*****
After I finished eating, Hemp and I went out to check our snare traps. All empty. We were relieved, to say the least. Finally, I asked about the video.
“It’s interesting, Flex,” Hemp said. “When you were close to her and the process began, I realized how I was taken so quickly by the one in the hardware store.”
He paused a minute, as though the memory of that day disturbed him.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The mist . . . well, I think you’ve got to see it. Let’s watch it and talk about it then, okay?”
“Sure,” I said tentatively. “That’s fine.”
We walked back to the house, our guns at ready, but we didn’t need them. The isolation of my property had done the trick for now. For now, but who knew how long that would last.
When we walked in, Gem was playing with Trina. Playing might be the wrong word; she was showing her a .22 caliber long barrel revolver. She looked up at me and smiled.
“I’m introducing her to firearms. Hope that’s okay.”
“It’s empty, right?”
Gem looked at me, and I knew the look. I shrugged and laughed. “Okay, okay. Sorry. Yeah, she needs to know how to handle them, and I guess it can’t be too soon.”
“Good little gun, too. Takes the long rifle rounds. She should be able to handle this one with live ammo before too long.”
Charlie was sitting on the other side watching the training session, and smiled at Hemp as he came in.
“Is it video time?” she asked.
“It is,” he said. “I want to show him the vapor.”
Trina held the empty .22 up and Gem instructed her.
“You see the little V shaped thingy closest to your eye? And you see that little I shaped thing at the end of the barrel? You want to point at something, make sure the I thing is right in the center of the V thing, and then pull the trigger very slowly until you hear a click.”
Trina held the gun up more easily than I would have believed she could. It was a .22 Magnum Taurus revolver with a five inch barrel, and it weighed just under two pounds. It would be a pretty easy trigger pull, but I was wondering if we’d have to modify the grip to allow her little hand around it. When I heard the click as she pulled the trigger, and then another five subsequent clicks, I knew I was mistaken. The true test of her ability to handle it would come later, when we were actually willing to let her fire it.
“You have to learn the proper way to hold the gun, especially when you’re not using it. The end you point must always be pointed away from people, and you never have your finger on the trigger unless you plan to fire it. Got it?”
Trina nodded. “I always point it away from people. Dogs, too?”
“Especially dogs,” Gem said, smiling again.
“And my finger on the trigger.”
“No, your finger off the trigger. When you’re not ready to shoot it.”
“Off the trigger.”
“Right.”
Charlie patted Gem on the leg and Gem smiled at her.
“You want to go watch the video with the guys? I’ll watch Trina.”
“I wanna go!” said Trina. “I wanna see a video!”
“You and I will watch a video in here, okay? We’ll watch Lion King.”
Trina’s eyes lit up. “Can we watch Little Mermaid instead?”
Charlie smiled and held out her hand. “Of course. Little Mermaid it is.”
“Goody!” she shouted.
I watched her holding the gun in one hand, and all the while she held the barrel away from everyone. I was instantly proud of her, assuming it was intentional.
“I have to put this away first,” she said. She stood, opened the wood case, and holding the barrel away from everyone, she placed it in the box and closed the lid, spinning the double combination lock wheels.
She looked at every one in sequence. “Did I do it right?”
We all applauded. No more words needed to be said. Trina jumped in the air, grabbed Charlie by the hand and led her to the television. She knelt down and got the DVD out of the rack, removed it from the sleeve, and popped it in.
“We’ll see you in a bit,” Charlie said. “Enjoy the movie.”
“You, too,” said Gem, leading the way to the lab.
Dead Hunger: The Flex Sheridan Chronicle Page 48
