W.a.r. By Jeff Wilson (Jkwsquirrel)

[Shadow086]

The other thing I noticed too is also in this statement:

 

I don’t know what it was about him, but I found him very charming.  Everybody did.  He could have talked the pants off a nun, he was so smooth. 

 

I immediately thought of how Brett was able to charm Paula so easily and be pretty much 'out' without anyone caring.

 

[Shadow086]

Here's something else to think about:  what if Brett already knows about his father, and he's pretending not to in order to see if Jen will tell him the truth.  That could explain why he's still hanging around with that asshole brother of his.  Brett is very perceptive, so I'm sure he picked up on the fact that Jack's interest in him goes beyond being friends with his mother, plus the fact that he probably also noticed the resemblance between himself and the McKenzies.

 

There's so many layers to this story, every time I think about it there's some piece of information I haven't considered.  I love it.

[Freerider]

Ok, call me stupid but I don't get the big deal that Brett and Joey are halfbrothers. Maybe it is a cultural difference, or maybe I am just too open-minded but I can't see it. The next chapters will probably explain it to me...

[jkwsquirrel]

20 hours ago, Shadow086 said:

I made the connection in 5-6 even though I forgot what Jen said in book 2.  I might have put it together sooner but it sort of faded into the background because of everything else that was going on.

 

Did I figure it out before Billy did?  I can't really answer that, since I don't know when Billy figured it out.  It could've been in 5-6, or it could've been way back in book 2.  That's a trick question, Jeff.  I started getting suspicious when it became clear the McKenzies aren't the angels we thought they were.

 

What about that comment Jack made to Billy: “I guess you’re at that age when you’ve started to realize that people your parents’ age had lives before you were born, eh?".  Would that count as a hint?  You even used it as a teaser for the book.

Indeed I did use it!  I thought it was appropriate considering what he and Jen had gotten into back in their day.  While Billy always had his suspicions that Dr. Reilly had lied to Brett (which he told his dad about right after) it did take some time to put everything together.  Billy's had some time to process things since his conversation with Jack.  Joey and Brett filled in some of the gaps for him, explaining that their moms were friends and Jack's concern for Brett following his accident.  But I don't think he was entirely sure until Jen confirmed it herself.

[jkwsquirrel]

20 hours ago, droughtquake said:

The line from 2-3 could have been, and certainly was, seen as awkward or ambiguous phrasing that makes English a challenging language even for some native speakers. Many other cases of this sort of confusing wording exists on GA in stories by many writers with all sorts of backgrounds. I certainly don’t remember the context, but Brett and Jack could theoretically have been the ones conversing.

 

You, sir, are much more clever than the majority of GA writers.  ;-)

You're very kind!  When I was writing that chapter, way back when, I could have phrased it "Joey's dad and Brett" or even "Brett and Mr. McKenzie."  But then I thought hmmm... He's really Brett and Joey's dad, or Brett's and Joey's dad, or what have you.  So I worded it a little awkwardly.  If anybody ever goes back and reads the story again, it was always my hope that those little things would stand out.

[jkwsquirrel]

20 hours ago, Shadow086 said:

The other thing I noticed too is also in this statement:

 

I don’t know what it was about him, but I found him very charming.  Everybody did.  He could have talked the pants off a nun, he was so smooth. 

 

I immediately thought of how Brett was able to charm Paula so easily and be pretty much 'out' without anyone caring.

 

Yep!  And how Billy was ready to do pretty much anything Jack wanted him to do.

[jkwsquirrel]

4 hours ago, Shadow086 said:

Here's something else to think about:  what if Brett already knows about his father, and he's pretending not to in order to see if Jen will tell him the truth.  That could explain why he's still hanging around with that asshole brother of his.  Brett is very perceptive, so I'm sure he picked up on the fact that Jack's interest in him goes beyond being friends with his mother, plus the fact that he probably also noticed the resemblance between himself and the McKenzies.

 

There's so many layers to this story, every time I think about it there's some piece of information I haven't considered.  I love it.

We'll have to find out, but it doesn't look like Brett knows.  I don't think Dr. Reilly would have survived the apocalypse that Brett will surely cause when he finds out he's been literally in the same house as his father and didn't know.   The McKenzie family is for Brett like the Barnhart family is for Billy.  The parents are long-time friends, so the kids are friends.  Jack and Jen have been hiding what happened from Joey's mom for sixteen years, they're pretty good at lying.

[Former Member]

3 hours ago, Freerider said:

Ok, call me stupid but I don't get the big deal that Brett and Joey are halfbrothers. Maybe it is a cultural difference, or maybe I am just too open-minded but I can't see it. The next chapters will probably explain it to me...

