Just down the road from the fat man’s house was a small pile of ammo in the woods. Someone had just dumped it out there. The three kids that found it didn’t know what kind of gun the bullets belonged to, but they did recognize them as bullets. They had just been playing in the woods together as they often did and had come across the pile of bullets.
Pete grabbed a handful of them and stuffed them into his pockets.
“What’re you gonna do with em?” The question came from Benny, and Pete shrugged.
“I don’t know. I just think they’re cool.”
“I’ll show you what to do with em,” Eric said in a knowing sort of way. He grabbed a handful too but he didn’t put them in his pocket, he carried them in his hand and began to make his way back to the road, and out of the woods. “Follow me.”
The other two boys did just that. They weren’t very deep and they came out of the woods in short order. Eric had a grin on his face. It was a mischievous grin and Pete didn’t like it one bit. When Eric wore a mischievous grin, they all usually got in trouble. The handful of bullets clinked in Eric’s hand and without warning, Eric said, “Watch this.”
He picked up one of the bullets with his other hand, raised it up in the air and threw it on the asphalt as hard as he could. The bullet hit the asphalt and bounced away, then came to a rolling stop. Nothing. Eric’s grin slipped a little. Then he said, “No, that’s not it, let me try again.” Again, he dug his fingers into the pile of bullets in his cupped hand and came out with another. He raised his hand over his head and threw the bullet with all of his might against the road there.
Before anyone could react, there was a loud bang and Benny was holding his eye. He screamed. “FUUUUUUCCCKKKK! FUUUUUCCCKKK! FFFFFFFFFUUUUCCCCK!”
Realizing what had happened, Eric dropped the remaining handful of bullets on the road and ran away. Pete was paralyzed with fear.
“My fucking eye is shot out! My mother fucking EYEEEEEE!” Benny held his palm to his eye, screaming other things, but they were incoherent.
Pete was panicked and he could still see Eric, far down the road now, who had not even stopped to look back at his friend, and he was still sprinting away. Pete shook himself out of his paralytic state and began to move towards Benny, who was now crouched on the asphalt in the middle of the road. He had never heard Benny swear before, but now Benny was a fountain of profanities. Pete thought he might vomit. They would all be in serious trouble, and Benny would probably never see out of that eye again.
“Benny.” Pete put his hand on Benny’s shoulder. He was going to try to calm him down and then get help.
Benny took his hand away from his facer and Pete could see that there was nothing wrong with Benny’s eye. He realized then that Benny had suddenly become very calm. “You gullible fuck.” Benny stood up and walked home and never talked to Pete again.
Sometimes Pete would see Benny at school, but he never said anything to him and he never knew why Benny had done that.
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