Summerabbacat

I had the same thought as @weinerdog (again) that Christopher Martin is likely linked to the knuckle-dragging flat-earthers who were protesting outside the court house. I even checked back through the chapters to verify the family name of the twat who was the school superintendent and a friend of the Thomas neanderthals, specifically the family incubator, because for some reason I thought her name was Carolyn Martin, but it was Carolyn Mitchell. I don't generally approve of violence (although I do express these views at times), but if Bryan should accidentally break Christopher Martin's nose/arm(s)/leg(s)/hand(s) I would encourage the same useless playground monitor to be talking on her phone AGAIN and not notice "the accident". The question is why was she on her phone when she is supposed to be monitoring the playground. She may not be a person of interest to the police but her tenure at the school should be reviewed at the very least. I envisage this assault on Caleb will cause more stress and anxiety to him, such that his already timid nature may cause him to start missing school. If Christopher Martin's parents are knuckle-dragging flat-earthers I hope Diego hits them where it hurts, the hip pocket. Sue them for damages. I am pleased to hear your treatment is working @John Henry. Perhaps if Christopher Martin and/or his parents (if they are knuckle-dragging flat-earthers) were to suffer a terrible accident (semi trailer/industrial machinery/mini-tornado) it may release further calming endorphins into your bloodstream and provide you with further pain relief (just a thought).

I agree @pvtguy. I have no paternal feelings for human children, but if anyone dared to hurt my beloved cats (now down to only 2 left) I would do everything in my power to make them suffer. I will do anything to keep them happy, healthy and safe.

Jeremy is going to be charged as an adult for having drugs and a gun in his car. I would have thought having the gun in the car would have been "normal" for the town of Elko. He may find himself very popular if he is incarcerated in an adult prison. Mitch finally found his balls again and used them for something other than churning honey. Perhaps in book 2 he may prove a worthy friend of Peter. Now for that sequel @Al Norris. It appears from comments made thus far you have created a gay teen superhero.

I found Nonna ......irritating more than anything else. I confess to not understanding why my fellow humans are often besotted with children, puppies and kittens I understand, but baby humans hold no interest for me. If Nonna is so desirous of grandchildren does she not have siblings of her own who may be grandparents? Could she not "borrow" one or more from them? I thought Vaughan showed remarkable and frankly unwarranted restraint to her impertinent questions. I thought she was going to be amusing at first, but then she just became predictable and tiresome. If she is so deprived of enjoyment in life, perhaps Dante should purchase a vibrator or some other sex toy for her. I want to like Nonna @Robert Hugill, I really do, but she rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps if she had cooked something fabulous I could have warmed to her a little more.

I have heard of that TV show @Lee Wilson but have never seen it as I lived in rural Australia until the mid 1980's and we had 2 TV stations only, one of which was of the "commercial" variety. If I recall correctly Eva Gabor was in that TV show. I don't recall ever having seen her or Magda in anything and can only remember having seen Zsa Zsa as guest villainess Minerva in the 1960's Batman TV show, one of my favourites. The sisters and their mother Jolie were more known to me, and I guess many others, for their reputed glamorous lifestyles and many divorces.

Pigs get a bad rap @Lee Wilson. They are intelligent, clean and beautiful and I am sure with some effort could be "taught" to sing beautifully, albeit in a language we humans would not be capable of understanding. The average religious zealot may be all of these things too, but when their zealotry becomes the focus of their passion, cleanliness would be the only quality they may be capable of maintaining. Zealotry of this kind does stupidity and ugly so well and with such comparative ease.

I noticed you were still an active commentator on other stories with your usual "back up" David Rose so I guessed you may have been responding well to the treatment. Loopy is not necessarily a bad thing as long as it does not make you dangerous to yourself or anyone else, unless of course you define loopy as something akin to a Marjorie or Lauren.

Perhaps they need exposure to Grace Jones' buttfucking classic Pull Up To The Bumper.

Just as I was beginning to like and even hesitantly respect Rocky he comes out with a similar diatribe to the one he delivered in an earlier chapter. Perhaps due to his diminutive size he believes he has to strike first or risk being a victim. He clearly needs some encouragement to mend his manners. Dare I say the only thing he needs up his arse is Manny's boot, delivered with a swift kick therefrom. Wally may well be dead but let's hope neither Manny nor the innocent single customer have suffered the same fate. Guns and alcohol are never a good combination. I won't opine on American gun laws again as it is akin to having a sane conversation with a religious zealot on matters of sexual orientation. Kelly may not have been Rocky's biological mother @Lee Wilson but she certainly appears to have made an impact on him as the only mother he has ever known. It appears neither she nor Boris considered parenting skills of particular importance. I suspect when Rocky starts school in the "real world" he will be in for a rude shock.

