Erection

In the living room, the strange man strolled up to Little Henry and asked, "Where's your mother?"

"She's getting ready."

"Fuckin' bitch," the strange man mumbled. "I told her to be ready by now."

Little Henry turned his back to the strange man and pulled the parts out of his pocket. He began snapping them together.

"What'cha building?"

"I'm not building," replied Little Henry. "I'm erecting."

"Oh? So you're gettin' a boner, is that it?" the strange man asked in a voice creased with mockery.

Little Henry shot a scalding glance at the strange man, noted the cheap polyester suit, the way it hung from his stick-like frame and the angular face split in two by a pencil thin mustache. A cigarillo dipped from his wine stained lips. What a stupid, worthless creature, Little Henry thought.

"Not that kind of erection," said Little Henry, turning back to his work. "I'm assembling something."

"Assembling, building. . . What's the difference?"

"Oh, there's a difference." Little Henry deftly inserted a spring. Behind him, he felt the strange man striving to peek around his large body and angled himself to continue blocking the view. "I'll show ya in a minute."

"Okay." The strange man backed off a few steps and took a drag from his cigarillo.

"You see if I were building something that would imply that I had started from scratch," said Little Henry as another piece clicked into place. "But I'm erecting something. That implies that I am assembling various portions of a pre-made item."

"Yeah, whatever." The strange man turned away stepped to the foot of the stairs and shouted, "Hey, Marilynn! Get your God damned ass down here! We're gonna be late!"

From upstairs issued the thin, wavering voice of Little Henry's mother. "I'm sorry, honey. I'll be there in a minute."

"Hurry the fuck up, damn it!"

"By the way," said Little Henry. "I heard you beating up my mother last night."

The strange man turned to face him. "What?"

One final click and all was in order. Little Henry turned, leveled the pistol at the strange man's chest and fired five times.