I read Evan Hunter’s short story The Last Spin. I chose it because of the story’s set-up, two rival gangs, two members of those gangs and some good old-fashioned Russian roulette in a basement. 

Two guys sit on the table opposite each other. Our main character is called Danny and the man sitting against him is called Tigo. The Russian roulette is a way to settle differences between the two gangs, to avoid fighting in the streets and getting busted by police, Danny and Tigo were only chosen by coincidence and that’s what Tigo keeps telling to Danny, that there’s nothing personal between them. Danny is new on the block and that’s why Tigo doesn’t recognize him. Danny comes from Bronx so it seems that the story is located in New York, although Bronx is quite known as a place all around the world. The boys begin the roulette and meanwhile start to talk about some really personal stuff, like girlfriends and family. The roulette goes on and on without the gun firing a bullet, when Tigo decides to add another cartridge to the chamber of the gun. Danny is kind of surprised by Tigo’s decision especially after their conversation but Tigo simply explains his action by that the gangs won’t be happy until one of them is ”capped”. The roulette continues without either of the men getting killed. Then Tigo decides to add another bullet to the chamber. Guys talk about taking a boat trip with their girlfriends next weekend and they decide to escape the whole gang situation if Danny survives from the next pull of the trigger. Even though the guys have got to know each other there’s still a small trust issue because Danny doesn’t want to close his eyes during the last shot cause he’s afraid that Tigo might do something to him.

I like the narration and the use of gang-related terms, although the word ”piece” is used a bit too much, how about using ”gun” sometimes? At some points the text gets a bit repetitive when the guys are just passing the gun to each other. Things start to get interesting when Tigo adds another bullet to the chamber, that’s the moment when the characters really start to have some depth and character when the tension rises to a whole new level. Narration describes the scene very well and every emotion is well described.

 Written by aseilori4