Ghastly woman should thank her lucky stars she is only being pilloried. Even her own children reportedly despise her.

And for we readers this is a good thing. The recurring themes are invariably what continues to delight we readers, although formulaic they are not.

It appears the heifer aka Aunt Margaret is the archetypal religious hypocrite who believes she knows what God thinks. Her statement that ‘It’s not right. God doesn’t make people like that.’ really pissed me off. Much like a well known Australian Margaret who is fond of lecturing the Australian public on the evils of the LGBTI community, Aunt Margaret is a trouble making, attention seeking bitch. If she begins quoting biblical text to justify her stance, Luke should remind her of the sin of gluttony and that women should keep their place in society i.e. be seen and not heard as their opinions are worthless. I envisage she will make as much trouble as she can whilst visiting and it may be that Luke's mother will have to ask her to leave when she wears out her welcome, as I am almost certain she will do. One has to feel sympathy for her children and perhaps for her ex-husbands, whom I daresay she drove away. As stated by @VBlew above, Luke's darker thoughts are somewhat worrying, although perfectly understandable given he has been assaulted twice in recent weeks for being gay. I am also concerned for Luke's mother. Is her husband too frightened or embarrassed to contact her given what he did to their son, or is his lack of contact with her an indication of his true feelings for her as well. I guess we will have to wait and see what transpires. Whatever happens to Luke and his immediate family, I have a sense of foreboding that Aunt Margaret is just going to make everything worse, even if only for a short period of time. She is trouble and should not be underestimated. I remember Aunt Margaret well @Mark Ponyboy Peters and the passing of time has not been kind to her. I disliked her intensely when I read of her the first time around and my opinion of her has not changed.

"Keith went a bit red, “Sorry, I was thinking about the flat”, and with that Keith blurted it all out, “I’m worried that Greg and Thomas will want to eventually give it to another lame duck.” Keith, very much like Colin, still has moments when he lapses into low self-esteem, where he cannot believe that someone like he is entitled to the good fortune he has now found in his life, not just in his relationship with Thomas, but also in his accommodation. Speaking of which, I think the suggestion of enquiry about Greg and Bart's other outbuildings as possible rental accommodation for Thomas, is a terrific idea. Keith and Thomas have not known each other for long and each is used to being somewhat of a loner, so being lovers and neighbours before cohabiting seems a sensible compromise. The tours the boys are taking, particularly investigating architecture and its origins, sound very interesting. Although a relatively brief chapter @Robert Hugill much progress was made, with the boys broaching the idea of cohabitation, and most importantly having similar ideas about such a venture.

'The identity of the missing baby'. It sounds like the title of an Agatha Christie or Enid Blyton novel. My immediate thought was the same as that of @Lee Wilson, Mike is the "missing" baby. Although not categorically stated it is Michael who was holding the two babies, the implication is that it was he who was doing so, which at least suggests I think, he is the likely sire of both. If so, was he having an affair with Mike's mother or was it an arrangement between two women, Maggie and Mike's mother, that he would donate sperm to Mike's mother to allow her to have a child. Something that was said by Mike in an earlier chapter had me wondering at the time if his mother has had her illness, which is likely to be cancer, for a long time. She may have already had it when Mike was conceived. Liam's hissy fit about having to mow the lawn was a little precious I thought. Clearly there has been an "event" in the past which has made the relationship between Liam and his father, at least, somewhat tenuous. As for the twins. I could not and would not tolerate them shouting at 7.00am. At first I thought it may have been 7.00pm, which I could tolerate, but 7.00am. You have got to be kidding me. I have a close friend who often recounts a story of how he was evicted from a share household once because he was "too happy" in the morning. The first time he told this story I said I perfectly understood why he was evicted as he is the type of person who gets up in the morning, is talkative (loudly), switches on the TV (loudly) and is waaaaaayyyyy too bloody cheerful. For a non-morning person like myself (who is also a precious grump often) such behaviour could lead to murder. Looking forward to more revelations @Arch Hunter. I felt like a seagull reading this chapter, you threw us a few little tasty tidbits, but I screeching like a banshee am waiting for the "real" tasty morsels to come.

As an Aussie I cannot believe that such a draconian act is lawful. Absolutely appalling; this would not be tolerated by the vast majority (or am I living in fantasy land) in Australia.

