Sons of the 613 by Michael Rubens Page A

crush him now.
    â€œOh, shut up,” I mutter.
    â€œHe looks like he’s gonna start crying,” observes Craig.
    â€œIsaac, one, two, thr—”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAll right, if he ain’t gonna go, I’ll go again,” says Craig, and he gets a running start and brushes past me as he rushes to the cliff edge and launches himself into space.
    â€œWeeeeYOOOOOooo!!!!” he says on the way down before splashing messily into the river.
    â€œYou see how easy that is?” says Darrell.
    Just because your nephew is retarded, I have to be retarded too?
    â€œAll right, go,” said Josh. “I mean it.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œGo!”
    â€œI don’t want to!”
    I am aware of Darrell watching the exchange, waiting to see who is going to win the contest of wills. He thinks this is funny. I see Josh glance over at him and shake his head subtly, inviting Darrell to share in his disgust, the four hundredth time he’s done that today.
Can you believe what a pussy my little brother is?
I want to kick both of them in the balls.
    â€œAll right, then,” says Darrell, “guess I’ma go. WEE- YOOOOoooo!!!”
Splash.
    â€œIsaac, this is one of those times when you can either stand up and be a man or be a failure.”
    Now I
am
crying, my eyes welling up.
    â€œI don’t care.”
    â€œIsaac, we have to leave and go home in about twenty minutes. And before we go, you are gonna jump off that cliff.”
    â€œNo, I’m not going to.” My voice has that thick, slurry sound you make when you’re talking through your tears.
    â€œYes, you are.”
    â€œNo, I’m not.”
    â€œJust jump!”
    â€œNo! No! I’m not going to!”
    â€œ
I’ll
go.”
    A female voice. I turn, hurriedly wiping my face, and my heart does a backflip.
    â€œLesley,” says Josh, “what are you doing here?” His tone is not of the
What a wonderful surprise!
variety.
    She shrugs. “You said you’d be here.”
    She’s wearing a bikini top and cutoff jeans. She looks incredible. She shifts her gaze to me and smiles and says, as if everything was normal, as if I wasn’t standing there with tears and snot gleaming on my face, “Hi, Isaac.”
    Then she says to Josh, “You know, you shouldn’t make him jump if he doesn’t want to.”
    â€œYeah, well, he’s too much of a pussy to—”
    â€œWEEEYOOOOO!!!” I whoop, cutting him off, and before the thinking part of my brain can step in, I’m airborne over the river and then plunging toward the swirling water.
    Â 
    Jesus I’m
still
falling Jesus why did I do this Jesus why did I—
    Â 
    I scramble back up the path, wet, cold, exhilarated, alive.
Alive!
HA HA HA HA
HAAAA!
When I get to the top I’m going to rush straight into Lesley’s arms for a celebratory hug and—Where is she? She’s gone. Josh and Darrell and Craig are there. Lesley isn’t.
    Darrell is clapping as I get close. “Thatta boy!” he says, and gives my hair a muss before I can pull my head away.
    â€œYou see what you can achieve when you focus?” he says while I’m twisting around, trying to find Lesley. “You understand now the power of confronting—”
    â€œWhere’d she go?” I say to Josh.
    â€œWho?”
    â€œâ€˜Who?’ Lesley!”
    â€œShe left.” He’s fuming about something.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œSounds like someone’s got a bit of an infatuation,” says Darrell in his wise, amused elder voice.
Boulder, roll down the slope and flatten him.
    â€œDid he really jump?” says Craig to Josh, like I’m not worth talking to.
    â€œYeah, he really jumped,” I say to Craig. “Why’d she leave?”
    â€œI was thinking you were gonna be too much of a pussy to jump,” says Craig.
    â€œThinking? Wow, big step for you,” I say. “Why