Will Hawkins

I am pleased to see that others in the world have the same opinion of our present POTUS as do many of us. Reading story avidly -- keep up the good work.

This story was hard to read, but the second time I started it I was able to stick in there until the end -- and I am glad I did. I will look forward to reading some of your other works -- I hope not quite so dark. You are a superior author and, even though this story was quite melodramatic the pace and characterizations were impeccable. A big vote of YES for your efforts.

I am not in favor of killing, but in this case, where a murderer was destined to get off scot-free it was certainly justified. That all those religious freaks would be able to swear to a lie, shows up their ungodliness. "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God, unless the accused is a member of my church, then I will lie like a trooper." That oath just doesn't have the ring to it!

I will wait until I read the final chapter to comment, but the heroin that killed Simon had to come from somewhere -- the only question remaining is it suicide or murder?

I am very conflicted. I am an old man who lived through the period involved with your story. I, too, spent much of my life hiding in the closet. Jeff has many strikes against him as a father, his Viet Nam experience has left his psyche deeply scarred ad he is reflecting the majority reactions of the era. That said he is a parent and has a child who needs him -- a child who needs love and understanding. The needs of his children should come first, but he is so deeply embroiled in his own needs that he cannot see this. Yes, feel sorry for him, but it will be another five to ten years before society will begin to understand the problems he is having with his family. I fear that by the time he begins to get some understanding, all his children will be destroyed. Your writing is excellent and portrays the tenor of the era perfectly. True it is very dark, but it was a dark time in our history and you have captured it well.

You know you have a winner of a story when it requires two pages for the comments on a chapter. There are always many more readers who don't comment. Good luck and thanks for writing/

I was surprised to hear that the British are aware of what chitterlings are. I thought those were essentially Southeastern American. I may have wasted time in explaining\translating a couple of the foods mentioned in previous Chapters, the author did it so well in this chapter. I guess I will wait on 'chitterlings' too. Do I dare hold off on "spotted dog' as well? My partner found that for sale in our local market here in Brazil under the name 'fruitcake'! "Spotted Dog" is frequently applied to pudding in Britain or a cake, in the US containing dried fruit, though in the US "fruitcake" is used also as a slang term for a gay man. The reasoning is slightly complex but it essentially relies on the fact that a 'fruitcake' contains both dried fruit and nuts just as a gay man is supposed to be a 'fruit' -- queer -- who is "nuts" -- crazy -- as well. All this conversation about foods that I have come to know as delicious in my travels over many years and many lands is making me hungry. Thank Goodness it is nearly lunchtime!

Because I am reading this story in 2019 gay marriage is now legal in every state -- yea! Faggots: seasoned ground liver and other "offal" meats, usually pork formed into balls wrapped with bacon and baked. Toad-in-the-hole: Beef sausages baked on a bed of flour, egg, and milk Pudding. Note: though translations of foreign (to American readers) phrases are in the main available on the internet, I will from time to time include in "Comments" a translation. In this chapter, as our story is taking place in England, the translations will be from British to American slang.

I have purposely NOT been posting comments to this story though I have been following it now for years. It is beautifully written with excellent characterization and plot lines -- it shows a real artist at the keyboard, I am only saddened by the fact that my kudos will not reach that far back in time. As I believe I said previously, I was this story the hooked me on reading GA -- it was the first one I read, not understanding that I was building a habit that would last me for years. I now read the stories on GA all the time and enjoy almost all of them.

Two kisses -- is this the boy from long ago coming through? Max needs so much and especially patience -- breaking the ice-wall is a slow process.

Being an 'Iceman' as Max seems to be; to open oneself up to another person is possibly the most difficult thing in the world to do. Max is using his icy exterior as a guard, a wall, against being hurt, perhaps for the second time in his life. I can only hope for his sake that he can let someone in, otherwise, he will never be happy or perhaps, he will never be well, would be a better way of putting it. This type of isolation of one'self is close to being an illness. If it becomes extreme it can easily result in physical illness, insanity or death. I admire his friend's persistence in trying to break in. Opening up to another person is the only thing that can save Max's life.

An interesting and different start to a story -- not the overworked teen-aged angst -- let's see where this leads

The communist government of North Korea has recently been threatening Wake Island with atomic destruction. Our present government . . . no, I will not say any more as I wish to avoid the punishment of GA for making political comments, but there is recent stress involved between North Korea and the US.

