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Show 171 would graduate from school in just over a month. It was a time of new angles, new trajectories. He imagined taking a romantic trip with Tamara into the mountains. They had once taken a directionless vacation together and wound up staying in a guest house in central Idaho. It ended up being the best vacation he had ever taken, and sometimes he fantasized about returning to Idaho forever, owning some land, having a job where he could use his hands. Thinking about Tamara and those possibilities, he considered turning around, but he was tired. He stepped out of the track and walked to the gate in front of the tracks. He saw a train approaching and lifted himself onto the gate to watch it. He lit a cigarette while he stared straight ahead at the speeding train and thought about how good it would feel to move that fast straight off the edge of the world. After the train passed, it was quiet again. Steve walked back to the truck, took out his .357 Magnum and the ammunition from under the seat. He crossed the train tracks and fired his gun at an office chair surrounded by beer bottles standing up like flag poles. He had purchased a lot of extra ammunition and planned to use it all but he was surprised by how tiresome shooting became, especially because his aim was off and he missed most of the targets. He saw the half-light orange sun in the distance and knew soon the sky would soon rum ashy and then dark. |