Charlie pawned the necklace for twelve grand. While Charlie was at the shop, he saw that the place discreetly traded in guns too. He told all his buddies, and so the place became the place where you could getguns. The shop was called Angelaâs Pawn shop, though no one knew any Angela. So kids would go in and ask to see the guns sometimes, but never buy them. Except for Charlie. He was really proud of the gun he bought there.
The next day Charlie was on the plane (first class) with his boys listening to Nelly on his Discman . . .
Can I make it?
Damn right
I he on the next flight
Paying cash
First class
Sittinâ next to Vanna White
. . . when his mother came back from France and became hysterical after realizing that her necklace was missing. She called the insurance company and fired the maid and hired a private investigator. By the time Charlie got back from Florida, a police report had been filed, and an insurance claim for $175,000 was about to go through. It was at this point that White Mike explained to Charlie how serious this was and talked him into telling his mother what he had done. That was a scene, but in the end Charlie told his mother where the jewelry was, and she went and got it back, and they all wound up being investigated for insurance fraud. Charlie was sent briefly to some boot camp in Montana for bad rich kids. He learned to ride horses there.
Charlie said he loved the gun because of how shiny it was when it fit in your hand. It was like pointing lightning. White Mike took the little silver gun in his hand and sighted along the barrel, aiming it at Charlieâs head. White Mike told Charlie that he didnât like the gun, and handed it back, and they didnât talk about that anymore. Instead, they talked about cowboys. The way they wore their guns slung low, with the holsters open and the trigger guards cut away so that when the bad guy arrived at high noon, you could pull your iron before he could, and in the end he would fall to the ground and you would still be standing. And Charlie said it was really about how fast you pulled your gun, and White Mike said, No, Charlie, itâs really about pulling the trigger .
Chapter Twenty-Nine
TOBIAS HAS A Saturday meeting at his agency. Tobias has been a part-time model since getting discovered on the beach in East Hampton when he was eleven. His father wants him to go to Princeton, but Tobias wants to be a full-time model after high school. No way will he get into Princeton anyway, but father keeps saying heâll take care of it. Whatever.
Tobias remembers the first time he saw himself on the side of a bus in a Guess jeans ad. The utter euphoria, the elation, of seeing the lady at the bus stop double-take between him and the ad. Tobias was hooked. And at the shoots there were hands touching his head and face and body, styling, primping, caressing; he loved every minute of it. Being posed by the photographer and hearing the click of the shutter, and then, however long later, taking the picture and cropping and gluing it with surgical care in his leather-bound scrapbook with his initials embossed in gold on the spine. Tobias has been thinking that he might want to get a tattoo of his initials embossed in gold on his ownspine, a couple inches above his ass, at his center of gravity.
When he gets to the waiting room, there is a beautiful girl sitting in one of the chairs. This is not surprisingâshe is, of course, a model. Tobias thinks how much he would like to sleep with this particular girl.
Chapter Thirty
HER NAME IS Molly.
Molly is sixteen. She wears her jeans baggy over her thin legs, ankles crossed all the way at the bottom of those legs, so far from her head, the low-top black Nikes over sockless feet. Her brown hair is tied up, and her glasses rest on the tip of her nose, freckled and perhaps sharper than fashionable, but an undeniably exquisite asset to her face. Thin eyebrows react subtly as she reads, furrowing,
The next day Charlie was on the plane (first class) with his boys listening to Nelly on his Discman . . .
Can I make it?
Damn right
I he on the next flight
Paying cash
First class
Sittinâ next to Vanna White
. . . when his mother came back from France and became hysterical after realizing that her necklace was missing. She called the insurance company and fired the maid and hired a private investigator. By the time Charlie got back from Florida, a police report had been filed, and an insurance claim for $175,000 was about to go through. It was at this point that White Mike explained to Charlie how serious this was and talked him into telling his mother what he had done. That was a scene, but in the end Charlie told his mother where the jewelry was, and she went and got it back, and they all wound up being investigated for insurance fraud. Charlie was sent briefly to some boot camp in Montana for bad rich kids. He learned to ride horses there.
Charlie said he loved the gun because of how shiny it was when it fit in your hand. It was like pointing lightning. White Mike took the little silver gun in his hand and sighted along the barrel, aiming it at Charlieâs head. White Mike told Charlie that he didnât like the gun, and handed it back, and they didnât talk about that anymore. Instead, they talked about cowboys. The way they wore their guns slung low, with the holsters open and the trigger guards cut away so that when the bad guy arrived at high noon, you could pull your iron before he could, and in the end he would fall to the ground and you would still be standing. And Charlie said it was really about how fast you pulled your gun, and White Mike said, No, Charlie, itâs really about pulling the trigger .
Chapter Twenty-Nine
TOBIAS HAS A Saturday meeting at his agency. Tobias has been a part-time model since getting discovered on the beach in East Hampton when he was eleven. His father wants him to go to Princeton, but Tobias wants to be a full-time model after high school. No way will he get into Princeton anyway, but father keeps saying heâll take care of it. Whatever.
Tobias remembers the first time he saw himself on the side of a bus in a Guess jeans ad. The utter euphoria, the elation, of seeing the lady at the bus stop double-take between him and the ad. Tobias was hooked. And at the shoots there were hands touching his head and face and body, styling, primping, caressing; he loved every minute of it. Being posed by the photographer and hearing the click of the shutter, and then, however long later, taking the picture and cropping and gluing it with surgical care in his leather-bound scrapbook with his initials embossed in gold on the spine. Tobias has been thinking that he might want to get a tattoo of his initials embossed in gold on his ownspine, a couple inches above his ass, at his center of gravity.
When he gets to the waiting room, there is a beautiful girl sitting in one of the chairs. This is not surprisingâshe is, of course, a model. Tobias thinks how much he would like to sleep with this particular girl.
Chapter Thirty
HER NAME IS Molly.
Molly is sixteen. She wears her jeans baggy over her thin legs, ankles crossed all the way at the bottom of those legs, so far from her head, the low-top black Nikes over sockless feet. Her brown hair is tied up, and her glasses rest on the tip of her nose, freckled and perhaps sharper than fashionable, but an undeniably exquisite asset to her face. Thin eyebrows react subtly as she reads, furrowing,
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