Chapter 1. Our story begins with a boy riding his bike. He's wearing a cap and a dark leather jacket and has been riding his bike for several months. He's been riding through the streets of San Francisco and, of course, we'll see his home soon. This is where the story starts with the boy in the cap on a bicycle. He's riding the street for the fun of it. He isn't exactly sure why he's been riding his bike for several months, but he's enjoyed his time so far. His parents aren't home, so he has the house to himself, free to explore it on his own. He's looking at the view from his bike and thinking about things to do, wondering about the future and other possibilities. He knows, though, that he's not ready to leave San Francisco. His bicycle rolls up a hill, and he looks up at the sky. He knows that it's time to go home. He rolls down the hill and goes down the block to his house. He looks in at his house. It's a nice house, he thinks. His parents have both had professional careers. They've both taught at UC Berkeley for years and are both quite wealthy. There's a big yard with trees, a swimming pool and plenty of space for him to run around. He climbs the front steps and walks in. It's late evening. He's tired from riding his bike and feels like he wants to go to bed. The first thing he does is go to his room. He throws himself on the bed and turns on his computer to check his e-mails. He opens his e-mail and the first thing he sees is from his mom: Hi, son! How is everything? Are you enjoying your time in San Francisco? Are you having fun? Have you been seeing too much of those older girls? Do you have lots of new friends? And do you think you'll move to the city before you graduate? I don't want you to worry about anything. I want to help you, and I'm just trying to make sure you're happy. His mom's been checking up on him, and as usual, she's concerned that he's had enough fun. He needs to come home soon to make up for all that time he was out having fun. He responds to her: Hi, Mom. Everything's fine. I'm having a great time and I've met a lot of people and they like me. I don't know if I'll move to the city or not, but I'm thinking about it. He's not sure if he'll really do it, but he can't tell his mom what he's thinking. His mother loves his younger sister and wants him to be a good uncle and keep her company while she's studying at school. He's not sure if he's ready for that kind of responsibility. He knows that there's only one reason to spend time at the park, but he decides he's going to do it anyway. He turns off his computer and goes down the stairs. His mom is in the kitchen. She's fixing a salad for supper, and her cell phone is on the counter with her phonebook open. He can see on the display that she's called his sister and spoken to her mom. His mother glances up and sees him. She smiles and waves. "Hi, son," she says. "How are you doing? Are you having fun?" "Yeah, I guess," he says. "I'm having lots of fun, Mom. I'm still looking at the same places every day. I'm still having a lot of fun." "I'm glad to hear that," his mother says. "You don't need to have fun all the time. You need to take care of yourself and your friends. You've been doing good so far. You really have been. I don't want you to do anything too stupid." "Mom, I don't think I'm going to do anything stupid." "Well, I don't want to hear about anything you've done that's stupid," she says. "Mom, you're just afraid I'm going to go out and do something like that. I'm not going to do anything like that. I promise." His mom knows that he's lying. But she doesn't want to push him. He'll be home soon, and they'll have time together in the house to get to know each other better. "Mom," he says. "Mom, can I do something while we wait for Dad?" "What do you want to do, son? You can watch TV or play computer games." "That's fine," he says. "I just want to look around my room a little. Is Dad home?" "No, son, your father is not home. Why don't we do this tomorrow?" "Can we do it tonight?" "Oh," she says. "You sure you don't want to wait until tomorrow?" "I don't mind," he says. "It's OK." "OK," his mother says. "You can look around your room." They eat their salad. His mom gets out the wine and they toast. It's their usual routine. His mother is always worried about him. She wants him to stay safe and not do anything stupid. She wants to be there for him, but she's not sure if she's succeeding. His father doesn't have a career of his own, so he only comes home from work at the weekend. It's not that he doesn't care. He just doesn't want to get into the whole work thing again. He wants to be home on Friday nights and Sundays, and he's done most of his work for the week. His mother loves him. But she's busy working in the family business, and she's happy for him to be a kid and to be allowed to make bad decisions. She just wants him to make better ones. She thinks he's having a great