mayday

that's about the only thing I can think of Hello mollyhousemouse - your name is quite a mouthful. Thanks for welcoming me. I had just been thinking of dropping out - doing the sensible thing....

It has been Tuesday over here for almost an hour now.

hi to you all! Should be sleeping by now so as to be fresh and fit for my next working day starting in 8 hours. Yet far from it... by the way, it is mikiesboy who is partly to blame for me being here. He lured me here with his posts. Following him is dangerous...

sounds like fat bottom girls to a non-knowing one like me

How can they bring milk such a distance without it turning sour????

but perfect

I did not expect to like the two of them even better than before. Don being there for Louis in every possible way just took my breath away and him knowing his partner so well was born out by Louis response to Max - didn't he get it exactly right? And wonderful scene in the attic: Louis with his memories and then knowing his husband as the loving and caring man he is. Beautiful! Thank you! Again.

different measurements to soon.... to me this poem speaks of different stages in our lives, how our views and awareness evolve, and that the reasons why we act like we do may differ completely due to circumstance. but the love we feel outlasts these changes - even if the loved one is gone - not much weltschmerz there....

Long awaited chapters get read too fast with this impatient reader so I tnd to overlook details and have to read them again. In this chapter I overlooked Louis' reaction, his relief after the last scene, for example. Please do not let POwens get his hands on Don, he might want him but I am sure he can do without such a champion. Max and Louis might need him full time... great chapter again. good nest building for Max

A very promising chapter. What impresses me about Louis here is how he is able to adapt to new situations. How willing he is to change some parts of his life instead of just continuing the routine. I also love how good the two of them are with Max. And now we can see that they will be good together. Good for each other.

Beautiful. So expressive. The idea that you would not know the words to express your feelings has made me smile and laugh after reading your poems.

Good to hear that Barbara is fiction... having a completely supportive family myself I have been wondering about parents like her and what that means for their sons and daughters. I do know parents like that exist. And some never find the way to accepting their children.

The moment we ask ourselves what normality is we know that we are outside the norm. As long as we are swimming, floating in the middle of the stream among the rest we do not know who we are or what we are. Time drifts by and we imagine moving of our own will. But the moment we are tossed to the side of the stream and feel the boulders, the pebbles, the sand, the grass and the tugging of the current, suddenly, we wake up to the difference between drifting and swimming. Be yourself, my distant friend. I would not have you otherwise. The life of a butterfly is short and it is only one stage in a series of metamorphoses anyway. You could not have chosen your metaphors better. And remember: the nightingale is one of the most unspectacular looking birds there are. And yet...

Phew! Great chapter. Great story-telling! Thank you so much for this chapter.

No, Ethan, much better, more engaging than your first version.

Love your love sonnets

Thanks for announcing follow-up chapters. This is not complete yet, in my opinion. There are so many unanswered questions and there are various ways this can develop. Of course I would like to see the next days of their holidays. Then you have me perplexed with the seagulls. Then about Shaun and his family, Shaun and Harley? I do not need answers to all of that but I do wish to know how Shaun will fare in future.

Beautiful. You have made this feel so real and close.

I have just discovered this story and was really moved reading it. Maybe now Shaun has a chance at a life of his own without being always emotionally abused. I do not yet quite fully see Harley yet, too many unknowns, but he has reached out to Shaun in so many ways. I do hope for lots of more chapters!

Phew. Who could have seen that coming? I am not surprised at Max' reaction in "his" room. He must get used to both men and deal with his losses at the same time. Tough. Extremely tough. Maybe it would be best if he could leave the hospital soon and start his new life in that new house. I wonder what might help him deal. His own horse might be good. Having his things from his old room. Seeing some of his former friends again might help and then it might not... I am relieved that Don is such a rock for Louis. He will need that and rely on him. You have painted their relationship so vividly. Thank you. And I know I have to be patient for another week...

Well, I did not see this coming at all. Curve ball for Jordan. However, he will get through this, even if there should be any unpleasantness from his father's new girlfriends or whatever. I just hope for his mother that no funeral bills for an estranged husband will make her financial situation worse. I seem to be feeling more with the parents tonight than with our young men... I do not envy Noah's father. I understand why their experiences of what happened between them on that evening were so different. Simply not contradicting his wife had to be difficult. He seems to have to choose between having a wife or his son if he goes on allowing his wife to rule the family. On the other hand, how could he ever imagine his words and actions being "supportive"? That man has obviously forgotten or ignored his wife's promise that her son would be dead from then on if he did not conform to her will. .. I cannot imagine the mother relenting, unless a priest or some high-ranking person talks some sense into her as her children seem to be talking to deaf ears. Well, stranger things have happened. And yet... "If that’s love, Lord have mercy on all of us." Noah is so very right in that! Can people like her ever really change?

You have made me laugh! Thank you for turning my tears into smiles, then grins!

Granted, he has spine. I hope it won't be too late. I hope this will - in the long run - be 'good' for him. To have been honest. To be true to himself. I was not surprised at the mother's reaction. Not so sure about his father's, though. What surprised me was reading that he had put the photo on his desk. I must have overlooked that in the previous chapter or you have supplied this fact now on purpose. So please forgive me for having seen only his wish to be the dutiful son... What jumped out at me in Jordan's story is that people stared at him / them. But maybe I am just extremely suspicious of slick well-dressed men. And a banker to boot... I got the vague feeling they know more about him than Jordan does. Or perhaps this is just to show how important being openly gay is for Jordan now. Thank you for the quick follow-up. But I just hoped it would be much, much longer... you are getting good at cliff-hangers, too. Too good... --- just read again to make sure. Jenn seems to voice a lot of my feelings. but what I wanted to add was this: I really liked the image of the photo and its meaning here. It moved me to read how his mother's shredding it blindly hurt him and devastated him. How his father's reaction was what made him decide to leave. That he had hoped to find a grain of hope in his reactions, a chance of acceptance and love. And to have been so wrong! Will there be any relatives on his father's side to make that man see the light? What about Noah's brother? I hope not all will be lost there, too...

I am not so sure that her remark was thoughtless. I am afraid This woman does think like that or feel like that. It will take a major attack and heavy equipment to get through to her and tear down the walls around her. I would wish this discovery would change his life and his situation. But I am not sure that now he will be able to come clean with his parents. He has lied in so many aspects to them. And it will be easy for his mother to blame Jordan for all that has gone wrong. Will Noah be really able to stand up to her and defend his boyfriend? He has not shown much spine so far. And if he admits to having thought of suicide she has the perfect excuse to send him to any place she thinks safe enough for her son in order "to help him". The only hope I see for him are his brother and his father's family who seem to be less homophobic and less prejudiced. but will they get a chance to even know about this mess early enough to offer and give help?

Whoever would mean to be heartless? I also felt about Noah that he deserved that. That it is his own fault. That he stayed as passive as he could until discovery and catastrophe could only crash down on him. But let us be real here: Has he ever learnt to fight for himself? For what he wants and needs? Life has to smack him in his face, I am afraid. He has practically given up on himself. He is being suicidal. Your next chapter will be revealing. I do not envy you. There is no real or realistic right and wrong in his situation... He needs his friends now. All of them. He needs whatever there is available to help him, God, angels, friends, siblings, a father and - albeit fantastically - a mother. Who will muster his troops for him?