This story is fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. These stories have as their main character a sexually active gay teenager. If this is offensive to you, or if it is illegal in your area, or if you are under age, please leave now.
There is a religious element in these stories. If you don't like that, maybe now is a good time to leave.
Constructive criticism is welcome on my e-mail at perti@live.com.
Dermot II Chapter 5, Catching Up
When Dermot left Baltimore High on Monday afternoon, he felt good about his classes, but totally swamped. His confidence that morning that he could make up lost time on his own had all but disappeared. There was so much catching up to do. New teachers, new subjects, new faces. Even though he had enjoyed most of his classes, it was almost too much. But he was encouraged by the presence of Lando, who joked around with him and with Emily on the way home.
It occurred to Dermot, as they were parking the car and Emily was on her way to the house, to ask Lando, "If Emily is two years younger than you, how come she's a freshman and you're a sophomore?"
Lando rolled his eyes. "Little Miss Brainiac skipped a grade in elementary school. I think it was third grade. Don't ask, or she'll tell you the entire story for an hour or more. Bob made that mistake last fall."
Dermot laughed. Emily had always been so considerate, maybe he would ask, just to give her the opportunity to show off.
Lando then led Dermot to the kitchen, where Aunt Carrie provided all three teens with something to eat and drink. While they were engaged in that, Sandy Lyle appeared.
"How did the day go, kids?"
"Fine, Mom," Lando replied.
"Okay, I guess," was Dermot's less certain response.
"Dermot looked kind of stunned the time I saw him in the corridor," Emily said, peering across the table. "He totally ignored me."
"Sorry, Emily. I guess I was too overwhelmed to notice you," Dermot apologized.
Emily huffed. "A girl doesn't like to be told she was not noticed."
Dermot reddened, but Emily laughed at him. "I'll forgive you this time, seeing as it was your first day, like."
"Like what?" Sandy pounced.
"Sorry, Mom. I know it doesn't mean anything. But kids talk that way so much at school that I just get in the habit," Emily defended herself.
"You know what I think of excuses based on what everyone else does," Sandy continued the attack.
"I surrender!" Emily cried out, throwing up her arms.
"Just watch your language, young lady. You're not everyone else," her mother said. Sandy then turned her attention to Dermot. "I suppose it was stressful, being back in school after such a long gap. I suggest you take a nap after finishing your snack."
"But I have so much catching up to do," Dermot protested.
"You'll be in much better shape to do it after you've rested some," she told him.
After Sandy left, Lando said, "You might as well get used to it. The women rule around here. The best policy is never argue with them. There's no way to win."
Emily objected. "Yeah, right! You and Mark both lord it over me, just because I'm a girl and younger than you."
"Ha!" her brother replied. "Since when have I ever won an argument with you?"
"That's because I'm so much smarter. But you keep trying."
"See what I mean," Lando said to Dermot.
They finished the snacks prepared for them by Aunt Carrie, then Lando helped Dermot up to his room on the third floor, and helped him change out of the black slacks, white shirt, and red sweater vest with logo which was the school dress code at Baltimore. When Lando left to do his own changing, Dermot decided it would not be a bad idea after all to lie down for just a few minutes. To his chagrin, he fell asleep, and did not wake up until nearly an hour later. Mrs. Lyle had been right. He felt refreshed, and ready to tackle some of the homework facing him.
Over the next few days, things seemed to move in an odd fashion. On the one hand, time seemed to fly by with not nearly enough time to do all that needed to be done to catch up. On the other hand, it seemed like he was making no progress at all, and the mound of work remained as intimidating as ever. A few things made it all bearable. Of these, the most important was Lando, who was continuously there, continuously upbeat, and continuously helpful. Once or twice, Dermot wondered when Lando did his own work, although he always seemed prepared for class. Then, there were the built in rest periods. When coming home from school, they had a snack every day, and exchanged a few words with each other. Everyone had dinner together unless there was a really good excuse to skip, and having homework was not such an excuse. In the evening, Lando would stop by, either in the library or in Dermot's room, wherever he was working, and insist on talking for a while, and helping Dermot with his rehab exercises. Although Dermot thought he resented the interruptions, he found that he was looking forward to them.