time and will do the right things at the right time. She doesn't want to be there for all the things that she knows are going to happen. She can't have that kind of responsibility for her son. She wants to just be a mom. It's not her business to get into all the stuff that goes on in his life. She knows that he isn't going to move to the city. She knows how he feels about that. She doesn't want him to waste his youth in a big city, but she also doesn't want him to think she's trying to control him. She just wants him to make good choices, and she wants to be there for all the things that happen. And she has the freedom to make those choices herself. She knows her son and she knows how he's going to respond to her questions. It's no secret that he doesn't like to talk about anything that's private. That doesn't mean that he wants to be secretive, though. He just doesn't like to talk about things. He's not sure if he's going to be the same when he gets older. He's never done anything that's secret before, and he might. She wonders if she should give him some space. He might need a lot of space right now. But she knows she can't let him make bad decisions. If he's going to do something stupid, she needs to know about it. She can't just sit in her room and let him go out and do something stupid. He gets his phone. It's his first phone. He used to have a black flip-phone that he dropped a lot. He got this phone because his friend, Sam, got a phone from his uncle and his uncle got it for free. He gets his dad's e-mail and opens it. He sees that his dad has a new company he's been going to meetings with. He's working on setting up a new company to help people find good jobs, either in the city or in their home town. His dad has been talking to his mom about the problem, and they're trying to get a handle on it. His mom wants to help, and she wants to make sure he has his social life. His dad's company's trying to get started and has meetings to try to figure out what to do. His dad thinks they have good ideas and a chance of making a go of it. He says there's a lot of money involved, though, and he doesn't know if they'll be able to raise the money or find the backers. His mom has said that they'll just have to see how it goes. It's not that they're not interested, but they know that his father isn't in the best condition. He's very nervous. It takes a lot of energy to start new ventures, and his dad doesn't have much of that. His mother says that they can't push him, but they have to give him a little push sometimes. He wants to tell her about his new phone, but he doesn't want to push his dad into talking about things that might be upsetting to him. He wants to get the new phone for himself so that he can tell his mom that his dad has bought him the new phone. He calls his dad and asks to speak to him. "Yeah," his dad says. "Go ahead." "Hello, Dad. Is Mom there?" "She's in the kitchen. Go ahead." "I just called to say that I got a phone. A new one. It's got my name on it and everything. What do you think?" "Sounds good. Tell Mom I'll have a look at it tomorrow. You want me to pick it up for you?" "No, Dad. I got it at school. I'll pick it up from you in a few days." "OK. That's fine. Good job." He wishes his dad would call him more often, but his dad has a new job and he's been too tired to call him. He hasn't wanted to talk to his mom about it. He'd like to have it be normal again. He gets on his laptop. He goes online and does a search for jobs in his home town. He sees a lot of ads, but nothing that's particularly interesting. He does a search for ads in the city, and he finds something else. There are ads for "high class escort services." It's not something he's ever seen before, and he'd never thought that he'd be interested in that sort of thing. But he decides to give it a try. He finds a website that offers a few pictures, and he clicks on a picture of a model. He thinks about his mom and his dad and his sister and feels like he wants to take the chance and go to one of these escort services. He's going to be twenty in a couple of months. He'd like to be able to go out, but his parents don't want him to go out and get in trouble. His mom and dad keep their expectations low. They want him to be safe, but they want him to be safe in a nice way. He knows he's just as much to blame for things that might happen. He thinks about taking a chance. He has a lot to lose. He can't go to the city and start work in a few days, but he can go online and get a friend's uncle to set him up with a prostitute. His friend, Sam, had a friend with an uncle who got a girl, and the uncle's set up some kind of business where you go to his house and he makes the deal with the girl for you. The website says that the girl charges fifty dollars and you have a free twenty-minute conversation with her. It's not a very good service, but it's still worth a try. He goes to the