ColumbusGuy

A truly wonderful ending to this ghost story, my friend! Your unique touch at the end provided suspense and satisfaction without giving anything away, and even more pleasing, no ghosts were harmed in the production of this tale.... I wonder if Lugh might eventually be part of Charlie & Co.'s lineage as he did Mildred's? A house-warming /Christmas party with Lugh--awesome, and the Irish sure know how to throw a celebration with food, music and libations aplenty.... I'm thinking the Jemesons died out since no heirs appeared to continue the claim on the property...don't lawyers have to make all efforts to locate heirs? Just over a month 'til the next adventure...it'll be a rollicking and rousing one no doubt.

Hmm, a theory suggests itself, but should I voice it or wait? Let us pose a question: to cross from one world to another, are there any limitations on what can cross, or the form it takes? For there to be Jemesons a century later, then our residents must have survived or had other relatives to inherit....

Lots of new information here, yet all it does is lend clarity to the players but not the final solution. Am I the only one who has a feeling that the 'posse', or at least the ex-sheriff could be the reason for the destruction of Martin's house? I'd think Rimzi would want to cause something more spectacular to prove his viewpoint....say, is this just before the Civil War or after?

So now we have a second apparition to ponder...perhaps a worker in town, but possibly a woodsman? By the way he dresses, at least he isn't tin, though we haven't heard if his voice is such. As is proper for such a heavily forested area, I'm stumped....

Just a thought, but what if our leafy friend is drawn to Mildred's type of magic, making it harder for skwish users to interact with? Perhaps the boys could channel Karl Kolchak to investigate our supernatural entity since he has so much experience with various phenomena.... Maybe the old house ruins were unaffected by our spirit, and it simply burned down? With old houses prior to the mid 1800s, fires could spread rapidly due to chimney failures, though last I heard, my greatgreatgrandfather's house is still standing after 175 years, though the wraparound porch is now gone. (check for the pic in my Image Gallery as I used it for Jay's house). It is also used in my Family Decisions short....

Irish mythology now? Geron sure has widened his readers knowledge base over the years. This timeat least I have a tiny bit of history with this background from prior readings such as the Mabinogion and some folk tales from a book on the Tuatha de Danaan I got years back.... I have to wonder who will inherit the house once Mildred passes on--is she the last of her line? Just how old is she? Perhaps the house extends the owner's lifespan as well as making them comfortable?

Madness, eh? With the contradictions here, and the limitless speculations, one could go bonkers for gonkers.... Sounds about like that commercial from my youth: 'cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs'. Clueless in Columbus, but curiousity barely contained.

Keen--a new Charlie Boone story! Too many possibilities to try to guess right now, and the title is likely a bit of misdirection our Author is renowned for... I've been reading around the net, so haven't commented here until now, and since Microskwish has screwed up their email format so it's nearly impossible for me to use now, I've been out of touch. I'll try sending stuff from one set up at Storylover so I can keep in touch. Just began writing something for Tales, and I hope JM will be next, otherwise doing okay.

Okay, a game preserve was the final piece missing for me to get warm feelings of my teens watching things on Africa like the movie 'Born Free' and the old series 'Daktari'. It's amazing to me how almost a half century later my ideas of Africa are still molded by those shows...documentaries also have kept me interested, so I'm not entirely out of date.

I've missed your poems, G-Man! Gotta say they came at a good time to drive away some melancholy I've been prone to for a while these past few months... Spring is finally here, but I miss seeing the violets that came up in my lawn since my vision went bad, but your words brought their presence back to me full force. I've been kinda hung up on writing too, but I'm hoping your efforts have spurred me on once more. Hugs, my dear friend

From the description of the scene, I thought Dani was between Gianni and Sami--so in that moment, it was natural to go for the closer boy with both in danger... I have to say that I'm not entirely sure of Gianni's future as a father...maybe in time he'll change, but at this point, I think he viewed Sami as a shiny toy to occupy himself with out of necessity rather than real love. Once it didn't go as he planned, he was essentially done with it deep inside and wanting a way out that would better serve all three of them. Eager for the next tale, James!

