Two neighborhood boys named Steve fought over a BB gun that Skinny Steve had swiped from his garage, and though both of their hands were planted firmly near the rear of the gun, it was Skinny Steve’s that pulled the trigger.
Only after the pop and puff that carried the pellet from its chamber did I see Big Steve’s hand over his eye. His Reebok pumps untied, mouth agape. Maria and I waited for a cry that never came. Big Steve shook like he was dancing to the silence.
Skinny Steve decided to run. We ran, too, to Maria’s house.
We sat at her kitchen table eating pickles from a jar, slurping the juice off our fingers after every grab, no mention of the Steves. We heard sirens from a distance that then became louder.
Maria’s mother walked outside and stood on the porch until all the mothers were outside, exchanging the same look of concern. A shared narrative of speculation between all the mothers except Big Steve’s and Skinny Steve’s.
Later that night, long after Big Steve was loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher, the mothers convened at a driveway with handheld coolers and folding chairs, waiting for news. Maria and I ran through a curtain of clustered mosquitoes to Skinny Steve’s bedroom window, our blackened feet cleansed from a bath of sunset dew while we called his name. Maria threw a handful of pebbles at the glass.
When he appeared at the window, Skinny Steve’s face was reddened, but not from the summer sun. He looked at us for a few moments, hand pressed against the glass, then turned and walked away. We left when his bedroom went dark.
The street, it was empty. A house phone echoed like a dinner bell. Abandoned lawn chairs and lipstick-stained wine cooler bottles in the driveway. The mothers inside, holding their babies tight.
Erin Dawkins (she/her) received her MA in English with a specialty in Creative Writing from Wayne State University. Her work has has been published in Flash Fiction Magazine, Sky Island Journal, Blood+Honey Literary Magazine, Mouthful of Salt, WestWord Journal, and others. Read more at erindawkins.com.