Chapters 15 and 16 Summary

In Chapter 15, Rick asks Lon if you could hang-glide in the clouds. Lon says there is too much rough wind. Hang gliders use thermals, warm rising air, to lift them, as high as sixteen thousand feet. Then, they leave the warmer air and glide down, looking for a new thermal. As they prepare to watch the coming storm, Lon reveals that he, too, had been foster child. One of his foster fathers, Ernie Wilson, was a vet working with eagles and hawks. Lon's original name was Kenny McDermott, and his teenage mother had abandoned him as a baby.

Rick tells Lon about his fifteen-year-old mother running off and about being raised by his grandmother. Lon had been adopted as a baby, but his adopted mother left. His father beat him, and he ended up in foster care. After three foster homes...