PrivateTim

The enormity of the impact of Robbie's death on Brad didn't really strike me until this chapter. Not many people are lucky enough to marry their high school sweetheart. The pictures of 16 year old Brad and 16 year old Robbie together, and then growing older, raising kids, flourishing in their careers are just heart wrenching. We do need a future storyline where something snaps JJ out of his bitch personality. We know what was a huge contribution to the shift. Work a plot device to shift him back.

What is it with these people and sex in the midst of the grieving process. I am going to call it "Mourning Wood".

It is St. Catherine's Academy. Jeremy made it sound like St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys. St. Catherine's is actually a terrific place, warm and supportive. A lot of the students are foreign nationals, mainly Mexican, who want a good education for their kids. If Ethan went there, he would have many great friends and probably spent holidays with them. We don't know how much Ethan's mother did or did not see him, or where. The mother certainly would have had some leverage in threatening to out her affair with a powerful and influential, conservative senator. The mother could have set up a home in Tijuana, just a 2 hour drive from the schools mentioned. Or she could have gotten herself assigned to Mexico City, if she was in the diplomatic corps.

Before I went away to college I was very discrete in my private life, especially when it came to sex, and all of my friends were my age. After I went away to college and started exploring the world in a way I could not in high school I acquired a lot of older gay friends, like 20+ years older gay friends. It was interesting to learn from guys who came of age in the 1970s and see the gay world through their eyes. They grew up in a world before Prodigy and America Online where unless you were in a big city, meeting guys meant bathrooms, public parks etc and relationships were not the norm. To a man not one of them was in favor of gay marriage. They wanted legal protection for things like hospital visitations, etc, but didn't want the option of marriage because they didn't want the implicit premise of marriage, which is, "and forsaking all others, keep myself only unto you, for so long as we both shall live". Marriage was designed for monogamy (which is a lengthy different discussion). That traditional marriage doesn't always turn out that way isn't important, it is the idea that marriage = monogamy. By contrast, my generation that came of age in the 1990s seemed to be more about romance and the romantic notions of love and marriage, finding Mr. Right and settling down with a white picket fence and two cats (or a pit-bull for the really butch ones). The more relaxed attitudes and laws made that possible. Who didn't? Just my two cents, but Will seems more like a bottom and Brad more like a top. To a top, a hole is a hole, some are better than others, but so many tops just don't care or even notice who the whole is. On the other hand, bottoming is much more emotional and falling for a top who rocks your world while the top barely notices who you are seems common. I don't think it will take ten years, but we may never know since ten years later we are only in 2004 in The Gap Year. So many readers here act as if Brad and Will are peers. They are not. I wonder if those who do are parents. If you've raised a child, he is your child. You expect them to share things with you, especially problems, so you can help them. By the same token, you DO NOT share your problems with your child. They don't need that emotional burden. Children expect parents to be rocks and it would shake their world to know about their parent's problems with finances, partner, job, etc. At some point parent does become more peer like, but they never stop being your parent. As I said in my original comments, a school like The Menlo School would have prepped all the teachers about a student who went through what Will went through, but I never forget that CAP is a fictional story, not a daily newspaper. The poor algebra teacher was a literary device. Will will certainly have PTSD from 9-11, as will all the family members. People who only watched 9-11 unfold on live TV suffered from PTSD. If Robbie left his interest in Anders-Hayes to Will in his will, I am sure he never in his wildest imagination thought those shares would go to Will at 15. In a way, it could be a good thing that Robbie died, or at least there can be some good outcomes despite the horror of it. Based on Brad's comments, I don't think the relationship would have lasted. There was always going to be another Neil, Carson or Alex. Unless Robbie got deep, persistent therapy, he was always going to have psychological issues that threatened his relationship with Brad.

One thing that occurred to me this reading is that love and hate are not the opposite ends of a straight line, but a 360 degree circle where they touch. It is easy to move from loving someone to hating them fairly easily. You see it in divorces and family annihilators.

Will lost one of his fathers and he is 15. It is not that I Brad should or should not, but rather that sex and pleasure would be the furthest things from his mind. I'd think he'd be so distraught that an erection is nigh on impossible.

👍👍 Two thumbs up for what maybe the funniest gallows humor lines ever. It had to be a major character to make the pain real, palpable and personal. To really takes us back to the pain of that Tuesday 22 years ago today. Robbie was the most logical on many levels, not the least of which is to go through the re-pairing (as in 'pairing up' again) process for Brad. It produced many great storylines. My father and grandfather are both institutional money managers. They lost a lot of friends, associates and acquaintances that day including one of my father's best friends, a fellow Navy pilot. My aunt was an FA with American Airlines at the time and she lost many friends. She was LAX based and regularly flew both those flights. So yes, to really bring the real pain, CAP had to lose someone who mattered. Thanks Jay, ha ha.

