ReaderPaul

Way to go, Dean! Sounds like Virginia and Desmond should have also bought a boat. I read that several cell towers and land lines in Australia were destroyed by the bushfires, sometimes creating major lack-of-communication problems. @Wombat Bill or @Summerabbacat, could either of you tell me if I heard that correctly? I have read one other story concerning the bushfires. However, since it is not on this site, I can only refer to it indirectly. I will say that it was a good story, involving a straight 13-year-old boy who was a surfing champion; a gay 13-year-old boy whose mixed Aborigine/Scottish background gave him talents from knowing what to do for safety from a pack of dingoes, how to drive a houseboat, and how to save koala bears; and a pair of brothers, ages 10 and 8, as the main characters, with several supporting cast adults. Once again, @Wombat Bill, a suspenseful chapter which seemed much shorter than the 2,513 words it is listed as containing. Very good work. Thank you.

Well, @Ivor Slipper and @Geron Kees, too many characters might depend on what one compares with another tally. In his stories, Charles Dickens is said to have created more than 13,000 -- (THIRTEEN THOUSAND) -- unique characters. So both of you have room to create more characters in your stories without getting near the Dickens total. And @Headstall -- Gary, I have to agree that it would be wonderful if our world also followed the "Do no harm" example of Engris.

Wow, @Wombat Bill. What a chapter! In a way, I am glad Thomas ended up in the hospital. Now he has a chance to get the professional help he needs. So Dean is a good barbeque cook as well as a bartender. I'm not surprised. A good bartender has to have an understanding of timing, proportions, and portion sizes. Dean probably has some foods that he is very good at cooking in addition to barbeque. I hope you give reactions from Justin and some of the other friends of Thomas in future chapters.

Thomas is definitely deluded. I have dealt with a deluded person before, and knowing what to do or say is challenging. Over the past 35 years I have learned more about anti-psychotic medication, depression, manic behavior, and persons with weird behavior than I ever wanted to know. Andy and Dean need to be very cautious in dealing with Thomas. Jonathan or Bernard might need to text Desmond instead of trying to text Virginia. The teaser for chapter 51 is intriguing. I will be interested to see what @Summerabbacat, @chris191070, @NimirRaj, and others notice in this chapter that I did not see. Thanks, @Wombat Bill.

Oh, no! Thomas seems to be going over the edge with Jared's memory -- unless you are introducing a ghost into the story. I think I may see some problems ahead with the wildfires for Virginia and Desmond. I looked at the word count for this chapter and was very surprised to see it at 3,444 words. It kept my attention so well, that I thought it just over a thousand words. That is the mark of a very well written chapter indeed, when it seems short yet covers so much so well. Thanks, @Wombat Bill.

Wow, @Wombat Bill -- What a chapter! I am guessing the surgeon was tired and grumpier than he might have otherwise been. But I really liked his remarks, even so. Brett has some interesting conversations. I wonder if he and Jeremy have some "intense discussions" at times as a result. I forgot to comment directly regarding the previous chapter where you and @Summerabbacat worked together with such great results. Thanks to both of you! The accidents with the noses of Isa and Duncan reminded me of an accident years ago that a casual friend had with a chainsaw. While sawing up a downed tree, he hit a knot in the wood and the fast-running chainsaw flew up and hit his face right between the eyes, down the center of his nose, his upper lip and lower lip, and chin. Fortunately, it did not go deep, although his two upper front teeth were slightly chipped. The surgeon on duty at the small local hospital took two Q-Tips, opened the separated parts of his nose to both sides, and cleaned the inside of the chainsaw-cut nose, then said, "I'll sew this back up for you." The guy who had been on the losing end of the chainsaw said, "No, take me to (a much larger hospital 134 km away) and have a plastic surgeon do it." He told me later, "Dr. M could have done it, but he would have done it with three or four stitches. The plastic surgeon took 38 very fine stitches to close and restructure my nose, and it looks the same, only the tip is shorter now. Then he used other stitches for my upper and lower lip and my chin." Hair does not grow on the the upper and lower portions of the lip where there was a mustache and also where there was a bit of under-the-lip facial hair, and when he grew a beard, there was a small hair-gap on his chin. Other than that, my friend looks the same. With the nursing training of Craig and Romel, this possibly aided both men in a safer and quicker transport and saved loss of blood to some extent. A very good chapter indeed, Wombat Bill. Thank you once again.

