He negotiates the slick of ice on the sidewalk by his car, opens the fairlane's back door, leans to place the laundry in, and turns, for an instant, toward the flurry of footsteps and cries of pedestrians as a boy—that's all he was— backs from the corner package store shooting a pistol, firing it, once, at the dumbfounded man who falls forward, grabbing at his chest. the poet most likely includes the words "for an instant” to show that a the man forgot something at the laundry. b the man’s life ends so suddenly. c the boy’s action is illegal. d the boy is young compared to the man.