. . .

Over the years he keeps trying.

He isn’t sure why he’d fixated on Peter in the first place, of course, but the idea of someone turning him down — well, that’s just not done.

So the Devil takes Peter out to explore the forgotten cities of the moon; and the Garden that was Lost; and to swing from a swing in the highest mountains of Tibet.

“I’ll make you into a beast,” says the Devil, “and teach you to write brooding, Gothic poetry, and one day I will consume you from within, and in your skin and with your name I will rule a great empire of evil.”

Peter swings out. He swings back in. He swings out. He swings back in.

He stops.

“I want to be an astronaut,” he says.

“That’s not completely incompatible,” says the Devil.

Peter gives him a hard look.

“Well,” says the Devil, “I mean, you could do one, and then the other — why do you want to be an astronaut, anyway? I took you to the moon!”

Peter snorts.

“That’s where astronauts go!” the Devil protests.

“I want to be a ninja,” Peter says.

The Devil sighs.

He sits down. He blows smoke into the sky. After a while Peter comes over and pats him on the head.

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