ColumbusGuy

Had to re-read this before going on to the new chapter. I hope Luke can find his way to being who he is, and that's with Jackson. From various hints earlier, I'm wondering if there's something here that isn't being said between the two families? Maybe something involving Luke's history that Jack's mom knows?

Wow, Lee's got a hot new image! I think it's just what he needed to help his adjustment to his new home. Poor Will, he seems to have not inherited the 'gay style gene'...not that I got it either! I still dress like I did in high school and college: Dockers, dark jeans, button shirts and penny loafers--I never liked tying shoes even as a kid. At my last eye appointment, my surgeon said she hadn't seen anyone wear them with real pennies in them for years. At least I ditched the flannel or checked shirts from elementary!

Where IS my fire? I figure it went where they all go...turning into embers which need a good bit of fussing to rekindle. A little 'tinder', someone to blow on the coals...it'll be back. Of course, it could be like my experiences trying to barbecue--a box of matches and a pint of lighter fluid just might do it.

Oh Gary--you nearly caused my own anxiety attack reading this--I'd put an exclamation mark here but you won't let me. There are some people who enter our lives that take permanent residence in our hearts and souls, and you've done that in mine...don't make me think of a time when you'll be only a cherished memory; I have those now, and am wishing for years and decades of more(!).

This was a great ending to the story, or should I say the end of the beginning? I'm always eager for more!

Ivor, you do so well at drawing your characters! I can see all this happening in my mind's eye just from the way your boys relate their story...I love the dialect of the hero! A perfect slice of an era unfamiliar to us on this side of the Pond...but I can see it all!

A collection of smiles today, my dear friend. Some verged on laughter, others bittersweet, yet each one brought back a memory of younger days for me...of people who came into my life, stayed a while and then moved on. Each one gave me something new to ponder, and often something I needed--sadly now, more than a few of them exist only in my recollections, which brings a tear to my eye and an ache to my heart. Sometimes your words act as a brilliant searchlight, highlighting things we'd prefer not to contemplate, but in these, I feel only the warm glow of dimmed atmospheric bulbs, bringing out the fonder thoughts of those people and events which mean so much to us. Laughter, and a few sad sighs, my dear friend...if I dwell on it, tears may come--but they'll be ones of nostalgia rather than sadness.

I'm glad Rory hasn't rejected Chris, and I hope their wolves won't get carried away--having had our German Shepherds mating when I was a teen was always a hoot--no matter how much we'd try to keep them apart when our girl was in season, they managed to defeat out precautions. Fortunately, we found good homes for all the puppies. The mother was a black and tan police type, and the male was all white. Some of the puppies looked like little polar bears! I also hope there are more shifter tales to come after this--I love your 'spin' on them!

The more you add to this story, the more I like it! I wasn't sure at the start from the Description, but you pulled it off--Reggie has turned into a real person for me with his outlook on life. I can remember all these incidents crossing my mind in school, and even the bits of humor he throws in--I got a reputation for being sarcastic, but I really wasn't--just had a little deeper way of expressing myself than most of the other kids in my rural school. I hope the boy who called is okay...and it's so nice how much Reggie is worried about him...the job has become more than a needed task for him, if he'll just admit it...but teens have to 'rebel' at such things out of principle, right? Just over half-way...I'm gonna miss this when it's done.

I was wrong to not post any positive comments earlier, but it is harder for me these days to both write and read online...I apologize for that. I do know how treasured comments are, and how rare they are at any online site--thousands of views of chapters, and maybe ten or fifteen comments? Still, I answer each one good and bad. BDSM is not my scene, and that was all my comment about Jeff and Paul was meant to signify, not an attack on your work...merely that it was unexpected. There are all sorts of segments in the gay and straight communities, and we are not obligated to like one just because it is part of either world view. What I like to read, or have done in my more active past will not be exactly what another person would enjoy. All well and good...diversity rules, thank the gods. I'm sorry you took my opinion so much to heart, it wasn't my intention. The tirades of hate will not come from me. Keep up the good work, I'll follow along with anticipation of new chapters.

G-Man, you hit this one right out of the park! Such a wonderful blend of humor, concern and realization of love. I can see so much of you in this chapter, and what I so longed to find for myself, but only caught a shadow of in my own relationships. I was always ready to go all-in, but couldn't seem to find the one to be the same, though Kevin came closest. Cramp, oh my god, I had that happen once! I hear they're due to a lack of potassium or something, so the recommended remedy is to eat more bananas--I'll go for that!

I've been enjoying this story so far, Jim. I give you that the sex scene was well done, but not to my taste. It punctures the dynamic I felt between Paul and Jeff, bringing it down to a baser level than I had wished. Yes, it's role-play, and not meant to be taken as the be-all and end-all of their relationship, but it tarnished their image for me. Please don't do the same with Raymond and Daniel. Waiting for the next one....

Maybe it's a mild touch of OCD, but I always thought everything had its place, and though I've spent nearly half my life in this house in Columbus, it still doesn't feel 'right'...that was my place I grew up in, out in the countryside where Jay & Miles live--a very real place I miss every day. Some people may think it's settling, but to me it's putting down roots and being where life feels right. I pity those people who have the urge to move every few years--they'll never know inner peace and their families will never have a sense of community.

You know, I wouldn't mind an ongoing series with these guys...I love browsing stores like this in real life. Got most of my glassware and furniture from places like that...nicely fits into a 110-year-old house. A flying saucer? You gotta tell us about that and the cannon--both would go well with my foot-high Godzilla who walks and makes noise and has smoke coming out of his mouth! He has a prominent spot on top of my wind-up Victrola.

