ReaderPaul

Wow, I see so much in this chapter. I am reminded by the nether of the basement of the workshop of Nicholaas. Jamie and Garvin could only see what they looked at, until Flitch gave them the ability to see in the nether. @Geron Kees, did you say you started writing this story BEFORE the Charlie Boone stories? I am guessing Garvin is becoming magical as well as Jamie. The way Jamie brought himself and Garvin into the nether reminded me of Keerby trying to open the elf portal in "Elementary, My Dear Charlie Boone!"

@raven1 -- there might be one or two you haven't read yet from one site. I will look at one particular site and tell you in the private message that you, @Mancunian, and I have already set up -- IF I am correct. In the meanwhile, I will hugely enjoy THIS story.

Terry ( @raven1 ) --- just re-read all the Charlie Boone stories a few chapters a day for the Fourth, along with a chapter of the new story each day!

@raven1, @Geron Kees already has Chapter 2 in the que to be published. And I certainly agree with the statement about enjoying the comments of "the usual mischief makers here." And, with Jamie's unpredictable magick, Jamie and Garvin could end up in the Charlie Boone universe, or with Pacha'ka and company, or accidentally come through an Armenti Door.

Oh, this is going to be good. I'm going to have to read it again soon to understand it all. Looking forward to that.

I almost completely agree, @Ron. But schools need comprehensive sex education, not "abstinence only" or "bare bones" (insert penis "P" into vagina "V" and rock back and forth until ejaculation). Kids need to be aware of differing types of sexuality. Kids need to understand birth control options. Kids need to have an emotional understanding of sex and sexuality (though that is quite a task to accomplish). As far as promiscuity, there are many differing views of what consists of promiscuity. I would say someone with one sexual partner in 20 years is not promiscuous, even if there were 20 sexual partners or hook-ups before that. But some will always disagree with any definition someone develops.

Space Cat got Tabby Cat pregnant.

@astone2292 has combined humor, retail, and fun in a delightful story. If you have never worked in a grocery or retail store, this may help you think of things of a differing angle. Join Retail Ninja, Mike, and others in this story. Well worth reading.

My dad was also a butcher for many years. Not glamorous, but we always had good meat when Dad worked as one. Many big chains now use prepacked meat, supposedly for simplicity and uniformity. But I enjoy going to a small store which has at least 6 persons in the meat department, and you can get the amount of fresh meat you wish.

My new pet has fluorescent fur.

Hero radiation proof. Saves the prince.

Unfortunately, @JamesSavik, you are correct.

Aliens. Six legs. Very inquisitive minds.

Good news regarding TedLouis dot com -- Storylover dot us is in the process of moving TedLouis dot com -- the whole site -- to their server. And, the message there said, there may be one or more days of outage while the site is moving to the new server. However, ALL the stories on the TedLouis site will still be at the same address. So, @Mancunian -- @raven1 -- @PrivateTim -- @Paqman -- @Zombie -- TedLouis dot com will continue, but there may be one or more days where the site will be temporarily unavailable while changing servers. The home page will now read "Ted Louis' Bookshelf."

This is a set of high-quality stories. Each one is different. The main complaint I have is -- some stories could use sequels, especially number 29, "Hood's Wrath," and number 18, "Cadet Cruise." (@JamesSavik -- how about bringing the other sections of Cadet Cruise here to GA?) Lots of imagination and things to think about here in these short stories.

This short story makes several good points as it keeps our attention. Not all is as simple as it sometimes seems. Just because a religion has "pat answers" does not mean they are always logical in the way they apply sections of their sacred texts. Chris asked questions Peter found hard to answer. HONEST practitioners of a religion will try to give reasonable answers to questions of faith instead of merely saying continually "this is how it is." An excellent story of less than 2,000 words.

@JamesSavik, have you considered a sequel set a few years in the future, showing the long term effects on Peter?

Who knows what REALLY is going on at Area 51 and Area 52? In the movie "Independence Day," the President did not know, either. Given that government -- and business -- tend to keep some stuff secret that they think "we the people" should not know, little would surprise me. I am reminded of a book my father had when I was a kid, talking about myths and mysteries. One line in the book I still remember, on a particular conspiracy theory, that said that three million, three hundred thirty-three thousand, three hundred thirty-three people secretly rule the world, and that they have done so for more than three thousand years. It said: "If 3,333,333 people can all keep a secret for more than 3,000 years, they deserve to succeed!" We are unlikely to ever know all of the truth.

I would say quite a lot. Often I find the answers I need more quickly on Bing, because there are fewer sponsored results to wade through, and also because Google will let people pay so much a "hit" to put their answers near the top but not listed as "sponsored." I know this because I used to work in a business where we were allowed to visit with the customers (and sometimes point the to things which interested them). One of them told me how he paid Google one dollar per hit (up to the first $25,000) for his results to be in the top two seemingly non-sponsored spots when someone used Google to search for what he had, using of four certain key words. Usually the Bing answer are not in quite the same order as Google, and for my searches, relevant more quickly as I go down the page. Sometimes DudkDuckGo also has more quickly relevant than Google. However, when searching for specific passages in books, Google is often quicker than Bing, and much faster than DuckDuckGo.

@JamesSavik -- I also am glad you are working on this story again. I know life sometimes gets in the way, but this story is definitely worth continuing as your time permits.

Worse than that is the following situation, mostly in Kentucky: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/10-year-olds-hundreds-children-found-working-mcdonalds-rcna82583 Some of the ten-year-olds were working as late as two a.m., and one of them was using deep fryers, which federal labor laws prohibit any on under age 16 from doing. The article is enlightening.

My faith in humanity is low enough that I look both directions when crossing a one-way street.

Some of Dewey's stories are on storylover dot us website.

The Fort Family of websites is now at storylover dot us and there are lots of places to explore. The row of stuff in the left column will give a lot of hints of what is going on. Under the list of latest story chapter postings there is news of various happenings within the Fort Family and various other of the websites related to StoryLover and the Fort Family,

Good chapter, @R. Eric. A bit tougher read that many of the chapters, because of Joel's worried analysis, but a necessary chapter, in my opinion. Have they learned anything about Ark IV yet?