@chris191070, I agree with everything you said. @Wombat Bill, this was a fascinating chapter. I know a bit more about water polo than I did, and I appreciate the brief intro to the sport. The cat was almost a scene stealer. It made the story seem even more real than it already does. I have to agree with Isa. I would also dislike the name "Isador." I always enjoy it when Dean appears. I am not entirely sure why, but somehow, you have made him a very interesting person. The teaser for the next chapter? Fascinating!

Ah, @Wombat Bill, glad to see the new chapter. Look forward to the chapter when the ballet is presented. It was well done to see Edward and Max working with each other on the radio. Thank you very much for the new chapter.

@Geron Kees, something I noticed in this chapter and one other. Cally sometimes seems to adapt and react more quickly than Derry to potential tough situations. In a previous chapter, Cally said something like, "This is serious stuff. So it's time to get serious." [Paraphrasing.] In this chapter, Cally more quickly put his zap gun away than did Derry upon meeting the Schrikken. And Cally is the one who reminded Mike about leaning the head through to see what's on the other side of a door. I think Cally has had some situations in his Earthly/"Terran" life that lets his adapt more quickly to some stuff. Was he perhaps interested in a lot of military stuff when he was younger? Or perhaps some survivalist lore? Or perhaps he is a casual reader of psychology? Or had a family member go through some major trauma? Any of those could have a major effect on his adaptability, if they happened. People often (but not always) react one of two ways to considerable stress. They learn adaptive behavior and quick recovery/responses, or they become LESS capable of positive and quick survival reactions. Whatever has happened to shape Cally in this way shows a very positive and realistic resilience of a very real robustness of capable character of considerable caliber. Great development in giving hints of his character, Geron. Looking forward to at least as many more Door tales as there are Charlie Boone tales. Then twenty or more additional of each.

Ronyx Travers -- Seriously! When I was researching popular boy names starting with "R", Rayon was in the top 250 of boy names starting with R, and Ronyx was in the top 400. Of course, since each spelling variation was listed separately, entries such as Ryan, Rian, Riann, Rianne, Ryann, and Ryun were each listed as a separate name. So far, Susan Travers, Bob's wife, has been mentioned more by name than Ricky's parents. We still don't know what Rick's younger sister's name is, or what his even younger brother's name is. I like the idea of CB affiliated short stories. Maybe Ricky's little brother and sister are both curious about Rick's room, or why Ricky and Adrian are often over at Kippy's or Charlie's place. Or may Susan has noticed a change in Bob. Or maybe we could get a glimpse of Adrian's mother at work at Ornament Graphics. Or --

Well, the original four normally eat at Irving's Pizza, but I think Irving would be a bit surprised if Casper, Ragal, Sefton, and Durapar showed up with Charles, Kippy (Kipling, Kipper, Christopher? Geron, have you decided what Kip's legal first name is yet?), Richard, and Adrian for pizza. I like the idea of the guys having a villa on both Engris and Lyrgris. But it brings of a slightly related question. Lyrgris and Engris both end in "-gris". The world where Bobby Felsen was imprisoned was called Kanthakos by Will, in "Light My Roamin' Candle, Charlie Boone! Was it added to the Cooee by different persons than those who designed Lyrgris and Engris and three others? If they could add worlds to roam in the Cooee, so could others, in theory. Something for a future story -- Has Kontus been back to the discworld since he left to unexpectedly? Since Rick is a magic mechanic, cold it be that "Uncle Bob" Travers is also? Some traits run in families, such as Max and his great-great-great-nephew Keerby both being excellent with time. And isn't it about time for Ricky's little brother and the sister in-between them to at least be given names? Little brother (Randy? Rilbur? Ronyx? Roman? Royal? Ryan? Ryder? Ryker? Ryland? Rocky? Ranger? River? Rain? Rod? Rayon? Ryle? Raymond?) eventually should accidentally stumble into Rick's room without knocking sometime when Pacha and Kontus and Ragal and Casper are there, and have to be let in on some of the secrets....

