Will Hawkins

I think it is in one of the responses and should not be called to your attention. I just remember seeing it at one time here. My Bad. Apologies. Yep, I found it: in a response to 11/4/2016 at 7:19 AM, bubby1234 But I should not comment on comments anyway.

Whoops -- the witness protection program is run by the US Marshal's Service, not the FBI

I am sure you find it interesting to get so many good reviews to your stories -- to me, it would mean that there are many more people out in Readerland, not writing comments, but who are reading your chapters and enjoying your creativity. Congratulations and keep up the good work.

Interesting commentary from both sides of the gun control issue. Of course, I have an opinion, is there anything in life about which I don't have an opinion? The framers of the Constitution, taking into the consideration that they had just fought and would fight again, (1812) war against a major European nation, expressed their opinions in the amendments, I believe they were justified in doing so. However, times change and governments should change with those times. Progress, that is 'change' within a government is a very difficult thing to accomplish. The concept of 'change' is probably one of the reasons the original framers of the Constitution made it possible, though difficult, to modify the document. Specifically in reference to the Second Amendment: In its original format it speaks of "a well-ordered militia". One of the reasons my country won the Wars of Independence was because there were firearms in nearly every home and strong men who knew how to use them. To me, this is the meaning of "a well-ordered militia". Today there are perhaps millions of men who have been trained by police departments and the branches of the military, veterans, now living civilian lives. These trained men constitute "a well-ordered militia" in the sense of the Second Amendment and should be permitted to "keep and bear arms" in that sense, but that does not mean every man (or woman) should be able to do so, and even these peace officers and vets should be carefully vetted and required to maintain the weapons skills they acquired in the service by repeated training sessions before they are granted permission to carry a weapon. The right to "keep and bear arms" should be an earned right. I cannot see any aggressor nation attacking the USA where every household might contain a person, well trained in the use of weapons. In Switzerland, there is a distribution of small arms of this nature and they have maintained their sovereignty for many, many years. To comply with my opinion in this manner would require stringent laws be enforced rigorously, and training facilities created and maintained, but if the citizens wish to maintain those minimums that they feel are enshrined in the Second Amendment, there will be a cost. There is no such thing as a free way! Temporary end of rant!

Mrs. Edwards sighed and the expression on his face softened. -- on her face softened 'A sex change without the surgery!' For those who are lazy in Brazil, tesao is used for excitement, but a literal translation is 'hard-on' or erection.

We may disagree on Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, but I am glad to see we agree on Trump's presidency. We are coming up on another election year as I write this comment. I am holding my thumbs, to use a European gesture, in reference to the nomination and election. We have not yet gone through the cutting down process for Democratic candidates. My personal choice would be Pete Buttigieg though I do not believe he has a chance it would be cool to have an 'out' candidate elected as president.

The checking up action of CJ's Washington family reminds me of "trust but verify", the attitude of Ronald Regan toward the Russian denuclearization program. Interestingly enough the aphorism comes from the Russian language as well.

Alright, Carlos, fasten your seatbelt, it going to be a bumpy night. Mention of roofies, HIV positive characters and the Guggenheim Museum all in one chapter is going to result in some serious discussion. I will leave the drugs, and HIV to others and tackle my special peeve: FLW structures. The tiny restrooms in the Guggenheim are an example of his ignoring the utility of a building he has designed, but that has been mentioned, let's talk about the exhibit space all by its-self. If we take an elevator to the top of the ramp and walk down level by level -- really the only way to do it -- we find slanted walls and semicircular display niches. Not the ideal setting for the display of artworks. There is a strange conflict between the rectangular paintings and the slope of the ramp. With no flat surface against which to hang a painting. The lighting that comes in through the high windows that follow the spiral slope of the ramp shines in the viewer's eyes rather than illuminating the art and there is no good way of presenting three-dimensional works in the semi-circulat niches that line the walls. The rectangular paintings are hung in a space that has no rectangularity to match them -- a total disaster as far as an art presentation space is concerned. Once again the Guggenheim is an example of the architect more concerned with the expression of his own design that the utility of the building. I am aware, Carlos, that you do not agree with my negativity toward Wright, and you are perfectly welcome to your opinion, we just happen to disagree.