While the dismissal of the smoker probably seems severe punishment to us 'landlubbers', smoking in the interior of a submarine is universally prohibited in any navy because of the danger it threatens to others in the crew. Fighting a fire at sea is doubly dangerous in that the large quantities of seawater used normally to douse the flames must afterward be pumped out of the bilges or else destabilize or cause the sinking of the ship and in a submarine the smoke and fumes may be poisonous of themselves, and it may not be possible to surface quickly enough to clear the air. Mankind is an unwelcome guest to the sea!

Interesting to see how our hero accepts the challenge of being a parent. A real curve ball!

Thou: is a form of personal address and is pronounced 'thow'. the word you are looking for is 'though' I agree totally with the negative reactions expressed above, Homophobes like Wallace are the worst examples of human nature, but there are many of them in the world. Most are victims themselves of the extreme homophobia of religious freaks. They misinterpret the sexual rules in the Bible that have been so mistranslated over the years as to be meaningless. Those portions of the Bible which forbid MM sex are based on the desire of the early Jews to increase their numbers by breeding. Some opposite interpretations of the Bible, especially the New Testament, hint that Jesus even had a loving arrangement with young John. That is certainly possible as Jesus supposedly never married in a society where, for a man to reach his thirties and still be unmarried, was nearly unheard of.

Wow, another bombshell for Trenton -- being segued into the Captain's family. Are you sure his heart is strong enough to handle all the good news?

Wow - talk about bombshells in life, Trenton has had a few recently. Including one where a former lover wants to become reacquainted. Let's see: he is related by marriage to the Captain of his ship. His family knows if his sexual orientation and his father is the owner of the company (for which he is working that built the ship upon which he is serving), all this in addition to the renewed interest of a former lover. I think his head must be spinning -- at least it is all good news. All this news may cause PTSD! Certainly, it is stressful to get it all at once. Hell, it would be stressful if spread over half a lifetime!

I am sorry to see that Aussies are just as bad as we Yanks as far as trespassing is concerned. Lots of work coming up to get the Station back in order.

I remember as a teenager sitting through a hurricane, that is what cyclones are called in the Atlantic Ocean coastline, in our living room with the drapes open watching garbage cans and lawn furniture blowing down the street. Your preparations for a cyclone are exactly the same as we made in Florida for our hurricanes except for the emergency power sources not being appropriate in the city. Many times in my long life I have blessed my mother for instilling in me her love of storms. As a result of her training, I have laughed through many bad storms in my life.

from my experience with male dogs, I raised show quality standard poodles for several years, it may not be kidney trouble that causes Angus to pee so often. With male dogs, it is frequently just a 'marking' behavior, a way of establishing territory saying I was here.

Poor Angus and the thunderstorm -- we humans forget that a dog's ears are far more sensitive than are ours and thunder, which is merely loud to us is thunderously loud to them. At no time are comments such as we have seen here about the sexuality of a third person appropriate and Lloyd is perfectly correct in calling the bad behavior of the 'dish' installation crew to their boss' attention. It does sound like Angus has bladder problems -- I wonder how he lasted all day in the apartment when Lloyd was working!

I was pleased to see that the part-time arrangement with the station and the present law firm worked out, but I was a little put out by the crass attitude of Mr. Phillips about our narrator's parents death. Even lawyers who are famous for being related to ass-holes should not be that crass. Many small grammatical errors in the writing that an Editor would catch - consider making arrangements with one. Otherwise, the story is progressing nicely - I love the dolphin games.

Interesting chapter -- a good introduction to the site and to the town nearby. The only negative comment I might make is that the narrative keeps shifting from present to past tense then back to present again. This tells me you do not have an Editor or maybe a Beta Reader. If I remember rightly, I have made this comment about some of your previous stories I have read. My philosophy is that the Author's job is to be creative and tell a good story; it is the job of an Editor to pick out slips in spelling, timing or characterization and the Beta Reader should help tie everything together to make the tale flow. The only thing I would suggest is probably something I have mentioned before -- you do a great job of story-telling, but you need the hard eye of an Editor and Beta Reader to make your stories all they have the potential to be. Mister Will

I have read several of your stories, CC. and enjoyed each one of them, so I am looking forward to reading this. The fact that you have involved real places is interesting as well -- it gives a Yankee insight into a fascinating land.