Onath reminds me of a selfish, petulant, sycophant brown-nose whiner at times. Mor'ath and Misola and several of the others seem to have a more realistic view of things than Onath. They, at least, are willing to consider tentative possibilities and put them into reserve for proof or disproof. Max and Casper and Ragal all have talents which are coming in very handy.

Well, @Ivor Slipper, you DID hit your target. But I happen to love to twist words and meanings from time to time. Sometimes words in English have so many meanings it is easy!

Well, one could call it boring, but i feel it is a non-boring chapter about boring. There are times when I wish GA allowed more than two chapters a day from one author. This is one of those times.

Cool chapter. I like.

Considering what we have seen of Ricky's abilities in the 2020 July 4th story and in the 2020 Halloween story, I'm wondering if in this or some future Charlie Boone tale Ricky might start fulfilling Max's prediction from the July 4th story that eventually Ricky would be able to do a considerable amount of magic/power use, perhaps lower on the scale of what Max and Nicholaas might do (or at least that seemed to be partially implied). However, I am guessing that at this time, Rick's main talent is finding Charlie when split presence is activated, and any more than that will eventually be revealed in one or more of your stories (not necessarily this one). Since Kontus has been in two July Fourth tales already, I hold a little hope that he might still show up in this one, even if just in a mention or three.

Good start, @Geron Kees. I am still hoping Keerby and Kontus show up, but I won't be disappointed if they do not.

Well, Difris and Nyf said no one had come through the transfer station Difris maintains for a thousand years (approximately) until Cally and Derry showed up (then Mike with them their next trip). But there are other, smaller, transfer stations, as mentioned in an early chapter of this story. Have other persons, whether Armenti or other, come through to any of THOSE transfer stations? If so, has the station supervisor counterpart of Difris sent any of those on exploration trips? (This plot possibility is offered freely for your use, Geron.) Chances are fairly good that that the others exploring for Zyzahl (or whatever the Difris counterpart name might be) was not asked the question Cally asked Difris before Nyf was created, which was: "Yeah. Can you have kids?"

Wow, @Cynus -- this really spoke to me today I see some great stuff to quote in there, as well. Thank you!

Wow, I'm not sure what to think of this chapter yet. I have certainly heard of such things, but only in guarded whispers, hints in various stories, and sometimes mentions. It will take a bit of time to process this. I have heard that such things happen. I don't think the events are usually thought of in such a positive way. Maybe some Stockholm Syndrome going on? Certainly an extra touch of realism that the delicious-sounding for the temperature of the delicious food to be too hot. I've had that happen, even on food that I just cooked! My parents lived in Arizona and New Mexico for several years, and Dad was born in New Mexico, and they could cook up some delicious Mexican and Spanish style food!

My favorite way is to go to a clothing-optional campground less than eighty miles from home. That happens rarely. My spouse is partially disabled and I have to have someone stay with spouse if I am gone more than three or four hours. Being retired, I can wear shorts and sometimes no shirt when out in the yard.

I always enjoy reading this story over the years. Thanks, @Bill W.

I also like the rabbits, and lately you are keeping them under much better control.

Way to go, @Wombat Bill! You got us good on that one. But it is almost like some government budgets go. I've heard of things almost that crazy. I vote for having the wildfires show up, but not the Covid. That has caused enough pain and hassle in this world, without letting it invade the world you have created. Thank you for allowing us to share the world you have created.

Good chapter, @Wombat Bill. What IS Daniel up to? It should be interesting to see how Thomas gets along in France. So Bernard has a woman friend! Life got in the way of commenting earlier. Also os getting in the way of me doing more comments. Looking forward to the next chapter.