5

They changed trains in Pennsylvania Station; during the two hours before the departure of the Vermont train, the boys put their bags in lockers and walked around the station.

'Just a couple more hours,' Del said as they stood in a doorway and looked at people coming in and out of the Statler Hilton across the street. 'This is going to be what people call an adventure.'

'I feel like I'm already having an adventure,' Tom answered. The musicians, Hawkins and the man with Tom's name and the other two, were hailing cabs, joking, already going in different directions.

'Someday we'll be like them,' Del said. 'Free. Can't you see what that'll be like? Traveling, performing… going wherever we like. I love the thought of the future. I love the whole idea.'

Suddenly Tom saw it as Del did: lone-wolfing around the world, carrying an airline ticket always in his pocket, living in taxis and hotels, performing in one club after another… A layer of self deep in his personality trembled, and for the first time he really said yes to a life so different from any his parents or Carson School would have chosen for him.