Bang Bang

 As I pulled the shower curtain aside and reached for my towel, the first thing I noticed was the heavy black gun lying next to the sink. My heart did the expected racing, as I wrapped the towel around my wet torso while diving for the gun. It hadn’t been there when I got in to the shower. This could only mean one thing.

He was back.

I slid back the safety and checked: loaded. How had I not heard him enter the bathroom? Had I really been so lost in thought as to dismiss the sounds of an opening door? I stood completely still, the silence rushing up against me with a sharp smack.

Johnny was smarter than that. Johnny wouldn’t have left the gun on the sink unless…unless… Unless he wanted it to be a fair fight. He was twisted like that. I sighed and sat down on the edge of the tub. I was terrible at games like this.

My hand was steady on the weapon as I moved silently toward the door. I knew at least this much: whoever was waiting for me out there would only get impatient now that the water had stopped running.

“Johnny? Baby is that you?” I was reasonably satisfied with the calm I affected, the casual, happy tone I projected.

I held my breath, thinking it had been a good life as I pulled the door open and stepped through it.

It wasn’t Johnny sitting on my couch, smoking a cigar.

It wasn’t him, pointing a gun at me, behind the sweet smelling cloud of smoke.

But that didn’t make me hesitate to lift my gun and aim back, towel be damned.

“You dropped something,” she said, as dry as the desert.

“You like the view?”

“Where the fuck is Johnny?” She looked me up and down and smirked; bad move on her part, since that told me that she was not here on business. This was personal.