The Night in Question TOBIAS WOLFFBullet in the Brain A rnders couldn't get to the bank until just before it [Put him in a murderous temper. He was never in the best of Bullet in the Brain She stood her ground, “did say i wa tai” she sold. “1 st think isa petty lousy way to treat your cus “Unforgivable,” Anders sad “Heaven will take note Sine sucked in her cheeks bt stared past him and said nothing, Anders saw thatthe other woman, he send, Was Tooking inthe same direction, And then the tellers stopped wat they were doing, and the customers slowly turned, silence came over the bank. Two men weating bck kt Tnosks and ble business sits were standing to the side of the door One of them had a pistol pressed against the (guard's neck. The guard's eyes were closed, and. his lips vere moving, The other man had a sawed-off shotgun Keep your big moth shut!” the man with thepistol ad "One of you tellers hits though no one had spoken a wo the alarm, you’ all dead meat. Gti The tellers nodded. ‘Oh, bravo,” Anders s im. "Great script eh? The stern, brass J. “Dea mex.” He turned to the Knuckled poetry ofthe dangerous asses ‘She looked at him with drowning eyes. The man with the shotgun pushed the guard 6 is knees, He handed the shotgun to his partner and yanked the guard's wrists up behind his back and locked them to futher with pair of handeutts He toppled hn oto the oor with a kick between the shoulder blades. Then he took his shotgun back and went over tothe secunty gate at the end ofthe counter. He was short and heavy ancl moved mith peculiar slowness, even torpor. “Buzz him in," his pavtagr sid. The man with the shotgun opened the gate Bia sauntered along the Line of tellers, handing, each of them a Hefty bag, When he came to the empty position he Inoked over a the man with the pistal, who said, “Whose slots that ‘Anders watched the tele, She put her hand to herthroat and turned tothe man she'd been talking to. He nod ded. “Mine,” she said “Then get your ugly ass in geae and fil that bag: There you go,” Anders said to the woman inf him. “Justice done.” Hey! Bright boy! Di tell you to tlk? No,” Anders sai Then shut your trap, ‘Did you hear that?” Anders said ut of The Killers Please be quiet” the woman said right boy! Right “Hey, you deaf or what?” The man with the pistol walked over to Anders, He poked the weapon into Anders gut. “You think I'm playing games? “No,” Anders said, but the bare tickled ike a stiff ‘ger and he had to fight back the titers. He did this by ‘making himself stare into the man’s eyes, which wen clearly visible behind the holes inthe mask: pale blue and raly red-rimmed. The man’s left eyelid kept twitching He breathed out a piercing, ammoniac smell that shocked Anders move than anything that had happened, and he was beginning to develop a sense of unease when the man prodded him again with the pistol, "You like me, bright hoy?” he said. “You want to suck any dick? “No,” Anders said “Then stop looking at me.” ‘shoes. ° ‘Not down there. Up there.” He stuck the pistol under ‘Anders’ chin and pushed it upward until Anders was look ing atthe ceiling Anders had never paid much attention to that part of the bank, @ pompous old building with marble lors and counters and pias, and gilt scrollwork over the tellers [3021 4 been decorated with myth al igure whose fleshy, toga-drape shines Anders eet taken in at a glance many years carer and aterwand thine to notice, Now he had no choice but to sertinize the punters work, twas even worse than he remembered ages. The domed ceiling had Toe of it executed with the utmost gravity. The artist aoe arcu tricks up his sleeve and used them again and rain certain os bush onthe underside ofthe ous, sea pckorard glance onthe faces ofthe cupids ana fauns. Mowe with various dramas, but the one ous and Europa—porayed, The eeing wa in this rendition, asa bull ogling sake the cow sexy the plnter had canted het “s cow from behind a hay wae Ty nd gen er tong dingy eves A hohe gaz bck tthe Pll ith aly we sal were sick and Ns eyes wee com he nen bubble coming out of hs moth Toul! have nib ub what's anny, right oy? hi No yx comical? You think tm some Kind of us a Fuck with me again, you're history. Caice Anders buat out laughing, He covered his mouth with im sory, Pm sorry” then snorted Crche oh Cod sat athe is gers anda “Capc—oh, os ae atthe te man with he pst asd the i Cand shox Andere ight nthe ed both hands and sd rhe bullet smashed Anders’ skull and. ploughed through pee path ane ented behind his ight ea, scattering shards‘of