PrivateTim

Ah B1ue, you should have kept the rant, I agree with some parts, like the part about Will being selfish and not seeing beyond the end of his nose. I don't criticize Will for that, it merely makes him a typical teen. The problem is too many people seemed ready to declare Will this "mature, wise beyond his years" kid who is able to control his own affairs while at the same time condoning his immature, "I'm gonna wreck your things and runaway" actions that show his level of immaturity. I think people have missed the fine line Mark was walking down showing the contradictions that Will is. He has his moments of clarity, but at 14 it is hard to hold onto those moments when the hormones are doing their best to remove any clarity of thought.

What a completely unreal chapter! Who the hell has ever heard of a cabbie at SJC who wasn't Pakistani! Okay, any wayz... cute chapter and thanks again Mark how you are cranking these out. I am literally on pins and needles until this part of the narrative is settled. Not sure if the Jeff interaction was meant to come off as possessive, or wistful, hopefully the latter, not the former.

Dudes.... are you always premature? May 13 is the date

I like Athlon a lot, at least for their college football previews. Pro football bores me to tears compared to college football, but what else IS there on a Sunday? But without a bio on Rush, his opinion is no more relevant to me than anyone online at GA. If I could see where he gets his expertise from, I might give him more credibility.

So drink different flavored teas...... do you have a Ten Ren near you? I think you get too hung up on these labels sometimes like "Gen Y" or "Helicopter Parents", just because there are weird examples of what people do and someone slaps a label on it doesn't mean everyone does it. There are a lot of people who raise their kids in more traditional settings. And not every parent leaves a successful career to "hang with their kids more", that would be the exception not the norm. I have a good friend who when we were growing up we used to kid about sightings of his father. He was a top CV surgeon and he worked his tail off. Ryan seldom saw his father in normal circumstances and there was hardly a holiday where he wasn't called away. But what was the doctor supposed to do? Throw away 14 years of training? And throw away a true talent that helps people? Parents make tough decisions all the time trying to balance priorities. Did JP manage? If the product was Brad and lots of people think Brad is the worst parent ever, isn't that what he learned from JP? And Isidore managed? One of her kids died because she wasn't plugged in enough to know what was going on and what was happening between Brad and Billy. Sam...... well what can you say about Sam, he was a complete mess....

No wonder they are dang blue is St Louis...... 4-0 in the 1st, OUCH!

I wonder where we can go from here? You seem to have tied up a lot of storylines in the last couple of chapters. I can't imagine a judge in KY imposing a $1,000,000 bail on someone who only earns probably no more than $40-50k. That would be a pretty clear violation of the 8th Amendment and the ADA wouldn't have asked for $1,000,000 knowing that. The ADA would ask for remand (no bail) since the preacher is new in town and therefore a flight risk and the severity of the charges. It would be up to the defense to ask for a reasonable bail, like $100,000, or even an OR release and then it is up to the judge to either split the difference or go with remand. The remaining, but minor sub-plot might be what happens with JT? Is his experience today an epiphany or just temporary? If it is life changing then CPS has another case to deal with.

Freakin' A Arbour, don't throw your arm out of socket pattin' yourself on the back I actually thought the Ryan interaction was cute and fun, but not unexpected, at least not from me. The kind of person you've painted Ryan to be is someone, while he might have that tough exterior (a defense mechanism) he is really a sweet kid and someone you'd always be able to rely on to have your back. On a side note..... Will should reflect on Ryan's situation with his father and then ponder whether or not his (Will's) father loves him.....

I would have to know who Nathan Rush is to make a judgment and know how is grading from years past is before commenting too much, but I didn't like some of his smarmy comments.

From the review section by Hermetically Sealed: "Meh. Once more Will is the Golden Child. "Oh Will you're so perfect! Oh Will, how mature you are, so wise beyond your years, you did everything right! Oh Will, we're so proud of you. Don't you worry about your evil nasty dads! They'll get everything they deserve!" Maybe a little over the top, but I'm on percocet and it brings out my snark. Sorry." Oh hell don't be sorry at all, I so agree with you! People who think po' widdle Willie is so abused have yet to show me where. What? Brad has been busy with work for the last two months? (maybe less) What about the surf trip to Maui? He didn't consult Will on his sidelining of Pat? That was 11 days ago and Will was being a bee-atch well before that. He hired Martin? Well yeah, but Martin was checked out and Will had a plan in place to boogie before Martin abused him. What was Will's reaction to this? "October 15: Will, dude, oh my God! Dad and Pop didn’t spend more than ten minutes on the ground in St. Bart’s before they had to turn back. Pop drank the coffee you put the roofies in and he was so fucking sick, Dad couldn’t get him off the plane and through customs." "I was laughing my ass off at that one." Really? You make your father so sick he has to cancel a vacation and even worse, no one knew what was wrong? What if he had been admitted to a hospital where he was administered a drug reactive with Rohypnol? Yeah, that is a knee slapper dude. And this. "but I’m even more pissed off about what you did to Robbie. I was scared shitless when he was on those damned roofies, and I can’t help but think that there could have been some nasty side effects" and "But all of those emotions and feelings dissolve when I think about the most important one. I love you Will. I have since the day you were born, and I always will. It’s agonizing to me that you’re out there, alone, and I worry about you almost every minute of the day." So what is "No One Loves Me" Will's reaction? "I’d been reading these e-mails and thinking that maybe I’d been hasty about leaving, but after reading his, I was even more convinced that I’d done the right thing……. In a moment of clarity, I realized that I was too angry at him to deal with it too" Clarity? That is clarity? How about pigheadedness? Let me replace Martin....

