Slater smiled, put his hands in the pockets of his mutilated jeans. "There you show your ignorance, young man. If you had looked carefully, or if you knew enough, you would appreciate that these are, in fact, specially designed pilot's boots which, with the aid of a couple of zips, convert into what was doubtless, in the forties, a pretty neat-looking pair of shoes. The whole point is that if the intrepid aviator got shot down while blasting Gerry out of the skies above enemy territory, he could simply unzip his boot-legs and have a pair of civilian-looking shoes on his feet, and thus pass for a native and so escape those dreadful SS men in their tight little black uniforms. I have merely adapted -"

"You look silly," Graham interrupted.

"Why you straight old straight," Slater said. They were walking slowly now; Slater never liked to rush. Graham was only a little impatient, and he knew better than to try to hurry Slater up. He had left in plenty of time, there was no hurry. More time to savour. "I just don't know why you turn me on at all," Slater said, then peered closely at the other young man's face and said pointedly, "Are you listening to me, Park?"

Graham shook his head, grinning slightly, but said, "Yes, I'm listening. You don't have to camp it up with me."

"Oh my God, pardon me," Slater said melodramatically, one hand fanned over his upper chest, "I'm offending the poor hetero boy. Under twenty-one as well; oh say it ain't so!"

"You're a fraud, Richard," Graham said, turning to look at his friend. "I sometimes think you aren't even gay at all. Anyway," he went on, attempting to increase their pace a little, "what have you been up to? I haven't seen you around for a couple of days."

"Ah, the change-of-subject," Slater laughed, staring ahead. He grimaced and scratched his short, curly black hair where it stuck out from under his tartan cap. His thin, pale face contorted as he said, "Well, I shan't go into the seamy details... the more basic facets of life, but on a cleaner if more frustrating theme, I have been trying to seduce that lovely Dickson boy over the last week. You know: the one with the shoulders,"