I was trying to think of what to say about these...the warmth and reassurance and the companion sense that we need to be careful not to waste neither time nor appreciation for what we have; we are here for only a short time, and it's too brief to be dominated by recriminations for our own or others' actions. Call me a displaced hippie, but I'll keep my rose-colored glasses nicely polished and think the best of my fellow men. All this comes from the thought that hit me as I opened this comment: Skinnydragon reinforced the 'life is short' philosophy, and nothing we can do will bring us one more day or hour however much we might want it. Do your best, for yourself and for others.

A very nice progression here, my dear friend... How many times I've agonized over decisions and choices I've made, and trying to maintain a stoic face for the world around me. Only I know how hard my external smile can be to put on some days, but it does get easier with time, though it is hollow occasionally. Despite my trials over the years, somehow I continue to look forward to those calm waters where I am at peace with both my outer environment and inner self.

I loved the short story, and I'm glad you've begun a new adventure for these two...it gives me hope that love can still be out there for older men in our community if things go right. I hope that their experience will make this journey a smoother one, though the passions can still burn as fiercely. I had to laugh at the fractional ages--so much like a couple of kids in the school-yard!

I loved this story a lot, Ivor! I liked the characters and of course, the stray cat. The fall after I moved into Columbus, a friend two streets over called to say he was feeding a Siamese but couldn't take him in since he already had two cats and a dog, so I went over to check it out. Best move I ever did! Kublai was a lilac-point Siamese, malnourished, covered in oil stains, and skittish...but within ten minutes of me sitting down on my friend's back porch, he came up and curled up in my lap and began purring away. I took him home, and to the vet the next day, who said he was probably seven years old, and healthy despite being abandoned for some time. It took several years before he'd stop being skittish or startled by loud noises, but he adjusted to being an indoor cat right away. For the next fourteen years, until he was twenty-one, he slept in my bed every night, under the blanket with his head on the pillow next to mine. His last three years, he had lost his vision, was losing his hearing, but still found his way around just fine. In his last year, some brain problem had him begin walking in circles occasionally, and he couldn't stop until I came to pick him up, then he'd be fine for a few weeks until it happened again. Unlike the rumors of Siamese being loud and talkative, he'd meow only when I talked to him, and often then just a 'silent' meow. I sat up with him his last night until I could get him to the vet--he hadn't come down when I got home from work that evening, so I carried him down to eat...and he drank a little water, ate a bite of food, then turned away from the bowl to me and collapsed. I lay with him all that night in front of his favorite heater, then got him to the vet as soon as they opened. His kidneys had failed, and the vet said there wasn't anything to be done, though fluid injections would prolong his life a few weeks. He was in a coma by this time, so I let him go to the next world. People who rescue stray animals deserve a special reward in my book, and it looks like our heroine did.

Young Cycle Girls? That must be one of the B-movies I missed...maybe it was due to the subject matter--now, Young Cycle Boys--I'd be all over that!

How many times have I felt this way? Numberless instances from childhood's teen years...and afterwards too. It amazes me how we survived to grow up, but are any of us left unmarked? I don't think so. What child hasn't had the thought which came, even as a fleeting vision, that he might be adopted, and the people around him weren't really his family? I knew it wasn't true, had seen pics of me in the hospital in the nurse's hand with tubes everywhere...but there always comes the moment when you wonder--where is the person who truly knows and loves me for ME? In a flash, like the anger that might have spawned it, the feeling of Unbelonging is gone...but the memory of it will be there for the rest of your life, unless you have no empathy or compassion to allow fellow-feeling. Dang, is there any comfort food in the house? Where's my chocolate?

Gary, my dear friend... I couldn't reply to this right away, I had to wait until now, and still I teared up all over again. Words on a page or screen can be masks for others to see, possibly to hide who we really are, other times to protect our own hearts from the world around us. I've had the joy and honor to spend hours in conversation with you over the phone, at a time when I most needed it...and I know that your words are what truly lives in your soul. When I read your poems, or anything at all, it isn't the keeness of anticipation of a well-crafted piece that I feel...it's the warmth in my heart that comes from the visit of a good friend, a spirit I value for the joy it brings to me on a dark day, like a crackling fire on a cold night, or the bond of knowing there is someone out there who shares that one moment when you are in synch with one another in perfect understanding where no words are necessary. Gotta go, or I'm gonna cry again--or turn into a gooey puddle of mush.

Mig? Nope...I've always been happy with whatever my partners had, as their inner selves were what drew me to them. 'It's how you use it' is more important, and I was happy to help others learn that lesson. Not that I had vast experience in my past, but I was enthusiastic.... Prompt stories do tend to be shorter, so I guess it's just us wanting more that makes them seem to end too soon!

*cheep, cheep, cheep* Loved it, but your worms need to be longer and fatter to satisfy your flock, min ven!

That's good! I can keep dreaming. Oh, and some bits of fiction are true....

I haven't read any of your stuff until Cupid Central, thanks to Timothy M's anthology piece...and that was a mistake. I loved the Cupid story, and then I looked at this; I remember checking it when it was posting, but it didn't seem to be my thing from the Description...again, a mistake I'm now glad to have corrected. So many impressions to sort through--I wasn't fond of Jonah for a good while, but couldn't blame his running instinct--I hate confrontation myself. I didn't like Eric, and that proved wise in the end. I guess the saddest part for me was Sandro--he deserved his own happy ending, and didn't get it. I also felt bad for Michael, who deserves the same, but he loved the one guy who didn't return his affections...and I think every guy knows how that feels at some point. I'm glad Ren and Jonah are together again...and hope they'll keep the lines of communication open. The scene in the rain had me all choked up, well done!