it is my understanding that the American Express Black card is issued to Platinum Card holders only by invitation of the company and then they must spend oodles of money as an initiation fee and high annual charges. True the Dads might qualify for the card on the basis of the travel back and forth to Australia, but I don't see CJ wanting to afford the initiation fee and annual fees as he is not, so far as I know, planning on much long-distance travel in the near future. An American Express Platinum account might be more useful to him as the initiation fee is only, wow, did I just say "only", $500 as opposed to $2,500 for a black card. I guess I will never understand the type of high finance that CJ is entering into! I think his dads getting him involved in the control of his money is a good idea, especially at this time when he is still a minor and they have supervisory rights on his accounts. Let's get him a Drivers License before we make a multi-millionaire out of him though, Carlos!

As a matter of fact, the Fleet enema people have acknowledged the use of their product by the gay community. There was a cautionary note a couple of years ago because Fleet enemas contained a chemical Sodium Phosphate that doctors worried about. Gay men were using too many Fleet enemas and thereby absorbing too much of the chemical. In response to this concern Fleet put out an enema that was plain water only. So doctors now say that using a special Fleet enema is no longer chemically dangerous. However, they still recommend their use with caution as too many enemas will degrade the normal response of the bowel to pressure.

Commas are a punctuation mark that defeats many an author. In my writing, I have taken to just leaving them out except in specific cases. I find that, if I leave them all out, Grammarly will tell me where I should put a few, like one or two, back in. So now I wait until Grammarly panics then put only those called for in. It seems to work somewhat. Generally speaking punctuation in total is a quagmire that drowns many authors.

I believe that all anti-gay sentiment is based on Religious Intolerance. Where else is sodomy so explicitly deemed sinful. The Egyptians, the early Greeks, and the Romans all seemed to ignore, tolerate or even encourage MM sex. It was the jews that first created a prohibition against it. Why? I believe because MM sex does not create additional people who will become additional members of a church when they mature. It is those who have had Leviticus waved under their noses since they were children who are the most virulently anti-gay. As nations move away from a state-sponsored religion, more and more of the laws in reference to MM sex are discarded. I believe that love is important in the world, but whom you love is of no importance to anyone except yourself and your partner.

On my trip down under I looked at the bridge climb and decided it was too much effort for too little benefit, but I had done the skydive from the Aukland Sky Tower in NZ. They let you down on a wire slowly until you were just outside the windows of the restaurant on the level below and it happened that there were a number of men from my tour group having dinner right opposite to where I was suspended on the wire. Of course, my creds went way up when they recognized me outside their window. "Hey, that's Will, he's jumping from the tower." Then they released the brakes on the wire and you went about 190m. nearly to the ground before they slowed you down and a helper on the ground floor platform helped you stand up. THAT I thought was cool!

Whoops, I had forgotten that Owen will be coming to Washington and will be attending Walls next year, so the distance between the two boys will be more like one foot or maybe less at times, not over 6,000 miles. My bad! That means that Owen is well placed to serve CJ's 16-year-old itches. We will have to see what comes up between those two in subsequent chapters, but a relationship is, at least, now possible.

I did not realize before that there was, is it six years, difference in age between César and Brett. I knew they were different ages, but the six years escaped me. The difference between CJ and Owen is not dramatic then. CJ being just turned sixteen means that his hormones are truly raging and Owen seems very willing to provide a balm for that condition, though the 9,762 miles between Sidney and Washington seems a little far for a relationship to develop. I am sure you have a solution worked out for the problem, Carlos. All it takes is a little reading for me to discover what it is.

It is apparent the interest there is in your story, from the number of comments you see at the end of each chapter. Congratulations on a fascinating tale and I'll see you in Winter.

CJ's confrontation with his egg donor was totally perfect -- neither too bland nor too angry -- it showed CJ's growth since moving to Washington. Well handled, Carlos. I really appreciated the fact that he got his little brother out of the crossfire before that relationship with mother got ruined.

CJ laid on the big leather couch -- CJ lay on the big leather couch I finally found an error that is easy to correct. I googled the name of the restaurant where they went for lunch -- the menu there is fabulous -- I looked at maybe 50 different items and found nothing I would object to, I am not an oyster lover, but even the oyster plates looked good.

