She's a Debutante

Once, while laying in bed at night, Chiara and I got to talking about our friend Joe being in the Army.

"How crazy is it," I said, "that Joe, the mellowest person I ever met, knows how to kill a man?"

"Well," said Chiara after a moment's pause, "it isn't hard."

"C'mon, are you kidding me? Not hard to take another man's life?"

Chiara propped herself up onto one elbow, facing me. I could only see the outline of her against the window in the dark.

"It's not hard to keel a man," she said flatly, "I just wait til you are asleep, I get a sharp knife, and I skkkttt."

She drew her fingernail across my throat slowly, then she plopped back down onto her back and said good night.

I lay a long while in the dark, not feeling very sleepy.