“You are right handed?” I asked.
Libby nodded yes.
“Ok,” I continued. “Then you want to grip the gun with your right hand, and then you want the other hand on the bottom to steady it. Now, when you fire it’s going to kickback. That’s normal and you will get used to it. You have to just hold it strong, but still a little loosely so it isn’t stiff. I know it sounds confusing, but trust me you will get the hang of it shortly. It’s all just a matter of repetition.”
“Ok,” Libby said. She got into the right position, and then I guided her right leg a little bit behind her.
“This will help you balance it a little bit better,” I said. “But you don’t want to have one leg too far behind the other one. That will actually hurt your aim a bit.”
Libby corrected her posture and then pointed the gun at the target.
“Great,” I said. “Now you want to pull the trigger gently, and slowly. You don’t want to jerk it and pull at it quickly. That will throw your aim way off. Let the gun do the work.”
I put on my headphones and double checked Libby’s.
“Ok,” I said. “Let it rip.”
Libby took a deep breath and fired a shot. The sound echoed off the walls and pounded at the outside of my headphones, reminding me of exactly why I wore the goofy looking things.
Libby groaned. She had missed the target entirely.
“That’s fine,” I said. “You are going to miss a lot in the beginning. Get set back up and try again.”
Libby got back into her stance. As she stood there my eyes began to wander down below her shoulders, eventually setting on her bottom. I couldn’t help it. Libby was wearing a tight pair of jeans and her rump looked fantastic.
And it was only a few feet in front of me. I wanted to adjust myself inside my own jeans badly, but I didn’t dare let on.
Libby pointed the Glock at the target and slowly squeezed the trigger. This time the recoil seemed more natural with her and she actually hit a spot on the target.
“Ok, that’s improvement,” I said.
We continued in this manner for a little while longer until Libby started to do really well. She was consistently hitting close to where she was aiming. I was certain that with a bit more practice she was going to hit what she wanted.”
“So, you said your dad was a big game hunter?” Libby asked when we decided to take a short break.
“Yeah.”
“But, I thought he left early on? Isn’t that what you told me?”
“He did,” I said. “But that’s one of the reasons he left. For a while he sent postcards to show us all of the great places he was going and all of the things he was hunting. He saw his kills as trophies.”
“Trophies? That sounds pretty barbaric.”
“Yeah, it is. My mother did not share his lust for it either. I remember thinking that my father would rather kill these beautiful animals, then spend time with his little boy. It still hurts to this day.”
“So, eventually he just stopped contacting you?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure if he just stopped, or if he was killed, or what. I just don’t know.”
“You think something happened to him?”
“Where he was, he was chasing the most dangerous type of game. He was after tigers and lions mostly. But he was also deeply inside an area—at least according to my mom and grandfather---where there was a bunch of poaching going on. Those people will kill you as soon as they will blink at you. So, that might have happened, too.”
Libby’s face was very serious, solemn even. I hoped I hadn’t upset her too much.
“I’m sorry,” Libby said.
“Don’t be. Everything happens for a reason. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true. At least in my experience. I’m one of those ‘find the silver lining’ people. I sincerely believe that every bad thing that happens has a good thing attached to it somewhere. You just have to find it. And it more times than not sets you off on those paths that you never would have taken on your own.”
“I like the way you look at life,” Libby said.
“Thanks,” I replied.
“I wish I had that. You have this confidence to you that everything is going to be alright,” she said. “You never seem to worry about anything.”
“You’re right,” I replied. “I don’t worry about things that much anymore, because I’m genuinely convinced that something better is coming around the corner. Life is in a state of constant flux and that is a great rush. It means you can have as many different lives as you want to.”
“Where do you think that came from? This attitude about life?” Libby asked.
I could tell she was really curious.