Canuk

I like the characters, very interesting mob! Looking forward to what plays out.....

My 80 year old mother and her older sister both use computers, admitedly largely for email. The problem we have is none of their family live close and if you have ever had to help someone through computer issues over the phone.... So given that experience, while I wish him well, it is not going go be easy getting Eric to be comfortable with the technology.

Well that was some excitement as i drank my first double espresso for the day! While my father would have been as cool and practical as Jarek, I would be more like Zeno... I just hope their story stays a secret between the three of them....

That Amanda is one dumb ho. If she wanted to destroy Jarek, Zeno and Stephen there are much better more subtle ways rather than wandering around with a stiletto-like knife stuck on your calf. People who are driven either by faith or hatred lose all rationality (by definition, I suppose). Tho' i am pleased that they are so idiotic; gives our heros a chance. It is nice to have Fee asking the sensible questions; not that Jarek hadn't thought about the issues she raised, but by asking the question and hearing the answer everyone is on the same page. That sort of communication is rare. Good to see it here. Great story; keep it up!

i bow before the master...

Sic transit gloria... The extremely erudite and perceptive comment that I made on the "other" chp 24 has now gone the way of all flesh via the delete key. Hopefully someone will have read and recorded my literary efforts...i certainly have no idea! I think i made some remark about everyone sleeping happily..... 🤔🤔 Just note Mr Rigby Taylor that it was your prose that so inspired my muse😉. I await the next installment with 'bated breath!

Yes, possibly, but how utterly unnecessary. Ultimately both parents want what's best for the two boys. Kevins mother is blinded by her own prejudices and by how she feels. If she listens to her sons, sets aside her own thoughts about the issue, she can help them both.

Well there is not going to be much domestic bliss in that household for a while. For a mother, she sure lacks that basic maternal instinct that most mothers have...

Its not often one reads a chapter holding a breath! Great writing. Thanks.

I would have thought the Judge had handed him grounds for a retrial/appeal. If the prelim report was in by the deadline, then it should have been able to be used at trial.

Picking up on a late point "no orange juice, because too much sugar but cherry flavoured soda..." interesting choice. Very interesting read. I honestly cannot see the end. Thanks.

Its like waiting for the drum roll....😆

This looks like its going to keep a lota lawyers and a lota "experts" employed for a lota time!

This court case is getting more and more complex. Great story; I am enjoying the read!

The ?death? of the neighbour was a shock. Violet's sudden understanding of what she has missed, and why, is immensly sad. The utter cruelty of blind faith. I try and live by the maxim "no regrets", but jeez, after the life she had and the reasons for it, I imagine on her 5 km walk, she has time for an awful lot of regret. Pleased that it looks like Jarek will at least give Seb a reason to keep on, even if they don't end up as a trad couple, but as good friends. The opening paras reminded me very much of where I grew up. Temperate rather that sub tropical rainforest, but still the same blissful atmosphere. Apart from the mower death ( we banned them at our place for that very reason! Sheep and kangaroos mow just as well!) it was a deeply enjoyable chapter for our likeable characters.

First you kill Reggie... Then you have Jarek feeling like the fifth wheel, (why do I feel upset when Jarek feels so down and out?) Then Seb greets Jarek and holds his hand just a little too long ( cue for litle green monster in me...) You do special in emotional torture of your readers.... The impending overeach of those vengful women is something to look forward to....😉😎. They really are quite bonkers: hate men and don't like lesbians. The stephen /chloe relationship is done well; not much prose, but enough to give an insight into two intelligent, emotionally and physically healthy straight people. Thanks

Mr @Rigby Taylor, so the end of ch 20 you leave us with a life or death cliffhanger.... ch 21 we get a lesson on the inequality of society.... as i have said in previous comments, i feel very invested in Zeno and Jarek, they have taken up a lot of my, um, thinking time! please tell me that they are safe from the most lunatic women since Jean Brodie!

The plot doesnt so much thicken as turn into a dark morass. Hopefully the police get to our innocents before the devil's assistants get to them. I am so glad you post regularly; i really cannot increase the amount of ant-acid I take to ease the stress levels your stories entail...

going back over the story to remind me of some bits. I came across this: "...a feeling that something good was on the way began to swell in Jarek’s chest, only to shrink again when he reminded himself that nothing good happened to antisocial, self-conscious idiots like him. He knew that if he didn’t change his behaviour he was doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, but feared he had little hope of doing that despite three years of Stephen’s praise and encouragement. Deep in his soul lay an acid bath of memories telling him he didn’t deserve success because he was unable to stand up for himself. For the last three years he’d toed the line in a job he’d grown to hate. Acted respectable—not that he wasn’t. Always feeling as if he was negotiating a path through quicksand—one false move and he’d be sucked in and drowned. He hadn’t told his girlfriend to pack her bags because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. He shook his head as if to dislodge an irritant and told himself not to be a fuckwit, but grab this chance to be himself, whoever that was. With a grin he slammed his fist into his other hand. ‘Yes!’ a soft voice whispered in his head. ‘You’re going to do and say exactly what you please! You’re going to be honest! You’re going to…’ He laughed aloud. ‘Perhaps I can’t change completely,’ he muttered, ‘but I can at least modify my dopiness.’ " (my emphasis) Now not going to give up spoilers for those only this far into the story, but this passage does describe so well where Jarek is coming from.... the great part of the continuing story, is his journey from this point. Its a really wonderful journey. enjoy.

i write for myself alone! but thanks for the compliment tried the swimming hole-ice too thick! - so resorted to fantasy.... <sigh>

I have the feeling that the proverbial has not yet even begun to hit the fan. I think there will be news from Ashley that will really test this family. I really do not get his mothers attitude to him being gay. Forbidding a friendship not for what is happening, but what may happen in the future seems guaranteed to antagonise the situation. I understand that she needs time, but her actions seem self defeating if she wants to keep her sons affection.

Jarek is firmly among my heros. He really is an all round ideal man. And his "natural man" is insanely sexy. I an see why impressionable 14 year olds realllydo se him as a model and, if gay, as a lover. He on the other hand is able to see them as simply impressionable young men yearning for more. Sadly Jareks preferences mean that he is unlikely to replicate himself. Hopefully by educating others he will gradually show others how society can fix itself. Great character. Excellent story. Thanks.... (off to find a swimming hole in the bush...😉)

Yes, but how many lives are wasted just because mr montgomery (aka opportunity) didn't turn up on time. And this isnt only their own opportunity, its the opportunity lost by all of us, that the person who solves cancer, discovers fusion, is the next Michelangelo, Steven Hawkins, Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin or who enables one of those people. People are too precious to waste.

Jarek is a perfect fantasy male. He is very erotic. I am hoping like hell that he, Jarek, gets back to the camp before Zeno is butchered by any of those truly lunatic women. You write a compellingly sexy tale Mr Rigby Taylor!😘

How satisfying to read of an elysium, an eden, a heaven that boys could go to to really understand themselves. I imagine this was the original intent of Geelong Grammar's creation of Timbertop, however between going coed and the intrusion of civilisation, it has lost some of its original aim (for those that dont know, Geelong Grammar is a private school in Victoria Australia. Back in the 40s it created a campus in a rural area for boys in year 10 (14 or 15). Boys stayed for an entire year. It was initially rough, a step above camping. Now it has been "civilised". The UKs Prince Charles spent a term there in the 60s) Great writing, but i do feel a storm in the form of those radically stupid women....