Progress was being made, even if it did not seem like it. On Wednesday after school, Lando drove Dermot to the rehab facility to work on his leg and wrist. On Friday, he was taken to Dr. Lanier's office, where he discussed his experiences since the previous week, and how he was coping. It was this session which made him recognize the importance of those breaks in his day.
On Friday, too, Dermot took his first test, the assigned one in the Religion class. While he was studying for this the night before, he thought he had discovered a weak point in Lando's religious position. The first test covered the infancy narratives, and Dermot pointed out what he saw as inconsistencies. Shepherds in Luke, magi in Matthew, among other things, but the thing which really interested him was that both agreed that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, and, according to Wikepedia on the web, Herod died in 4 B.C. "Ha!" Dermot enthused, "you don't even know when Jesus was born."
"I know that," Lando calmly replied. "It's in the textbook."
"It is?"
"Yeah. Here, see, right here in this section of chapter 2," Lando said, pointing out the relevant page. "And you might as well mention that we don't know for sure the month or day, either. Most folks think December 25 was decided on later to cancel out the observance of pagan holidays around the winter solstice, like the Roman Saturnalia, though I have seen an argument in favor of that as the actual day and month."
"Doesn't this weaken your position? Don't you think the followers of Jesus would at least known when he was born?"
"Not necessarily. That wasn't as important to ancient Jews. It does show, however, that the early Christians did not go in for some of the pagan superstitions that a lot of people today do."
"How so?"
"Well, if you believe in astrology, you sure would know not only the day and month and year, but even the hour when someone was born. That's how you determine what the stars have in store for you. And by the stars, the ancients meant the planets, and the gods and goddesses they represent. Everything is predetermined by pagan deities. There are five planets the naked human eye can see move across the night sky Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. That, along with the sun and the moon, is where we get the seven day week, too, no matter what Genesis says."
"You keep poking holes in the Bible, and then go on believing anyway," Dermot wondered.
"I don't see that the validity of the teachings of Jesus depends on something like a literal interpretation of Genesis, and especially not on when someone later decided to celebrate his birthday," Lando responded.
Wondering at Lando's attitude, Dermot nonetheless dutifully studied the infancy narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and gave attention to the textbook once Lando pointed out these things. He felt confident taking the exam during his first study hall on Friday. He could not resist pointing out every inconsistency and questionable reading he could remember, but he did remember a lot of other things as well, and felt he had more than adequately answered the questions.
In addition to the continued aloofness of Mr. O'Brien, two things continued to puzzle Dermot about the people he met at Baltimore. Mrs. Mattingly still seemed to be distracted, paying attention only once class began. She still had not told Dermot what he needed to do to make up for the weeks he had missed, and had not mentioned the term paper, which, from Lando, he knew was a requirement of the class. The other mystery was Bob Lynch. Dermot did not know how to take him. They continued to sit together with one or two others at lunch, and while Lando was around he and Lando seemed the best of friends, but when Lando was not present, such as during the Current Events class, Bob seemed to be coming on to Dermot. In that class, too, when commenting on news items, Bob showed a cynical outlook which appealed to Dermot, reflecting the attitude he had adopted while at his uncle's and on the streets.
On Friday Dermot arrived at the Current Events class on his own, not needing Lando to show him the way, and not wanting to make his boyfriend late for his Biology class, as he understood the teacher of that class was very strict about tardiness. As he sat down next to Bob, the other boy leaned over, saying quietly, "How about you and me getting together this weekend. Think you can get away?"
This surprised Dermot considerably. He liked Bob, in a way, but he was not really interested in "getting together" with him. He thought he ought to reserve that for his boyfriend, and did not like the idea of doing anything behind Lando's back. He was saved from the necessity of answering right away by the beginning of class. The topic today was, once again, the President's health care plan. Most of the class was in favor of some kind of national health care for the poor, but many were disturbed by the inclusion of abortion funding in the plan. Dermot did not see the problem. In the discussion, he quoted Senator Lieberman as saying abortion was a perfectly safe medical procedure. One of the girls responded, "Safe for whom? Certainly not for the child involved." Another answered, "Health care should be about helping people, not killing people." It dawned on Dermot that these kids considered the fetus to be a real person, and that made all the difference in the world to them. When did the fetus become a person? He was not sure. He always thought it was when someone was born, but there were arguments raised against that, too. It was all more complicated than he thought.
