Jump Cut Read Online Free PDF Page A

never touched a gun before. I’ve never seen a gun before, except in movies. It’s surprisingly light.
    â€œSee?” Gloria Lorraine says to me. “I thought you said you watched my movies. Give it here.” She snaps her fingers.
    I hand her the gun. The guy wriggles some more and turns even redder in the face. His eyes follow the gun. Gloria Lorraine handles it like a pro, flipping a little lever on the side back and forth with her thumb. It’s pointed at the guy in the trunk, and probably at the gas tank of the car too. The guy in the trunk starts making a noise like a clogged vacuum cleaner. He’s squirming so much the car starts to rock. Gloria Lorraine snorts. “It’s just a toy. It’s too light to be the real thing. I hefted a lot of pistols in my day. Watch.”
    She flicks the gun to one side and pulls the trigger. There’s a dry crack , then a whang and a ricochet whine, just like in the movies. A dent magically appears in the side of the Dumpster and there’s a neat little hole in the Cadillac’s windshield. “I’ll be damned,” says Gloria Lorraine. “It is real. Well, Spanky, let’s get him out of there. I’ll keep you covered.”
    AmberLea has already untied the dog’s legs. When she gets the muzzle thing off, it starts yapping like crazy. The big guy in the trunk is harder to deal with. I peel off the duct tape from his ankles and help him swing his legs out of the trunk. He scooches forward, arms and hands still tied behind his back. I reach in and rip the duct tape off his mouth. I don’t see there’s a mustache underneath until it’s too late. Some of it comes off with the tape. When he stops squealing, he switches to gasping. AmberLea puts down the yapping dog and helps me haul the guy up. Underneath him are what looks like a small gas cylinder for a barbecue and some clear plastic bags, the five-pound size that Jer uses to buy flour and sugar at the bulk store. These are filled with white powder and taped shut. Maybe this guy likes to bake as much as Jer does.
    After he stops yipping like the dog when I pull duct tape off his hairy arms, he says, “You ever gotta do that again, try cutting the tape. Then a guy can soak it off, ya know?” He touches what’s left of his mustache. He stops glaring at me long enough to say to the dog, “Mistah Bones, you all right?”
    AmberLea has put the dog in the backseat. Now it goes crazy, scrabbling up the upholstery to get to the guy. The guy can hardly move. His arms are stiff as boards and his hands look all swollen. “Hey, hey, Mistah Bonesy, how we, how we, how we?” He leans down and the dog starts licking his face. There’s a big red patch around the guy’s mouth where his mustache was.
    â€œEnchanting,” says Gloria Lorraine. “We have to go.”
    The guy stands up stiffly. “Yeah. Right. Me too.” He looks around. “Thanks fa helpin’. Ya wanna give me the gun before there’s an accident? You can probably catch a bus at the corner.” He sticks out a puffy hand and takes a tottery step forward.
    â€œNot so fast,” says Gloria Lorraine, and she points the gun right at the guy’s belly. It’s a big target. “We need the car.”
    He stops dead. “What? That’s my car!”
    â€œI doubt it,” she says. “But even if it is, I doubt you’ll call the cops.”
    â€œHey,” says the guy, “I’m an honest businessman.”
    â€œIn a pig’s eye,” says Gloria Lorraine. She nods at the trunk. “Next you’re going to tell us that the nose candy in the plastic bags is icing sugar.”
    â€œExactly right,” says the guy. “I’m a baker. Really. Lookit.” He fumbles a card out of a pocket and hands it to me. “Al Capoli, King of Cannoli. See that tank in there? Helium, so’s we can do balloons for kiddies when