Paul

Emily

A business man in his 30s, with an expense account, checks into a hotel, exchanging smiles and pleasantries with the desk clerk, a woman of beauty and style. Once in his room, he listens again to a voice message on his cell phone: his lover tells him she is breaking up with him; he is not spontaneous; she has found someone else; don't call. He throws his phone down. When he reaches beneath the bed to retrieve it, he finds a Polaroid photograph of a partially nude woman posed provocatively; it includes a phone number and a sexual question. He opens a beer and stares at the photo. If he calls, what then?

Near an extraordinary chair with many legs, a hand is visible gripping an edge. The hand is weathered, the fingers cracked and scarred. The end of a rifle appears and a shot fires. The bullet is visible whirling through space; it caroms and then goes through a pine cone. A long spoon emerges from a drawer in the chair and stretches toward the hand. The bullet is on the spoon. Later, the hand holds the bullet between two fingers; another shot is fired.