The Hammer

Pearce Deacon
3 min readJun 6, 2023

I was at the local Home Depot with my friend Hank. We both needed some things. I needed a hammer and a wood saw, and he needed some other supplies for his auto AC shop. We were heading to the check out when Hank said he needed a rest. There was some nice garden furniture nearby so we sat down.

“This chemo is kicking my ass this week. I don’t know what’s worse, the cancer or the chemo.”

I just smiled at him and said, “You’re a tough guy. You’re going to be fine!”

He got up and said, “Well, watch my stuff. I have to go to the bathroom.”

As soon as he walked away a black man came and sat down in the chair Hank had been sitting in, and stared at me. I told him the chair was taken by my friend. He kept looking at me, and then he said, “Give me all your money asshole!”

I was startled, and I told him to fuck off.

Then he stood up yelling, “I am going to blow you away mother fucker!”

He reached behind his back with his right hand, and I stood up with the hammer I was going to buy in my right hand. His hand come from behind his back, and I saw the gun. I hit him in the head with the hammer, and there was this sickening sound of cracking bone as the hammer broke through the man’s skull. Then I hit his right hand and knocked the gun to the ground. Then I backhanded him with the…

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