Kevin sat forward in the cab, his attention drawn suddenly to row after row of carefully sculptured lawns lining the residential street. At the last intersection the cab had swung onto a wide palm-lined avenue, and Kevin deduced that his sister's apartment building was only eight blocks away. The apprehension that had been dogging him all day abated somewhat with the realization that he would soon be there, and he began to take note of his surroundings.

The neat houses, row upon row, and identical except for color, appeared staid and lifeless, cold and unreal, colder even than the towering palms rustling in the winter breeze. This appearance reflected Kevin's own feelings. It seemed that of late even his free time away from school was becoming routine, dull, painfully boring. The activities that had once dominated his thoughts, had somehow lost their importance. Sports, movies, card games-all failed to fill the vacant hours with meaningful pleasure. Life had suddenly seemed to have become useless child's play.

He hadn't put it into conscious thought yet, but his boyhood was steadily and surely slipping away; he was becoming a man.

Six blocks to go; his sister would be waiting. He knew, she had told him so last night on the phone. But the apprehension would not end there-that he also knew. Irrefutably. At the apartment he would learn whether it was on or off. Sheri had tricked him into it, and now there was no escape. Deep down, though, he hoped it was on.

It had all started with his sister's kidding, had built up from there until there was no backing out, and he knew that he would soon be faced with it. It-was to be his first real date outside of the supervised dances at school, and he had pressed her for details, but all she would tell him on the phone was that the girl was "something else".