...that I should open myself to criticism, so... ------------------------------------------------------ "Gun Metal Cool" Though the morning was filled with the usual mixture of nature and town noise, Sam heard nothing. Lost in his own world of the approaching minutes, he replayed and rechecked his plans. Nervousness, pain, and anger saturated his mind. His gaze drifted from his lap to the door of a disheveled motel and back to his lap. He made a slight adjustment in his posture, sunk lower in his car seat, and looked through the car window to the dingy hotel again then nervously back to his lap. A sudden noise of a door slamming shut stirred him back from his daze. There she was! Though the feeling he was about to do something irreversibly wrong crisscrossed his mind, pain and anger dominated. It was showtime! And the show WOULD go on. Youve hurt me for the last time! The determined words streamed from his lips as practiced. Laura wheeled around in surprise. Confusion was replaced by fear as she focused on the voice she knew so well. When Sam had her attention, he swung his arm around and up so the gun was positioned between the two of them. Both focused on it. Sam Shut tha fuck UP! His trembling hand betrayed his determination. A thin coating of sweat separated his finger from the trigger. A vague line of right and wrong danced through his mind. But pain and anger forced its way to the stage that had been set. Sam Her voice pleading. His eyes drifted to her waistline and he noticed a slight bulge. Red flashes of anger obliterated any thoughts of right and the girl he had loved so much. Laura caught his focused eyes and instinctively wrapped her hands over her and Sams child. As she released her last attempt to tell Sam she had made a mistake and wanted them to try again, Sam found the release from his pain and anger with one small movement that displaced a deafening bullet. And then, when Laura fell, another sound erupted that quieted the singing birds, brought morning traffic to a halt, and ended Sams pain. Few people think about how bullets heat up a gun barrel. And fewer still think about how the barrel and the bodies cool down together afterwards. --------------------------------------------------- This confrontation, in other forms and variations, appear every day at the bottom of page 7 in various local newspapers. It's a damned shame!