Summerabbacat

Quite so @weinerdog. "Problem" addressed by @weinerdog @mastershakeme; it is not as dire as you thought. If someone other than a family member outs Owen he can always say his phone was hacked and the hacker must have set up his profile. After all, he has the perfect "girlfriend" in Margot and she will support him all the way. Owen and Margot's lavender relationship suits both well; each has as much to lose as the other if their cover is blown. Margot is very fortunate she has such an understanding girlfriend in Jules, a woman who is prepared to support the pretence of the Margot/Owen relationship and remain on the down low. Speaking of Jules, her parents are a marvellous stereotype (and this is not a criticism @mastershakeme), the liberal New Englander's from Vermont who held a party for their daughter's "coming out" as a lesbian rather than her "debut" into suitable society, as would be more likely to occur in the circles in which Margot's and Owen's families move. Margot's parents appear to be as unsuitable as Owen's, their brains left at the door to the church each time they attend for a session of dogmatic therapy. Kevin and Kathleen Brennan need a reality check @mastershakeme. Perhaps one of their other children might prove to be a train wreck, becoming involved in a relationship worthy of expose on a TV show akin to Jerry Springer.

Oh fuck. That is worse than I thought @drpaladin. Very bad shit does sum it up well.

Very polite @andy cannon; I would say she is a fucking bitch, and she will cause Ximo and Gerardo no end of grief for sure. The only saving grace I can see is Ximo's father, whom I believe is aware of the nature of his son's relationship with Gerardo and is not bothered by it at all. I also believe he will do his utmost to support Ximo, even if it means going against his wife. In fact, I think he rather enjoys ruffling her feathers, I believe he invited Gerardo to lunch, at least in part, to goad her. Once her dreadful parents are dead, she may find herself on the outer with her husband and with no one to support her. I also believe Ximo's father is appalled by his father-in-law's support of Franco. If I remember correctly he is independently wealthy, with any luck, he may even divorce his wife after his father-in-law, at least, kick's the bucket. Exquisitely written chapter @Gary L. Angst, animosity and anger deliciously captured. I am so enjoying the irreverence of Ximo's father. I think (at least hope) he will give Ximo's mother hell when the time comes. And if she ever strikes Ximo again, she may find herself on the end of a stinging slap. It would serve her right.

"They always wanted it done right. That was the thing about the funeral business that nobody told you. It wasn’t really about death. It was about performance. The right casket, the right flowers, the right words at the right moment. Making the worst day of someone’s life look dignified and organized and, I don’t know, beautiful, if you could call a room full of crying people beautiful. My dad could. My dad saw art in a well-run viewing. I just saw a room I wanted to leave." Owen's family are not necessarily "bad" people, they are just superficial, homogeneous and transactional. They are also oblivious, insufferable and suffocating, the type of people who could push the "black sheep" to one day turn on them with a ferocity which would shock them. The only family member who treats Owen as a person rather than a commodity, and who is aware he is not comfortable with the family dynamic, is Aunt Beth. I am wondering what the V.B.S. is Owen's mother has signed him up for. I doubt it is very bad shit, but given Owen's reluctance to undertake it, it may as well be very bad shit. I have to agree with Owen, I doubt I could survive more than about 5 minutes with a room full of 7 year old children, particularly if they are anything like Owen's family. She may be a lesbian @drsawzall or at least aware Owen is not interested in her sexually. His reflection "The rescue texts, the getaway drives, the quiet understanding that sometimes you just needed to sit next to someone who already knew your worst secret so you could stop holding your breath." lends some credence to this speculation. It would be deliciously ironic if each was the other's beard to satisfy overbearing pretentious family members. A terrific start to this story @mastershakeme. Owen's father is very unlikeable, his mother a well-designed, attractive product with limited use, and his brother grotesquely fascinated by embalming and reconstruction of disfigured bodies to make them presentable for death, Dr Frankenstein with a Jim Carrey mischievous and slightly manic smile.

This surprises me greatly @Mark Ponyboy Peters given how good you are with computers, but then I was good at maths and whilst competent at using my laptop, am fucking hopeless if something goes wrong with it.

I would not know how to change a fat or flat tire @weinerdog as I have never owned a car, not driven one for more than 40 years and rarely ever even travel in one. I don't catch taxis or ubers either, preferring to walk or catch the bus. I can imagine you as an as.... tronaut, exploring all those "moons" or Uranus. 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

We got calculators but they were not used instead of using our brain. We still had to do any calculations using our brain, the calculators were a "new fangled" thing we were encouraged to get used to using.

Those tracing sheets are vaguely familiar. Similar to Taree. There was a Catholic High School, but it finished in Year 10 so any students who wanted to go on to Year 11 and Year 12 came to the Public High School.

I saw it referred to as the buybull once @chris191070. Rather apt.

Part of it might be our apathy, but I think it is likely the influence from Blighty as the English are not particularly religious either. There are exceptions like Fred Nile, Margaret Court and Israel Folau, but generally they are widely criticised for their dummy spits.

I remember it being correctly named cursive writing @Mark Ponyboy Peters, but it was only ever referred to as running writing. I vaguely recall being given a white cardboard sheet with running writing on it and we practiced our running writing by copying it. Did you go to a public school or Catholic school?