No one has been harder than me on Brad since Be Rad, so it is weird being in the position of defending him, but I still don't think he has been some kind of monster where Will is concerned. So the past couple of months Will doesn't think he's gotten the attention he deserves? WTF ya little prima dona, what do you think it is like for kids whose father is on a nine month deployment? Or worse BOTH parents on deployment as can actually happen these days. Brad treated Will like an adult in his email and gave him the honesty Will says he wants and then he uses the honesty to continue his teen "woe is me" act? Make up your mind Will, do you want to be treated like an adult or boy smothered by his parents affections and attentions. You seem confused to which one you want. I really liked the epiphany with the ground crew at HNL. I hope people don't underestimate the importance of that. Thanks again for the fast pace of the chapter postings. It is weird that I care so much about a fictional character who is pissing me off and I want to sit down and recount for him how effen charmed his life is. It would not be my first time telling a Colony kid what a little shit he can be

Thank you F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nice chapter, thanks Mark. It was nice Will overhead the conversation in the bathroom, it helped give him a good dose of reality on his situation. No one has been harder than me on Brad since Be Rad, so it is weird being in the position of defending him, but I still don't think he has been some kind of monster where will is concerned. So the past couple of months Will doesn't think he's gotten the attention he deserves? WTF ya little prima dona, what do you think it is like for kids whose father is on a nine month deployment? Brad treated Will like an adult in his email and gave him the honesty Will says he wants and then he uses the honesty to continue his "woe is me"? I really liked the epiphany with the ground crew at HNL. I hope people don't underestimate the importance of that. Thanks again for the fast pace of the chapter postings. It is weird that I care so much about a fictional character who is pissing me off and I want to sit down and recount for him how effen charmed his life is. It would not be my first time telling a Colony kid what a little shit he can be

Oh please, just because Mark didn't write about the moans and groans coming from JJ and Alistair's tent, you know you'd have heard, "yes, yes, oh my yes Jeremy, you are quite the Lothario and I your Calista!"

Of course the flip side of the chapter at a time, provide feedback thing is that you have to wait and wait to get to the next chapter. Paternity is a story that if I had bought it as a complete book I'd have stayed up all night reading it, blown off work and life until I finished it. I would have read Chapter 1 at 6PM last night, not five months ago so the continuity of the story would be easier to follow then trying to remember when certain events happened and even remembering if it was this book or the last. All things being equal though, I still enjoy the ability to communicate with the author as the story is in progress.

Thanks again Mark for the quick turn. I hope Brad takes his board and Will's board with him to Oahu. Really a great chapter.

He is doing the right thing in school. He has been less than successful in just about every other decision and has popped off in such a disrespectful manner time and again that I would have grounded him and pulled privileges. Being right doesn't matter a whit. I make a crappy call in a water polo game and the coach curses at me, he is still getting a red card because he knows better. H-W weights for all honors classes, not just AP as do most schools I know of in CA.

And were you remembering that Will was a 13 year old 8th grader? How many parents negotiate with an 8th grader? Are you forgetting all the things that Will did AFTER this conversation? The pole dance in a gay club, dating a 16 year old (how many 13 year olds get to date, let alone a 16 year old), the college party, taking the rap for Ryan AND the fact that he was participating, forget whose flask it was, and more? Here is the gist of that conversation: “It is,” he said. “But my job is to make sure that you have the freedom to make mistakes, but that those mistakes won’t be too costly. See, that’s what I worry about. I worry that you’re trying so hard to be an adult, that you’ll make an adult mistake, and that I’ll lose you.” “You won’t lose me,” I told him. “I feel like I am,” he said, and I was horrified to note how choked up he was when he said that. How has Will done in showing his father that he is capable adult decisions? Again, the only decision that Will seems to have been left out on was the decision to sideline Pat and we still have no insight from Mark (hint, hint) as to how and why Brad and Robbie reacted as they did in that situation. The part of the story that I have had a hard time swallowing is that Will, who three weeks ago CAP time, said his room was a constant reminder of how much Brad and Robbie loved him and this passage from three months ago CAP time where Will gets insight into how deep and strong Brad's love was suddenly turns into crazy boy because they didn't tell him Pat was suspended, or however you choose to phrase it. As I said earlier, the "woe is me, they don't love, they hate me" scenario is more likely to lead to an internalized implosion like a suicide attempt, cutting or destroying his own room than an externalized, "I'm going to ruin their car and shoes" reaction. But I do make allowances for Mark's choice of implosions because he sees the continuity of where the story is heading and has his reasons that I trust for the devices he uses to get there.