When class was over, Bob commented, "Bunch of do-gooders! Something is only wrong if people think it is, and most Americans don't think abortion is wrong. Anyway, how about getting together, like I asked before class?"
Dermot had decided on his answer. "Sorry, Bob, but I'm still so far behind I've got to spend the weekend trying to catch up some."
"Later, then," Bob said, and departed in a huff.
Lando appeared, and they sat together for home room. Dermot did not want to mention Bob's invitation to Lando. He was still not sure how Lando and Bob related to each other, and he also did not want to be the cause of friction. He would have to deal with this on his own.
Well, not entirely on his own. After school, Lando dropped Emily off at home, then drove Dermot to his session with Dr. Lanier at her office. On this, his first meeting with the psychologist outside the hospital, Dermot discussed his week, and how he was adjusting to living with the Lyles. So far, the religious issue had not been a problem. But he did complain about Mrs. Lyle insisting on breaks in his studying when he needed to catch up on so much. It was then that Dr. Lanier asked some questions which allowed him to see that, not as interference, but as help.
"Are these breaks very frequent?"
"No, not really. Just when we get home, and at dinner time. And, I suspect she encourages Lando to come check up on me during the evening, too."
"So, three times. And at least one of those, at dinner, you would have to break anyway to eat, I suppose?"
"I asked about something like a TV dinner in my room, but Aunt Carrie had a fit over that," Dermot replied ruefully, remembering the woman's comments on his lack of appreciation for her cooking.
"And, how do you feel after taking these breaks?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you distracted? Do you have trouble picking up where you left off?"
"Well, no. In fact, I guess I feel ... not so tired," he reluctantly admitted.
"And if you feel 'not so tired,' are you doing better or worse work than otherwise?"
"Better, I guess," Dermot conceded. Then he sighed. "Okay, I get the point. I'm griping about nothing. Or worse, about something that actually helps me."
"I think Mrs. Lyle has had some experience raising children," Dr. Lanier commented.
The other matter he discussed with his counselor was Bob Lynch. He did not know how to respond to Bob's overtures. It wasn't the sex. Bob was attractive enough, and Dermot had no inhibitions about having sex. Rather, it was the feeling that he would be betraying Lando. They had not discussed being exclusive, and Lando was abstaining during Lent, all of which left Dermot feeling unsure where he stood. On that topic, the best Dr. Lanier could do was to advise him not to do anything until he felt sure it was the right thing to do.
When Dermot and Lando returned to the Lyle home, they encountered Aunt Carrie, who declared that they got only a small snack, as it was too close to dinner time. As they were consuming this 'small snack' (not noticeably smaller than usual), Sandy Lyle came into the room.
"How did things go with Dr. Lanier?" she asked Dermot.
"Fine. She's good at making me see things I already know, but don't want to admit."
"She sounds like a wise woman."
"Oh, yeah, and she made me see I should stop griping when you make me take breaks from school work."
"If she made you agree with me, then she's a very wise woman indeed," Sandy joked.
That evening, for the first time since Sunday, Dermot took time off from catching up to play video games with Lando. Naturally, he won most of the time. To Lando's amusement, Dermot also asked Emily about being only a year behind her brother in school, and listened attentively while she explained in detail how she had skipped third grade because she had already mastered most of the skills taught at that level. Emily looked very satisfied. Later, as the two boys sat in front of the game box, Lando whispered, "You have just been put up for sainthood." Dermot grinned.
Later that evening, Dermot felt tired. He asked Lando, "Are you about ready for bed?"
"Oh, I'll give you a hand any time you want to go upstairs," Lando replied. "I won't be going to bed for a while."
"Why not?"
Somewhat sheepishly, Lando replied, "I'm going to the family hour of Eucharistic Adoration this evening." Gathering momentum, he rushed on before Dermot could comment. "I want to thank God for you being here." He blushed.
Dermot was about to make a sarcastic comment, but Lando's blush was just so cute he could not bear to upset his boyfriend. "Okay," he conceded, "give me a hand up the stairs, and with these damned casts."
