ReaderPaul

@Wombat Bill -- I debated between giving the chapter a heart or a "HaHa." With the wonderful humor, I gave it a HaHa, but often I wish we could use two emojis to symbolize our enjoyment of the chapter. Who is this man of mystery who is so interested in Cook, and what are his immediate intentions? Love Carol's innocence at times. Also loved Cook had to explain to Carol what a dance card is/was. I liked seeing Cook and Carol and Dante react to having the opposite sex assigned to them in the future. Also liked Thomas giving the equal opportunity speech. It seems that Cook and Thomas are more willing to accept gender-bending of traditional roles more than Carol and Dante. I look forward to seeing (in alphabetical order) the thoughts of @chris191070, @Summerabbacat, @VBlew, and anyone else who comments on the wonderful chapter.

Very interesting. I look forward to seeing how these young persons and other work out. @Summerabbacat, I must agree with you on Amy's dessert. I'm diabetic already, and also allergic to bananas and to whipped cream. @chris191070, your point about the caring nature of Virginia is well taken. Obviously, I agree, as does Summerabbacat. Hopefully, Desmond may be able to shield her from some of that. Summerabbacat, I've met two gay guys named Trevor and Troy, but also met a really redneck Troy. The problem of foster families kicking out foster kids when they "age out" is not limited to Australia. Some parts of the US have that problem as well. However, I do know of one family who had one kid, ended up with six foster kids (all siblings, and the foster parents did not want to split up the kids, who were children of friends killed in a car wreck), and after paperwork shuffling was accomplished, managed to adopt all six foster kids, taking them from a family of three to a family of nine all at once. It was a struggle financially at times, but the family is doing great and all the kids are loved. Good chapter, @Wombat Bill.

I think Thomas has had his proverbial head up Dante's proverbial butt, in trying to deny the signs Dante has been giving off. @VBlew and @chris191070 and @Summerabbacat have each pointed out factors which should be raising the suspicion level of Thomas. I think Dante still has some shreds of dignity deep down. His background, however, has been very different than Thomas. His current behavior still is indication of cheating. but it would not seem as problematic for Dante as Thomas. Trevor's behavior, however, is somewhat indicative of a suppressed bisexual. Often, persons who are the most vocal critics of gays and lesbians have a same-sex desire which is being suppressed. Years ago, I was reading a book that had several stories based on real events. One guy whose story was outlined would sometimes have intercourse with his wife three or four times a day and then go out at night to cruise for anal or oral sex with guys. As one might guess, he was greatly conflicted, because he greatly enjoyed the physical sensations of involvement with both genders. I've also read other articles and stories about the inner conflicts of guys who don't wish to truly examine and admit their same sex attractions. I am not so certain about Dante saying that he did NOT know Thomas saw his activities with Jonathan. @Wombat Bill -- don't keep us in suspense forever, please!

@VBlew, I think Thomas is beginning to wonder things that need to be wondered about. I also think Virginia's heart is too big for her own good at times, and Thomas should have mentioned how limited the first opportunities for new hires are. Both her and Thomas may well look bad if she has talked and promised too much. Thomas was also remiss in not mentioning the squatters. I look forward, @Summerabbacat and @chris191070, in seeing your take on this chapter. The next chapter teaser sounds fascinating, @Wombat Bill.

Patrick needs to grow enough balls to tell Dante what he thinks, instead of making the mistake of thinking Dante can read his mind about the perceived infidelity. Denise needs to clearly tell Trevor to stop using very insulting unfinished sentences. Does Thomas possibly have an inkling that Dante might cheat on him? The situation as explained by Trevor and Denise makes some sense. However, there needs to be a resolution, hopefully within two or three chapters, @Wombat Bill. @VBlew, perceptive observations regarding the house and comments about bikes and riders. @Summerabbacat and @chris191070, I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Does possibly Trevor already know Virginia and/or Desmond? And none of them knew about the house squatting situation?

