Teal turned back to Marty and said, “Congratulations, Martin, way to impress your new girlfriend. Now, I’ve got a lot to do, so if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish bringing in these groceries.”

That felt like a pretty definitive end to our little escapade. I knew Marty wanted the experience to last. He wanted to see fear on her face and maybe expected her to be jealous of me. I’d never really been clear on the goal, but now I could see that coming here had been a mistake. His plan to scare her just hadn’t worked out.

Marty reached behind his back, and when his right hand came in front of him he was holding the pistol. I have no idea how badly it scared Teal, but at that moment, I was in absolute shock. I could feel the acid in my stomach back up into my throat. I had never seen a gun pointed at a person before except on TV. I could feel my knees starting to get shaky.

Marty wasn’t wearing his normal good-natured smile. He shouted, “You know why I came all the way up here?”

Teal was mesmerized by the gun as she took a step away from Marty. The pretty yellow sundress fluttered in the breeze, but I could see Teal’s legs start to shake. Was this the moment Marty had been looking for? Was the terror he was causing his ex-wife enough for him? It was for me.

Teal held both hands out in front of her and said, “I don’t know what you’re doing, Martin, but this has gone far enough. Put the gun away and we’ll forget about this whole stupid encounter.”

That sounded good to me. Maybe we hadn’t ruined everything. I was about to tell Marty that I wanted to leave when I heard two loud pops. They dissipated in the wide-open space and didn’t sound the way I thought gunshots should sound, but the noise, coupled with the bright flashes from the barrel of the gun, told me Marty had snapped.

For a moment, I just held my breath. Time felt like it had stood still. The two of them stood facing each other and hadn’t moved a muscle since he’d pulled the trigger. Then Teal slowly turned to face me and I could see two red stains on her pretty yellow floral print dress. One was just below her sternum and the other was along the top of the dress, closer to her right arm.

Teal’s mouth moved like she was trying to say something, but no words came out. For a moment I just heard an unsettling bubbling sound; then she kept turning until she fluttered to the hard gravel of the driveway in a heap. Her long hair drifted behind her and settled around her face like a soft blanket.

Slowly I looked at Marty, who was still frozen in place with the gun out in front of him. He looked as if he was as surprised as anyone that the gun had gone off. But he still didn’t move. He just stared at the lump of flesh that was his ex-wife, Teal.