Jeremy Souter, Bob Berger and Mark Scofield. Never has the term "shit for brains" seemed more apt, however, as speculated by @weinerdog perhaps they feel confident their brazen threatening behaviour is protected by unseen assistance from a party or parties sympathetic to the "Jordan Turner cause". Speaking of Jordan Turner, is his bullying behaviour only tolerated because of his financial influence? I think @drsawzall's cranium has been bubbling away for some time as evidenced by his comment "I am convinced Jordan Turner isn't as smart as he would like to think he is...if there were to be a popularity contest or an election between him and Uncle George, I would bet the ranch on who would win..", and I for one think he is definitely onto something with this comment. I wonder if Turner's bullying behaviour is compensation for his own shortcomings, could it be a case that he "suffers" from the malady known as "littleus dickus"? Turner's demand that Micca Breslen subject Jimmy to reparative therapy for the sake of his continued employment really pissed me off. Who the fuck does this goon think he is. He needs to be taken down if for no other reason than this threat. Perhaps you could arrange for him to be fatally gored by his prize bulls @Al Norris or if he has no bulls perhaps crushed by a stampede of his cows, whom given his cruelty to his fellow species are likely treated appallingly. If however, you cannot entertain "killing him off", could he at least be publicly humiliated by a gay, Democrat voting, African American vegan (LOL). Not dirty thoughts at all @Cane23. I had the same thought as you as Peter has come home on at least one prior occasion if I recall correctly and found Officer Farley "visiting". The cordiality of the visit may be more than expected if it were purely a professional visit to discuss Peter's ongoing issues, but there is no harm in the two being friends. If there is a little more to it than that then I say "go for it". Uncle George deserves to be happy as does Officer Farley and as I have speculated before, Officer Farley just has to be a stunner with the given name Farley. I was momentarily concerned @Al Norris that Tom Kowalski was not what he appeared to be and that the telephone call he was allegedly making to Uncle George was in fact a call to Jordan Turner. Fortunately for Peter he was genuine, but it really made me think Peter has every reason to be paranoid as Elko seems to have a very high incidence of bullying and apathy to bullying behaviour.

I had a really good chuckle early in this chapter @Paladin when I incorrectly read Ronald McDougal as Ronald McDonald and got an instant image of what he looked like. Suffice to say he is not a clown and appeared to be very professional and dedicated to his job. I also had a good chuckle at the comment from straight-talking Jenny "Ha, I’m not going anywhere. A dyke working in a LGBTQIA+ friendly construction firm that’s going to be run by a gay guy and a very gay friendly straight guy and has awesome parties. Where else am I going to find that.” We all cracked up laughing.". A response you gave to comments on an earlier chapter became very apparent in this chapter. You commented something akin to Ollie having abandoned his mother too, something which really struck me in this chapter. I have to wonder if he is suppressing any hostility or heartache over his mother's rejection of him, or was his relationship with her even before his father died and his mother found the new boyfriend, less than happy. Maybe it my pessimistic nature, but he just seems way too happy and together for a boy who has been through what he has been through. Another thoroughly enjoyable chapter @Paladin.

Christmas decorations. Every year I think I will buy some for my apartment and decorate it, and every year I don't because I think of the hazards such decorations could present to my cats, particularly my youngest, and how they would not make it to Christmas as they would be trashed in no time, primarily at the paws of my youngest cat who is 11 going on 2. A little pocket rocket whom most people think is about 2 because of her size and boundless energy and mischief making. Luke's mother is in a difficult position, caught between her husband and her son. If her husband had a history of violence I would say kick him to the kerb, but apparently he does not. I wonder again if he has some deep-seated mental health problems or has suffered a trauma in the past which he has buried and it is now raising its ugly head again. Hoss is essentially a "decent bloke", grappling with, for him, the uncomfortable or perhaps it is more the unfamiliar realisation that two of his life long friends are gay and in a relationship. If you add DJ to the mix as well then Hoss is left with Davo as his only straight friend. He is I believe a gentle giant, and his warning to Luke and Matt of Davo's threats proves he is in their corner. Quality writing again @Mark Ponyboy Peters.

With the revelation of more of the character of Boris and particularly Kelly, I cannot say I feel any sympathy for either. Like @centexhairysub, I believe Rocky has the right to know who his biological mother was, after all would it not be comforting to him to learn his mother was not the gold-digging ho he thought she was. And he may also benefit from having grandparents, although I guess there is the chance they could be awarded custody of Rocky which may not suit him, particularly given he is used to a more lavish lifestyle. The "staff" all appear to be faring well with the "new kid in town". I guess anything would be an improvement on Lady Muck, their former "mistress".

