I was never able to find Hugo. And I couldn't let go of that. I knew that if Hugo came to the intervention-- things would be fine. He had a great way of combining humor and truth-- always helping to let off steam when we all needed a break.

But he wasn't there.

And neither was Greg. I felt okay about that since Greg and Eric were never the best of friends, though in the past few weeks they seemed to be doing all right.

In the car, on the way to Eric's office-- his mother and father, his brother and sister, Rebecca and Fran-- and me. We rented a van to be able to pick everyone up and get them to the office at the same time. Then, assuming everything went all right, I'd drive Eric to San Diego in the van and either spend the night there or come back to LA.

Rebecca has offered to come along to the Clinic but I told her I would rather the last few hours be just between Eric and me.

Eric's family seemed to be doing pretty good, but there was tension. And his brother and sister definitely felt a little like, "what the heck am I doing here?", but the mood was positive even though Eric's mom was on another endless monologue...

"Oh, when Luigi was born, I knew he was special." She continued without a breath. "I told Manny, Manny, Luigi is gonna be so wonderful he's gonna be a doctor I knew he'd be a doctor even when he was born and see I was right, right? I think this whole thing started when he went away to collegee. We should have sent him to a better school and then none of this would have happened. Manny, I told you, we should have spent the money and sent him to Rutgers but you said we couldn't afford it and now look, things sure do have a way of coming back to get you. Oh, this whole thing could have been prevented..."

And on and on and on.

But it didn't bother me, I knew she meant well. And actually, with her doing all the talking, it allowed me to center myself, to steal myself. I knew this was going to be hard and I was prepared. What I wasn't prepared for was Eric's temper-- I knew he'd freak, I knew he'd try to escape...what would we do? Would he want to seek help or did he just want to be out of my life?

*****

We were let into Eric's office by Janeanne. She seemed strange letting us into Eric's office-- like she was covering something.

It took 3 seconds to realize she was.

We were introduced to one Mr. Tyler O'Brien. A client of Eric's. A beautiful, young (very young) football pro who had arranged to meet Eric today.

"Yeah-- we're going to Vegas for the weekend. Just he and me. Isn't the Doc cool?" Tyler was all excited about their trip. Didn't bat an eye that half a dozen of Eric's relatives and lover were standing in his office with him.

But it was really a Kodak moment when Eric walked in a few moments later.

"Gee, Eric-- sorry to interrupt you but look who's here!" I said, anger rising up in me like mercury in a thermometer.

Rebecca took my hand, looked right at me and said "Andrew, this couldn't be more perfect. This is why we're here, this is the problem-- this! Eric and this kid."

With that, she turned to Eric, who still hadn't spoken a word.

"Eric Lewis," she said. "This is your life."