I think the bigger deal is that the very religious Jack hypocritically fathered a child by a woman who wasn’t his wife while he was clearly married since Brett and Joey are the same age. This is similar to what Arnold Schwarzenegger did with his wife Maria Shriver and their maid – Maria divorced him! Christianity regards adultery as a serious sin and is still considered a crime in some countries and some US states – in a handful of countries, the punishment remains death by stoning (usually applied to the woman, but not the man)!

 

 

Interestingly, Minnesota, a state generally considered to be relatively Liberal, has a relatively convoluted statute on adultery. The statutes apply to both partners if they are both married. If only one partner is married, the law only applies to the married woman. The law does not apply to a married man and an unmarried woman.

 

My state of California (along with Hawaii, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wyoming) does not criminalize adultery – but there are often social consequences to the act. Lawrence v Texas (2003) is thought by most legal scholars to have invalidated existing adultery laws (as well as the sodomy laws that were explicitly overturned). These are not always archaic laws that have merely not be removed from the books, Louisiana enacted their adultery law in 1990! It is also a potentially court-martial offense in the US military. Most of the existing laws are only rarely enforced. Historically, the laws were used to punish women and rarely, if, ever against men (lots of ‘Jacks’ writing those laws).

[jkwsquirrel]

4 hours ago, Freerider said:

Ok, call me stupid but I don't get the big deal that Brett and Joey are halfbrothers. Maybe it is a cultural difference, or maybe I am just too open-minded but I can't see it. The next chapters will probably explain it to me...

No problem.  I think the biggest issue is the lying.  If there's one thing Brett hates it's being lied to.  For Billy, the problem is he just destroyed someone who turned out to be his boyfriend's brother.  Brett was already a little it upset with Billy for what he did, but now it's worse, at least in Billy's mind.

[jkwsquirrel]

4 minutes ago, droughtquake said:

I think the bigger deal is that the very religious Jack hypocritically fathered a child by a woman who wasn’t his wife while he was clearly married since Brett and Joey are the same age. This is similar to what Arnold Schwarzenegger did with his wife Maria Shriver and their maid – Maria divorced him! Christianity regards adultery as a serious sin and is still considered a crime in some countries and some US states – in a handful of countries, the punishment remains death by stoning (usually applied to the woman, but not the man)!

 

 

Interestingly, Minnesota, a state generally considered to be relatively Liberal, has a relatively convoluted statute on adultery. The statutes apply to both partners if they are both married. If only one partner is married, the law only applies to the married woman. The law does not apply to a married man and an unmarried woman.

 

My state of California (along with Hawaii, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wyoming) does not criminalize adultery – but there are often social consequences to the act. Lawrence v Texas (2003) is thought by most legal scholars to have invalidated existing adultery laws (as well as the sodomy laws that were explicitly overturned). These are not always archaic laws that have merely not be removed from the books, Louisiana enacted their adultery law in 1990! It is also a potentially court-martial offense in the US military. Most of the existing laws are only rarely enforced. Historically, the laws were used to punish women and rarely, if, ever against men (lots of ‘Jacks’ writing those laws).

Yes, I think this explains the cultural ramifications quite nicely.  Even if it's not necessarily illegal, adultery is definitely not approved of in this culture.  While there could hardly be any legal issues over an affair that took place sixteen years prior, there will certainly be some moral outrage considering the lofty place in society in which Jack dwells.

[Shadow086]

33 minutes ago, jkwsquirrel said:

Yes, I think this explains the cultural ramifications quite nicely.  Even if it's not necessarily illegal, adultery is definitely not approved of in this culture.  While there could hardly be any legal issues over an affair that took place sixteen years prior, there will certainly be some moral outrage considering the lofty place in society in which Jack dwells.

Maybe it's time Jack stopped dwelling in that lofty place.  Billy holds the key to throwing the entire town into chaos, but he won't use it because he doesn't want to hurt his boyfriend.  Let's just hope Brett doesn't ask him about it, because Billy can't lie to him.  I still think there's a chance Brett knows.  Jack and Jen may be good at lying, but Brett is also good at picking up on these lies.  At the very least, he knows Jen's still lying to him.  That's what I think, anyway.

 

Now all Billy needs is to have some dirt on the pastor.  I'm sure he won't hesitate to use that, if only to break Paula from his influence.

Edited September 3, 2017 by Shadow086

[jkwsquirrel]

2 minutes ago, Shadow086 said:

Maybe it's time Jack stopped dwelling there.  Billy holds the key to throwing the entire town into chaos, but he won't use it because he doesn't want to hurt his boyfriend.  Let's just hope Brett doesn't ask him about it, because Billy can't lie to him.  I still think there's chance Brett knows.  Jack and Jen may be good at lying, but Brett is also good at picking up on these lies.  At the very least, he knows Jen's still lying to him.  That's what I think, anyway.

 

Now all Billy needs is to have some dirt on the pastor.  I'm sure he won't hesitate to use that, if only to break Paula from his influence.

