"Yes?"

I had to get through to him some way. I had to make him listen. He was loaded and ready to go and if there was to be any stopping him it was going to be now. "Listen, Lee." I leaned forward as far as I could without giving the appearance I was going to jump him.

"Listen and get this." Afterward I remembered that some part of my mind was off by itself very objectively thinking what a d.a.m.n fool thing that must sound like, saying, "Listen," over and over. "I want you to understand. You're drunk but you can understand me and know what I mean if you try. You can shoot that gun only once before I'll be on you and I'll have it. You know that. I'll break your arm but I'll have the gun. You'll have one shot. Just one." I knew I was saying the thing over and over like a parrot because I could hear my voice somewhere a long way off, coming through the roaring in my ears, and I wondered if I were yelling again or keeping it down so he could understand it or would listen.

"Maybe you haven't figured out yet what I mean by just one shot with it before I take it away from you. It means that if you shoot her you won't have time to turn it on yourself the way you think you're going to. And if you want to try it on me first you'll be taking a long chance too, because you're drunk and can't aim straight enough to get me cold the first time, and there won't be any second." He wasn't very drunk and I wasn't at all sure he couldn't hit me in any spot he pleased with one shot, but I hoped he was just drunk enough to believe me.

"But if you shoot her, I've already told you I'll have the gun before you can shoot again. So get this and do your best to get a good picture of what I mean. When I get it we're going to sit here."

I watched his eyes to see if it were getting through to him. If it did there was a chance, but if it didn't we were all done, and I tried not to look at her because I was afraid I couldn't take it.

"We'll sit here for an hour or two hours or whatever it takes until you're cold sober and shaking and scared. And then I'll shoot you. Sober."

I stopped. It seemed all time must have stopped too but I could hear the ticking of the clock in the living room. I tried to stop counting. Slowly Lee's hand opened and I saw Angelina slide hers out of his grasp and pull her arms in toward her on the table.

"Get up, Angel," I said. "Go into the bedroom and close the door."

She wasn't crying now but she was white as chalk and was holding her face together like something made of gla.s.s that was already broken and would come apart any minute. She got up very slowly and started around the end of the table. I watched Lee. He still had the gun in his hand and his eyes followed her until she turned at the corner of the table and started across the room toward the door behind him and then he turned his head away, straight forward, and let it slump down.

She went into the bedroom and closed the door and I could feel her there on the other side in the darkness holding onto herself and waiting and trying not to cry out, still standing because I hadn't heard her fall.

Lee looked up at me. Neither of us had moved. A strand of hair had fallen down across his forehead and it looked like a pen slash in India ink against the dead white of his face. My knees were weak and I could feel the muscles twitching in them.

"Bob," he said. Only that-"Bob." He said it as if he were going to add something else, but he never did. He raised the gun until it was just under his right temple and fired. Just at the end, in that last thousandth of a second, he jerked it a little as he pulled the trigger and it went higher man he had aimed but it wasn't high enough to make any difference.

I heard her fall then but I didn't go in to her until after I had gone over to where Lee was slumped forward over the table. His right arm was hanging down and I put it up on the table and stood there crying.

THE END