Canuk

Belated comment, apologies, life managed to interupt my reading /commenting (it won't happen again, I promise!) Good to see Mort hasnt suffered from his last interactions with death. I am concerned for the nice teacher.... Your initial description of "high school" is why I am firmly in favour of single sex schools. I went to one, both my sons did. It doesn't mean a complete exclusion from the opposite sex, but it does seperate sexual/social development from formal education. The former distracts too much from the latter. Thanks (and I'll be more prompt in future 😆)

Theres a hell of a lot of chaos brewing. I have a feeling that Kreek may be half telling the truth; i hazard a guess that the Colonel is as guilty in the murders as Kreek... just a thought.

Apologies, I did mean to write "literary device"! But thanks for your response. I do enjoy reading your work!

Strangely (and this pisses off my partner too) I can block extraneous sound and just either listen to what I want to listen to, or ignore sound all together while reading/sleeping/whatever. What I cannot block out is scent. Anyone who wears too much eau de cologne, or those bath smelly things or the smell of hotel rooms where someone has smoked, or they have used highly scented cleaning products. In so annoys me I can block one but not the other.

I know its been a case of "when", not "if", but still, its a shock. As for Ashley, god preserve us from teenage girls. Devin is a (for the moment) average hetro teenage boy, therefore completely at the mercy of just about any female. I am glad that he is at least having doubts about his behaviour towards his twin, it shows the hormones have not completely taken over, and that there is hope. That is unless between Devin and his mother they don't destroy a family completely.

While an excellent loterary device, I am not sure sending your child to a bizarre religous school to "know thine enemy" is good educational practice! And I see why Mort's name is so apt: he's getting to be at the level of Jessica Fletcher/Hercule Poirot/Richard Castle; as soon as he appears someone is sure to die! I am still sad /shocked re Leo. Dont worry tho', I'll forgive you....eventually!

We had a very sultry womans voice in a car rental gps in LA. Imagine Honor Blackman after a few scotches. Very weird.

Well, mate, bugger. Didnt see that. Fystie, ... but Leo. Yep, I am still capable of being shocked. Mind-blowingly good writing, the way it rollled out. I hope you have something in store for Amy. Hmm.

Sometimes I am so slow! Just realkse that Kreek and the Colonel ( Kenny's Dad) are in league. Interesting to see how this plays out. I am happy for Keny that his firts physical relationship was as good as it was....🤗

Being "sent to Coventry" it used to be called. And in places like army camps, such isolation can be mentally very destructive. Not sure of its ethics in this case, but Kreek certainly is as unpleasant a character as imaginable, so the outcome of any court case is a foregone conclusion.... Our two lovers are risking it all through their blindness, but who hasnt been there before....

Well it could be if the supreme creator of this world decided to be nice and kind😆

Very well done, and from Mort's perspective is was very...interesting! The issue around sex ed for children, I am not sure if there is such a thing as "too young". If a child is not old enough to comprehend what they are being told, be it sex ed or the operation of the internatal combustion engine, they will get bored and wander off either physically or intellectually. Sex ed should be a sort of continuous supply of information as the child either asks or situations arise. At age about 9 or 10 my eldest asked me how a pregnancy could be "unwanted". What followed was hardly detailed sex ed, and his main question was why anyone would have actual Intercourse "for fun". A couple of years on and once he had discovered masturbation, that point became moot, and he had moved on so the questions moved on as well... years later he accused me of never having "The Talk" with him. When I went over the history, apart from managing to embarrass him no end, he agreed, all the info he thought he'd just "discovered" was actually the product of Q&A over time.

Re Clive: i hope so. Removed from a a poisonous environment ( surely no one is born evil, outside Hollywood, anyway) could there have been hope for the poor bastard? But yes, too many people have grown up in hot house of bigotry, homophobia, intolerance and all round nasty superiority.

Teddy is a great character. all the others have their music etc, but Teddy is an all-round great person who saves lives in and out of hospital. thanks

Clive.... what can I say? I still despite my years feel people are still redeemable, so therefore they should have tried to save him. BUT the risks of trying to save the little turd would be that they both may have drowned. So, ultimately, what happened was the sad but inevitable outcome of 1) a parent no teaching their child to swim, and 2) a parent producing such a hateful child. As for that bloody teacher..... there are no words that ca describe such a complete and utter breach of trust. I don't quite get the head teachers response, not after all this time... Mort has never lied, in fact the opposite... with Hugh leaving, Amy "back", I can see you are setting us up for a some catastrophe here...

even when lawyers are the good guys, somehow..... great read.

Mr Montgomery was a very insightful man. He knew what his eldest needed, he knew what Christopher could do for him. Some children are amazed at what their parents know about them....

Richard is one messed up bastard. Of course he couldnt be honest to Drake, he can't even be honest to himself. I also doubt the ethics of the councellor he went to. While only half the story, they way Richard reported the discussions sounded bloody peculiar. Drake seems to have worked his way through it...i think!

What an amazing child Mort is. But then children tend to either cope with "different" really well or completely ignore it. Its only adults or some sort of pack mentality that sets things on a wrong course. Mort's niaevety is a bit of a worry. And I don't yet quite understand Leo... need a few more chapters to get a grip there, I think. Thanks

This investigation looks like it will have politics written all over it. What a bloody mess!😆

What those boys are going through is hell, but at least they have each other and what would seem to be some sympathetic staff; not everyone is or was so fortunate. Thanks. A good read!

People like Mrs Pettie need to be marshalled out of the education system pronto. The damage they do is incalculable. And not only to the people they pick on;the lesson being learned by the others is just as destructive. One of my pet peeves: teaching is very important very hard work, it should both be welll rewarded but also monitored to ensure that only good teachers continue. Hopefully mort will survive his school and his "acting" mother. Hopefully between his lawyer and Leo, he will have the help he needs.

Family is everything! I know having grown up with a very extensive family that it is so hard for others who have not had this to understand how it works. Both my ex and current partners grew up with small dysfunctional families of 4 or 5 people. My family was huge ( 40 plus relos!) varyingly dysfunctional, but perfect to grow up in. I get this is the difference between our heroes....

A generation younger and while your story and mine, in terms of our own life journeys are similar (confusion, marriage, children, divorce, coming out) i did not have to suffer the torture and torments of society. For the most part my friends remained my friends, my family remained my family. I write this not to down play the hideousness of what you went through, but to show that perhaps over time (albeit too long a time) things are improving. I was inwardly thrilled when my eldest came home from his first fortnight at senior school ( mid/late 1990s) to say that the captain of the school 1st 18 aussie rules team was gay. So another generation on and another small, step towards enlightenment. Thank you for sharing.

I haven't had the problem of separating friendship from lust. Perhaps a someone who has been in long term relationships for most of my life its different. I do love the Sarge's assumption that because hes been seen with a few girls, he's straight! I gave up those sort of assumptions after I worked with what I thought was the gayest most effeminate bloke ever, then I met his wife; a vivacious blond bombshell who looked like a 1950s pin up!