Clancy59

Happy to read this story again. I’m looking forward to the next chapters, especially how the court case goes. I thought I recognized that song. ELO from the movie “Xanadu,” right?

Sorry to say, I’m not at all surprised to hear that the tribe did that. Bringing it to light in order to shame them into proper behavior would have done very little. I have relatives who worked at the local casino and they told us horror stories all the time of how they were treated. No, I don’t think we’ve heard the entire story yet.

Yes, Mozart was such a genius at such a young age. And look at how messed up his adult life became. This doesn’t happen to everyone—Einstein and Hawkings come to mind as level-headed certified geniuses. I’m absolutely positive that Ian will survive and thrive due to his parents’ support. They just have to find a way around in order to break down a five year old’s wall of stubbornness!

Yes, Ian is driven by his music. He is a musical genius. But he is FIVE YEARS OLD. Many of history’s geniuses had very troubling childhoods and adulthoods. Granted, some of them had (mostly) fathers who pushed them past the point that we might have considered abusive today, but Joel isn’t that kind of father. He will encourage his sons (and soon his daughter) to follow their hearts’ passions. If that leads them in a different direction, so be it. He’s not going to force his children down a particular pathway so he can boast about their accomplishmentsJ like those parents long (and not so long) ago. Five year olds can get very stubborn about what they do and don’t want to do. Ian is accustomed to technology doing the hard part of any work. As far as he’s concerned, Athena is there to assist them, so let her assist! The people around him are trying to explain that musical theory is an entirely new language for him to learn. It can be extremely challenging. He’s up to it, but again, he’s FIVE YEARS OLD. He wants to go play and be a little kid. I don’t know, but maybe they could break up the lessons more or find a more creative way of presenting them. Yes, instruct him as he obviously, so desperately needs to be instructed, but keep in mind that he is FIVE YEARS OLD! He is not an adult. He may have better attention control than most kids his age, but he’s still a kid. As far as Gaea is concerned, I just am fearful of it turning into a duplicate of the messed up world they just left. They need to leave the petty squabbling and jealousy back there. Take better care of this planet. Yes, I know they have to do some terraforming to make this planet hospitable to life from Earth, and that life from Earth will have to adapt to the peculiarities of Gaea. That’s to be expected. I just want them to be careful, I guess.

I understand the atmospheric needs. I have no problem with that. It just seems to me that they want to duplicate the original Earth society with all its foibles. I just think that they have a chance to start fresh—which they do with the community of people they have. Try to avoid the pitfalls the original Earth fell into!

Poor Ian. It’s hard to have so many expectations at just five years of age. He may have the smarts, but he doesn’t have the maturity yet, as witnessed b6 his meltdown about learning the technicalities of the language of music. I don’t quite get the determination to make Gaea like Earth II. Things had gone so wrong there, I would think they would want a completely fresh start. Name your cities and locations after places on Earth I. That’s fine. But make a break and make a new society with more care for each other and the world on which you are now living!

Good on Annalise, Jase AND Auntie Anne (and I can sympathize with the honorary title there—I cannot tell you how many we have in our family!)!!! I don’t think Annalise has any ulterior, subversive motive. I think she sees the ridiculousness of Miles position and sees how Mother simply does whatever he says. I believe she doesn’t approve—that’s why she has been sending Colin messages, even if they are hidden from Miles. She’s trying to keep the channels of communication and contact open. Jase sounds like he’s got a good head on his shoulders. He gave Colin some good advice. Hopefully, Colin will listen to it and really take it to heart. (It sounds like he is with that email to his mother. It was simple, general and neutral, but gives her an opening, if she’s willing. Auntie Anne! I Love Her!She knows just how Mother works and what a jerk Miles is. However, she definitely doesn’t want to see Colin estranged from his mother needlessly. She had some good advice for him, just like Jake, about asking Mother’s advice about the garden. Such a large project could become a passion project for her. And the close contact with Colin and Owain will show her that they are really no different than anyone else.

That’s why I preferred the high schoolers. You could speak with them and not get dragged into their hormone-driven angst! Middle-schoolers are put on Earth to torture those responsible for them.

😥

@Valkyrie, if you are nervous of elevators, you’ll love this. The late educator, Leo Buscaglia, often spoke about how silly it was that when people get into an elevator, they all automatically turn to face the door and won’t talk with each other. He would, himself, often stand near the door and face the others to initiate conversations. Well, one day, he and two coeds got into an elevator together, and as it started to move, he turned to the girls and said, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this elevator got stuck and we got the chance to know each other?” You know, of course, what happened. Yep. The elevator got stuck. Leo said they were stuck for over an hour with these two girls terrified that he had somehow arranged it and was planning on attacking them! This was evidently before he earned the nickname of ‘The Love Doctor’ (and I don’t mean like Dr. Ruth!). To this day, partly due to the influence of this man, I find myself initiating contact with people in elevators, even if it’s a simple greeting. I am also pleased to say I am a lucky recipient of one of Dr. Buscaglia’s formidable hugs. For a small man, he had the presentation of a giant.

I want to give this both a ❤️ and a 😆! I loved how the tables turned near the end!

I thought people did #18 on a regular basis!

Boy, those charges at those restaurants really add up quickly. My husband and I were at one of my conferences and went to a local steakhouse like that—separate charges for the soup, salad, main entree, vegetable, potato, dessert, etc. We were in shock when the bill for just the two of us ran well into three figures! We had seen the individual pricing, but even so….wow! We were used to bills at that time of around $30-40 for a night out, so this was sticker shock! And they were the ‘artsy’ small portions, on top of that! But, otherwise, it was amusing to see Colin in typical ‘professional’ mode and critiquing everything he saw from the viewpoint of a craftsman. I have often found myself doing the same sort of thing with books, stories and literature as a Librarian and Educator. So, I completely sympathized!

Jasper is psychotic enough to think no one will possibly notice the night/day differences between them. Not only in food and cultural tastes, but habits which will surface shortly. Robert has already realized. Now he just has to prove it to the others. That’s the tricky part, since Jasper has been so careful in cultivating their ‘identities’ as absolute ‘identicals’ to the world.

Hopefully, the adults around him, will understand what he is attempting to do. Robert most certainly has to inform the adults. I’m glad they seem to be taking this seriously enough to separate the boys, but, unfortunately, as in real life, many seem to think this is simply teenage hijinks. Someone needs to wake these people up before it’s too late. I hope Robert is not the intended victim here. If Jasper intends to commit suicide by fraudulently laying the blame on Kalum, let everyone prove Kalum’s innocence and glad to see Jasper go. Did Jasper have something to do with Simon’s death? It certainly sounds like it!