mayday

Great chapter. It is heartwarming to know that Oliver is safe and the twins will be adopted by Melissa. She is so lucky to have a boss like Roger, who knows whom to ask for a favour. Eddie - what did he want with Roger? I hate cliffhangers! Two guys bringing the kids into town. We'll see how that goes.

Scota - not Scotus - is out. Mickey knows what is important to him and he sticks to it.

More, more more!

I don't know how you do it, but you have even me thinking about possible ways of helping them financing this house. If Mickey's Mum will move in with them she might sell her house and use that money to ease some of the burden in the beginning. Casey might be willing to help or even Drew's father might or might not - depends on Edith's influence and what impression he got at the contest in Washington of Drew's partner. I even wondered if Edith wanted him to come and see Mickey taken down by her pal. If so, then she must have been very disappointed and her husband impressed. The young men's favouring that old house in that neighbourhood tells us again how much they value family and space above status and outward appearance. Another chapter to love. One idea just occurred to me: Casey might, just might come to Drew's graduation with her father. But it is a best case scenario. I know.

one boy is safe, but their gaolers and cruel abusers are getting nervous. When the Jack arrives, there will be more death and destruction, let's hope that the good boys will win this time. Meanwhile, in Chicago, there are some interesting developments. I wonder how things will play out there. By the way, I did not believe that it was Eddie Vitale dying in that cold scene in the hospital room, I thought he had been locked away for good. Well, that much justice for child abusers... sorry, but this is getting to me...

Great chapter, very moving and full of sad-sweet joy at the end. I hope Drew's Dad is strong enough to see happiness where it lives and not where it is "against the law of nature" and religion...

Agreed! Totally.

Mickey's Mum is very open with Drew. I like that. And I am glad that she is not totally negative about his father and advises him not to despair of a turn around, as feeble as my hopes are for Drew and his father in that respect. It is best to be prepared for the worst. I hope that Edith won't turn her husband against Casey once she makes her support for her brother known. I get the impression there is nothing that woman would not stoop to in order to improve her sons' financial situation at the cost of others...

I asked you about John's past. Well, this is more than an interesting beginning. Knowing about his future from 'Kept Boy to Made Man' I must wonder what contortions and unhappiness lie before his lover and himself for him to get into a marriage with a person like Rebekka.... I do wonder how you are going to make us see that. Otherwise: great story. Great beginning. Thank you.

This chapter is a very welcome contrast to the one before. Full of positive emotions where people like Rebekka do not really matter. I loved the first scene while finding it difficult to read that first time. The fact that Oliver still knew right from wrong, still could feel compassion and love but also fury and hatred towards the abusers. I think that the main showdown will be there, on that farm. And I hope that those "guarding the stable" will get their due. Best with the Jack of Spades as well... It was lovely to see Mary get through to Micah and Thomas to to ask for Roger's being his father and Qian's advice to Melissa to fight for the twins in order to keep them saved and loved. We know already that there is no mother to claim her sons due to heroin and William. So she will have the chance of creating her own family based on love and trust. I am really grateful for the contrast to the last chapter filled with terrible feelings, hatred, loathing and destruction...

a delightful read, thanks very much for this new chapter. Ralph certainly is much more positive about life than at the beginning.

I'm afraid you have misunderstood my curt reply. I have not felt criticized by your words. I only meant that I wanted to think about the children in those novels you mentioned. Unfortunately I was not clear in my response. Not being a native speaker of English I have trouble getting the tone right in messages. Yes, children have needs, we certainly agree on that. Mary is astounding in a way. She is so full of empathy, but she only directs it towards people who really love her: Rosa and Joshua. She feels unloved by her parents, and - thanks to Rosa's interference - she is not left to her self-doubts, asking if she really is mean... which might be construed as a reason for her parents not loving her, which would result in this spiral: I am like the Mary in the beginning of the novel, so I am mean, which means nobody can love me and and I am not worthy of being loved, so I have to change in order to be loveable... How can she be so mature at the age of ten to prevent her little brother from realizing that their parents are fighting? Is she emulating Rosa in shielding Joshua from finding out? Is she fulfilling her own secret wishes by tuning out their argument? Her father at least has noticed that Mary is not her usual cheerful self. Her mother at once shifts the blame on Rosa, the help. She does not even wonder how this could have escaped her - or if it is true... Yes, Rebecca is a horrible character. But, to be candid, I am not interested in her fate. But I would like to hear her husband's story. How did he get trapped into this shell of a marriage when he never was rich or powerful enough? When and why did he act on his feelings for other men? Why can't he be true to himself? What do his children really mean to him? How has he changed and what was he like before Rebecca backed him into a corner or did he do that himself??? Not sure...

I'll have to think before responding. Thanks for taking my comment seriously...

To tell the truth, I always thought that The Secret Garden was a rather sentimental story. That is until your story told me to see Mary in a different light. Yes, it is still a novel bedded in the English class system, but I definitely did not see how unhappy and unloved those kids in mansions are, just like Mary Renkin and her brother will be after Rosa leaves. I really am impressed with the way you prepare Mary's encounter with Micah, which hopefully will help him get out of his armour - at least for some time, in order to let Micah come to surface again. I am also struck by the way you do not sacrifice the suffering of victims of abuse for a happy ending. You show us how painful recovery can be and how prone it is to fail. There are so many moments where everyone of us would be only too likely to act wrong, doing more than is good for the child simply in order to not feel our own helplessness. I admit I am somewhat surprised at the venom in the comments above aimed at Rebecca Renkin in this chapter. Her character was there for us to react to from the first moment she was in the same room with Rosa Ramos. Where her husband is considerate and polite (at least or at last in the last chapter), she is the opposite: demanding, demeaning, consciously exploiting a "poor immigrant" as if it were her god-given right. We can hear her disdain of poor people who work for her day in day out with neither rights nor time of their own to themselves in every verbal exchange with Rosa. Her superiority complex has always been there in my eyes. At first I guessed it was done on purpose to shed a light on how loving the nanny and housekeeper is to her employers' children. But there is more to it. John Renkin has made his bed and he must lie in it, as the English say. I have not much sympathy for him. He won't stand up to his wife? So be it. He won't stand up for his children? That is another dimension. He is not only harming himself by having to give in again and again to his wife's conceit and egomania, but he is harming his children, from whom he is already estranged - which is hinted at in the scene where Joshua feels uncomfortable with the man changing his nappies who is there and at the same time lightyears away from him. From that scene we can infer that he has never felt that he is Joshua's father, and in a way his wife is telling him that: "I have given you your precious heir" - his role is cut out for the little boy, though I am not sure if this is his or her view. Obviously, their children have to fulfill certain roles, they are not meant to be themselves. The more I think about your story the deeper I feel drawn in. Thank you for another gripping chapter!

B. Brecht: "Unhappy the land in need of heroes." I am afraid we will feel the meaning of those words again soon, almost everywhere on the planet... Why I did not take in the last line of Descent on reading it the first time I cannot fathom. Now I do understand the first two poems better as there have been multiple readings between my first comment and this one. Beautifully rendered indeed! Thank you - once more. Your feelings are shared even across the Atlantic.