Summerabbacat

"Ollie continued to hold onto us. “It’s his fault. She didn’t really do drugs until she met him.” The tears rolled and his voice quivered. “The fucking bastard. I hate him. I hate the bastard. He raped me and now my mum’s dead because of him.” His crying turned into bawling." This statement surprised me @Paladin, although really in Ollie's mind may mean several different things. His mother's death may be the trigger which "breaks" him; if so, his new Dads will be there to support him all the way. I have to wonder now that Crackhouse Chrissie is dead if Ollie's adoption circumstances may change. Might it be possible for his new Dads to adopt him sooner than 12 months after commencing fostering him. I daresay Ollie is going to feel very vulnerable and an earlier adoption may provide him some comfort and security. And as for Crackhouse Chrissie herself, I find it difficult to have any sympathy for her. She had a child FFS whom she abandoned and I am still suspicious that she was involved either directly or indirectly in her husband's murder. At least there is no chance now of her ever trying to reclaim Ollie or want to be involved in his life. An outstanding chapter @Paladin.The joy of Chris and Andre's engagement tempered somewhat by the news of Crackhouse Chrissie's death.

Linda's prejudice towards the Bropops maintaining the adoption of Levie was rooted in a church she and Tom were apparently attending at the time. Given Tom's apparent disagreement with its anti-LGBTQI rhetoric I have to wonder why he continued to attend, or did he do it to "keep the peace" in their marriage. All in all it does not matter now as the Bropops do not hold this lapse in judgment against her, but will Levie be so forgiving given he was still a child at the time. This remains to be seen. What would Dolly say in such a situation @Ticklishboy30? Get Out And Stay Out or I Will Always Love You?

It will take a lot more than being shot between the chest and the shoulder to bring about Levie's demise. I expect in the next chapter he will be high-kicking in his cowboy boots, red hair aflame and green eyes a-flashing as he wildly gyrates to Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive (well perhaps the chapter after). I hope the young cashier who accidentally shot him is not going to find himself in any legal trouble. Linda appears determined to make amends for her poor judgment in the past. Perhaps she can take a leaf out of Elton's songbook with Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word @Ticklishboy30. Whatever she does, she must not do a Bieber Sorry. No just no.

An attack with the intent of rape, the reawakening of a decade-old lie and an accidental shooting. Not even those Kardashian's could keep up with this much drama in such a short timeframe. Let's hope Dolly is only Two Doors Down @Ticklishboy30 and can lend a helping hand, otherwise Levie may be on a Stairway To Heaven (hopefully with Dolly and not Led Zeppelin).

Levie is ropable and Maddox is insane. Add to the mix a highly strung mare (the horse not Linda) and Troy down for the count. Drama abounds for the first, but not the last, time in this story. It may take some positive vibes from Dolly to sort this mess out @Ticklishboy30.

We are a "rare bird" @Ticklishboy30.

As a non-American I find the "normality" of the average person possessing guns really disturbing, although with characters like Maddox Barksley lurking nearby the guns/knives/crossbow and arrows will likely come in handy. This comment brought to mind the film The Living End from 1992, one which I saw and was very impressed with. Luke, one of the characters in the film, shoots a homophobic cop without batting an eyelid, and whilst it was shocking, I recall feeling "proud" that this character, who was quite small in stature, stood up for himself against a bully who thought it was OK to ridicule him for being gay.

The story is definitely "flowing" better this time @Ticklishboy30, with a very natural progression of events. The five men, including Brandon, are as endearing as they were the first time around, but I am finding them more believable (which may say something as much about me as it does about your story-telling). The reference to the Dukes of Hazzard gave me a chuckle. I remember when it first aired on TV in Australia in 1979 and it was very popular, but I don't think I ever saw an episode of it. I have just read what it was about and it seems to have had some similarities (at least) to the movie Smokey And The Bandit. That film was not the sort of film I could ever imagine myself watching now, but I remember seeing it as a 14 year old and loving it. It was enormously popular in Australia, just as it was in the USA. I am learning quite a bit about cars/utes reading this story @Ticklishboy30. I have had to consult Google for all mentioned to date as I had no idea what any of them were. I have not driven a car for 40 years and have never in my life owned a car (which is a good thing as I was a terrible driver).

I observed an improvement in this latest version of this story too @Ticklishboy30. It appears to me you are writing with more confidence in your story-telling abilities and your characters resonate with me more. I found the clear and concise establishment of the relationships between all the main characters at the outset of the story particularly beneficial. A few subtle differences made a difference too, most notably to me that even before Greg's parents exiled him from the family home for being gay they were apparently neglectful at best. I have to say if I were in Levie's shoes I would find it very difficult to leave Triton behind. I could not bear to leave my cats behind for any reason.

Renee to the rescue @chris191070. This song is not typical of her work, but it is a very enjoyable song nevertheless. It does not really showcase what she was capable of singing though.

