Marty

Nice... Just a hint of a 7 o'clock shadow there <Waiting for Gary to tell me how predictable I am (again)>

Evening, Gary!

A sad chapter, but one I can relate to in a way. Chris is currently in a very dark place, and I'm not sure just what he can do to get out of it. I'm tempted to say that he must confide in Kay, ("A trouble shared is a trouble halved" sort of thing) but I'm not sure he currently has the strength to do so. I don't think he will ever be able to recover just by himself, though. Maybe ringing an LGBT helpline might help? But would he even have the courage to do that? Perhaps - if only because at age sixteen he had had the courage (or do I mean stupidity?) to contact The Release Trust (and later to talk to Pastor Clive). And sadly, because of the way that all turned out, he may feel a reluctance now to seek help from other organisations. I'm just wondering whether Chris ever spoke to his older sister after his suicide attempt. And if not whether an approach to her might help. All his mum said was that dad had decided he wasn't welcome any more. There's nothing so far in the story to let us know what his sister's reaction might have been... I see there are only another three chapters left. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that Chris does find a way out of the hole that he is currently in (if only because I'm a sucker for happy endings). I suppose the only way to find out is for me to keep on reading. ++++ As I have come late to this story, I am deliberately not reading any of the existing comments to any chapter before making my own, because I don't want my thoughts to be influenced by what others have already said. If that means that I am repeating things others have already written, all I can do is apologise. ++++ I turned my back on the (RC) church when I was about eleven, and by the time I was sixteen I was (and still am) a committed atheist, so I didn't go through exactly the same things that Chris did. But homosexuality was still illegal at the time (I was reared in England). You could be put in prison for engaging in same sex practices; you could even be forced into aversion therapy "treatment". I knew about electric shock treatment that was in practice at the time. I had read about the Profumo Affair, so I knew that homosexuality was definitely frowned upon. I had read newspaper reports about unfortunates who were in court for unnatural practices and, even when the reports were often vague in the extreme, I was intelligent enough to be able to read between the lines and understand what was being written about. So I lived my younger life in denial. Nowadays it would be referred to as internalised homophobia. Even when homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, a few months before my twentieth birthday, I still remained in denial. It would be a good few years before I would find the strength to come out to myself even; and then it still took me another few years before I was able to come out to anyone else. I was fortunate. I lost no important friends and, unlike Chris, not a single family member ever treated me any differently once I did come out. But I really can appreciate just how difficult Chris must be finding things just at the point of his story.

Dull & overcast here today. Temp in low to mid teens (Celcius). Not much motivation to really get out and do anything, but I have done a bit of tidying up and replanting in the garden.

Morning, Caz.

Thanks, @drpaladin. Hopefully you won't be disappointed.

Oh! It really makes my day when I see readers actually spotting little clues when they read. Of course he could be leaving home for some other reason than having got a place at university... Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll try not to let you down as far as your 'expecting a good read' comment is concerned.

Right, gang! It's been a blast, but I really should get to bed. At my age, I really can't afford to miss my beauty sleep. Be good to each other (including to Drew), and I'll catch yous all another time. 💤 💤 💤 💤

No. But sometimes I was a smart arse. (Still can be at times)

I think it should be "Fermez la bouche" ...

You can't blame me for that, Albert. You can't even blame Danny, either.

Puts me in mind of being in French lesson sometime back in the 1960's. The teacher had said something really posh (can't remember what it was), to which I retorted "I say, old chap!" in a really upper-class sort of accent. He got upset with me and told me to write "I say, old chap!" out 500 times as a punishment. He was actually quite impressed when I handed him several pieces of paper the next lesson with something like "Dit donc, mon vieux!" written on it 500 times (not sure if I remember the French correctly after all this time).

Nah... I'm really quite the pacifist.

Maybe the French speaking Canadians still use it...

Mon dieu!

I bet you got the T-shirt as well.

Surely the correct adjective to have used for the penultimate word should have been something along the lines of "wannabe" .... Think you got the numbers in reverse order there. clo... Surely he counts down more often than he counts up?

Love the humour there, dughlas! (Reminds me of a song title from many years ago: "I Forgot To Remember To Forget" - sung by Johnny Cash, if my memory serves me right) Stay tuned for the next installment. Maybe Spud really did read the wrong line....

Fair play to you for getting involved, and trying to affect change, anyway. Sometimes change can be extremely slow, just one small step at a time; and it all too often seems to be a case of one step forward and two steps backwards at times. But if no-one is prepared to at least look for change, then the likelihood is that nothing ever will change. But often, as in the case with the Private Member's Bill you mention, allies can sometimes be found in the most unlikely of places. Keep up the good fight, my friend. In whatever way you can. Whether it is by being involved in seeking change (as in the case of the Private Member's Bill), or by highlighting what needs changing by writing about it, as in this story. I really wanted to give both a Like and a Sad response to your last comment. As only one was allowed, I chose the Sad one, because of the fact that the Private Member's Bill not getting through.

Just gotta love all the double entendres that are flying about today.

Ah... Well that clears that up!

Have you never heard the expression "Use it or lose it" - clo?

buzzy...? Like a bee? Or did you mean busy?

Do hurry up, then! Can't wait for you to come back and tell me just how bad it really is.

By the way, Albert... If you're short of a story to read whilst waiting for the Anthos to come online, you could always have a read of the first chapter of my new story... Only if you want to, of course.