Brutally Honest: 6 - Shot
Inundated messages of violence through the mediums of television, cinema and music can have severely detrimental effects on your average male teen. To the extent of bringing these scenarios kicking and screaming into the arena of physical reality. The consequences of which being both humorous and idiotic all at once. However, the end result is almost certainly always the same. An aftermath of serious regret.
My good buddy, Lee, had the brainstorming idea of paying myself a visit to show off the new love of his life. A spring-loaded air gun. I remember him pulling it from the inside of his duffel jacket and pointing it straight at my face. Nice introduction. I also recall his trousers pockets being stuffed full of minute, leaded pellets to be used as ammunition. To be honest, this was a "toy" I'd always wanted to get my hands on. Shooting something, even if through the sights of a "pretend" pistol, sounded too cool to pass up. After a short briefing on the instructions regarding gun reloading, it was time to test it out.
From the comfort of my bedroom window, the first half hour was spent shooting at pigeons flying to and from a huge tree several gardens down. Though none actually hit the birds, a select few gave subtle mid-flight twitches to, I assume, narrowly avoid a nasty sting from the tiny whizzing projectiles. It was fun and we were indeed cracking up at our hapless feathered friends flitting through the barrage of gunfire unscathed. However, things got a little stale not too long after. Boredom soon set in. Which is a breeding ground for impending disaster were two disturbed teens are concerned.
"Damn these pigeons, man." Groaned Lee, watching yet another one flap away into the distance. "Can't you aim a little ahead of their flight path to hit them proper like?" I looked at him as if he'd just asked me to french kiss him. "Are you crazy? It's your gun, man. Why didn't you buy one of those gas powered shooters instead? The spring is this thing is shit." Lee shook his head, continuing to mumble something about my crappy aim.
Just as the next level of boredom was fast approached, I spied a mother and her young offspring, making their way back presumably from the school up the road.
"Oh, mate" Lee muttered under his breath. "The perfect target... A mum."
"Are you crazy?" I howled back. "This shit will never reach her. I'll be surprised it'll even make it to the damn road." The look I got from Lee said it all. "Or could it just be that you're the shittiest shot I've ever seen. Just give it a go, man."
The loving pair were now in full view, with a couple of metres until they were to disappear behind the walled brickwork of our house. I'm not entirely sure the sequence of mental events that pushed me into the act itself. Pure desperation to prove him wrong? Or maybe some sadistic superficial streak surfacing to see whether or not it could actually be done. But, it was already too late. The hands reacted before the brain could stop them. I opened fire with three consecutive shots in their direction, me peering just over the metal sight affixed to the top of the muzzle. Before I had time to admire the precision of my handwork, a loud "OOWWW" rang into the air. We both dropped to the floor, panic and fear setting in fast. This was actually "not" what I expected.
"Are you nuts?" Lee shout-whispered at me. "I didn't think you'd go ahead with it, you dumbass!"
"Man, I swear I didn't think it would have even reached her." I confessed nervously. "Just keep your head down and mouth shut." The seconds past by without anyone of us saying a word. This was all one big misunderstanding, I kept telling myself. Just lay low a little while longer and I may just skip out on getting caught. However, a jarring fist banging on the door below jolted us to attention. In my mind, a wave of terror passed over me as I wondered how in the hell the mother had figured out where I live? In pretty much the same instant, I knew. The damned open window...
I opened the front door to a red-faced and ever-so-angry spindly woman coupled with her slightly confused little daughter. I was literally shitting bricks. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you? You could have taken my eye out!" Seeing as she was standing directly behind my front gate, I stepped out to offer some semblance of an explanation, but kept coming up blank. There seemed like nothing left to do but grovel at her feet for mercy, in addition to pleading with her not to call the cops. I also noticed her glancing up to the window above every so often to which I then proceeded to do the same. Lee was seen to be jumping around, laughing hysterical and flailing his arms with glee at the trouble I found myself in. Hang on a minute, I thought. This is too good to pass up on.
"Miss." I began, with a bit more confidence than before. "I'm so sorry. As you can see, my brother... Well, he's not very well. He somehow got his hands on my air gun and started firing it randomly into the street. It just so happened you were passing by and got hit. My mother cares for him and will be home soon. Please don't let her find out. I was suppose to be in charge of him today. I'm so very sorry."
The woman, still seething with rage, looked up again. Well, I'm not sure how she perceived the visage of Lee prancing around at the time, but his performance at my window was deemed credit worthy enough for my story to carry weight. She stared back at me, daggers in her eyes. "Well, you bloody well make sure you look after him better from now on. Either that or keep him locked up in a cage!"
Oh, it was beautiful. Poetry in motion. A close call, but Lee had saved the day. Unknowingly, but still very welcome indeed...
