Dr Jew

hope so," said Vinny.
    "What?"
    "Not a big fan of dogs, Swan. A little too big for me."
    "That makes sense," I said. Because it did.
    "Swan, let 's go over near the edge of the cliff."
    "I don 't like heights."
    "Trust me."
    So we went near the edge and my palms became sweaty.
    "Can we go back now, Vinny?"
    "Not yet. First, I want to do something."
    Vinny went right up to the edge of the cliff with his back to me. I was right behind him.
    "Now, Swan, you can easily push me off and end my life right now."
    "You… want me to push you?" I said.
    "No, stupid. But I'm saying that you could easily kill me. No one would know and it would go down as an accident."
    "I wouldn 't do that, Vinny."
    "Good. Now let's change places."
    Vinny went around behind me.
    "Get a little closer to the edge, kid."
    "I… I don 't feel so good out here, Vinny."
    My head felt light and my palms were soaked with sweat. I could've drank it off..
    "Now just hold on a second longer, kid. Because you can see that I can push you off right now if I want."
    "Please don 't."
    "I won 't. And that's the point. Now get back away from that cliff."
    He didn 't have to tell me twice. After the sunset we went back to his car. I was happy to get away from those cliffs. We drove around a while and stopped and went inside an ice cream shop.
    "Any flavor you want, Swan. In fact, any two flavors."
    I looked them over and the man behind the counter let me taste a few that I asked about.
    "Don't spend all day on it, Swan. This ain't Sophie's Choice ."
    I don 't know what that meant but I chose peanut butter and the dark chocolate. Vinny got strawberry in a little kid's cup. He always chose small things. I guess because everything was so large from down there..
    "So here we are," he said.
    "Where?" I said.
    "Here. You and me, Swan. Just like old times for the first time and many times to come, no doubt. You and me are gonna be good friends, right?"
    "Uh huh." I nodded but was paying attention to the ice cream. The peanut butter flavor was better.
    "And friends tell each other everything. I'm never gonna lie to you."
    "Okay," I said.
    "And I hope you won't ever lie to me."
    I stopped. "Of course I won't lie," I said. "I don't like to anyone. My mom told me not to lie to anyone."
    "That 's very good of her. I can tell she's a wonderful woman."
    "She is. And I can't wait to go back to her."
    "Where is she at?"
    "Mississippi. Uncle Dave sent her a letter and when she writes back I'm gonna leave."
    "Is that so? Just like that?"
    "Yup."
    "Hmm," said Vinny. "We sure will miss you back here."
    "Oh, wel l I can come and visit sometime."
    "Glad to hear it. I'm sure you'd miss your aunt and uncle a lot too."
    "Oh sure. They're great."
    "I bet they are. And that's real nice that your uncle's giving you and me work like he is."
    "What do you mean?" I said.
    "The job –"
    Vinny stopped.
    "What job?" I said.
    "Did I say job? I was thinking of something else. So how do you like living with your aunt and uncle? How do they get along?"
    "I don 't know. They're great, I guess."
    "Oh good. Because I had the impression they might not be on the best of terms. When we had dinner…"
    "What?" I said.
    "Nothing," he said.
    When we finished our ice cream we went to the park and Vinny let me ride the Merry-go-round. He didn't want to ride. He probably wanted to ride – who wouldn't want to ride a Merry-go-round? – but was afraid to ask me for help getting him on the horse. So I didn't say anything. I didn't want to embarrass him.
    Then we walked around a while and Vinny went inside a corner store and bought some drinks and we took them back to the park. He said we were going to drink a lot.
    I tried the drink and it tasted funny. I looked at the label and read.
    "Hey, Vinny, this is beer!"
    "So it is, my friend."
    "But I 'm too young to drink this."
    "Nah, you 're doing fine. Keep going."
    "But I 'll get in trouble and go to jail."
    "You 'll be fine. I promise you."
    "Well…"
    I looked around and didn't see any police in the park. So I took another sip.
    "It tastes funny," I said.
    "You'll get used to it."
    "But I think Uncle Dave will be mad –"
    "If you won 't tell, I won't tell. My lips are sealed. Besides… how old are you?"
    "Seventeen."
    "Hell, by the time I was seventeen I'd drank enough beer to kill a donkey."
    "Why would you want to kill a donkey?" I said.
    "You're a funny kid."
    We drank and drank and I started to feel all funny inside and then I felt good and so relaxed