"You Can Shoot and Commit Suicide, Jesse James"

"Partner's Payoff."

By Roger Dee (Roger Dee Aycock, 1914-2004; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE; FictionMags HERE).

Artist uncredited.

First appearance: Stories Annual No. 1 (1955).

Short short short story (2 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "I cleaned out the register on the double, forgetting I'd ever been a hero."

WE'RE often admonished not to judge a book by its cover, something that's applicable to people as well, a good case in point being the gasoline hose jockey in today's story . . .

Main characters:

~ Unnamed narrator ("being shot up don't feel like the books tell it"), Al Wirtz ("Now, wise guy, go ahead and shoot"), and "this thin-faced character" ("he took an automatic out of his coat pocket").

References and resource:

- "in World War II from Bizerte to Berlin":

  Since the story appeared about a decade after the war ended, our author could be confident that most readers would catch the references. "Bizerte" here signifies the first large-scale employment of American forces as part of the Allied effort to drive Axis forces out North Africa. "Berlin" signifies the Allied victory over the forces loyal to the German Führer. (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

- "ETO":

  The same would go for "ETO": "The European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) was a theater of Operations responsible for directing United States Army opera-tions throughout the European theatre of World War II, from 1942 to 1945." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "TNT":

  If you like big bangs:

  "Trinitrotoluene more commonly known as TNT (and more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene), and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagent in chemical synthesis, but it is best known as an explosive material with convenient handling properties. The explosive yield of TNT is considered to be the standard comparative convention of bombs and asteroid impacts." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Adam's apple":

  They're quite common:

  "The topographic structure which is externally visible and colloquially called the 'Adam's apple' is caused by an anatomical structure of the thyroid cartilage called the laryngeal prominence or laryngeal protuberance protruding and forming a 'bump' under the skin at the front of the throat. All human beings with a normal anatomy have a laryngeal protuberance of the thyroid cartilage. This prominence is typically larger and more externally noticeable in adult males.

  ". . . [One] explanation for the origin of the phrase: a piece of forbidden fruit was supposedly embedded in the throat of Adam, who according to the Abrahamic religions was the first man:

     the common people have a belief, that by the judgment of God, a part of that fatal Apple, abode sticking in Adams Throat, and is so communicated to his posterity

"This etymology is also proposed by Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and the 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary. The story is not found in the Bible or other Judeo-Christian or Islamic writings." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- We featured one of Roger Dee's SFF efforts on ONTOS about seven years ago, "The Watchers" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~