After suddenly finding themselves on the wrong side of the law, a young couple strives to put their lives back together in an uncertain world. Johnny Boxer is about to cross the line. He is broke, a hundred miles from home, and living on the edge of right and wrong. With a paper gun stüed into the waistband of his pants, he walks into a small-town Dairy Queen and changes the course of his life forever. With forty-six dollars crammed in his pockets, Johnny races to his car, where his new wife, Heather, nervously waits. Unfortunately, Johnny does not feel the relief he had anticipated. Now it seems he has more worries than ever before. With the police and the media hot in pursuit, the two young criminals have no choice but to face their reality. But when two reporters show up at their door and öer big bucks for their story, Johnny and Heather decide this could be a chance to get their lives back. Paper Gun is a poignant tale of life, love, and desperation as two young souls learn that, through their own actions, they really do have the power to change their destinies.

Paper Gun

By Robert Redbone

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Robert Redbone
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-2799-6

Chapter One

The Plan

Today is not just another day in the young life of Johnny Boxer. Today, he is about to cross the line. This morning, Johnny is not thinking ahead to the future consequences of his actions. He is too distracted by his current life pain, caused primarily by his financial state. Johnny is broke. Not just no-money-right-now broke, with the expectation of going to an ATM later or needing to find some place to eat where they take credit cards. He is so broke that, in his mind, stealing or robbing has become more of a survival choice than a moral one. Stack that on top of a couple of hard days with little sleep, and you can start to understand Johnny's state of mind as he stands next to the magazine rack in this little gas station-slash-bait shop. The store is located not far off the highway in the town of Folsom near a lake, about a third of the way between Reno, Nevada and home for Johnny, San Jose, California.

On this day, Johnny is feeling particularly worn out by his short life. Youth is the one thing that has kept him going, and that is fading as his twenties slip away. Two hundred miles from home is not that far, if you're not broke. All he needs is enough money to make it home. There, he's got a little money and some buddies he can count on for help in a pinch. If Johnny can just get home today, tomorrow he can resume his crummy job, which constitutes a major portion of his crummy life. The crummy life that Heather keeps telling him is better than a lot of other people's whenever he starts going negative on her. She is right, of course. In a few days, this trip will be a good story that, if told in the right way, will have some laughs in it for Johnny and his buddies at the body shop. Even the worst of it won't seem that bad a week from now.

True as that may be, Johnny is a long way from laughter right now. He has a tired, hungry girl waiting for him six blocks from here, in an old car that is about out of gas, and a plan to get some money. Maybe not the greatest plan, but it's his plan and it is moving forward.

Johnny checks over his shoulder again and glances up at the mirror; he is ready to make his move. As the clerk rings up the next customer, Johnny slips out the door. He can feel the clerk's eyes on his back as the door brushes by him, but no one is yelling "Hey, you, stop!" or grabbing at his arm. Outside, every step away from the door brings his breathing a little closer to normal. Johnny is not an experienced thief; he is already feeling the guilt creeping in on him. He forces himself to ignore it; there is no time for that right now. He has stolen a page he tore out of a magazine and small roll of tape, both of which he tucked inside his shirt.

Johnny walks quickly around the back of the building and crouches down behind a large Dumpster. He removes the tape first and sets it on a box he prepared earlier to use as a table. Next, he takes out the picture, glancing behind himself nervously to make sure there is no one around. He then carefully unfolds the picture and flattens it onto the makeshift table. Finally, he takes out a small pocketknife and begins to work, cutting around the edges of the picture.

He is amazed by how lifelike and three-dimensional the picture looks. His confidence in his plan begins to grow. The picture is of a gun, full-size 45 caliber automatic hand gun; he had torn it out of a hunting magazine. Now he needs to cut it out nice and neat. As he nervously tries to focus on the task at hand, Johnny notices the price on the roll of transparent tape he has stolen, which is lying next to the picture on the box. He thinks, Two dollars and seventy-nine cents? That seems like a lot to pay for such a small roll of tape.

Not that he can remember ever needing to buy a roll of tape like this, but it still seems like a lot of money. Somehow he feels less guilty stealing something that seems so overpriced. After he cuts out the picture, he places it on a piece of cardboard and cuts the cardboard to fit. He tapes the picture to the cardboard backings, and it's finished. It looks good, he tells himself as he puts the barrel of the makeshift gun in the waistband of his pants, behind the belt buckle. Taking one more satisfied look down at the gun, he closes his jacket.

With his work finished, Johnny starts across the street toward an old-fashioned Dairy Queen drive-in. It looks like it was built in the sixties. This is just the kind of place Johnny was looking for. As he walks closer to the order window, the smell of food cooking distracts him for a moment, as it reminds him how hungry he is. This stops him for a few seconds standing on the sidewalk in front of the Dairy Queen. He could walk away, but he doesn't. It's just before ten o'clock in the morning, and the workers are busy just getting the place open. Johnny looks up and down the street. There is no one else around, and the bus should be here any minute. It's go time!

Johnny gets refocused and walks straight and purposefully to the window with his head down. A smiling, chubby, fresh-faced girl greets him with a friendly "Good morning." Johnny thinks that she is cute in her nice white shirt and paper hat. Then, with teenage eagerness, she says, "The food is going to take a few minutes; we are just getting open, but I can take your order."

Johnny raises his head. He has a bandanna on his face, like a robber in a cowboy movie, and a ball cap pulled down low over his eyes. He looks at the girl as hard as he can with just his eyes showing and says, "Give me the money."

Because he is an inexperienced robber and speaking through the bandanna, his tone evidently is not as convincing as he needs it to be. The girl just stands there, her eyes open wide, not sure what is going on. Johnny composes himself and steps back enough to open his coat, showing her the picture of the gun. It is stuck down in his pants with half the gun showing, like a gangster's. Then he put his hand on the gun picture as if he's about to pull it out.

Again this time quicker and louder, hoping that she gets the concept, Johnny insists, "Give me the money, now!"

She is scared now and wants to turn around to see if someone in the back can help her. Seeing her eyes dart back and forth, Johnny orders her, "Don't turn around. Just give me the damn money now!"

Suddenly, the girl gets control of herself. Quickly, she opens the cash drawer under the counter and starts grabbing at the money. She puts the cash on the counter and pushes the bills mixed with change over to him. Johnny scoops up the money as she pushes it and jams it into his coat pockets as quickly as he can. In just a few seconds, he's got all the money packed into his pockets, except for a few coins that fall on the ground. Now the girl gets his attention again. She is making those I'm-going-to-start-crying sounds that girls make.

Johnny steps forward with his face right in the window. He looks straight into the girl's eyes and, not even knowing why he is doing it, starts speaking to her in a calm, almost loving tone. A little in shock, she can only see his piercing blue eyes and hear his pleasing voice. He says, "Sweetheart, don't be worried. You did real good. Now, you close those pretty eyes and count to thirty with me, nice and slow. When you open your eyes, I'll be gone and you can go in the back with your friends, okay?" She nods her head in agreement, and Johnny...