I know. It bugs me too. But I did explain this in a forum thread, so check it out. Those forums are just gone, lost in cyber space forever? I have my own ideas on why a major character had to go and why Robbie was the logical one, but I be curious to see the explanation from the forums.

This story has many chapters to go. Happy endings are in the eye of the beholder. Tragedy strikes every day somewhere. We find a way to muddle back to a level of normalcy and happiness.

How about Will making and effort and stop exploding at every imagined slight. Marie is fine as long as she was the Toast of the Town. She isn't a hardcore drug user, she gets great grades, as far as I know she's never destroyed her parent's wardrobe or their cars.... she's just a high school drama queen. Noah is very sharp, that is how he got into The Menlo School. But love is blind and the heart wants what it wants.

The question really is, why is Marie going out with Noah? Especially since she excluded him from Stef's birthday party...... err I mean Bastille Day party. She is going out with Noah because she knows Will likes him and when she rips Noah's heart out of his chest and cuts it into little pieces it is going to hurt and bug will. Kentucky. Broke is a relative term. I remember an old movie where there was a guy who was a gold digger. He was looking for a rich widow to marry and he focused on one gal. There were the usual pratfalls of a 1940s screwball comedy. By the time he overhead the rich widow tell a friend she was broke, he was already hopelessly in love with her. So he asked her to marry him, and told her they'd get by even if she didn't have any more money. She replied, "I have money darling, I have $100 million." He was stunned, "I overhead you tell Eve you were broke!" "Darling," she smiled, "$100 million is broke in my circle." Hank is off on 9-11-2001 because she is marrying Jeanine that day. What is likely to happen is she will feel duty bound to report in. Windows on the World is where Tony is going to be working as a waiter on 9-11 and where Scott Slater will be having breakfast. 😁

There is nothing wrong with Brad. What is wrong with every other adult that thinks it is okay that this 14 year old drinks like a fish and has had sex with more people than his age? It is one thing to acknowledge that teens try to drink and have sex, but that isn't the same as condoning it. Will is pissed off he is the last to know about Hank and Jeanine's wedding, but maybe if he answered his phone once in awhile he'd know more. I finished Chapter 87 of The Gap Year last night, which is Book 17 of Chronicles of an Academic Predator, a truly amazing body of work. And by the same token, Brad could share with Will his concerns about his drinking and sexcapades, and some of the negative consequences Brad suffered and what possible repercussions there are for Will.

Except when it comes to his father, and lately grandfather, who have given him everything as the Golden Child. Let Will eschew all money, help and support from Brad and Stef, and I'll be impressed with his growth and independence. It was really annoying that Dad had set Stef up to ask if he could come over here, especially since Well since you are not mature enough to take his calls, how else is he supposed to communicate with you. He is precisely being petulant. Will didn't like being told he wasn't invited to JJ's birthday dinner. Now he is telling Brad he can't come to Hawaii, on his father's plane, to the house he paid for......

When I was in high school I read a book called, I Loved a Girl: A Private Correspondence by Walter Trobisch. It was a series of back and forth letters between an African pastor and a young man who was a congregant. It dealt with what love is and how pre-marital sex figured into it. It had a great deal to do with shaping my moral views. One of the points made by the pastor was this issue Will is having. What if your perfect match is lousy at sex, or what if someone else is just that much better, that it makes sex with the one you love unsatisfying. Kai with only four partners, is happy; Will with 17 or 18, isn't. Or....... maybe Will could grow the fuck up and stop being an asshole?

I think it is Stef and Brad acing out the group that the lawyer put together, if not, they will eventually ace them out.

I know there is a lot more drama to come, but it was nice that Will could help get Travis away from his guards. I suspect some pain for Travis's lawyers is coming, I am sure JP already has Sean or his own firm already at work on it. The reunion sex scene get left on the cutting room floor? Do I need to wait for the Director's Cut? In any case, thanks Mark for another great story and all the time and love you put in to it.

Pre-nups were not much of a thing in the 1960s and I don't think John Paul would have ever asked for one. People forget what a successful businesswoman Isidore was in an industry that was very hostile to women. Brad was thinking a 14 year old doesn't need a kinky sex room. And besides, Will is the "no secrets" guy, and the "what's wrong with the truth" guy. He is a huge hypocrite. Will's handling of it wasn't masterful at all. He was an asshole, immature, petulant, douchey and his anger was out of control. A simple, "it's not really your concern, is it", calmly said would have been mature and masterful. As to the alcohol, should a father not be concerned that his 14 year old son has a fully stocked bar? Will did NOT do well with his anger this chapter. “You are welcome to come over tomorrow, Dad is not,” I said firmly. Refusing to take his father's phone calls (and Stef's) is Middle School Mean Girl shit. Turning down his fathers's dinner invite is petulant and immature. You'd think seeing how little Kai's family has and what they have to deal with would make Will just a LITTLE bit grateful for all his father has done for him and appreciate the opportunity to spend time with him, especially after Brad PAID FOR THE HOUSE. Is "spunk" a synonym for "asshole-ish-ness"? If so, I agree. Stef is a gossip. But as I said above, Will is the "no secrets" guy, and the "what's wrong with the truth" guy. But only when it doesn't concern him.

