The last spin is a short story written by Evan Hunter.
The story tells about two young guys, Tigo and Danny. They are from different clubs so they are supposed to be enemies. Their clubs have some things to settle, so Tigo and Danny need to play Russian roulette. That is a good way to settle problems because that doesn’t cause any law trouble or street fights. Danny and Tigo were picked up for this by accident; therefore they didn’t even know each other before this meeting. Tigo and Danny don’t have anything personal against each other.
Tigo and Danny meet in the basement. Tigo put one cartridge into the cylinder, twirled it and then the game began. Tigo said that he can start so that Danny could have a break. But actually Tigo seems to be as nervous as Danny. By turns they twirled the gun and fired it but they are lucky and nothing happens. Tigo added extra bullets to the gun because he wanted to end the game like his club told him.
During the game they have a conversation about their future, guns and their family. They also talk about their clubs. Tigo tells Danny that he doesn’t like his club members very much and Danny feels the same way about his own club. They realize that they have many things in common. For example they are both in their clubs just because they live in that area and they both like guns (and they know much about guns) and they would like to join the Army.
The game goes on and nothing happens. Tigo and Danny get to know each other better and they start liking each other. Now it’s harder for them to continue the game. Tigo suggests that they could stop the game. No matter what the club says. He wants to choose his friends by personality. Danny agreed and they decide to spin the gun for the last time. Before the spin they planned to go on the lake with their girlfriends next Sunday. Earlier they couldn’t think about the future because they didn’t know witch one is going to die. They were both excited about that they met by accident and now they have become friends. Finally a reliable friend outside the club.
Neither of them was scared about the last spin. They were so sure that nothing will happen that they didn’t even think about it. But they weren’t so lucky anymore. The gun fired the bullet at the last spin. Their friendship was over before it was even properly started.
All in all, the story was very good. At the beginning of the story Danny didn’t dare to close his eyes while pulling the trigger because Tigo was staring at him and Danny was scared that Tigo would do something to him. That’s kind of ironic because Danny should scare more the gun which was in his temple. I think Togo and Danny has joined their clubs because they didn’t have other options. Maybe they thought that if they don’t join the club, the members start molest them.
The language was quite colloquial and sometimes hard to understand. For example ‘’without a big street diddlebop, you dig?’’. But that style fit very well to the text. It would sound funny if those club members would speak a standard language. Language brings more credibility to the text. Writer has also use unusual words like club and piece instead of the better known gang and gun.
It was interesting and exciting to read the text and guess what’s going to happen next. The end of the story was surprising and sad.
written by meow