Dillon Dillon

by Kate Banks

====FROM THE BOOKJACKET===============

What kind of parents would name their child Dillon Dillon?

For his tenth birthday, Dillon's parents give him a red
rowboat with his name painted on the stern: Dillon Dillon.
Why did his parents give him a name like that? To Dillon,
it seems like the right time to find out. The truth alters
everything Dillon has ever known or felt about himself and
his family. But with the rowboat Dillon finds a new
freedom as he embarks on a journey that takes him back to
his beginnings. His discovery of an island and his
memorable encounters with a pair of nesting loons bring
him face-to-face with the magic and wonder of life. And
though he cannot decipher all its mysteries, Dillon
acquires, through these legendary birds, an understanding
and acceptance of the world and his place in it.

CHAPTER ONE

Each of us has a story and it starts with a name. What kind of
parents would name their child Dillon Dillon? Parents who were
witless or unkind? Parents who could not feel? Parents who had
forgotten that a name was the first thing you wore against your
raw naked skin? Dillon's parents were not like that. Dillon's
parents were smart. They were nice. They would not do a thing like
that. Not on purpose.

Everyone makes mistakes. Dillon knew it was a mistake to put pencil
shavings in Louis Gottlieb's milk carton at snack time. Ms. Ryan's
fourth-grade class was learning square roots. And in a moment of
rare genius Louis realized that Dillon Dillon could be neatly
reduced to a square root symbol. Louis knew it was a mistake to
share this revelation with his classmates. But he did it anyway. He
pointed to Dillon and he cried out, "D squared."

"Raise your hand if you have something to say," said Ms. Ryan.

Louis raised his hand and smiled gleefully. "Dillon Dillon. D2," he
said this time. The entire class laughed loudly, all except Dillon,
who sank lower in his chair and began sharpening a pencil. His
concentration drowned out the chorus of "D2" that followed as
two-thirds of his pencil was eaten away. Dillon emptied the shavings
into a paper cup. At snack time he dumped them into Louis Gottlieb's
milk carton. Louis nearly choked to death when he drank his milk.
Ms. Ryan had to perform the Heimlich maneuver. And she kept Dillon
after school. She had not felt the ripple in her heart that Dillon
felt when the other children began shouting "D2." Maybe that was
because she read automobile magazines and she knew that all the hot
new cars had names like Z8 or A6. Still, a boy is not a sedan or a
convertible.

As far as Dillon was concerned, his name was practically responsible
for Louis Gottlieb's nearly choking to death. This was a mistake.
Dillon had said he was sorry. He hoped Louis would forgive him. But
Louis had called him a "carcass." Dillon didn't know what that
meant. When he got home he looked it up in the dictionary. According
to the dictionary, carcass was "a dead body; the decaying or
worthless remains of a structure..." There was more, but Dillon
didn't bother to read the rest.

Dillon's parents did not tell him about his name until he turned
ten. Maybe this was a mistake. They had planned to tell him sooner.
They had been waiting for the right moment. But as so often happens
in life, the right moment never came.

CHAPTER TWO

Dillon was a "hoper." That was one of the nice things about him.
There were many nice things about Dillon, but he wasn't aware of
them. He could never get past that name, never get to know himself.
Still, he kept on hoping. Hoping that one day this might change.
Hoping that he'd be forgiven for nearly killing Louis Gottlieb.
Hoping that if he filled in the coupons on the backs of all the
cereal boxes he'd eventually win something. Dillon's older brother,
Didier, thought this was stupid. Didier was thirteen. He was a
realist.

"Stop wasting ink, Dill," he said. "Nobody ever wins. It's a trap to
get you to buy revolting cereal that will rot your teeth."

Dillon listened patiently to his brother, but he kept on writing.
" Someone has to win," he said. "It says so right here." Dillon
lifted up the cereal box and read out loud, "More than one hundred
prizes drawn!"

"And what makes you think that of all the suckers buying cereal and
filling in those coupons you would win?" asked Didier.

"Why not?" said Dillon.

"What's a sucker?" asked Daisy. Daisy was Dillon's little sister.
She had just turned five.

"A lollipop," said Mrs. Dillon. She frowned at Didier. "Isn't that
right?" she said.

Dillon looked at his mother admiringly. Then he turned to Dither.

"It says here that the first-prize winner gets a free trip to
Disneyland," continued Dillon. "For the entire family."

"I wouldn't get my hopes up, honey," said Dillon's mother.

Didier snorted. "Do you know how many coupons they receive?" he
asked.

"No," said Dillon.

"Millions," said his mother.

"Billions," said Didier.

"Trillions," added Daisy.

Dillon kept on writing. He kept on hoping. When he was finished, he
cut the coupon carefully along the dotted line and sealed it in an
envelope. He put a stamp in the corner and walked to the mailbox at
the end of the driveway.

Dillon liked going to the mailbox. He liked pulling down the door
flap and reaching for the letters. He liked sorting through them to
see if there was something for him. Except for the coupons he sent
in, he rarely wrote to anyone. And no one wrote to him. Still,
Dillon kept on hoping that one day he would find something addressed
to him:

"Dillon Dillon
1687 Geller Road"
Rock Falls, New Hampshire 03877"

(continued on Tuesday)