Some information about the Empire State Building that is not general knowledge: the construction was financed by two New York millionaires, John J. Raskob and Piere S. DuPont. It was completed in 1932, an important year in my life, as I got born that year, and it was not much of a success when first opened. It wasn't until the early years of WWII that it began to pay its way. The eldest son of John J.Raskob, John J. Raskob, Jr. was my sister's second husband. He later had a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair, fell in love with his nurse, a black woman, and divorced my sister. You can imagine the trauma caused in my family. While married they had two children, Micheal Phillip, and Ann Melissa called Missy. I was their favorite baby sitter for many years. You don't ever have to worry about the ESB falling down, it is firmly bedded in the granite that underlies much of New York City. If the attack on the World Trade Center buildings had taken place on the ESB the terrorists would have been very frustrated as the building would not have collapsed.

I certainly agree with your right to express a positive opinion of FLW and his work, there are thousands of people in the world who agree with you. I, too admire his sense of design, but I just happen to feel that the primary job of the architect is to design a shelter, someplace in which human beings are enclosed and protected from storms. As a personal opinion, I feel that FLW fails frequently in that goal. But really, who am I to be critical? The only thing I am doing is expressing opinion taught me in design and architecture classes in school. It differs from yours, okay, we each have a right to our opinions. And my opinion of your authorship is 100 plus.

Though there is a great deal of uncertainty about its origins there is assumed to be an ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." It has been quoted in slight variations for many years especially by British and American politicians. I am sorry, but I do not agree that Frank Lloyd Wright was a genius as an architect. He was an excellent designer, but every one of the structures he built had serious flaws as far as their utility was concerned. I will give as an example the famous 'Waterfall House" in Pennsylvania. First, Wright insisted that the house be built on the opposite side of the creek from the location the owner wished, it had no central heating so it was useless in the winter, the balconies had to have additional reinforcing so they could even stand and even then when the house was opened to the public after Wright's death there needed to be even more reinforcing steel installed, the railings around the balconies were solid concrete effectively cutting any view of the creek and its waterfalls from the interior and even shortly after it was constructed significant leaks developed in the windows of the living room. These shortfalls were not confined to only one structure that Wright designed, it seems there were similar faults in every building he worked on. I do not have space or time to go into every one of them here, but I would suggest that a quick reading into his biography will demonstrate his lack of architectural sense. This rant is not meant to denigrate your ability as an author, Carlos. I just get upset whenever the name Frank Lloyd Wright is mentioned. In my opinion and in the opinions of many of my peers, he does not deserve the abject admiration that the public treats him with.

I do not have anything in my background to make me relate to the characters in this story -- I am going to read on because it is developing into a good tale.

My ancestry is lowland Scots and Irish. I was assured that our family had a tartan so I looked it up. There is an official website for those who believe they are of Scottish descent. A tartan is registered to my name so I guess I am official in adopting it, but my father never made anything of his ancestry which makes me feel there was some reason the family left Scotland many years ago. At any rate, it does not mean much to me now as I am gay and have no children so the family name dies with me. Just a point of interest.

I am fascinated by your descriptions of locations in the USA. Many of the places you mention, I have lived in or near and am familiar with but from many years ago. During the Second World War, while my father was serving in the Air Force, my mother, sister and I lived in Hollywood, Florida which at that time was a quiet residential town located between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Now, however, the Atlantic coast of Florida is crowded with huge tourist hotels from the southern tip at Key West all the way north to the Georgia state line and beyond. It is someplace I would not even like to visit, much less reside. I even understand that many of these tourist towers are planning to abandon the 2 or 3 lower floors to the threat of the rising waters of the Atlantic Ocean because of Global Warming.

This has nothing to do with the story, but I am pleased to see that Jaro423 moved out of Zimbabwe. South Africa is much more accepting of GLBT's, even with their change in government, it seems they are still stuck in a generation ago. The age of consent for MM sex varies all over the globe, here in Brazil I believe it is 18. But even so, there are Old Testament types that consider MM relationships to be sinful. I am pleased to see CJ spouting off at the Priest, especially about the spanking -- "I am not one of your altar boys." Hits the nail on the head.