«Was it your girlfriend?» Vera interrupted Jeff. He glanced at her.
«Kind of,» he bantered, and the woman demonstratively pursed her lips.
«She’s jealous! She’s jealous!» he thought with triumph.
«When we reached the end of the road,» Jeff continued, «the next child sat on it, but a car came through, and we had to wait. We’d just started running again when we saw another car. We moved aside, making way for the vehicle. Our high spirits started to leave us.
««Boring.» said one boy. «Let’s ride somewhere else.»
«I tried to argue, ’cause my dad told me to stay here.
«„Let’s go to the river, then!“ suggested another girl. „If we toboggan on ice no car will bother us.“»
«My God!» Vera blanched, interrupting him again. She already realized what would happen next, and her understanding impressed Jeff.
«Everybody liked this idea, and I didn’t wanna miss being the center of attention of my friends,» confessed Jeff. «I hesitated, but, you know, the river was really not far away. It’s the same river,» he murmured carnally, «where you saved the cat, which brought us together.»
Her cheeks were the color of rose petals. Hanging her head, Vera did not look at him, and adoring her ashamed smile, the policeman continued, «On the river, my friends seated me on the toboggan, took the rope, and ran. I clutched the handles. They were very short, and my mittens were very thick, I couldn’t hold on well. The speed that my friends had reached scared me. The toboggan jumped on the rough patches of ice. I felt as if I was riding on a wild mustang!»
Vera laughed, picturing a small black boy with eyeballs flashing white on his face flying along the river clinging to a toboggan.
«Suddenly the toboggan jumped so high,» Jeff said, «that the landing catapulted me off. I fell, rolled head over heels, and barely sat up. I looked at my friends, they were still running. They didn’t look back. Offended, I hid in the bushes. Whispering, I was preparing sharp words that I’d say to my friends when they came back for me. I didn’t look at the river, but a loud scream got my attention, and I poked my head out of the bushes. At first I didn’t understand what was going on.»
Jeff took a deep breath and continued with effort, «In the middle of the river… Damn! How clearly I remember this sight. Contrasting with the white ice, a big dark patch of water appeared.»
«I knew it!» Vera gasped.
«The children were floundering in there.» The old, deeply imbedded terror of this memory made Jeff’s voice tremble. «It looked so awful. I saw a man running on the other side of the river. He stepped on the ice, but in just a few strides, he sank up to his waist. He struggled out and crawled on the surface of the ice towards my friends. I saw other people. Some of them carried ladders and big pieces of plywood and veneer. They passed them forward, putting them on the ice, and another man crawled towards the children as well. The first man reached the water, and, lying on a ladder, he started to pull kids up. He passed them to another man, and he passed them to the next, who just stood in the waist deep water, and he moved the child to the people on the bank of the river. I watched them till the last child had been taken away. All my friends were safe now, but I realized they’d lost my toboggan, and I cried. I went home. I entered through the kitchen door. I didn’t take my clothes off, and I hid myself in the closet. Sobbing, I sat in the corner. I thought that I was a bad boy. I caused so much trouble. I didn’t listen to my dad. My friends got wet. But the worst thoughts were about the toboggan. I felt sorry about the lost gift. It was so beautiful! I was imagining how my father would be upset and angry, how he would scold me. „