Tony Partly Cloudy by Nick Rollins

watch his mouth, but she wasn’t having it. So we finally had to leave.”
    Tony laughed. “Well, I definitely can’t see inviting her to one of our poker games.”
    Frankie was laughing now, too. “Christ – can you imagine?”
    Tony was surprised to find himself laughing and bullshitting with his father. It was like Frankie was starting to treat him like a man, not a kid. It was nice.
    “So anyways,” Tony said, “I guess it will just be the four of us. Well, the four of us and Eric. That’s the guy drives Jimmy around and stuff. He’s cool, but he doesn’t play cards or hang out with us. He just sort of keeps an eye on things. You know who that is, Pops?”
    “Eric? Yeah, I’ve seen him around. Big fella, right?”
    “Big like you can’t believe. But he’s nice to me. And I’m real freakin’ nice to him!”
    “Smart move,” Frankie said. “Weird name, though. Is he Italian? I never met no Italian named Eric before.”
    Tony said, “Yeah I wondered about that, too. Usually a guy like that has some nickname like Tiny or Moose or something. But nobody calls him anything other than Eric. I finally asked Jimmy about it. Turns out Eric is half Italian. But his mother was Swedish or Norwegian or something, and wouldn’t let the father give him a normal Italian name. So he’s just Eric. And he’s probably the biggest guy I ever seen.”
    “So I probably shouldn’t try to arm wrestle him, eh, Tony?” Frankie said with a laugh.
    “Oh Jesus, Pops – don’t even joke about it!” Tony’s tone was urgent, startling Frankie. “I forgot to tell you, whatever you do, do not touch Eric. Don’t even shake hands. Nothing. You got that?”
    “Okay okay, Tony, I got it. I was just kidding around. No big deal.”
    “I know, Pops. But Eric? He’s just not the kind of guy anybody kids around with, know what I’m saying?”
    “I got you. No funny business with the gorilla.”
    “He’s not like that, either, Pops. He’s just – I don’t know – kinda sensitive , I guess.”
    “Relax, Tony. I’ll be cool. I mean, who taught you how to act around these guys?”
    “You did, Pops.”
    “And I’m always telling you to watch yourself, right? Did I teach to you look out for yourself or what?”
    “Yeah, you did. And I’m grateful – it’s really paying off. I probably never said nothing before, but I’ll say it now: thanks. Thanks for everything, Pops.”
    Frankie was uncharacteristically silent. Tony assumed he must be lighting up another smoke, but he didn’t hear the Zippo being fired up.
    Finally Frankie spoke. “Yeah, well, hey – enough of all this. We sound like a couple of women. I got stuff to do, and you should probably be studying, am I right? So I’ll see you Thursday night. You’ll call me if anything changes, right? Do I need to bring anything – some beer or something?”
    “Nah, I always take care of that,” said Tony. “Hell, it’s the least I could do, with them setting me up here and all.”
    Tony suddenly realized what he had just said. He hoped it would slip past Frankie.
    “You always take care of it?” Frankie said.
    Crap – it hadn’t slipped past him.
    “Tony, if I remember correctly, you just turned twenty-one. How the hell have you been buying—”
    Frankie stopped himself. “Ah, what the hell do I care? You know how to handle yourself, right? You’re not getting shitfaced with these guys, are you? I mean if you are, and you’re still pulling down all those A’s and B’s – whatever you’re doing is working. I’ll see you Thursday.”
    Without waiting for his son to reply, Frankie hung up.

JIMMY CALLED TO CONFIRM ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, so on Thursday Tony went to the all-night grocery after school, where he stocked up on chips and beer. The clerks there had long since stopped asking for Tony’s ID – apparently a three-hundred-dollar beer run was the going price for indifference to the legal technicalities of selling alcohol.
    Jimmy surprised Tony by