Man your stories always bring back so many memories. This one is so typical for a teenager.
I've had my share of spring-powered guns but never did any actual damage with any of those. Instead, this post reminds me very distinctively of an episode involving a slingshot, a pebble and the windshield of a passing car. The woman that gave me hell that day resembled quite closely your next door mother, and my reaction was pretty much the same (I was playing - you happened to pass by at the wrong time...LIES!). Anyway, keep writing this stuff, it's really fun to see that in the end, we were all quite crazy back then. And we had tons of fun.
On a side note, I keep staring in awe at the magnificence of some very out of place comments under your posts. I know it's a common thing here on Steemit, but the ones under your posts in particular deserve a dedicated study on how not to program a bot, I guess.
Thanks for your feedback, buddy! I'm glad you can relate to some of the antics I got up to in my younger years. The "slingshot and pebbles" story sounds like something I'd like to hear the rest of, lol! And yes, the comments are quite a mixed bag but honestly a lot of them are muted already so I wouldn't even know they even exist! :)
Bless, man...
This one was funny:
“From the comfort of my bedroom window, the first half hour was spent shooting at pigeons flying to and from a huge tree several gardens down.”
If I show this to my wife, she would ban me from steemit.lol Anyway, I like pigeons, but not on my backyard.lol
Your story completely reminds me my childhood. With my sister we had this small kid weapon “sling” I guess that’s what it’s called. We were trying to target pedestrians from our balcony. Immediately at first we hit this guy, the problem was that he saw us. We got in soo much trouble that day. I definitely learned my lesson.
Yeah, bud. These are some of the mistakes we all make when we are young, lol. But as long as nobody got hurt (too badly anyways, lol), it's stuff that can be rectified. Live and learn, dude. That's the name of the game. :)
Wow. You are very fortunate to have gotten away. Some years ago, I learned that an acquaintance from high school spent one year in jail. His crime? His buddies were shooting either paintballs/airsoft at a homeless man. He was the driver. Can you imagine one year in jail, guilty by association?
Another story: I used my brother's pump pellet rifle one day. I was sick and stayed home. I was bored and realized my friend was coming home from the bus stop soon. I layed prone on the garage floorand waited for him to come down the street. Yep there he is. I took aim toward his leg area. Bang. He grabbed his face and I freaked out. I ran out to him and apologized. I barely missed his eye! He was a trooper and did not kick my @$$. He hid it well from his folks. I learned a lesson.
Tell me about it, bud. I realised quite soon after that shooting random strangers from your bedroom window is a no-no. But man, your story! I mean, don't get me wrong, I can see how it would seem fun, lol! But as with so many things in life, you just don't do it. We learnt the easy way, could have been a lot worse...
Thanks for dropping by, bro. :)
Somehow it doesn't surprise me that it was Lee that obtained a pellet gun. Oh man, at least you guys got to learn your lesson without anyone having any lasting damage.
But BB guns are really fun, my dad's friend got me one for my birthday when I was little. I only ever shot it at paper/cardboard targets in the backyard though. I still have one too! Now I shoot empty aluminum cans. :D
You now know Lee pretty much inside out, lol. Though the lessons we learnt were worth it in the end though. Like a grown-up edition of "Sesame Street" or something, lol.
You shooting "stationary" object down sounds like a whole heap of fun to me, man. :)
That moment when we have to call our friends our siblings Just to get them out of trouble can you imagine the shame? Hshahaha this is amazing, Lee is a crazy type I swear you both are too daring.
Amazing story buddy.
Lol, it was the only excuse I had at the time. Got me out of a lot of trouble though seeing as he did look quite... "special" from below. :)
Look special? You mean he looked demented? Hahahahhaha
Hey @ezzy , this is a great post. What a good post to bring the awareness of the effect such movies are doing to especially teenagers. Thanks a lot. I will like to add this quote , which may be helpful to many bloggers on steemit ;
Why You Should Upvote Comments!!!!
I've noticed alot of people doesnt reward their followers, and their commenters on here.
It's a shame.
When someone takes the time to not only read your post but to leave a comment. Even throwing your small vote their way does a lot of great things...
They are More Likely To Follow You;
I'm not saying you should upvote every single comment you get. I try and look for those that I feel provide value to the post. When they see that you upvoted their comment and they will be rewarded as a result. This encourages them to follow you; Then you'll have a regular on your post!
You can grow your followers so that they can grow you;
If they choose to keep their Steem in their account, They may power it up. If you continuously are upvoting their great comments, then they will steadily grow overtime. Their vote will be worth even more, and they'll be able to upvote you, The upvotes you gave them helps them grow, so they have more power on the platform.
an educative post not only fun,
great post thanks for sharing....
Buena publicación amigo
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Steem on and all the best wishes
The understanding of television is not very accurate.