After getting ready for bed, Dermot read the last chapter of CATCHER IN THE RYE, then began to drift off. As he did, he thought, "Lando is thanking God for me. It's been a long time since anyone actually was thankful I was around." He slept soundly.
On Saturday, everyone, it seemed, slept late. Dermot was one of the first up, and managed to make his way downstairs on his own, using only one crutch. He found Aunt Carrie in the kitchen, and was soon inundated with a hot breakfast. As he ate, Aunt Carrie joined him for a cup of coffee. She simply talked with Dermot for the first time, wandering over how she and her family had worked for the Lyles for as long as anyone could remember. "Time out of mind" was her expression. She told several stories about Lando when he was younger which made Dermot laugh, like the time he was so scared by Mark, who jumped out at him wearing a Freddy Krueger mask, that he dirtied his pants. Then, Aunt Carrie said seriously, "That boy has been talking about you for weeks. If you hurt him, I'll personally make that Krueger character look like a little angel, you hear me?"
"Yes, ma'am. I'll never hurt Lando."
"You see to it. He plays like nothing bothers him, but underneath he's real sensitive. I know. I've been around when he's been hurt before."
Before Dermot could elicit any information about this, though, the object of their discussion came bopping into the room. How anyone could have that much energy first thing in the morning was beyond Dermot, who preferred waking by slow degrees.
"What are you two talking about?" Lando asked. "And why did you suddenly become quiet when I appeared?"
Aunt Carried hastily beat a retreat. "I'll have your breakfast for you in a jiffy, Mister Lando."
Lando looked accusingly at Dermot.
"We were discussing your childhood, actually," Dermot confessed. "Aunt Carrie told me about you shitting your pants when Mark scared you with a Freddy Krueger mask."
"Oh, no!" Lando dramatically lamented. "I'll never live that down. But I was only five or six, and it was very dark."
"Five or six? I thought you told me Aunt Carried started working for you guys when you moved here when you were ten."
"No, no. Aunt Carried worked for us at our other house, too. Her mother worked here until my great-grandfather died. Then we moved here, and Aunt Carrie came with us, as her mother was ready to retire by that time. Aunt Carrie has been around for as long as I can remember."
"A real old family retainer," Dermot joked.
"If you make fun of Aunt Carrie, I'll tell on you. That, and your asking for a TV dinner back on Tuesday, will insure that you get cold porridge and water for the rest of your life," Lando threatened, only half joking.
They passed on to other topics, but Dermot was impressed at how the members of this household stuck up for each other, even though, in the case of Aunt Carrie, they were not related. That was so very different from what he had known at Uncle Steve's.
Later that afternoon, Walt Lyle drove Dermot and Lando back to University Hospital for Dermot's check-up. Dr. Shipley was not there, but Dr. Rygalski was, and greeted Dermot like an old friend. She asked about his first week back in school. Dermot told her to tell her little brother never to drop out, as catching up later was a real bitch. She laughed and sent him on for x-rays. When the results were in, she studied them, then told Dermot and Mr. Lyle both that he was coming along very well. She decided he could do without the body cast around his chest, just wrapping him in tape and gauze to prevent a casual bump from harming his lung. The tape was supposedly waterproof, so he could still take showers. The leg and wrist were also coming along well, but he still had to wear the casts there for a while longer, although he was down to a single crutch. The place on his skull was almost fully healed, with his red hair covering the scar nicely. Dr. Rygalski commented on Dermot's new haircut, so he explained that it was one of the first things Lando had insisted on.
"I must have looked like a real dork before," Dermot joked.
"Yep," Lando returned, causing Dermot to briefly consider an attack, but he settled for a deep sigh. "You see what kind of abuse I have to put up with," he complained to the doctor.
"Uh huh," Dr. Rygalski replied. "And I also remember what you looked like last week."
Dermot threw up his hands, claiming he was being attacked on all sides. He was actually feeling very good. He liked Dr. Rygalski, and he was also pumped by hearing that he was healing very well, and might have all his casts off "in another week or two."
This Sunday, everyone decided Dermot could stay home alone while the family went to their usual service at 11:00. Lando arrived back shortly after noon to drive him out to the club for Sunday dinner. Once again, they encountered Mr. Johnson as they arrived at the dining room entrance.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Lando, Mr. Dermot. The family are already seated," the imposing Dining Room Captain told them, and led them to the same table they had used the previous week.