bone into the cerebral cortex, the corps callosum, ack toward the basal ganglia, and doven into the thal. But before all this occurred, the ist appearance of the ble in the cerebrum st off «cracking chain of fon transports and neurotransmissions. Becavse oftheir ilar origin thes traced a peculiar pater, Hukishly calling to lie a summer afternoon some forty years past, and long since lost to memory. After striking the cranitim the bullet was moving, at 900 feet per second, a pathetically slaggish glacial pace compared tothe synaptic lightning that flashed around i ‘Once inthe brain, that is, the bullet came under the media: tion of brain time, which vers plenty of leisure ‘contemplate the scene that, in a phrase he would have ab horred, “passed before his eve Tes worth noting what Anders id not rememby what he did remember, He did not remember his fist lover, Sherry, or what he had most madly loved about her, before it came to iritate him-—her unembarrassed caralty and expecially the condial, ay she had with his unt, which she called Mr Mole, s in, “Uh-oh, looks ike Mr: Moe wants to ply,” and, "Lets hide Mr. Mole” Anders didnot remem ‘er his wife, whom he had also loved before she exhausted him with her predictability, or his daughter, now a sullen protessor of economics at Dartmouth. He didnot remen her standing just outside his daughter's door as she Ie tured her bear about his naughtiness and described the truly appaling punishments Paws would receive unless he changed his ways. He did not remember a single line of the hundreds of poems he had commited to memory i his youth so that he could give himself the shivers a will—not “Silent, upon peak in Darien,” of “My God, I day." or “All my prety and this 5? Did you say all? © hell-kite! Al?" None of these dic he remember; not one. Anders did not remember his dying mother saying of his father, "| should have stabbed him in his sleep: Bullet in the Brain Profesor Josephs tllng his ass eased if hey een release ve aint renter Psion won ts ch en mc . ruck. Anders did not rememb ds, He did notre Sagi ther, nthe C son Sear ze classmate’s name won ar the surprise of sceing 2 cole = an he ra he book. He did not re- she respect he had feltafter reading spembe the please of Ving EPEC TNor did Anders remember SN woman leap to hee clays after is dca som he building oppesite his. hi sear was born. He dd not emerber Shuulng erate crashing ive mercy” He did not remember deli or paving his ibs Kicked in BY Fi father’s ca into a tree, oF hs se waking himself UP antes tally thee policemen at an hl remember whe ith laughter. He didnot re nae ae the heap of Books om his desk with Sead or whee ree angry 3 Wier He did not remember when everythin sning vgan to remind fan omen eb eae Parmeter Heat: ADS ae eghborbood gather fr # A herdative giv ; subject all re I nas the thes ange he real a ae Maye Tey have bees OFT aay become tedious 10 ANE: 3M OPPS Som like the het "Ten thes! terran wil ever se him gai c ‘ ‘notice of him until they ie ion he wants: a cousin of wo boys arrive, Coyle and a : n. He says hi with t kes no rte at .sks the cousin what positis so storsP Shor’ the best position Shunt the boy 98 " pure ems and looks at him. He wants to heat at he's jos sai, but he knows bet ‘Conte's cousin repeat h they is” Anders tumster than to ask. The others will think he’s being a jek, rag ing the kid for his grammar, Bu that isnt ota all—its that Anders is strangely roused, elated, by those final twa words, their pure unexpectedness and their music. He takes the fel ina trance repeating them to himselt The bullets already in the brant won't be outrun for: ever or charmed toa halt Inthe end it will dots work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comets tal of ‘memory and hope and talent and love into the marble hall ‘of commerce. That cant be helped. But fr now Anders can i make time. Time for the shadows to lengehen om the srass time forthe tethered dog to bark atthe flying bal time for the boy in right fel to smack his sweat-blackened rit and softly chant, They is, thy i, they is atso sy TOBIAS WOLFF Wn a mats sory, “he New York Times Compe stil shen tne of ai Here are tn punk ay hee tai ae hina Ves bel he nt Ashwin ns sear beare speeding aos the pany beeen thi eis Te impasse eee Ua thee dreams Memories ofthe Lost War mist experience Irate, Wolff Found himselt he Mekong el el one of the sng Having sari el 9527 Ie any Tas Wolff ine bes he ele Spel Ts teed in To ck up Hering oa more ofa pesto tha friam were mest MemaitNonfcon!