@VBlew, you are saying something similar to what I said a few chapters back. I certainly agree with you. Welcome to the comments. Cook will probably have to give Carol some pointers about supervisory work. Lifeguarding is serious work. I don't know what the requirements are in Australia, but at a minimum a good lifeguard should know CPR, how to rescue a panicked swimmer/drowning person, and in a resort such as being planned, a qualified backup available at a moment's yell for assistance. A lifeguard should be able to demonstrate consistent and proficient swimming ability, and have the strength to be able to haul a person heavier than themselves through and out of the water. Virginia is really getting into her work. I applaud her dedication. I hope Desmond has found rewarding endeavors as well. I am interested in hearing the plans Jonathan has for the clubhouse. Does TAFE stand for Training And Further Education, or Technical And Further Education? (I really doubt that TAFE means, in this case, Transverse Alternating Field gel Electrophoresis, or Texas Association of Fire Educators, or Tractor and Farm Equipment, or The Australian Fashion Enterprise.) @Wombat Bill or @Summerabbacat, could one of you enlighten me? @chris191070, what thoughts do you have?

Well, @chris191070, they might yet learn more. It is too early to tell. Somewhat stereotypical reactions here -- a man who doesn't see that he did anything wrong, and a woman who holds and amplifies a grudge. While I do not have scientific proof, it seems to me that women often hold a grudge more firmly than men. While I have anecdotal indications of this, I do not know if there has ever been an actual scientific study. In my experience, limited as it is, women hang onto ideas in the face of evidence against the ideas even more firmly than men. Same thing with grudges. Not all women or men fit these stereotypes. But enough do that one should be careful in relationships -- which is the case anyway.

@Summerabbacat -- it depends on the parents whether or not their kids were taught housework. I learned dusting and vacuuming, and sorting and straightening, but not laundry. So I determined that MY son was not going to be ignorant of laundry. By the time he was eight years old, he could do laundry -- correctly and unassisted --from start to finish. Icing on fruitcake? No, no, no! I am glad Cook agrees, and also that she will have a supervisory role. @chris191070 -- I agree with you. The teasers for the next chapter, @Wombat Bill, are fascinating. I look forward to seeing more of Andy and Dean, and Ed and Gran, at some point in the future. I am glad to see Cook and Carol and Thomas featured so much in this story. Ed and Gran and Cook conspiring -- er, cooking up -- some action or other? A great idea! If not in this exact story, perhaps in a "side salad" story of the future.

I think @chris191070 and @Summerabbacat have raised some important points. I tend to agree that Patricia possibly arranged her husband's death. She might have found the money in his account BEFORE the authorities did, and squirreled some away. The teaser for the next chapter is fascinating. I look forward to seeing it, @Wombat Bill. I don't ever recall hearing redheads called Bluey. I have heard of them being referred to as "gingers," or an individual redhead as "a ginger." Other terms I have heard include Carrot Top, rusty, copper top, fire top, Cheeto-head -- and those are only the names I have personally heard redheads called. Using the Bing search engine, I found lists of up to one hundred nicknames for persons having red hair.

I don't know which time zone @TalonRider is in. I'm in the US Central Daylight Time Zone, and I was getting the formatting errors at 9:15 this morning. At 3 a.m. I was getting the correct format. I'm using the latest version of Chrome on my desktop. A bit over two hours later I was getting the correct format. The wrong formats are happening less, but seem to still happen. My cache was cleared.

@Summerabbacat, I believe you have it pretty much right on the proverbial money. I hope they drug test the body, and find that he had been drugged with stuff not usually found in suicide bodies. I suspect Patricia knows much more than she is admitting, and arranged much or all of the death of her husband. I think she knew about the money in her husband's account. She decided she wanted it, and possibly tipped of the police herself. I think there are more things to be revealed. We shall see. @chris191070, any thoughts? What have we missed so far?

I think we will find that the money was confiscated because of underage sexual activity encouraged by their biological sire. Lots of stuff indeed in this chapter!

Well, in the US, a sobersides is normally a person who is normally very serious, to the point of having no sense of humor. It can be used in the sarcastic sense as well, where it means the opposite. It can also be used to mean someone who takes the fun out of something by their very presence. Once in a while, I have heard it used as someone who refuses to drink (often in a very condemning way, trying to shame others so they don't drink). I just thought of another possibility why the father could be in jail. Often in the US, the IRS (Internal Revenue Service, or federal taxing agency) looks with much disfavor on people who do not pay the taxes the IRS thinks are due. I would guess that is true of the taxing agencies of most of the countries of the world. If payment is made by check, bank draft, wire transfer, or other EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) or some other means than physical cash, it can be easily traced -- and therefore potentially taxed. Combined with illegal (by whatever legal definitions exist in that country) sexual activity involving minors, and real problems exist. I am sure @Wombat Bill will eventually reveal all.