"I told you he would remember your name," Lando whispered, poking Dermot (but on his good side).
"Impressive," Dermot admitted.
Cathy, Mark's girlfriend, was again with the family. She happened to be seated next to Dermot. This week he was paying greater attention, so he learned that she was a student at the university, like Mark, and in two of his classes. She was also Catholic, so was happy to be invited to attend Sunday Mass with the Lyles, and was especially happy to be offered Sunday dinner. After they had been talking for a while, and established some kind of rapport, Cathy asked in a subdued voice, "You really are Lando's boyfriend, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. Lando and I agreed on that the day before I left the hospital," Dermot replied forcefully, even though he was not sure how Cathy would take this.
"You said something like that last week, but I was not sure whether you were serious. I guess this means you and Lando are gay?"
"Right."
"Don't you think that's wrong?"
"Wrong? No. Some people are just born gay. It's neither right nor wrong."
"But the Church ...."
Dermot cut her off. "You'll have to ask Lando about that. I'm not Catholic. But the priest at St. George, Father Schiller, seemed to agree with me."
"Oh! Okay. I didn't mean to upset you," Cathy backed off.
"No problem. Besides, if it will make you feel better, I can tell you Lando and I have not actually done anything yet. He says he doesn't have sex during Lent."
"Oh, him too. Mark told me the same thing. I've never encountered that before."
"Neither have I, so maybe it's just the Lyles. But," Dermot pursued the clue, a gleam in his eye, "before Lent, you and Mark ...." He let the sentence trail off.
"Um ... ah ... well ... yeah," Cathy admitted, red faced.
"And what does your Church say about that?"
She paused, started to respond, paused again, then grinned. "Touche." she conceded.
"What are you talking about to make Cathy turn red like that?" Mark asked from the other side of her.
"Oh, we were discussing geometry," Dermot stated.
Cathy burst out laughing.
As they were leaving, Dermot again heard the high pitched, whining voice he had heard in the restroom the previous Sunday. The speaker seemed to be complaining to Mr. Johnson about something. Dermot looked at the man, determined to remember him for future reference. Then he looked again. Bucknell looked vaguely familiar. Could he have seen the man around last week without connecting him to the voice in the restroom? He was not sure.
Over the weekend Dermot did a good deal of homework, but at the same time, following the revelation forced on him by Dr. Lanier, he took breaks and relaxed with the family as well. He was feeling stronger and more confident, and so he decided to ask Mr. Carlyle for his first test in American History on Monday. The semester picked up after the Civil War and Reconstruction, with the first test covering the so-called Gilded Age, from 1877 to 1917. Dermot studied the main events and figures of the era, and decided most of those giants of industry were pretty unsavory characters. He noted men like Rockefeller and Carnegie driving competitors, often small folk, into bankruptcy, and then justifying it as 'the survival of the fittest.' This was Dermot's first encounter with what was known as Social Darwinism, and he did not like it at all. He decided to do his term paper on some aspect of this phenomenon, and, after reading Admiral Morrison's chapters 46 and 47, he decided to write about the influence of Herbert Spencer on the age. Although Spencer was British, he had a tremendous influence in the United States.
One more step in his preparation came as a result of discussions with Lando. Together they decided it was time to confront Mrs. Mattingly about what Dermot needed to do to obtain credit for the semester, and perhaps for the previous semester. They also developed a term paper topic which had a real appeal to Dermot, a comparison of teen reaction to the adult world in ROMEO AND JULIET and in CATCHER IN THE RYE. Even though this was a course in American Literature, it was the tradition at Baltimore that a Shakespeare play be included in each of the four years of required English courses, and ROMEO AND JULIET was the selection for the sophomore year, so it was not pushing things to attempt the comparison as far as the course materials were concerned. Lando was concerned because, knowing Mrs. Mattingly from last semester and the whole of this, he knew her current distraction and disinterest was not typical of her, but they agreed that something had to be done to settle Dermot's place in the course.
Current homework done, and considerable work under his belt as far as catching up was concerned, Dermot departed for school on Monday morning feeling pretty good.