I find that I cannot read this story quickly @Mark Ponyboy Peters; I must read it slowly, absorbing every word, savouring the quality of your writing, and embracing all that is occurring. Just like @Al Norris, I read this story many years ago on crvboy and now reading it again much of it is almost new, much like a treasured film or album (vinyl or CD) in which I find something new each time I watch or listen. I did recall Luke's father's assault on him and I think I can remember the aftermath of this event. I suspect when I read this chapter in my younger form I felt nothing but contempt and anger towards Luke's father, and whilst I still feel contempt and anger towards him, I also felt something I did not expect to feel with such behaviour. I felt a great sadness and pity for Luke's father, particularly when Luke's mother disclosed he has had a similar meltdown many years ago. I have to wonder if there is a deep-seated underlying cause for this violent behaviour. Once again I was struck by what a remarkably mature and caring young man Matt is. His discussion with Luke's father and his offer for Luke to come and live with him had those winter allergies affecting my eyes yet again. And what of Matt's parents, particularly his father. What a difference in his attitude towards his son now to what it was before Luke and Matt went to "Schoolies". Perhaps Matt being an only child has challenged his father to rethink his attitudes because if he fucks up his relationship with Matt he has no other children to console himself. And DJ and Dwayne, now I remember. DJ is finally no longer the "bridesmaid but never the bride". I chose the sad emoticon @Mark Ponyboy Peters rather than the angry one because of the loss of the relationship between father and son.

I love the name Susan too @Robert Hugill. I checked on Google for the names I listed above and found they were very popular in the 1950's which is when I assumed Susan was born. Susan was a popular name then and well into the 1960's too. I know in my year in primary and high school there was a number of Susan's (and not Suzanne), Leanne's, Jennifer's and Carolyn's. I have always liked all those names as the girls who had them were all very pleasant, with one exception, a horrible creature named Jenny. She left school in Year 10 (she was not academically inclined) and I have always imagined she got married young, had numerous children, packed on the weight and her face turned really ugly because of all the mean-spirited things she said to me and others. She was what would be referred to today as a toxic bitch.

Vaughan's mother is delightful, a mixture of propriety and reserve, with just enough sauciness and sassiness to make her more interesting and believable. ,The conversations between Vaughan, Dante and Vaughan's mother were for the most part hilarious and interesting, particularly the one referred to by @Cane23 above. But below the surface of all that hilarity I detected a sense of sadness associated with the death of Titus at age 7; sadness which apparently was never discussed with Vaughan's father and which haunted him to his death; and sadness which has only been discussed superficially between Vaughan and his mother. Is this a case of that old cliche about the English, the stiff upper lip even in times of adversity? Perhaps Dante's Nonna should have a word, but limit the rosary beads and wailing. And by the way @Robert Hugill, we fans cannot keep referring to Vaughan's mother as mother even though this is what he refers to her as. She must have a given name. She has a friend name Edna, who has a friend name Julie. May I be so bold as to suggest Phyllis, Barbara, Peggy, Jacqueline (and not bloody Jackie) or Valerie. Dante charmed Phyllis with his gardening and cooking talents. Although Vaughan was highly embarrassed, I think it wonderful Phyllis has taken an interest in Dante. Vaughan should think himself fortunate Phyllis is selfless enough to discount any "concerns" she may have about him being gay to accept he is and take an interest in his happiness and welfare. Imagine how such a mother would have made a difference to the lives of fan favourites Owain and Colin. The best chapter of this book yet @Robert Hugill. Phyllis has added much additional information to what is known of Vaughan. She simply MUST be invited to stay the weekend. Perhaps she could be introduced to Dante's Nonna, Mirabella (or is it Patrizia, Antonietta, Luciana or Serafina?).

Making a phone call is much easier on the fingers and the eyes. In years to come humans will look more like ET with long extended fingers from texting and bulging eyes from reading information written with the tiniest of fonts. They will also not be able to perform even the simplest of tasks without any "app" telling them how to do it.

Me too. I only use mine for making calls, sending texts and taking photos. I refuse to do internet banking or anything like that on it as it is too bloody small. I cannot read stories on GA on it as I cannot get rid of all the other crap on the screen (it is an I-phone 6).

I got my first mobile in March 2020 when I had to start working from home. It is handy, but I can "live" without it.