Then the man with the white hair and black leather coat goes behind me and takes apart one of the guns and holds it in front of me and instructs me to tell in detail what gun this part goes to and what it is used for. I would then tell every detail word for word exactly as the instructor in the blue lab coat told me. After three or four parts Adolph is now strutting around like a proud peacock.
He praised me and made me feel good about my self, and I said with a very cocky attitude “now can I shoot” as I looked at Mr. Green. Mr. Green breaks a smile and says “Shit!! let him shoot“. The lab instructor grabs a second case out of the hall. It’s black look identical to the other case only smaller. He opens it and it has boxes of bullets in it. He places five or six bullets on this little slotted plastic tray, grabs one of the guns and proceeds to walk down to the closest shooting station.
It was a movable divider type wall (like the kind you see in office cubicles) and had a small ledge about a foot wide on it. We were only about ten yards away from this hanging paper target (the kind with a black silhouette on it). The instructor then proceeded to tell me to do exactly as he instructs. He tells me to load the clip, insert the clip into the pistol, enter a round into the chamber, step up to the line on the floor, envision the “red dot” on the targets forehead and chest, raise and stiffen my arm like a “steel beam“, slowly squeeze the trigger, repeat until all the rounds have been discharged, step back, remove the clip from the pistol, discharge the last cartridge from the chamber, place the clip and the pistol on the ledge and then take two steps back.
He says “do it now“. I walk up to the ledge, load the clip, insert it into the pistol, load a round into the chamber, step up to the line, raise my arm and fire all the shots at once!. BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM! step back, remove the clip from the pistol, clear the last round from the chamber, place both the clip and the pistol back on the ledge and take two steps back.
This all took place in probably under 10 seconds. I did all this just like I had done it a thousand times before and like I knew it like the back of my hand. The instructor comes by my side and starts lecturing me about squeezing “gently” on the trigger and how to shoot my rounds “one at a time and in control“. I have tuned him out as I am only focusing on the small crowd which has now gathered around the target within a matter of seconds, and there seem to be mixed reviews about my “performance” and a large amount of discussion is going on. It seems I had hit the target exactly in the center of the head, but only once.
Finally, Adolph walks back and stands in front of me. “Rhino” he says, “Why did you shoot the target once and then deliberately waste the rest of your rounds?” he asks.
“I didn’t” I answered. “Rhino, there’s only one hole in the fucking target, now answer me, WHY DID YOU DELIBERATELY MISS WITH THE REST OF YOUR ROUNDS“. “I didn’t” I answer, and at that point, I remember a feeling of such pride and such arrogance. A feeling that I had never felt before. This feeling overwhelmed me and I could not help but smile, and as I stood there I stuck out my chest and in the cockiest demeanor I could muster I answered: “LOOK AGAIN!!!”. Adolph is looking at me with this sort of puzzled look on his face and turns and walks back to the target. He moves people aside and looks at it, he turns and looks back at me, then looks at the back of the target.
He takes three steps towards me “Rhino, there’s only one..” “LOOK AGAIN!!” I yell. He walks back to the sandbags and the group follows. They are looking for bullet holes. I am watching as all eyes are scanning the wall of sandbags. I hear “here it is” and I see one of the lab instructors stick his finger into one of the sandbags. There is still puzzlement and confusion amongst the group. They can find only one bullet hole.
Finally, I see the man with the white hair pull out his pocket knife and cuts into the sandbag. I cannot see what is going on as the group closes around him, but all of a sudden I hear this ROAR of approval from the crowd, and Adolph emerges from the crowd with his hand outstretched and something is on his palm. He approaches me and there is a small pile of bullets in his palm. “You shot all your rounds through the same hole didn’t you?” “Of course? It’s what you told me to do?” I answer.
And as I answer the ROAR erupts again. I remember standing there, feeling very proud of myself, yet at the same time feeling very puzzled. “What are they so excited about?” I was asking myself. To me, it was as easy as taking the cap off a ballpoint pen and putting it back on really fast five times. Simple, a child could do it. What was all the hoopla about? I had absolutely no clue.
For the rest of the night, I repeated this from all possible distances, angles, and firing positions. I was so fast with the firing procedure they had five or six stations all set up and I had to wait for them to examine the results and reset the targets etc… I would load it, fire it, remove the clip or spent cartridges, place everything back onto the shelves exactly as I had the first time and move onto the next spot.
I was in heaven, ever since the fifth or sixth grade, I had been really into all the “really cool” stuff that you weren’t supposed to have as an upper-middle-class kid (in total secrecy from my mother of course).