The robber said “This bullet’s for you” so she gave him the money.
(from Painted Bride Quarterly, Print Annual #2)
How did you feel when you realized what had happened?”
“I don’t know. Sick. Mad. But mostly I was just glad he left without hurting me. Mostly I felt grateful.”
“You were grateful?” Like it’s the wrong answer. Like grateful isn’t enough to satisfy a TV audience.
“Gratefulness can fool you,” I would tell her. “It’s a stronger feeling than you think. In fact, I’d put gratefulness up there with the big ones. It can feel like love, or grief, that strong.”
Really cool little story. I feel like giving anything away would be giving away too much, seeing as how this is a two-pager. Basically, “Bullet” makes you feel like everything’s wrong in the world up until it reminds you that some things are right. There’s a bit of a media critique in here, a theoretical TV anchor who just doesn’t get it. But not in some Big Satire way. It was real and harsh. But also peaceful, in a way.
Read the story here, via some cached Google action.