Literature & Fiction 

Stephen Ford is seventeen years old, a high school senior, and looks older than he is. He has great, an old friend who is going crazy, and has met the woman of his dreams, Molly Doyle, who is twenty-three. Obviously, Stephen has a lot going for him, but he has problems.

His old friend, Paulie, gets farther and farther out. He's driving himself crazy, Stephen thinks, and he, Stephen, is along for the ride. He tries to keep Paulie from crashing his car, from dodging heavy traffic on his skate board, from drugs, from destruction.

In the meantime, Molly Doyle is cute, understanding, cryptic, adult, and the kind of person he has always wanted to have around all the time. Mostly, she's relaxed and fun. But she thinks she's too old for him, once she knows how old he is.

Stephen tries to get Paulie's father and some old friends to help with Paulie. But they are indifferent, or openly hostile even to the fact that Paulie needs help. Can Paulie be helped? Well, yes, maybe. Can Mollie and Stephen work out a relationship that will satisfy both - well, yes, for a time at least. And with such tentative answers - though for Paulie there finally comes a real change - Stephen must be content. Life, he sees, must be lived in the present. There is no sure passage to tomorrow, no easy love.