I remember reading this at the Challenge, and was glad to see it again! I have to agree that some more shorts with Matt and Jeff would be wonderful....

I have enjoyed all of Mawgrim's stories here, and his talent was enormous, yet he made things look so easy with his characterization and scenarios. I don't have a clue how he managed to keep his mysteries so puzzling--my guesses were always far off the mark, much as I tried to unravel them. Guess I'm no Charlie Chan or Sherlock Holmes. I often commented on his Pern stories that he was far and away the best at recreating that world in all its details, better even than Anne's son in my opinion. I first read Anne in the 70s, and loved all her entries, but I think I stopped reading her son's after the third as he just didn't capture the 'feel' of the place. Mawgrim, for me, brought that pleasure back to me from his first story I read here set in that culture. You are sorely missed, my friend...a worthy successor to Masterharper Robinton.

I definitely didn't see your ending coming, and it was nicely done and totally satisfying. I can't wait to see how Browbeat fits into their next adventure, and Jeremiah too, of course. On a side note, the only other winged character I can recall with so much enjoyment was Dr. Prilicla from James White's Sector General novels...

As a kid and young teen in the late 60s and early 70s, the only Woolworth's I had been in closed around '73 at Eastland Mall on Columbus' east side and a good half hour drive from our house in farm country farther east. I ate at their lunch counter a couple times, and bought some toys and clothes; you could smell the food from it's cafeteria long before you passed the entrance! Now that mall is half empty and totally run down and home to druggies and gang fights...nothing like it was in my memories of it in Jay's story....It had gone up for sale in the early 2000s but no buyers met the asking price. I think even the very last JC Penny's finally left so there were no major stores left. I can't picture Uncle Peter going to the multiplex...losing a job with variety and challenge for one that offers only stress and pressure with no real future? Retirement is preferable in my opinion.

Very late for this great adventure, but I'm loving it all the same! I don't think you could ratchet up the tension any more than you have already with that last line by Lane Tallfield... No idea how you'll resolve this one, Geron, but I know it will be innovative and leave us all happy.

Thanks Albert! I'm glad you're enjoying it, and hope you keep on until the latest chapter. It's a lot of words, but the nice thing is you can digest it in pieces.

Geron has it right--those who make today's fantasies steal everything from the past works that are seldom read these days, if not forgotten with our current educational system. Though not quite the same, I first remember Martian ships from Edgar Rice Burroughs' vessels in Princess of Mars written around 1912, though they flew rather than rolled, they still were built like sea-going vessels. I admit to plagiarizing an old movie for a 10th Grade Photography project: Atlantis The Lost Continent. I drew, then photographed a series of slides to show along with Donovan's Atlantis song back in '75 and got a good grade with it. Considering how fantasy stories go back into Greek and Roman fiction, where we find a description of a trip to the Sun, and Apuleius' Golden Ass which includes shape shifters, is there really anything new under the sun? No longer sure, but I think the space story was done by Lucian of Samosata?

Now I'm just a mite confused...will the next story somehow combine the resolution of this tale with Christmas? I wonder if the gang will be able to get to their Library and Ulren's world without having to return to Chirka's castle--does the ring Horace now has give him some sort of connection to the lower layer? It would be great if they could just pop in for a visit to see their new friends whenever they want....

Swashbuckling in the desert? Who'd a thunk it... I'd love to see a ship like that, and it brings back memories of the Martian sand ships from the old miniseries Martian Chronicles which starred Rock Hudson and Darren McGavin. I have to admit that I loved all the Martian scenes more than those with the human colonists except at the end. Can't wait for the next act to begin!

