Here, preserved digitally by Joe Kovac Jr., is Tom Junod’s 1994 GQ gem, “Pull The Trigger.”
Junod: He shouldn’t laugh, but that first time with the gun – it was funny, you know? That big old German bitch, that frau – she thought he had come to her nursery to buy a bush! He had sauntered down the hill, with the .357 in his waistband, under his jacket, and when she asked him who he was, what he was there for, well, he doesn’t know where these things come from, but there it was, in his head, in an instant, the perfect lie. He, Tony Mobley, was … Joe College. He was a college boy, yes, everything an 18-year-old should be, a college boy with a bright future, and he had just moved into his own apartment, and he needed some plants and bushes for atmosphere. Would she mind helping him? Oh, she would be delighted! She liked him, this woman, and he sort of liked her, too, the poor thing – she ran around the nursery, picking up bushes, putting them down, sweating, grunting, getting dirty … all for him, for Tony … until, of course, she wheeled the merchandise to the cash register and said, That will be $274, and he said, No, ma’am, that will be an armed robbery. Did she like him now, with a gun pointed at her? Did she like him now, as he circled the register, styling, the .357 at his side, dangling loose from his hand, Joe College replaced, slain, obliterated, by some lizard-eyed Joe Cool? Well, no, of course not, but she liked him when he left, that’s for sure, because he let her live.
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