Kind of makes sense why Brett has never gotten along with his mom.

[Freerider]

Thanks for all the explanations. I am aware of the social implications of adultery. Legal implications over here I don't know. I am sure that any biased laws are not existent here, though. 

 

It must be just me then... I am just too flower-power. lol

 

 

[Former Member]

5 hours ago, Shadow086 said:

Maybe it's time Jack stopped dwelling in that lofty place.

Another one of those crocodile tears* filled ‘apologies’? Notoriously performed by innumerable televangelists who were caught breaking the Commandments from the bible they used to bash their opponents. The only people who are fooled by their acting jobs are the ones who were hoodwinked in the first place!

 

 

*Unlike what some people think, crocodile tears are not uncontrollable Niagra Falls-like oceans of tears flowing down someone’s face. Crocodile tears are false tears that are not accompanied by real sorrow or emotion. It comes from the fact that crocodiles are cold-blooded animals thought to be incapable of emotions.

[Former Member]

8 hours ago, Freerider said:

Thanks for all the explanations. I am aware of the social implications of adultery. Legal implications over here I don't know. I am sure that any biased laws are not existent here, though. 

As usual the US stands alone among industrialized countries and shares religion-based biases exhibited mostly by Muslim countries plus a few fundamentalist Christian-influenced sub-Saharan African nations. The strictest laws are in the usual handful of Southern states that seem intent on creating a fundamentalist Protestant version of Sharia law (adultery is a felony in at least one state). But keep in mind that a different handful of states do not criminalize that same behavior.  ;-)

 

In some ways, the US is almost like a microcosm of the world…

Edited September 3, 2017 by Former Member

[glennish]

Yea!!! its Thursday.  Sitting in my bomb shelter waiting for the "fallout"

[Shadow086]

3 hours ago, glennish said:

Yea!!! its Thursday.  Sitting in my bomb shelter waiting for the "fallout"

I'm counting down the minutes as patiently as I can.

[jkwsquirrel]

Wait no longer, my friends!

[Shadow086]

Man, I get so worked up when I read this story.  I get so pissed off at all the lies, backstabbing and hypocrisy that goes on in this, maybe I should just stop reading.  Seriously, fuck these people.

 

Spoiler

And I wish Billy had just got up and left during the sermon.

 

Edited September 8, 2017 by Shadow086

[Former Member]

I agree, but…

Spoiler

Billy’s a coward.  ;-)

 

[Shadow086]

1 minute ago, droughtquake said:

I agree, but…

  Reveal hidden contents

Billy’s a coward.  ;-)

 

Not when he gets pissed off enough.

[wenmale64]

I think Billy should tell his FATHER everything, including the threats and inuindos that Jack threatened to use. At this point all the parents know their 'secret', so it is time to come out and watch the $hit roll. Brett deserves to know the truth every bit as much as Jack deserves the hit to his reputation. After everything finally settles things will be what they are, good or bad. Billys father would help them make the right choices. George has a background and has survived it very well. If Jack tries to make good on his threats, George most likely has a small army of friends and a train load of ammunition just looking for a target. Smile Jack and Carl, karma is a bitch .

[Shadow086]

They should find a way to get Brett to take a paternity test.  If they can get a DNA match, Jack won't be able to weasel out of it, and then the whole town will know why he's going after Billy's family.  Trying to bankrupt the Roberts won't gain him any favours if everybody knows he's doing it as a revenge for Billy exposing him as the lying, cheating scumbag he is.  The ONLY way Billy can bring them down is with undeniable proof.  I hope he knows this and figures out a way to get that proof.

 

I'm still thinking it's possible Brett knows, or at least suspects the truth.

 

What makes me so angry is that Jack keeps getting away with this shit.  I want Billy to come crashing down and leave a big, flaming crater where Jack McKenzie's reputation used to be.  It doesn't look like it'll happen in this part, unfortunately...

Edited September 8, 2017 by Shadow086

[Shadow086]

You know what?  I wish Someone would give Billy enough money to hire a lawyer.  Then Billy could spill Jack's secret, and when Jack sues him, he can take it to court and force Jack to take a paternity test to prove he isn't Brett's father.  I'd love to see Jack get out of this one, Billy would have him by the balls.  How could he make good on his threat when it means proving a lie out of the truth?  Billy still has all the cards, if he figures out how to play them right.

[Freerider]

3 hours ago, Shadow086 said:

You know what?  I wish Someone would give Billy enough money to hire a lawyer.  Then Billy could spill Jack's secret, and when Jack sues him, he can take it to court and force Jack to take a paternity test to prove he isn't Brett's father.  I'd love to see Jack get out of this one, Billy would have him by the balls.  How could he make good on his threat when it means proving a lie out of the truth?  Billy still has all the cards, if he figures out how to play them right.

That wouldn't work in our legal system. You can't accuse and then force the other party to provide evidence against them...