In most of the US, SEX is legal at age 16 or age 17, but posting pictures or video of a nude person under age 18 is illegal. It is a patchwork of (sometimes crazy) state laws. In some cases, whether sex is legal between two persons if one us underage (defined for most legal purposes as under the age of 18 years) depends on how much OLDER the older person is than the younger. It is a lot more complicated than just those facts in some jurisdictions. The craziness needs some consistency, but I do not see that happening for a long time, if ever.

I can guess what happens next from what would happen in the US if underage porn were uploaded on an adult's account or on a neighbor's wifi signal. The adult and/or the neighbor or would be the ones going to prison for child porn, even if they knew nothing about it. The neighbor would be guilty of not password-protecting their wifi. The adult would be in trouble for collecting money on child porn (meaning porn produced when one or more of the participants are under 18 years of age). There have been cases in the US where neighbors have been convicted of crimes committed by other neighbors "piggybacking" on their wifi, even without the wifi-originating person's knowledge. Sometimes even password protected wifi can be too easy to guess. I do not know what Australian law or UK law has to say on this. Perhaps, @Summerabbacat and @chris191070 or @Wombat Bill can enlighten us? Cook has been resourceful as well at finding things out. I bet within three chapters or less she WILL know more of what is going on.

My phone, using Chrome browser, is acting normally as well now.

In spite of psychological testing, things can go wrong Someone might have a head injury and personality could change. A stroke can happen. Something might be overheard and misunderstood. Life can be a balancing act. Good story.

Site is working normally for me this morning. Using Chrome browser on HP desktop.

I had some success with the regular format for a couple of stories and then the weird format showed up again. Now it appears to be back to normal. Hope it stays that way.

Hmmmm. The plot and subplots thicken. I will wait and see what happens before i speculate more at this point.

I had much the same problem. Took seemingly forever to navigate to what I wanted to see.

Over my more than 65 years of life, I have seen too many cases where someone who seems unlikely to learn Item A from Person P learns it because Second Person S tells Third Person T who tells Fourth Person F who then knows originator P but also knows Person A and tells them about Item A being told by Person P. The swath of indiscretion from persons who all should have kept their mouth shut caused relational rifts that last anywhere from months to years to permanently. In cases of mistaken identity this may be even more so multiplied. So Patrick should quickly tell Carol about being mistaken for Dante, so his version is the FIRST she could possibly hear. I respectfully agree with @chris191070 in this case. I still hope other previous CWB commentators will comment on this story. Speculation fuels even more interest in the stories of @Wombat Bill and others of our favorite writers.

@Wombat Bill, I think Patrick quickly should tell Carol he was mistaken for Dante. Otherwise, Cook's warning could be taken wrongly and cause unneeded extra drama. Glad to see Edward and Andy on the team, and looks like Juanito will also be working with Thomas and the team. Great! I look forward to seeing what @chris191070 and @Summerabbacat have to say, and hopefully other commenters as well.

@R. Eric, I thought this chapter advanced the plot and set up more possibilities. You did imply that this would be a longer story than many, and an epic normally had a lot of things going almost simultaneously. You have introduced interesting characters which will provide many potential story plots in this. I am looking forward to the future chapters.

The first set of bold print is in my appreciation of your beautiful poetic language, @Summerabbacat. The second set of bolded print is in the humor of referring to @Wombat Bill as a "quadrupedal marsupial." As far as the parents of Dante and Patrick, all of those are possibilities. One other possibility presents itself to my mind. One of the parents could be in a coma in a care institution of some kind. Another possibility just appeared in my mind -- one or both parents could have been married to someone else than each other. Neither possibility seems likely, but they are possibilities. Two more grim possibilities come to mind: their mother might have been raped, or it could have been an incestuous situation similar to or varying from Jared's biological parents (though I hope not). @chris191070 is also right -- "Dinner and drinks round the kitchen table, certainly reveals things."