Summerabbacat

What a devastatingly sad chapter, even moreso because it happens all too often, and bullies rarely seem to suffer any consequences. One only has to look at the bullies in the current US government to see this, and some of the worst bullies are female.

Whilst I can appreciate Tony's anger at Jordan's deceit, I think he is behaving more aggressively than the situation warrants. Perhaps there is an element of self-doubt clouding Tony's reaction to Jordan's deceit too, after all he did verbalise how much he enjoyed sucking cock, rimming and fucking, the latter as both top and bottom. Jordan also must accept responsibility for having repeatedly lied to Tony to curry sexual favours from him. A well written chapter @Bill W. It would have been so easy to present either party as totally responsible for the misery and/or anger being experienced b the other. I feel you presented the scenario factually and without any bias in favour of one or the other.

Not to mention Santa "cumming" down the chimney (now there is an image for the ages). Hitherto is such a pretentious and old-fashioned sounding word which is why I love to use it on occasion. I liken it to aforesaid and aforementioned which I tend to use a lot too. I used to be quite fashion conscious. Not so much now. I prefer clothes which need little or no ironing, which hopefully won't show up cat vomit stains and which are hopefully able to withstand cat claw marks or shredding.

Tony stepped up when he was needed in spades. He is a wonderful friend not only to Jordan, but to Justin and their father too. Tony's leadership qualities, qualities he has obviously always possessed although were overshadowed by Jordan's similar qualities. To Tony's credit he has to date shown no jealousy when he has usually played second fiddle to Jordan. A very sad chapter @Bill W. Unfortunately it was not a surprise Mom K passed.

You would have to be careful though @Paladin, those reindeers might become very horny with too much tickling (I know they are not horns, but antlers, but I have never heard of any animal, including a human animal, becoming very "antlery").

Hold your horses @Paladin, or should it be hold your reindeers. Santa has not been yet. Surely he and/or the reindeers will get in on some ticklish fun.

Curvaceous Carine and boyish Beth seem well-matched. Perhaps Ralph should suggest to Carine and Beth that he "lend" them the twins on a semi-regular basis, assuming the twins agree to it, to allow them to be certain they really do want to have children. Although the twins appear well behaved I think I could only take them in very small doses, especially given there are two of them. I wonder if Carine and Beth might approach Russ or maybe even Morrie to donate some DNA for a baby. I can understand them wanting to have the donor be someone they know, but it could also make things awkward if not properly documented. Will they want the donor to play a role in the child's life? Will they expect financial support? If they split up what impact will it have on the donor if he has been playing a role in the child's life? I find it cute that Ralph still refers to Gordon as his "my Gordon". Ditto what @Gary L said @Robert Hugill. A joyful read with the addition of a Sapphic element in the storyline on this occasion. You are an equal opportunity author, with Carine and Beth occupying more "screen time" than in any prior chapter.

An interesting premise and with chapter 1 you are off to a great start @Tallguyct.

A few of @drsawzall's beloved red herrings thrown in for good measure perhaps @E K Stokes? Is it possible Giovanni may have murdered Roland? "Giovanni Salvatore was seen with Roland leaving Orlando's room". I cannot recall who Orlando is or has your spell checker "converted" Roland to Orlando if Roland was spelt incorrectly? Niomi Asouta (whom I have vision of similar to Sade) is supposedly ruthless, but would not it have made more sense for her to murder Alex rather than Roland? So many little clues but I am as clueless as Inspector Clouseau.

Not at all.

You are too kind @Ticklishboy30. My curiosity regarding the hitherto unnamed Lorraine & Phillip Morgan Jr was merely the catalyst which awakened your creative juices that were already beginning to bubble, although in this case it may be more accurate to say bubble, bubble, toil and trouble given the state of Brett and Trevor's parents. I will not pose any more questions about them, but must say I find it impossible to feel any sympathy for people who have existing drug and alcohol problems when they decide to have children, the ultimate in selfishness. This may not have been the case with Lorraine and Phillip Jr, the drug and alcohol problems may have started subsequent to the births of Brett and Trevor. I love your detailed description of the clothing/footwear the "cast" wear. It seems you put in a great deal of effort to colour co-ordinate the clothing and give it an appropriate "theme" if it is a special occasion, such as Christmas.

Aargh, the joys of rimming. It will do it to you every time Tony. LOL. Excellent chapter @Bill W. Jordan is very persuasive. His tongue is multi-talented as evidenced by this chapter.

"Then, we went over and gave him a group hug, and it was then that I noticed Dad K looked as if he had aged ten years in just one day." Is Tony's observation ominous? I fear it may be. Jordan is still the leader and Tony the follower. Will this change after Mrs Koontz's surgery, particularly if she does not make it? Sensitively and authentically written @Bill W. Not an easy topic to write about it.

An interesting start to the second of your stories I am going to read @Bill W. Jordan is certainly the leader and Tony the follower. I just hope Tony does not resent Jordan at some point in the future for being the more successful and handsome. Fortunately Jordan appears to be oblivious to his charms thus far.

I know @Bill W and it is the realism which disgusts me. This disgust was seemingly shared by Tommy, which I think only added to the valuable "lesson" he learned, a lesson his father was hard-pressed to impress upon him. It took an experience like this for Tommy to realise and appreciate what his father had long tried to get him to understand with limited success. I understand the "feel good" emotions Tommy experienced too. I have experienced it on many an occasion over the last 17 years when I have fostered and on a number of occasions adopted abandoned rescue cats. I am going to investigate your back catalogue now for other stories which appeal.

