Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:24:09 -0500
From: perti@live.com
Subject: Dermot II, Chapter 5

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.