No, the years blend on stuff like that. If it doesn't come from a movie or a celeb like Paris Hilton's, "that's hot," it is hard to place them. Uggs have been big for at least 30 years here I'd guess. I remember my grandfather's and father's from way back.

I don't ever remember moccasins being popular for walking around. I have a pair just like that, but they are just slippers for around the house. Sperry Top Siders were hot, Uggs were the things for surfers and snowboarders and Vans were still cool for the skate crowd along with several other brands.

Trust is a two way street. Will has been given every advantage life can offer. His parents have lavished him with gifts, trips and privileges most kids never see. They let him smoke pot, date guys who are way older and generally have let him run his own life, including choosing his own high school. When your parents have indulged you so you have to have some trust in them and figure they love you. Just three weeks ago, Sept 22, 2000 Will thought to himself, in reference to his room, "It was actually a cooler gift than he (Ryan) knew, since it was a constant reminder of how much they both loved me." So what awful thing have Brad and Robbie done in the last three weeks that has his teen angst running amok? That makes him think they don't love him, they hate him? Nothing really, just Pat being removed and it was only 11 days ago that Will took the cab home rather than ride with Michael. But is that really the problem? Pat is gone and that triggered all this? Pat worked for Brad, not Will. Would it have been nice to have sat Will down and talked to him about Pat, sure, do parents have to or even owe an explanation to a 14 year old? No, not really. We still don't know what police or sheriffs investigators might have said to Brad and Robbie about NOT telling Will so they could interview him untainted. What is driving Will's psyche right is remnants from Paris, the kidnapping and attempted rape, the torrid affair with Berto that didn't end well (July/August?), the Tony affair, Pat's problems and finally the Ryan affair, all pushing him over the edge. Will was a train wreck before Martin. Martin was a literary device to bring the emotions to a head. If it hadn't been Martin, it might have been the return of his mother that was the trigger event. I have never been a big Brad fan, I always thought he was kind of self indulged (like someone else), but his role in where Will is right now is more enabler than instigator so climb off his ass.

I love Tonto, as most people do, but remember neither was Tonto perfect. Don't forget how she first reacted to J.P. and don't forget what a manipulative little brat Stef was. The biggest blame I ascribe to Brad was his permissiveness with Will. He created the monster. Had be been more of a father, less of a surfing buddy we might have avoided getting to where we did. Evidence of his parents love is all around Will, he simply chose not to view it as such. In the reunion chapter I hope Brad paddles out into the line up at Haleiwa for his reunion with Will. I also hope we get at least one trip to Giovanni's Shrimp Truck.

Thanks for the quick turn on the chapters! Housekeeping matters..... I DO like the dual narration, maybe because it is technique I have used myself, but when you are not writing in the third voice, it is a good tool to expose alternative viewpoints. And why do runaways run away instead of runaway? I did like the chapter a lot, far better than the last and I agree in part and dissent in part with my colleague Hermetically Sealed. I agree with the part about Brad, which was part of what I have been trying to articulate and doing successfully. I agree that Brad, because of his therapy would have been less controlling when it came to Will and might have tried some of the same questioning process on Will that his therapist used on him. Most people I know who have been/are in therapy become junior psychologists. And while Stef is right, Brad was single minded in his handing of Omega, he did it using a team and he led the team through good management techniques, not "my way or the highway". So yeah, I think Brad is a bit out of character, but I also understand the need for poetic license to move the story to the end point you have in mind. As to Will, the only part that feels forced/rushed/contrived is the conflict with Brad and the "they don't love - they hate me" attitude. It wasn't too long ago that Brad and Will had a serious conversation and seemed to have come to a good place. They had fixed up his room extra special, they took a surf trip to HI and had been pretty lenient in dealing with his college party. The only thing that changed, and it is still somewhat a mystery as to how and why it happened, was the removal of Pat and why Brad and Robbie never talk to Will about it and why the police or sheriffs never interviewed Will, which would have been pretty standard procedure. So I am still wondering how this happened so quickly and I am hoping we get some insight down the road. Overall I did like the chapter a lot. I actually feel sorry for poor Robbie. I think I'd get a Chevy Nova so people would stop fucking with my car, but I guess it shows what happens when you start to let possessions posses you.

What I mean is that Will, before he was backhanded and before he knew he would be had already decided to spike Martin's coffee and runaway. He set a course from which there was no turning back. That it served to keep him from a very unpleasant situation was a very lucky happenstance for him, but he was going anyway. The only thing that was different was his meltdown, that wasn't really Robbie and Brad's fault at all, other than they chose Martin.

Hidden GA cam of Zombie eating his morning porridge.