Den här berättelsen heter " Embittered Super " och ingår i en trio av noveller med titeln "Granted Wishes" av Thomas Berger. Det sprang ursprungligen i oktober 1982-utgåvan av Harpers tidskrift och har blivit antologiserad i < em> onormala händelser . (Barnbytesbytet är också en annan historia i triumfilen "Granted Wishes" med titeln "Ugly Guy", som inte är relaterad till Plott of Embittered Super.)
Öppningsrader:
Charlie Bolger was the "super," which was to say, janitor of a large apartment building in the middle of the city. He had had this job since as long as he could remember, and hated it, and the tenants he served, more every year.
Och om att använda pistolen för första gången:
He had not been childish even as a little boy, and whatever playfulness he had known had long since been exhausted, yet now, almost lightheartedly, Charlie raised the toy and pointed it at the approaching mailman, a malicious individual who loved to load building supers with armloads of packages too large for the postal boxes. [...]
"So long, sucker," said Charlie. He pulled the trigger of the toy weapon [...] and the mailman instantly disappeared, without even the proverbial puff of smoke!