Who is Lou Sciortino? Read Online Free PDF

let’s say he’s distracted  … How can you know what might happen during a robbery, maybe one of these things will turn out useful … you never know.”
    â€œIt’s getting cool,” Tano says. “Want me to lower the shutter?” Without waiting for a reply, he stands up.
    He walks unsteadily, crookedly, on the sawdust that Turi, the barman, has strewn on the ground—it’s more useful than a doormat because the customers never wipe their feet when they come in, and more convenient, because when it stops raining he sweeps up and everything’s clean the way it was.
    The noise of the shutter being lowered echoes through the whole neighborhood.
    *   *   *
    â€œFuuuuuck,” Nuccio says again.
    The lights of evening race faster across the windshield.
    Tuccio drives in silence, looking in the rearview mirror every now and then and nodding to himself.
    *   *   *
    Tano wipes his hands on his frayed pants, rolled at the waist to reveal the white lining all yellowed. He walks behind the bar, takes a bottle of Punt & Mes from the shelf, and slowly returns to the table.
    â€œSo I decided to go to the Commander’s shop to see if there was anything you could get without a permit,” Uncle Mimmo resumes, once Tano is back in his chair. “When I got to the shop, I went to the salesgirl and explained my situation. She took out a drawer and set it on the counter with a smile, and you know what was inside? A dummy!” he says, disgusted.
    â€œSo now you’re supposed to chase away magpies or what?” Cosimo says, just as disgusted.
    â€œJust like I said! And they make dummies with this red thing around the end of the barrel so you can’t hit anyone anymore.”
    â€œThey do it because of the law,” Tano says. “So you can’t do a robbery with a fake gun.”
    â€œYes,” Cosimo says, “some fucking law. So now robbers only use real guns.”
    â€œPrecisely,” Uncle Mimmo replies. “Anyhow, I had to explain it all to her from the beginning. I needed something that wasn’t a real weapon but close enough, that hurt but not too much, in other words a weapon that didn’t need a permit. And then she took out another drawer and set it on the counter and inside there were new guns, all kinds of guns, and so I said, ‘ Minchia, signorina, what are these, more dummies?’ She explained they were air guns. Minchia, you know, air guns, right?”
    â€œWhat are you, a kid on Halloween, that we gotta give you an air gun now?” Cosimo says.
    â€œThat’s exactly what I said. So then she explained these guns don’t shoot those little red rubber things. Now they shoot these really hard little bullets and they’re perfect replicas of guns on the market. If you want, you can buy the bullets with a metal core, but they cost more. At thirty feet, she says they make a bruise like this. So I asked her, ‘And what if I buy them with the metal core?’ Just then, the Commander, who’d just finished serving somebody else, came up to us and said, ‘Then the bruise lasts longer. But what the fuck are you buying, Uncle Mimmo?’”
    â€œHe’s used to handling real guns, not shit,” Cosimo says.
    â€œPrecisely. So then I explained my situation again to the Commander, and he nodded, being an expert in these things. Then he told me I was right, and he’d find something to take care of my problem.”
    â€œThat guy knows what he’s talking about,” Cosimo says.
    â€œSo he thought about it awhile, and he looked around, and said what I needed was a nice sling. They make them now with this thing you put around the handle to give it more explosive power, and they shoot these colored glass pellets that are very, very accurate, and at thirty feet the bruise they give you is something else.”
    â€œ Minchia, ” Tano