mayday

Wow! What a story! It is like a beginning. Full of promise. And dread.

Yes, another cliffhanger😖 I guess his reason to leave Troy might have something to do with the hint of childhood trauma I got in the ladt chapter. But how all that may be connected is anyone's guess....

You make it even harder to wait for the next chapter.

Julian is in the right place. The plantation and Julian complement each other. If he pays the price his father demands it will be his. I do not understand why his father wants him to return at all, unless he fears independence in his son and loss of control. I guess we will see.

Ah, there we meet Noah again. I wonder how long he will continue living with his mother after that.

Julian is experiencing something profound which he has been lacking at home: Being respected and seen as a person. His remarkable, open and attentive perception of the totally new world around him is noticed and appreciated. I get the feeling that his father never really did that, never saw him as a person in his own right. I admire Julian's ability to embrace a new world instead of looking back in anger and self-pity. He feels that he can be himself on the ship. Could he ever be that at home with his father? I doubt it.

Bittersweet. I wonder what will Julian await in Hilo. What his father has set up to keep tabs on him - if he has not buried his son in some hopeless place. But if Julian has a chance he will build himself a future. Can't wait.

Beautiful. I, too, am wondering what the future might hold for them. The title suggests to me that there may be a place for Julien, but will it also be for Sam?

These first two chapters sound like a very promising beginning. First the stifling environment of his father's dictatorial control, then the discovery of the faultlines in the family: A smart grandmother, a loyal brother. Julien will get out of his father's claws, but I fear for Miles.

Is Ryder the lifeline Owen desperately needs? According to the story's title, it might make sense...

God. That last sentence sums everything up. Owen's situation. And with Cole's reaction and his first hours with children he cannot hide it from himself anymore. Add in his family's expectation, and this mess can only end in a classic catastrophe unless someone steps in and throws Owen a lifeline.

On reading this first chapter again I am even more impressed than before. How poignantly the family dynamics are there for us to feel during a Sunday family meal, the role Owen is pressed into playing, his aunt perhaps the only one who sees him as a person in his own right and Owen and Margot somehow helping each other to survive in a suffocating and incredibly blind community. I love how Owen's thoughts and feelings are mirrored in the details around him.

Not even about pot roast...

A special chapter again. Somehow the wordless communication between the old man and Oliver beacons to me like a signal. As if Oliver has become closer to his real self. But there have not been many exchanges with other people so far, maybe that is why it stands out to me. Meeting Julien seems meaningful. So far Oliver has planned everything strategically to prevent any deviation from his route. Here he is reminded of his being lost on the plateau and somehow I get the feeling that for the first time in a long while he is handing the rein over to another person. There was that short memory of his walking with his husband (?) who wanted to return early but Oliver stuck to his plan and walked on alone. He has been learning that his body is more than just there for upkeeping his mind and that it needs more. And that you cannot control everything, particularly mountain paths. On day one of my first walking tour in the Italian Alps I arrived at our first stop, a refuge marked on the map, completely exhausted. The building had been partially destroyed by a huge boulder some time before. Feeling defeated and unable to walk on to the new one, one or two miles distant, we spent the coldest night of my life there. Maps are one thing. Nature is another. Can't wait for their interaction on the trail.

Beautiful and heart-rending. Thank you for sharing.