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As a teenager I was NOT a fan of Bob Seger, but as I have aged I have come to appreciate some of his more popular songs and particularly like Against The Wind. Knowing the lyrics of the song I think it a most apt choice to signify Phil's melancholic mood early in the chapter. Colin's ignorance of the devastation caused by AIDS, particularly to gay men in the 1980's and 1990's surprised me greatly, but when I stopped to think about it rationally, I can perhaps understand his ignorance as it is not the death sentence it once was and has lost much of the hysteria associated with it. The 1980's and 1990's were confronting times, watching people you knew, even if only by sight from going clubbing, waste away. "I looked over at the window and saw the emaciated face of Dwight. I had to blink away tears." A powerful and moving reminder of those times @Ronyx. And Colin's ignorance of the cause of Freddie Mercury's death also surprised, particularly when he said he was a fan of Queen. I guess given Freddie died before Colin was even born perhaps explains this. Colin's reverent recount of the times spent with his beloved grandfather was so beautifully and sensitively written @Ronyx. Shades of Mr Wilbur again (he is such a memorable character for me; compassionate, caring, loveable with a streak of the larrikin thrown in for good measure). The feedback for this story is overwhelming positive @Ronyx, feedback which I wholeheartedly endorse. You are onto a real winner with this warm, inviting, humorous and intriguing story.

Habrough, UK

logically correct

national

ready

Also known as Friday Eve. Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day. Today is Exercise Day so don't forget to do it. Don't forget to High Five everyone. As a special treat today, we're having Animal Crackers.

Proboscis is often used to describe a prominent human nose. You might think of Jimmy Durante or W.C. Fields.

Nope. Never even played baseball. ZERO athleticism Never have I eaten at Chick Fil et

Ever

"One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small." Stay away from nutjobs with pills. Geez. Mama is a nut case.

BODDY Bulging outwards - Daddy Dave's Y-fronts SIGHT

Edna

reasoned logically

Lyoth and Stawren had not spoken in several minutes. They were listening to a group of the Children talk about the woman who had introduced herself as Mama. Their explanations left the two new arrivals only more confused. The woman herself was not present. “Mama goddess is making a shift in the universe,” explained a Child who was in fact a middle-aged woman. “She’s bringing balance, harmony, and giving people freedom.” A man with a scraggly beard added, “The first time Mama goddes

The title of the story is the big clue… How and when, you will have to be patient until all is revealed…Q

Right, Beach Movie era.

Do you want to share how old you were when you had your first gay experience? You really do pose a lot of questions. Me too! Me too! And what can I tell you? I grew up falling in love with boys. There were a couple of girls I liked and I had a best friend who lived down the road. I never did anything with my best friend or even really talked about sex, but I did with other friends. I guess my first experience were the feelings I got wrestling with Stevie when we were about nine or ten. I think he got those same feelings, because we did it all the time. The one thing I knew, apart from how I felt about boys, was it was secret, nobody could ever know!

Why and to what end indeed. Lots of details in this chapter Preston, and perhaps they will help uncover needed answers. The properties and building projects of Oscar's grandparents sounds like either a secure military 'complex' or a bolt hole devised by 'preppers' (people who believe that something untoward is going to happen, in the not too distant future, and they want to ensure they are prepared for any eventuality). A third option is that they have too much money and time on their hands (Musk it be this way?). I can see Oscar needing to find a way to spent time with younger sister Amara and younger brother Deacon, and to let them know how much he loves and misses them, hopefully making plans to see them regularly when his 'vacation' property is completed. In the meantime, a hotel suite with pool etc to relax and play with them, plus Skype or Facetime (maybe reading a bedtime story to them?) while he's at school should help fill the void. As for his Mother? Selena is a very complicated person. While Oscar, his father, his younger brother and sister, and his grandparents are all 'Kingston's', his Mum is the daughter-in-law. She may be living a life that, (like a lot of women), is not the one she imagined for herself as she was growing up. Perhaps she was an only child, pampered (spoiled?) and the center of attention. Planned on Uni and a career. Now she is just a small fish in a big ocean. And feeling overwhelmed, and perhaps underappreciated, seeking to control whatever she can. In this case the children, and with Oscar the oldest , he is the example she wants to set for the younger two. As a result she becomes a taskmaster and Oscar bears the brunt of this. In the example above, Selena is the little fish on the right, the next fish represents the children, followed by her husband and the biggest fish (on the left) is the all-controlling Grands. Or I'm completely out of my depth, floundering around trying to make sense of this; just for the halibut. 😉. (Okay, 0300 is taking a toll. TTFN).

It's a sad start because of where Phil finds himself now, but it promises some revelations. It also poses rather a lot of questions which I can't begin to address. Questions about choices made in one's life, questions about who we are, questions about what's next, what happens when the wait in the care home is over. They all are for the moment unanswered which is perhaps where the sadness lies?

eyed

not