I still think it was wrong because Will was so aggressive, because he is 14 years old and putting Malcolm in danger of a statutory rape charge and because Malcolm is an employee. There are several cans of worms opened here. I've loved the time in Maui, a place close to my heart, but Will still has problems at home to deal with. I can see the Crampton/Schluter clan helping Kai through college and Kai is still someone along with Alistair, Travis or Mason who could be a real partner. I can't see Will being a lawyer like Wade, a financial guy like Brad or any conventional profession. That is why I think climate change/reef research in Teahupoʻo Tahiti, French Polynesia, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, etc would be perfect for him. It is still wrong of Will because of the legal jeopardy he places Malcolm in and the legal jeopardy he places Stef and Brad in for his behavior with an employee. Will doesn't like "no".

I think this is about the time someone started a topic in the forums, "Will's loves and hook ups". Will needs a combo of bamboo floors and Mexican paver tiles. Marble isn't good when it is wet.

I hope Stef does the house with Hawaiian sensibilities, not so it looks like a Paris condo or a San Francisco condo. Well I hope not, he is 14 and a freshman going on sophomore in high school. That would cool, but as I recall Mason disappears from the story for now. Maybe Will will bump into him at Harvard. As I said in my first review 10 years ago, he had nothing to apologize for. I can be hard on Will when he acts like a douchey Malibu Billionaire Row kid, but he was absolutely correct in the first email, even if it was starkly blunt.

On this second reading, I don't think Stef and Brad were completely off base in concerns about Kai, but how could they listen to Lark about anything. No spoiler here, but I like Kai because he is age appropriate for Will and keep heat off Will with the locals. Localism is a real issue in the surfing world, but once someone proves themselves, adheres to the "rules" of surfing and is respectful, it is 'no worries bra'.

As I think about what Gary said to Will and as will worked it out in his mind, it occurred to me that this is what I am talking about when I bring up moral relativism and why society has to have some mores and standard. The concept of "thou shalt not covet your neighbor's wife" has been around for a long time. It didn't exist just to be a kill joy, but because of the consequences it can bring. With the Maui house, Brad had to see what a great deal it was. He should be thinking about investing in North Maui for himself.

So what I was saying in my original review 10 years ago was thank you Santa Mark for the wonderful chapter, book and series. The roller-coaster ride of the story isn't an accident, it is brilliant writing in its timing. I dislike Lark so much because you make him so unlikeable. The amazing thing about literature is how everyone reacts to the same story differently and characters differently. Everyone brings their own life experience and biases to the table. Some people find Lark a charming rapscallion. I just find him douchey. I've known a lot of Larks in my life, even have a couple as clients, so I have no patience for them. What Lark was doing to Kai definitely meets the legal (and I think moral) definition of rape. I was glad Will intervened. I knew once Will and Kai got to really know each other that they would like each other.

Scott/Lark has always been one of my least favorite characters because he is so sleazy. He is a taker and a user. Will get that and it makes Lark unattractive to him. Sure he was fine with a little voyeurism, but to actually hook up.... just no. What is hilarious is the older and more senior I get, the less actual work I do. That is what associates are for. They do the gritty work, then I review it. I take clients to lunch while the associates get Uber Eats lunches. Again, very sad that so many lives were lost, so many livelihoods were destroyed and so much Hawaiian history destroyed. Many, maybe most of those great restaurants that Brad wanted to be near are gone. Many of their workers are now homeless and unemployed. As to the story, there are very few issues I agree with Diane Feinstein on, other than intelligence and defense, but she is an incredibly nice woman, unfailingly polite and a politician of the old school who believed in comity and working together. That spirit seems to be missing in WDC and it seems like it is never coming back. I wonder what is going to shake Isidore out of her stupidity, because that is what it really is at the bottom, blind stupidity. I think Frank and Jack need to play bigger roles in getting the women to rediscover their moral compass and the importance of family.

"We stopped in Lahaina at this good restaurant where we could eat outside dressed like we were." It makes me incredibly sad that that restaurant is no longer there, nor anything else in old Lahaina Town and that hundreds died, when it was all so unnecessary.