"The next thing I heard was the sound of the front door slamming. I opened my eyes and Guy was gone. I ran after him, running out the front door and onto the porch. He was standing by his car, the driver’s side door opened, with one foot already inside the car and just about to get in behind the wheel. He looked up and saw me standing there. I could see the pain he was in. I wondered what it was that he was seeing when he looked at me. Without saying a word, he wiped the tears from his eyes, then got into the car and started it up. I watched him as he took one last look at me, then drove away." OMG @Mark Ponyboy Peters, for a moment I thought you were going to go all Leader Of The Pack on us, with Guy's car crashing and Tim hearing the screeching of his tyres and the sound of the car wrapping itself around a tree with Guy crushed therein. Drama plus. I remember a few of those "death discs" from the 1960's and 1970's, Tell Laura I Love Her, Billy Don't Be A Hero, Rocky (by Austin Roberts), Seasons In The Sun and Dead Man's Curve. Guy does seem somewhat impatient, but I sense he may have more experience in the ways of romance than Tim. His professed love has come rather quickly, but then some people seemingly do fall in love very quickly, whilst others like Tim build up to it. I am very intrigued as to what the final song is going to be (and I honestly cannot remember what it is).

I had to turn my heater off @Paladin, a miracle. Sensual and sexual, a delightful combination. I daresay in the afterglow Adam will be "drunk on love", a little like Diana perhaps.

I hope there will not be a: If so, it might be the one time the USA's "liberal" gun laws may be useful.

I remember BTO well @Lee Wilson. That song and Takin' Care Of Business were hugely popular in Australia as they were in the USA. Not usually the type of music I like, but I did like both of those songs, not enough to purchase them then or now, but enough that if I were to hear them again now they would be welcome.

They have a charm all of their own don't they @pvtguy. Anyroad is one of my favourites.

I think you would have your work cut out wresting that "title" away from the "real" Satan of Georgia. She would "eat you for breakfast" after denigrating you and imparting her wealth of "knowledge, righteousness and wisdom" to you. It still astonishes me that a state which produced the core of The B-52's, two of whom are/were openly gay, also produced such a wilfully ignorant, nasty imbecile.

I have to confess @Talo Segura I only listened to about 1 minute of the song before posting it. I chose it because Dolly like Phil is 78 years of age and I thought the title Welcome Home was apt for the culmination of the story, not only for Phil, but for Susan and Stanley, and Allen and Derek. I also really like Dolly Parton and was having a PM chat with another author, who is a big Dolly Parton fan, earlier on this evening (it is 12.15am Saturday morning in Sydney, Australia).

Now that is just plain mean @Lee Wilson. Maybe Charlie Daniels was right, The Devil Went Down To Georgia, reinvented himself as @Lee Wilson and wrote wonderful stories for GA, but "tormented" his poor readers by withholding "life-saving" information from them.

I hate to think what defence attorneys will do to Steve's psyche in particular @Mancunian. If he is not traumatised already, he surely will be if he is grilled by the incubator's attorney especially. Jill I think may be OK as she has been remarkably strong thus far, unless the abuse she has suffered is even worse than what we are imagining.

The incubator is off to the slammer without spermie by her side. What is in store for her? Maybe Dinah has an idea. Brendan may be a single gay man with no experience raising children but he is sure doing a fine job. His organisational skills are phenomenal. Between he and his brother, Rich, they have provided more enjoyment and fulfilment for their niece and nephews in the space of a few days than spermie and the incubator did in the children's lifetime. Nick's revelation that his intent was to find Brendan's home was not surprising, but the reason for it was. The delicious irony of him looking for a man his mother deemed bad which for Nick meant he must be good. I am looking forward to spermie's arraignment. A welcome home from Bubba awaits.

A fellow 78 year old with a message rather appropriate for the conclusion of this most uplifting of stories:

Not if they can sack you or shoot you first @AustralianEmu. I am an Australian too and things such as this which we have enshrined in legislation, other nations would not dream of contemplating.

This magnificent story proved two things without a shadow of a doubt @Ronyx. Firstly, the delightful Mr Wilbur from Taking Off The Mask was not a flash in the pan because secondly, you are equally adept at writing characters whose teen years are long past with the same degree of authenticity, delight, wit and entertainment, as you are those who are in their teens (dare I say even moreso). Although I am almost 2 decades younger than Phil, @pvtguy's comments resonate with me as do those of @weinerdog, @Al Norris, @Paladin and the Man From Massachusetts, @drsawzall. I enjoyed this story as much as my hitherto favourite @Ronyx masterpieces Brittle As A Bird and Down A Darkened Path. From the tragedy of Phil's stroke emerged a family, both blood and non-blood, who have blended to improve and rejoice in the lives of each other. A family in the truest sense of the word, a little like that family from 28 Barbary Lane.

🎉🎉🎉🥂🥂🥂

Another gem from the master of simplicity. @Robert Hugill has an exceptional talent for making the mundane fascinating, for shaping characters who are as ordinary as most people are, yet making them so appealing that you cannot help but be enthralled by their lives, charmed by the simplest of pleasures which give them joy and fulfilment. This story, like Robert's other completed works, was a rewarding experience to read. I became far more invested in the main characters and some of the delightfully entertaining minor characters than I thought possible when the story commenced. And no story set in the Hugillverse is complete without some of the local idioms, wry descriptions of the physical appearance of some of the characters and architecture, and at times a riotous sense of humour. Robert's first story he wrote he has stated. What a spectacular literary debut.