Aargh, I see. They have a real chip on their shoulder then. It is someone else's fault, they have been denied the opportunities they should have been presented with. No doubt it is either the "gays, Jews or blacks" fault then. And having a faggot for a son would be just another cruel way the whole world was against them. They just had to beat the faggot out of the boy or else they would not be able to hold their head up in the trailer park.

Heartwarming indeed, but infuriating too. @Lisa expressed her disgust with the behaviour of Jason's mother, a disgust I share. In the "spirit" of Christmas I am going to concentrate on the positive though and focus on the generosity of Tommy and his parents, rather than the loser who was Jason's birthing vessel.

Grandma and Grandpa Morgan may have "fallen in with a bad crowd", perhaps they started attending one of those fundamentalist churches or started believing the bullshit spouting from their local Republican party representative. Wilful stupidity on the part of one or both Brett and Trevor's parents.

My thoughts exactly @Thomas Haworth. And how was it Jack and Lisa were aware of Ken's "proclivities", his "unnatural tendencies" in the first place. Methinks one of the bigoted case workers Ms Schmidt referred to in the previous chapter divulged this information to them, and possibly promised them that Ken would be given custody of the twins over his or her dead body. I suppose it is possible their mother's boyfriend may have insisted they call him "Sir", but given the attitude of the foster parents, it appears more likely they insisted on this. “What is the reason for his absence from their lives, given that he is their father?". This comment incensed me as much as if not more than the bigoted comments. I know it would have been foolhardy to respond, but in a perfect world, Ken could have responded with, mind your own fucking business. Ken has an arduous task ahead of him, but thus far he appears to be doing well considering he is "flying by the seat of his pants".

I believe if I were in Ken's shoes I would have reacted similarly to the assertion the girls needed to be in a nice normal family given the ordeal they have been through. I do however believe Ms Schmidt when she said she had no issue with Ken being gay, and for that reason I think she was guilty of one thing only, a poor choice of the word normal. Being raised by a single father whom you have never met is not the usual scenario for most children, nor I imagine is being raised on a military base. It would also have been prudent for Ms Schmidt to disclose to Ken if the twins had been abused by their mother's boyfriend, in which case it would potentially be frightening for them to be raised by a single man whom they have never met. If however, there is no evidence the boyfriend abused them then this should not be a concern. I generally do not like to bring apparent errors to the attention of the author in comments I make, but on this occasion feel the error is one which is crucial to the authenticity of the story @wolfwriter. In chapter 1 it is indicated Ms Schmidt is based in Maryland, however, in this chapter it is indicated she is based in Virginia, hence Ken's concern about his sexuality being used against him. I am not an American, but was under the impression, perhaps wrongly so, that Maryland is a far more "enlightened" state than Virginia. Other than this error, I enjoyed this chapter immensely, and as you will observe I tried to have some empathy for Ms Schmidt, believing her to be doing her job without any prejudice.

It is easy to conclude that Jane Mason's boyfriend is the one who abused the twins resulting in bruises and bleeding. This may have been why she screamed she was going to kill him. However, the easy conclusion may not be the correct one, Jane may have threatened to kill him because he was going to report her because she was the one abusing the twins. I also find it difficult to believe he was responsible for the twins apparent malnutrition. And, whilst I am fully aware the story is set in the USA and therefore it is realistic Jane had access to a gun, I still have to ask, WTF was she doing with a gun with such young twins. Given the title of the story I am gong to speculate that Ken is not the father of the twins, but will apply to adopt them anyway. This is probably not at all realistic, but this is fiction and if @wolfwriter decides this is the way to go, so be it.

Whilst I sympathise with Alex as I would not want to be in a relationship which involved children, the relationship is clearly not working even without the possibility of involving children, which seems likely given the call from Family Services. Alex's ignoring Ken's phone calls is petty and childish, in addition to being downright rude. It appears if he does not get his way he is prone to tantrums, dare I say behaving like a child himself. I agree with @drsawzall's observation, Ken needs to kick Alex to the kerb, metaphorically speaking (at least at present). An intriguing start to this story @wolfwriter.

Peter handled the interviews with poise and just the right amount of empathy for the local population without sounding hokey or patronising. With the onset of the hurricane hopefully Peter sought confirmation from Avery Sr what colour his aura currently is, particularly if he is going to face possible further danger with fallen power lines. I knew nothing about Corpus Christi other than that it is in Texas and was the birthplace of Farrah Fawcett. I have just researched it on the 'net and it appears to have been "governed" by some incredibly stupid people in more recent times. The A&M University and Art Museum of South Texas both appear to be very attractive buildings in beautiful locations very close to water in a city which experiences such powerful hurricanes. To the naked eye online, it does not appear it would take much for them to be inundated with water, or are appearances deceptive? Another excellent chapter @Lee Wilson. Have you experienced living through a severe hurricane yourself since you moved to Georgia?

This story is akin to heresy @Lee Wilson, a meteorologist who forecasts the weather with uncanny accuracy. Even in the "Wilson World" surely such a creature cannot exist or be sustained for any length of time. An exciting start to this latest instalment in the Life and Times of Avery Noonan @Lee Wilson. Peter seems a very likeable lad, not at all cocky, quietly self-assured and polite. I am sure other TV stations will be clamouring to sign him on after his initial broadcast, or perhaps they will hang on to make sure it was not a fluke.

It was plant-based, dairy-free, gluten-free, organic, 0% alcohol she was drinking @Paladin, Southern Comfort without the "comfort".