Kitt

Unfortunately while in stories it may be overdone as Cia said, in real life it is all too common. The best way to start addressing abuse of any kind is to raise awareness. Fiction can provide a way to do that without airing someones real dirty laundry. Well done Sasha.

First off, my apologies for the miss spelled words in my review - I really should have waited till morning to write it on a real computer rather than attempt it in the middle of the night on a 6" tablet! I agree, the fact that JP managed to arrange a car to get them off the island was in itself a minor miracle but you are somewhat mistaken. Thousands of people were evacuated from the city through out the day, the vast majority by water taxi and the commuter ferry services that were beginning to become popular at the time,hundreds of private pleasure boats took people across the bay five and ten at a time, and hundreds literally walked across the bridges. Yes vehicle traffic was severely restricted, but that was more to keep the roads open for emergency vehicles than any thing else. When they re-opened the majority of the roads is when the officials began thinking about additional attacks, the "kick em when they are down" thing, and they set up checkpoints, to make sure people going in were people who belonged. The closer you got to ground zero the more stringent the checks. I certainly hope someone will have the presence of mind to be watching JJ closely in the coming days. After the way he reacted to his coaches death, I think its going to be one hell of a ride when his mother and Robbie's untimely passing finally sinks home. As i said before, I hope someone has his shrink on speed dial! While i agree, Cody wouldn't be my first choice of who to raise Maddy, He IS her father, and I can't see him just passing her off to anyone else either. He may have agreed right at the start that he would take a backseat and let Janine and her partner ( at that time Tiffany) raise the baby, and allowed the move to Jersey without argument,but that doesn't mean he had no interest in her or that he would abdicate his parental rights at this time. Just because Mark did not tell us about what if any involvement he had with the baby to this point doesn't mean it did not happen. My brother was scared to death of my daughter till he was sure he would understand her if he held her too tight or something. Babies terrified him. He was afraid of breaking them! I can easily see a strong man like Cody thinking the same way. I would also like to see a few paragraphs from Isadore's point of view. The effect Robbie's death has on Frank will be devastating. He is the only child Frank still had regular contact with. It will also be interesting to see how Mark goes about filling in the extended family like Gaithan and Wally about Ella and the rest of the family. Somehow I can see Gaithan driving east to find his sister even as we discuss it. Well said Centex. We are all appreciative of how much Mark has posted in the last week, and how well written it has all been. I am not sure I could have tolerated the emotions dredged up to do the research and be able to write these scenes as he have done so well. Thank you!

Of course you are right in your observation ( I donot recall if it was here or the forum ) that we are all experiencing the stages of greif. That is such a fenominal feat, to be able to engender these feelings for fictional characters in your readers. Thank you.

This one has definitely caught my attention. I am looking forard to more.

The blank book i was expecting - the last line got me ! Very nicely done sir!

I loved it!

Lovely. It always baffled me why Hope, the only thing remaining in the box, was in there with the evils of the world in the first place. False hope would be an evil i suppose, but .... I especially love the imagery of "Dory" opening her "box" in the morning and using it's one remaining object to help people. Thanks!

Don't forget Cody! Living in Malibu, fabulous job with all the pretty people, pretty little daughter, all because Stef took a liking to him in Chicago!

A Fine Can of Worms Pandora’s Box Once opened cannot be shut Causing cascading failure Out of control An Idea Growing wings and feet Running ahead of you Out of control Emotions Feeding upon themselves Building a life of their own Out of control A fine can of worms.

A poem inspired by the anthology theme

Why can i see portraits done from photographs of the lost cap family members being added to the great hall and Andre's statue now? Good thing the hall is so large. Someone said something about cap stories all being happy endings. So why do we have Andre, Jeff, Sam, Rodger, Mouse, Billy, Tonto, Marie Crampton, Greg and several others who's portraits we could include?

Had the divorce been finalized? I could have been too wrapped up in the lead in to the horrible day but i could have sworn the last we had read Jeff Dansfield told Wade he was going to file, but we haven't seen more on that front have we?

Yet. I don't think Mark has quite finished with the day and how different people in the story have felt as things unfolded. It is entirely possible we may see the hour between the first impact and the second collapse through more eyes yet, and Robbie could still be one of them.

Agreed gentlemen, had to happen but I don't have to like it. And of course had he chosen Brad for the sacrifice, while it would have had a similar effect of shaking the entire family, It would have eliminated an entire thread of the story. With both Brad and Janine gone there would have been no issue left to settle over the emancipation. I can easily see the tragedy completely changing how both Brad and Will feel about things, but there is still a lot of work to do to get someplace where they can be happy together.

I'm with Ricky on the make people cringe list. Don't worry too much about "proper" English. I know several people who have graduated from top universities that don't speak English as well as you do Carlotta!

I'll sit here with my fingers crossed with you Tim, altho I am not holding too much hope. The best number I have found of people who survived the collapse was only 20.......

In spite of the facts of the story and the actual day itself I still find myself hoping Robbie was one of the few that survived the collapse. Incredibly powerful, gut wrenching writing Mark. I find myself loving and hating it all at the same time.

They certainly were adorable! I've heard similar noises coming from the woods behind my house with the reaction of WTF critter makes THAT noise?" We've never had fox around here before but now I will be watching for them!

This is what I meant earlier - being "gay" doesn't define who my neighbor is any more than being "straight" doesn't define who I am - people should just get to know and like/dislike someone on the individual's merrits. Bottom line is I am married and not going to be playing around with my neighbor, so what does it matter to me what sex the playmate in his bed is? And to try to categorize people based on how they "act" is ludicrous. The biggest "flamer" or if you will the "gayest acting" guy i know is totally straight.

LOL i guess brink answered that one pretty well!

Woo HOOO! Three cheers for Gill! Honestly, aren't there better things the WBC could turn their efforts to? Like spending the money they put into useless protests towards feeding hungry children or supporting safe shelters for the homeless? Maybe I better cut off here and move to a blog before I wander into forbidden subjects in the forum! lol

Yes - come chat with us - we love meeting new people and have a lot of fun most days.

Hello Solo. Don't limit yourself to just posting stories! Come visit with us in the forums and the chat room too! There are lots of wonderful people around. We get some pretty spirited discussions going.

Centex has an excellent point ladies and gentlemen. Not just the story will be bringing back memories for millions of people today, the anniversary. The news media will be broadcasting memorial services and all manors of reminders, and that is not going to be easy for a lot of people. Lets all try and keep that in mind today and be what help we can to the people around us. You never know when a little gesture will make a huge difference.

I was at work at a before and after school care program at the local elementary school. We were just moving from the auxiliary classroom out back where we had the care center set up to the main building for the day. Where we are you could see the towers from higher elevations like upstairs windows etc, but where we were we could not see the skyline. As we waited to go into classes we could smell the smoke ( we lived in the cloud for days on end it seemed). After the children went into their classes i got home to a ringing phone, my mother telling me to hurry and turn the TV on. We spoke for a while and I split time looking out the window at the real thing and at the TV reports. I literally watched the second plane hit. The office from the school called and asked me to come back in about 9:30 to help with the kids while teachers spent time with their cell phones reaching family members of children who had family in the area of the destruction. The goal was not to tell the kids what was really happening, but with so many parents picking children up it became too difficult. We were instructed to give just the barest of answers - that bad people had hurt a lot of people in the city and thats why mommies and daddies were picking children up early. As bad as that day was - the first anniversary was almost as bad here. I had a kindergartner run in to my classroom the afternoon of the anniversary screaming "Mrs G Mrs G they did it again!" The school had run an assembly to let the children watch the memorial services that day and the little ones didn't understand the images were replays.