"West Side Story" prop

Usage examples of switchblade.

Larry was sitting in his sandpile crying, Joe was doubled over on the ground gasping, Jimmy Ortega was waning about his arm, and Benny Maestas, his face covered with blood, his eyes staring at a damp switchblade knife in his hand that he thought maybe he had stuck into one of those bastards, was propped against a basket pole, snarling epithets.

They rocked along in a jangle of light past appliance shops with Aztec temples painted on their facades, bodegas clubs souvenir shops, their bright windows aglitter with crystal crosses gilt madonnas rhinestone eagle knives flashing in miles of red midnight, little stucco caves with corrugated iron doors rolled partway down, interiors littered with every form of cheapness: mirrors with ornate tin frames, torrero capes with airbrushed scenes from the Plaza del Toros, sombreros festooned with embroidery and bits of broken mirror, switchblades with dragons worked in gold paint you could scrape off with your thumbnail.

Looking at them sitting there on the car, acting goofy, it was easy to forget how hard they could be, how quickly the switchblades could slip down out of their sleeves and appear in their hands.

In the pockets of his jeans we found three clasp knives and a switchblade, and on his belt he had a hunting knife in a sheath.

And Marvin did, but not before Sally saw a switchblade flash in his hand, which made her flesh crawl as she fell forward limply in the chair.

The switchblade impaled his right eye, burying itself in the spongy softness of the frontal lobes, severing left brain from right.

Like tinsel suddenly tossed on a Christmas tree, the merry twinkling of switchblades, tire irons and filed-down garrison belt buckles appeared among the crowd in the street.

I jammed the fingers of my left hand into my hip pocket and came out with the switchblade that Sonny Teeter had donated to Joey in the parking lot of Mother's Milk.

Henry pushes the button on the switchblade, feels the long blade leap out, and thrusts it forward.

In half a second the switchblade was out of her pocket, the blade open and the point tapping out red dots on the underside of his chin.