The Last Day

FORTY-SEVEN

“You friggin shot me in the head!” Earl yelled.

“No, I didn't,” she said, dabbing Earl's forehead with a cold and blood- smeared washcloth. “I only shot my penny jar. What the bullet did after that was just physics.”

“What?”

“A body in motion-like a bullet-remains in motion until acted on by an outside force, like gravity, friction, or a jar of pennies. Either the bullet hit you after its energy was about used up, or more probably a piece of glass or a penny did. It's a prick. Stop whining and I'll put a Band- Aid on the boo- boo.”

“Any fool know she can't shoot a gun inside a house. Know ah'm sayin’?”

“It was an accident. My ears are still ringing so bad I can hardly hear you.”

“Damn, I'm lucky it didn't split my danged head open and get me in my brains.”

Alice laughed. “You didn't even feel it, and it barely cut you. It was probably a piece of glass.”

“See, maybe I should go to an emergency room and get a real doctor that knows medical stuff to look at it,” he said angrily.

“Duh! They have to report gunshot wounds to the cops, you know. How you going to explain that? It's a ganked gun, right?”

“I said it was my dad's.”

“I know what you said, Earl. But you never tell the truth. Where'd you really get it?”

He went into a sulk, which meant he'd been caught in a lie he couldn't think his way out of.

She opened the medicine cabinet, found a Band- Aid, and put it over the cut. “We better pick up all those pennies and the glass before my mama gets home and has a flying shit fit.”

“I don't do no housework,” Earl said. “She don't even come in here.”

“Well, there's always a first time. So, can you show me where the safety is on that gun?”

“I'm a’ be the one holding the piece,” Earl said.

“Why?”

“'cause like, I know how to work the safety. And you couldn't shoot the dude anyway.”

“I shot you, didn't I?”

“But he won't be holding no jar a’ pennies.”