website and looks at the pictures. There's a lot of pictures of girls. He'd like to see a picture of the girl he wants to try it with. It's a new experience. He wonders if he's going to be upset by it. He wonders if the girl will be like he's seen on TV. He wants a girl who's attractive, but she can be ugly, too. He'll go with a nice-looking girl, but he'll also try the ugly ones. He wants to see what it's like. He hasn't had an experience like this in a long time. The site asks if he wants to talk to the girls on the phone, and he goes for that option. His parents have him talk to girls, and he doesn't like to talk to girls. He thinks that talking to girls makes him look stupid. He knows his parents want him to have a girlfriend, but he's seen girls that he didn't think looked so good. He wonders if he'll get any girls he can think of. He doesn't want a dumb-looking girl, but he isn't sure what girls he might be attracted to. His phone rings, and his mom says that his dad needs to talk to him. He looks at the phone number. It's the same as the one he has for his dad. It's not a cell phone, but he's the only one who has the number. He thinks he might as well try it. He picks up the phone, and his dad says that he's sorry, but he's got to call him back. He says he didn't even hear the phone ringing. His dad's not too good about being connected to the phone, but it's the only one that he has. His dad doesn't want to have this conversation. His dad didn't even know that he had the phone number for him. His dad says he'll talk to his mom. He gets the name of a good attorney, and his dad says he'll call him. He'll talk to his mom and figure something out. His mom will make sure that the phone doesn't go through. He gets off the phone and looks at the phone number. He thinks about trying to see if his mom will talk to him. He just wants to try to talk to his dad. His dad said that he has to call him back. He has his mom's phone number. He gets on his laptop and does a search for his mom's phone number. He opens up her laptop and looks at the phone list. He gets a number to call and dials it. His mom picks up after a few rings. She wants to know what he's up to. He tells her about the escort service. He says that he just wants to see if it's what he thinks it is. She says that he's a stupid kid, but that it's OK. She understands that he wants to take a chance. She didn't like when she was younger and she wanted to try some of that, too. He says that he doesn't know if he wants to go to this person or not. She says that he's a man and he needs to decide what he wants. He says that he's wondering if he can look up the person's picture and look at her online. He says that he wants to know if she's as bad-looking as she looks in the ad. She says that she's not sure if he'll like the girls he sees there. She says that he's young, but he's still a man. She says that she won't judge him, and she wants him to do what he wants to do. She says that he's a man, and he needs to decide how he's going to live. He's a man, and that's what he needs to do. It's going to be his decision. She says that it's OK if he wants to be in control and just see if it's what he wants. He says that he wants to see if she's really good-looking in person, because the picture isn't very clear. She says that he can go to a strip club if he wants to. He says that he doesn't want to be in a strip club, but if he wanted to see what a girl looks like, he'd go to one. He wants to see what a real girl looks like. She says that he's got to live his life. He knows what he wants to do. He knows what he wants to do with his life. He can go and see if he likes what he sees there. He says that he wants to do this, but he doesn't want to tell his parents about it. He says that he's not going to be on the street, and he's not going to be in a club with a bunch of strangers. He just wants to do it so that he can get a good impression of what he wants to do in his life. He says that he's going to do what he wants to do, and it's none of his parents' business. She says that he should go ahead and see what he wants to do. She'll help him any way she can. He can come and get her, and she'll come meet the girl. He says that he doesn't know if he wants to get a girl that he'll be working with. He says that he doesn't want to work with a hooker. He wants a girl that will be in the same room with him. He says that if he goes to an apartment and he's with a girl, he can go into the bathroom and masturbate and look at pictures of girls, but if he has to work with a hooker, then he wants it to be over before it starts. He wants to get what he wants and not have to deal with it. She tells him that she understands what he wants to do. She's been there, and she knows how much fun it can be to do things like that. She's been there, too, and she knows what kind of girl he wants. He's only seventeen. He doesn't have any place