Pistol

The Pistol is the firearm Jensen Brick McCall bought during a suicidal crisis on the night of his high-school graduation. He put it to his head, but a sudden downpour interrupted the moment in which he was about to pull the trigger; he buried the weapon instead. Its brief appearance marks a night when Jensen came close to dying and survived without firing the shot.

The Graduation-Night Crisis

Jensen recalls that no one was present to celebrate his graduation. Rather than cry or fight, he bought a Pistol and went behind a building, describing the night as the loneliest of his life. There, he put the weapon to his head and prepared to shoot himself.

Interruption and Burial

As Jensen was about to pull the trigger, rain began pouring. He took the Pistol away and buried it. The account does not describe the weapon's make, what happened to it afterward, or whether anyone else knew where it was buried; its established fate is that Jensen did not fire it and hid it in the ground.

Narrative Significance

The Pistol makes Jensen's suicidal crisis concrete: his despair has moved beyond thought into the purchase and use of a lethal weapon. The rain coincides with the interruption, and burial replaces the anticipated shot. When Jensen later tells this story while speaking with someone who has expressed a wish to die, his own near-attempt lets him answer from personal experience and tell her she is not alone.