It takes adaptability to succeed in life, and not everyone has it. My father grew up on a farm using horses, then in WWII worked in Columbus making armor plate for various products on the battlefield. Later on, I was told he ran a small diner/carryout, got a job with a bakery doing deliveries, and a year or so after I was born in '58 got a job driving a truck for a dairy which he held until it closed in the early 8os. He had a part time job doing inventory work with a crew in Ohio's big stores on weekends. When the dairy closed, he sat at home for a few months, did a lot of tasks remodelling, then got a job with the local school district as a custodian until he was forced to retire at age 70. Oh, I forgot to mention that during the 60s he also built a couple houses, one of which belonged to his daughter from his first marriage--a very nice one storey three bedroom brick ranch on an acre lot in a small town about three miles from where I grew up. That town is mentioned in Jay & Miles as the one where Grey and Benny live between Route 40 and I-70. My mother worked retail most of her adult years except when she helped my dad with his diner before I was born. She was more content at working with people, but her prospects were limited due to the schools where she grew up going only to 8th grade, while my father's went all the way through high school. Even so, it was her loving to read that got me hooked, even to this day with my limitations. Today's kids have no idea of the work it takes, and the patience to achieve goals thanks to the culture of saying everyone is a winner just because they show up where they're supposed to be rather than put out any effort to reach higher goals. Okay, times were easier back in the 50s-70s with two incomes...we had two houses, the one I grew up in out in the country, and a smaller one in eastern Columbus next to my grandmother's, two cars if not three at most times, and the occasional boat for trips to local lakes to fish or ski. From my story, you can see Miles never lacked for anything, which was true; we had a color tv from the time they first came out in the mid 60s, all with 25 inch screens, one even in a long console with a radio to one side and a record player at the other end. Where was I going with this? Oh, right...with patience and will, you can adapt to changing times, and Bill is going to be okay, I just feel sorry for Harold giving up rather than find a way to meet progress half-way.

I'm going to enjoy this one too, yet feel a pang of nostalgia too. One early memory is seeing Aristocats at my small town theater on the third floor of the town hall in the early 60s, then a decade or so later, seeing movies at the local two screen drive-in. The little theater closed by the end of the 60s, and the drive-in lasted I think until about 1985 before closing. After that, it was to Columbus' east side to the mall's theater or the new multiplex a block or so north of that. From what I've heard lately, that mall is now mostly empty, and the multiplex has since been torn down and not replaced. What was once a thriving business area is now crime-ridden and most businesses are closed or on their last legs. I spent many happy hours in book stores, restaurants and record stores into my 30s before it all went bust and I stuck to the campus shops closer to my new home. Sigh. Self check out--makes me cringe to this day as my town had none of that when I lived there, and we could chat with the cashiers while our goods were rung up, no scanners then to read bar codes until the 80s. My mom worked for years as a cashier at a 5 & 10 store and she always had a smile for the customers and knew many by name. No progress with these changes in my opinion, just more faceless inhumanity from the soulless corporations that want to force us all to be the same....

I love the Hartonin, and hope we'll see them in the future. I went back to read 'Roman Candle' to find Bobby's first appearance, and now, for the life of me I'm wondering how Mike joined up from wandering Down Under? Do I remember him being captive on a ship and being rescued? Was that from those Arpys that Pacha sent into an alternate reality? Nice to see that Hernacki can have a sense of humor, especially when it embarrasses the imperturbable Max.

Yay, Max is here to help our heroes out. Without him we'd never have spotted the trapped ship, giving us a longer sojourn into Geron's imagination. A side note on the movies mentioned: around that same time, two others appeared with Terry Thomas as the villain...'Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines' and 'Those Daring Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies'; you seldom see the latter on cable, but the first was on TCM just days ago and I enjoyed it again. Now, from what I can remember, it seemed Great Race and Jaunty Jalopies were very similar--was one a rip-off of the other? Both were okay in my book, but I was never a Tony Curtis fan, so GR had a strike against it once I first saw it. I've always liked Terry Thomas, so his films rate well with me, but I have to admit his Race one wasn't my favorite. I'm thinking we'll find a Hartonin ship, but whether it can be contacted is questionable, though Geron will keep us enthralled nevertheless!

Coming in quite late...I nearly got lost in the Cooee. Ivor gave me the co-ordinates to locate this end of the Eye of Darkness.... I'll have to go back and check how Bobby joined as I've forgotten and am intrigued. I hope we meet the Hartonin because they sure sound fascinating from their description and evident power!