The last spin is a short story featured in open road, written by Evan Hunter. Putting it briefly it’s a story about two guys, Tigo and Danny, who have been chosen to settle a fight between their gangs ( which they refer to as ’clubs’ ). Instead of an actual fight they have been ordered to settle things up by paying a game called russian roulette, a game of chance in which the winner is the one who is lucky enough to stay alive.
There was supposed to be a truce between the gangs, but Danny’s side made the mistake to ignore that, leading to the situation described in the story. The boys are sitting in front of a table in a cold basement room, ready to begin their game. They start out as enemies, not because they had something personal against each other but because that’s how it was supposed to be. Being in different gangs made them automatically enemies. Neither of them wants to show their actual feelings to the other but as they take turns in shooting ( at first with only one cartridge in one of the six cylinders, later two and three ) they start to chat with each other, and each time they pull the trigger they get to know each other a bit better. They talk about their life, family, girlfriends and dreams and soon they notice they actually have a lot in common. Both of the guys start to get reluctant to go on, but quitting now is not an option. Suddenly Tigo asks excitedly if Danny has ever been rowboating on the nearby lake, telling him he should definitely try it sometime. Tigo pulls the trigger once more, staying alive, and as he passes the gun to Danny they agree they were actually lucky they got the chance to meet each other. Grinning they decide to end the game after one more shot and Danny invites his new friend to the lake next sunday. The guys smile at each other, Danny pulls the trigger, and in the few next seconds the explosion rips away half of his face. Tigo rests his head on the table sobbing, and the story comes to an end.
Overall the text was pretty easy to read since It mostly consists of the boy’s dialogue. The colloquial language they used fits well with the atmosphere of the story but was a bit difficult to understand at some parts. (For example the world diddlebop was kind of weird) During the story they realize they have no reason to stay with their gangs. At first both act cool and tough, but later they start to relax. Danny and Tigo realize they only joined the gangs because they were the gangs of their streets, not because they liked their so called ’friends’ there. The gangs were controlling their lives and using them to get power, but together they make the decision to stop taking orders from them. When Danny invites Tigo to come to the lake with him the both of them let go of their roles as gang members completely, and grin together happily and openly as they know they had both finally gotten a friend who they could trust. The ending is what makes the story kind of tragic, it’s a really good ending in my opinion.
