mayday

I see that this won't be an easy, pleasant read. But this has gotten to me. Oh, and good title! One more thing: If this is not a caricature but a potentially real picture of some Christians in the US, I do no longer shake my head at the divisions and fractions in US society...

I meant what I said: assumed, I have been learning since...

Under Glass reminds me of what I assumed being m in S/M is like in the end. Being totally dependent. Without any control. Objectified. Always feeling unworthy, not enough, to blame for some neglect, mistake. An Act of Self rings so true. And yet - do you really wish you were part of what you will be creating? Watching, observing from the bank. If you were part of it the stream would take you away, pull you along until you could climb the bank again to see, observe. Yes, it is either or. But - thankfully - not constantly. I am sure you are floating, drifting, swimming in one moment and sitting on the bank observing the other. Writing without living seems also a perfect way of silencing a poet in the long run. Thank you!

do not be in tears, mikiesboy. You are here. Whether in tears or not. I am glad you are here. even if here is thousands of miles away. And to me at least you are not a lost boy. I guess loving is not one-sided. Trust is neither. Looking in from the outside everything seems so easy. I know it is not. I am so relieved that there are those near to you to help you and catch you when you fall. Somehow the most unreal thing is your reading it at a bus stop. here, in the middle of a nowhere village, the winds are playing havoc with the dead leaves. But life is.

Your words have struck me. It is what very little children do when they are playing hide and seek for the first time: they cover their eyes with their hands singing 'You cannot see me'. But this is not a children's game. We all have our ways of fleeing the world for a little while trying to forget ourselves. Making somebody face themselves and the world is one of the biggest challenges. And it won't work without trust. Thank you.

Thanks for your last sentence. It has taken a weight from my shoulders...

What a practical person you are. I wasjust blown away by Sam walking into a modern store with old money and buying a tablet of all things...

You made me chuckle with Sam listening to books. What a funny idea! I get the feeling Christian will have to adapt to a lot of new ideas living there with Finn. Somehow Sam the Wise seems to be like a guide to Finn or a mentor, whose approval seals the deal. And how fitting that the English lesson starts with worm. Another laugh. Thanks for this very enjoyable fantastic story.

I have been wondering where you were. Absent. Silent. When you are here your presence makes itself known. It pervades every line in your latest poems.They make me feel the transition your home is going through. They hint at so many decisions about the future of items and pieces which possess a wealth of your past. But I also sense a family which is one in its true sense - and all seems to point to the mother you have lost. Tough tasks you went through. Thank you for sharing again...

droughtquake is right, this is an intense story. Ending on a hopeful note, which was a relief, yet with my hopes dampened a bit by Liam's remembering the young man in the unhealthy relationship, a different kind of unhealthy from his marriage. And knowing that he did not help, did not step in. Unlike himself the young man did not ask anybody we know about for help. Like Liam we can only speculate. Maybe there was a Rob for him, too? At least I hope so. I wonder how any marriage built on a lie can end well - Interesting that Liam's son does not seem to matter to him, only as a problem, a topic to be discussed, as something to be organised. Duty only. I could detect no love anywhere for Ryan. He is afraid of many things but losing Ryan does not come up. I wonder why...

Wow, what a cliffhanger - as if this story needed them...

Makes me cry...

don't mention it!

it has!

Having no idea about what life in group homes etc. is like I cannot judge. I only know that people can be cruel everywhere without being instigated by outsiders...

Don't forget the loving aunt... She may be a main driver behind all this

Good thinking! These grandparents will stop at nothing unless they themselves are stopped.

Thanks! Today I need all the hope I can get, smallest or big or whatever places!!!

Thanks for chapter 5. I did not really expect such turmoil. As if having nightmares was not enough... Let's just hope Adam has friends to help him now and a good lawyer. I am so sorry for the two of them. Somehow both feel rather solitary to me. If Adam can see that the photos have been tampered with at a glance, evidence should not be difficult to get. But what is the use of living in a gated community if snoops do get in? Now it will be even harder to wait for the next...

fitting and soooo good to read... thank you for sharing your story!

You have made me weep, but also with joyous relief at the end. The fact that his desperation was his only. That there are people who love him to call and to come at a moment's notice. Who are there for him and for whom he can do something and be what he is. And he is on his way to being better by looking after things, by pushing the neglect of things somehow into the past. He just does not know this yet. He will make it. At least that is how his reactions to what he does and sees strike me.

I have raced through this chapter. So, not sure if I should comment yet. So much feeling, so many hints (I did notice the vast amount of narcotics and wondered what a desperate man might use them for, especially as vodka was mentioned right after). Glad that he's run into a sympathetic stranger. Probably exactly what he needs. There are so many different ways this story can go... I wonder where you are leading us to Thanks for sharing

just in time... some passages were hard to read, but so is life

I realise I could have read your intro, too, might have made a difference at the beginning... but reading without having any idea was - probably - more fun... and justice done indeed.

Wow, Parker! What a sequel! Heidi Graber was not the first clue. Ray Ericcson and Carlsberg made me wonder, if I got something wrong and how that man and the young attorney could have anything to do with each other. But Heidi Graber's name removed any doubts that this could not be connected to AtoZ. And it gave me the idea that GA might provide a margin, where we could jot down our reactions while reading and mark the details which make us reverse initial judgements. What about symbols like "eye-opener" "?" or something like that? Although I did neither overlook the young self-possessed, arrogant lawyer in love with his status symbols, his judgements and his own expertise I followed his lead and his opinions far too long into the story until I realised that the narrator had taken me in... completely... Then I loved how his arrogance makes him ignore every warning signal and every hint that he might be wrong, especially on the way up... R.E.'s attitude reasserted all the impressions you had created of him from afar in AtoZ. And I love the parting shot Williams delivered! Well written indeed!