Geron Kees

The Doors between worlds have presented Derry Hamlyn and his boyfriend Cally with a mystery: what happened to the advanced civilization that created them so long ago? In this third adventure through the Doors, Derry and Cally, along with Derry’s granddad, Mike Hamlyn, set out with the aid of Difris and Nyf, two artificial intelligences working to solve the mystery, to explore the Door system further in the hopes of learning more about the vanished builders...

Oh, and we can ALL use a nice herald of summer. Thanks!

Wow. VERY nice first chapter. I'm time-stressed right now but will mark this one and come back to it. I'd say you have a future here!

I didn't notice the dorky part. Just a very nice comment. Thank you! Maybe next time?

Well, I missed this comment nearly a year ago, somehow. Thanks for it, and the gift of the rainy day.

You can't deal with things by not talking about them. This is an eye-catching first few lines.

Pharma poetry! And for a good cause, too! 🙂

April is a glorious month, and you've definitely captured it on Kodacolor film.

Ah. I can actually imagine this picture!

This story would have worked just as well in a different time, with a different world around it. It's a good story first, and a good western second. Any good story about people is that way!

Well, if ugliness only exists in our minds, are we then not the root of it? I guess ugliness is a matter of interpretation, just as is any other thing. Do all living things see the world in terms of beauty or ugliness? Or are such fine perceptions confined to the top of the food chain? Can a butterfly see beauty in a rainbow? Is my dog thrilled to see the spring blooms outside? Do the crickets sing at night because the stars above enthrall them so? When you start getting to thoughts on that level, it can be said that nothing even exists without eyes to see it, ears to hear it, and a mind to interpret that input one way or the other. And let's not forget imagination: the final ingredient needed to see beyond what our eyes and ears can tell us. Beauty and ugliness are both part of imagination. Only imagination can take the dark mountains at night and turn them into the abodes of brooding gods ready to smite us. Only imagination can take the dew on the morning grass and transform those drops to the tears of angels, their hearts gladdened by the dawn. To assemble the world into visions that please us, motivate us, inspire us to better things, we need imagination. The same goes for the things that terrify us. Beauty enchants us; ugliness horrifies. Both exist because of delicate chains of thought and perception that stray from the concrete flows that our eyes and ears send to our minds. Beauty and ugliness, both, may simply be expressions of our imagination, so subtle that even we don't see it at work. I agree, all things are part of nature. Yet we exist at a level that allows us to alter nature in ways that she has yet to arrive at on her own. Some of those results are not as beautiful as they may have been had we waited for nature to get there herself. And some places, nature knows not even to go. If only we were as smart! I guess, in the end, it's up to us, isn't it? We can choose to view an ugly universe, or a beautiful one. Free will, how about that? But...I do prefer the beautiful one, myself.

Well...we've arrived in Larkspur. The mill owner seems a decent sort, maybe a replacement for Sheriff Willard as a trusted friend. Interesting that Mr. Lemon seems intent on directing our boys away from certain plots of land, and that Boone and Coy both picked up on it and will likely make a beeline straight for them! I know I'm fairly close to the end of the tale (and only a mere three months behind everyone else in getting there!), and I've very much enjoyed it this far. I figure you won't disappoint at the end, either. Several years ago I was reading a book, and the phone rang. I stuck a piece of paper in the book and put it on the shelf, and went to get the call. A few months later I happened to notice the book on the shelf with the paper hanging out the top of it, retrieved it, remembered then I had been reading it, opened it up, and picked up right where I had left off. So don't feel at all that this delayed reaction stuff is new to me!

I've decided to look at the pandemic as a lesson... I think I'll appreciate my life and everyone in it even more than I did before!

The world is a beautiful place. I'm afraid most of the ugliness in it is our own doing! Nice to be reminded that nature does it better. Thanks!

There's a capsule look at life in 2021 if I've ever seen one!

I have to admit that farming has little appeal for me. I love the wilderness, and want to continue to live there, but I am also a man of these times, and I'm not sure I would love the wilderness quite as much without electricity and indoor plumbing! But it's all about what you're used to. I can certainly get Boone's dream to own something, to make something, to count for something. I respect everyone's dreams, and Boone has his. Coy may have his own, but he isn't quite sure yet what it might be. The guys do seem to slowly be working this out, There's some back and forth, ups and downs; but what is slowly coming across is that their futures are intertwined, whether they realize it yet or not. So...I'll be back for the next chapter a.s.a.p.

I even see newsfolk on TV that forget to unmute themselves when reporting from home. It's funny, but also an interesting sign of the times. If we next forget to also turn the camera on, will we simply cease to exist?

Great chapter. I was feeling a couple of chapters ago that this story might be about the journey, maybe more than about actually arriving at Larkspur. It is a journey story, in more ways than one. Coy's revelation that Will might have killed Wes and Lee because of who they were rather than for their gold is jarring. But not unexpected of someone like Will. Just shows what a good job of characterizing you've done that we can see Will so plainly even though he wasn't ever physically in the story. It does look like Coy has been hiding himself, and his true feelings. Fear is a door. Shutting it is one thing, locking it is another. Good to see that Coy still has the key in hand. Great story so far, Gary. Reminds me of something Carol Pearson once wrote: "Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves."

I prefer to be the face looking forward. The one looking back can have that year! Nice to be thinking of spring already. It's seventeen degrees here just now, with some sun, but snow coming soon. Nary a flower in sight! Hope you'll have a nice haiku for spring, when it does show up! 🙂

Dreams often don't make sense, but sometimes elements of them still have truth. It looks like some of that truth is now coming out! Great that these two guys have made a move toward better understanding how they each feel, and how they each feel about each other. Very nicely done scene. I'm always running behind these days, but will catch up with the story as soon as I can!

Thank you for commenting. I really do enjoy your words - and the words of all commenters - as much as you seem to enjoy mine!

Paints a nice idea as well as a nice scenario!

Not just not see. But not see the REAL world. Living in a world of denial is such a narrow existence. A pity so many people focus their lives on what they don't like about others, rather than what they do like about themselves.

I have a feeling you are not the first guy that ever asked this question. Your version, at least, was artful as well.

Yes, please! For change, that is! Thanks for asking for all of us.