of grey-tinted eyeglasses complete his look; and now I watch the same vague recognition pass over his own face.

"How you doin'?"

"How's it goin'?"

We bump fists.

"What are you up to?" he asks.

"Oh, I'm very tired," I complain. "I woke up late, came and got something to eat. Now I'm gonna take a walk..." I draw a wide arc, pointing down the street, then along some pines, finally somewhere behind the buildings of the shopping center, "...back to my apartment."

"It's gonna rain," he says. I laugh.

"I don't think so." I look up at the deep blue sky.

"Oh, yeah. Rain's moving in this afternoon. It'll start in the next couple of hours."

"I don't know..." A deep blue sky is a sign of dryness. Moreover there is no wind. But I forgot I'm talking to a junior weatherman.

"Oh, it'll rain," he says with finality, a finality rooted in charm and self-confidence. I feel compelled to believe him.

"It doesn't make a difference to me either way. I'm going home to take it easy. I feel very tired."

"My last job, you couldn't sleep."

"How can you do that? You need sleep."

"I only got two and a half hours of sleep."

"Oh come on, but you need sleep!"

"No sleep at all," he says with a single brisk shake of his head, and a truthfulness reflected in his affable eyes. Again I feel compelled to believe him.

How does he do it? I think it's a simple trick, one that most people find difficult to duplicate. To make it work you simply reject every alternative but the one you want: you just disbelieve it, as if it could never exist. And this is a trick not just for making people believe things - it can also work for making things happen.

The reason people find it difficult is because it takes supreme self-confidence to pull it off - and pulling it off makes him a man of action.

"What was the job?"

"Armored trucks. Not those little ones, but the real..." he swings his arms as if weighing huge bosoms, "...armored trucks."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, man. I almost killed someone. He pointed a gun at me..."

"You don't say!"

"Oh, yeah! He pointed one of those little revolvers at me."

I pictured a sub-nosed revolver like the Bodyguard .38 Special.

"Who was he? A robber?"

"He was a fellow carrier! I almost had to shoot the guy."

He grins and gets a little animated.

"What kind of gun do you carry?"

".357. Hollow point."

"Oh yeah?" I ask a little incredulously, picturing the compact large-caliber weapon being wielded by a little man like him. "How many shots can you get off?"

"Six rounds," he answers, maybe misunderstanding the question. "I never miss."

He lets his smile fade to emphasize the gravity of what he has just said. He looks deadly serious - but not menacing. Like before, I just know he is telling the truth.

I smile halfway home thinking about the man's story. When I get there I crawl back into bed, and fall asleep to a deep blue sky.

Learn more about this author, Miron Huhulea.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.