Free William S. Burroughs by The Place of Dead Roads Page B

targets and
tacks them to a backdrop of heavy oak planks thirty feet from the
table.
    Now to mark out
targets. The classic gunfighters mark just above the belt. Three-inch
circle. Kim taps his solar plexus, remembering the feeling of
being hit there once in football practice. He draws a three-inch
circle. And now the heart, which is right in line if you are facing
somebody. Hollow at the base of the neck in front where the
collarbones converge. Spot just below the nose. Spot between the
eyes. He stands back and looks at the targets. If you want to be sure
of no recovery ... He draws a three-inch
circle over the liver.
    He selects the 22... inside belt holster that fits down behind his fly,
the rosewood handle just under his belt buckle...Lightest pistol,
easiest to shoot. Must hit a vital spot vulnerable to this
load...Heart, the two neck shots, and between the eyes. Not enough
shock for below-the-nose shot.
    With a smooth
unhurried movement he drops his hand to his belt and sweeps the
pistol up to eye level, steadied with the left hand, and fires six
shots aiming for the heart. All shots within a three-inch
circle ... "a heavier powder load with
this accuracy ... I'll ask old
Anderson... "
    He sits down and
runs through the draw-aim-fire sequence a number of times, seeing the
bullets hit the target, imprinting the sequence on his "alligator
brain," as he calls it, that part of him that knows just what to
do and does it with a depraved reptilian smile.
    Now the 44 Russian. He touches it with gentle precise fingers as
he would touch Denny's cock, oh he'd love to have little tiny naked
boy cameos cut in opals and rubies, set in mother-of-pearl handles.
His holster, oh not a vulgar tie-down, is a flap of leather that
clips onto the pants. Relax completely and don't trigger the action.
Now smooth, deliberate, both hands, a solar-plexus bull's-eye.
Paralyzing shot. Now up to the hollow of the neck...Now up to the
middle of the forehead just for jolly before he falls. Now
belt-buckle shot up to the heart. The gun is so easy with the
adjustable hair trigger, almost shoots itself...Need a double-action
Russian...I'll ask the Old Man ... Kim saw
himself in a sleigh picking off wolves with the 44. But there are too many wolves.
    "THROW THE
COUNTESS OUT," he bellows lustily. So he and the handsome
footman just make it back to the castle.
    Now the 32-20 with the holster tied down. He goes into a sheriff act.
    "Fill your
hand, you stage-robbing sidewinder!"
    Draw aim fire, just
above the belt buckle...A little off, trigger pulls hard. Needs some
custom work, but the load feels good. He does a good workmanlike job
with this gun, but it doesn't seem to have the élan of the
others. No doubt about it, double-action is better not only for speed
but because gun stays on target whereas the act of cocking throws gun
off target. Still the 44 Russian has a
balletic sort of grace with stylized movements, the hand snaking out,
whole body lining up ... he sees himself in
pink tights with a disdainful nonchalant hard-on. Perhaps he
will wear a skeleton suit for his gunfights, or a codpiece with a
skull on it. He tries the 38, wearing a
glove on his left hand. He clasps the frame above and below the
cylinder — what a grouping, you just
point and squirt the bullets out like a hose.
    He packs away the
guns except for the 38, which he wears, and
picks up the bag, the four canvases, a double-barreled shotgun,
and the huge Gray's Anatomy. Carrying this rather awkward
load he starts down the path thinking about Denny, getting a hard-on
and not looking where he is going, he jams his right foot between two
rocks and his body pitches forward, bag, guns, canvases and Gray's
flying ahead of him and skidding down the path. He gets his foot out
using both hands and grimacing with pain. He can't walk on the right
foot. Using the shotgun as a cane he drags himself down to the
riverfront and into the boathouse.
    He strips off his
boot and sock, the ankle is swollen