Page 21 of Pistol Perfect
“Oh, really nothing, just... Maybe I’ll tell you some other time. I think I hear her coming back.”
He gave his aunt a look that said he wasn’t very happy with the way she was beating around the bush, and then the door burst open, and a rosy-cheeked Mabel strode sedately out.
He was pretty sure she was trying to force herself to remain calm, and he almost laughed. It wasn’t every day that a person shot someone and had to calm themselves down afterward.
“You know, if you want to turn me in to the police, I totally understand.”
James blinked. He hadn’t considered it. “Why would I do that?”
“Because I shot you!” Mabel exclaimed.
“You didn’t mean to.”
“Involuntary manslaughter?”
“But I didn’t die.”
“Yet.”
“Should I find another doctor?”
“No. I don’t think I’m going to kill you, but I just figured that things really couldn’t get any worse, unless of course you do end up dying, and with the way my luck has been lately...”
“I trust you. Go ahead and do whatever needs to be done, and then we’ll talk about whatever it was you wanted to talk about.”
Maybe Aunt Carol thought that was a hint, because at that point, she stood up, still carefully cradling the box. “I’m going to go ahead and take this inside. I... I think that maybe we need someone who knows a little bit of something about guns to make sure it’s unloaded before we attempt to look at it again.”
“That’s a really good idea. Although, I don’t care much anymore that it belonged to Annie Oakley. I’m not sure I ever want to see it again. I definitely am not going to ever trust myself to touch a gun again.”
“Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting to know something and understanding it, and then it stops being so scary.”
“Are you actually saying that you think I ought to learn more about guns rather than swearing them off?” Mabel sounded incredulous.
“Sure. I mean, if someone fell into a lake and almost drowned, wouldn’t it be wise for them to take swimming lessons rather than avoiding water for the rest of their life?”
“Well, I can understand why someone who almost drowned would want to avoid water. But I suppose you’re right. It would be smarter to develop the skills so that one would no longer have to fear what almost killed them.”
He nodded. “That’s exactly right.”
He winced as she put something cold on his foot. The bleeding had almost stopped, and he watched as she tilted her head.
“I’m debating about stitches. I feel like it’s a no. But I still think you’re going to need to stay off your foot for at least a week until it heals. You don’t want it to get infected.”
“All right. I’ll stay off my foot for at least a week.”
“That was easy,” she said, sounding surprised.
“Did you think I was going to fight about it?”
“Well, I’m not a human doctor, and my patients typically are not able to be reasoned with, but it’s usually a struggle to get anyone, or anything, to stay down for an entire week.”
“If it means that my foot will heal up properly, that’s what I’ll do.”
She nodded, looking up at him with her lips tilted. “Sometimes people are just not reasonable, but that seems like a reasonable thing to do.”
She nodded again, but from the way she acted, it felt like she didn’t think most people were reasonable.
He wasn’t sure that was a point in his favor or not, and he tried to keep his mind thinking about it as she worked on his foot, to keep it off the pain.