The two couples took a break from the video game. Len sighted along the barrel of the plastic gun-controller that went with the game. He aimed at a small Japanese vase decorated with a painting of birds—bluebirds—on a shelf of knickknacks, beside two framed studio portraits of a young man and a young woman in graduation robes and caps. Elaine and Judy watched. —Pow, Len said. The trigger spring squeaked against the plastic housing. He snuck a look at Elaine and smirked. Got ’em both. One shot, he said. —Len’s an excellent shot, Judy added. Len had just won ten games in a row of video Duck Hunt, on the Nintendo. Last game he went twenty-two screens without missing a target. —That pheasant was terrific, Elaine said. What a terrific idea for Thanksgiving. Pheasant. She sucked a long drag from her cigarette, then laid her hand down on the couch so it covered George’s lightly. The two fingers holding the cigarette jutted out stiffly at an angle. Smoke curled away from her and George sneezed twice, without covering his face.
What do You think about Knucklehead & Other Stories?
