Overview

Dermot woke up early on Saturday morning. This was the day he would

leave the hospital, which had been his home for the past three weeks, his

only home since being thrown out by Uncle Steve more than nine months

earlier. Even Nurse Hoffman could not dampen his enthusiasm this morning.

He was going to be living with Lando! Well, there was Lando's family, too,

but they definitely took a back seat in Dermot's imagination of what life

would be like from here on. The forefront of his imagination was totally

dominated by the figure of Lando, the beautiful boy who had walked into his

life and turned everything upside down. Until the day Lando appeared, life

had been something to struggle through, to endure. Now, it was beginning

to look like, to feel like, something to enjoy. Dermot had not felt this

good since his mother became seriously ill more than six years earlier.

Breakfast went by without even being noticed. Unusually for a

Saturday, Dr. Shipley made an appearance as soon as Dermot had finished his

early repast.