Fuck, that was a bit extreme @Mark Ponyboy Peters. I think I started using a calculator at school when I was about 10 years of age. I don't think we were given a choice, we may have even been given them by the school or perhaps purchased them from the school.

I will enjoy loathing her, loudly and without hesitation or reservation.

"The smell of Chanel number 5 hit me as the doors opened and my mother swept into the apartment looking like some wild animal thanks to the quantity of furs she was covered in. My father followed me inside. He was more soberly dressed but more elegantly than my mother, I felt." I detest Ximo's mother, what a fucking bitch. I know the story is set in 1973/74 when fur coats were considered acceptable, but I still hate her. I daresay having the parents she has, so amusingly described by Ximo as"my fascist grandfather and my delightful grandmother, the living embodiment of the English expression, mutton dressed as lamb" would only have increased her superior attitude and ugly disregard for all other than herself. I do hope Ximo's father has a mistress on the side, or perhaps even a male lover, who keeps him satisfied. Once again I enjoyed the surprising close relationship Ximo is developing with his father, a man who seems almost unknown to Ximo, a man who clearly finds his wife and more particularly her parents, at least distasteful, if not in fact vile. I am looking forward to the smallish lunch party of twenty @Gary L. I sense any number of disasters pending, disasters I think Ximo and his father may find amusing, particularly if it results in the humiliation of, or condemnation from, his fascist grandfather and well-preserved, tasteless grandmother. I am enjoying the quirky humour in this story too, quite possibly/probably an English/Spanish hybrid or dare I say Spanglish. LOL.

Australia has traditionally been a nation with low church attendance and little appetite for religious fundamentalism @pvtguy. As an example of this is the fact that the significant majority of Australians fully support abortion. There has been a growing movement in recent years, seemingly sponsored by anti-abortionists from overseas, to try and "persuade" us to change our views, but to date it has had a limited impact other than to strengthen the resolve of pro-choice believers. I suspect the majority of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues in Australia are mostly accepting of their followers regardless of their sexuality, even if it contravenes the beliefs of their leader(s) e.g. the Catholic Church. Australia has a significant Catholic population, most of whom do not attend church or refrain from using birth control. I know many who were born into the Catholic religion but do not hold with its views on birth control and sexuality, even some who are practicing Catholics.

And conniving too @Carybr I strongly suspect if she had not become ill, Julie would never have revealed to Levi who his father was, or told him the truth his father did not leave when he became aware she was pregnant. She appeared to have no qualms about depriving Levi of any number of things.

Yes indeed @CincyKris. Julie apparently had no difficulty with lying, even Levi noted this with his comment "She loved me enough to teach me the truth. Or at least I always thought it was the truth . . .". After Levi's revelations in this chapter I am wondering which was the genuine Julie; the Julie who filled her son's head with nonsense and make believe and deliberately deprived him of healthy normal activities like riding a bike (OMG how sinful, riding a bike, FFS); or the Julie who on her death bed encouraged her son to connect with his father and admitted to her son she had never told his father she was pregnant. I don't hold with the view one should not speak ill of the dead, which is just as well because after this chapter I wanted to smack Julie into the middle of next week for her pious, manipulative, dishonest behaviour. What a cowardly bitch. I think she kept Levi all to herself because without him she had nothing and was nothing. I am glad Matt took Levi to his "special" place. I wonder if he will ever tell Levi the real reason he thought of killing himself, the reason being another pious, manipulative, dishonest bitch, in the form of the Monolith, had pressured her son into lying that Matt had molested him. Personally I think Matt should have told Levi, to demonstrate the self-righteous can sometimes be the most dishonest amongst us. I think Matt is being very savvy in reserving his judgment of Levi's religious beliefs and painting Julie in the most favourable light, as to do what I am doing would likely backfire. I am surprised by his reaction to the nonsense Levi has parroted as he was often a "hothead" when he was younger. It seems Luke's calm assuredness has rubbed off on Matt as their relationship has grown. Once again a superbly written chapter @Mark Ponyboy Peters, one with authenticity at the forefront. It is not often I rate a chapter written by you with an "angry" emoticon, but this one definitely infuriated me. Julie, a younger, slimmer Monolith. Had she lived she may have modelled her life on that corpulent harridan, and perhaps ended up just as lonely and embittered as her.

The mention of the Werther, with a name like this I keep thinking it is a tractor, lawnmower or firearm (and I am a city dweller @Robert Hugill, although I did reside in rural Australia until I was 20 years of age). I think it best it was a short chapter. Although Neil expressed he liked Evan, I doubt he could have withstood an afternoon of "lovey", enquiries about his mother and advice how to best handle her interference and suffocating demands for grandchildren.

My first exposure to the literary talents of @mastershakeme and what exposure. The two protagonists of this story, Colt and Noah, are each the polar opposite of the other. Colt, physically strong, fearless and brazen; Noah, physically fragile, fearful and unobtrusive. What develops between the two as the result of Colt’s observant nature and the horrific abuse of Noah, is a relationship where Colt the protector is drawn into Noah’s world of fear and resignation. A gripping tale which had me on the edge of my seat for its entirety. Full of surprises and some truly vile secondary characters, including Colt's hideous sister, Rylee, and several of her equally hideous "friends".

I suspect a hazing too drs. @drpaladin and @drsawzall (wow, consecutive comments from not one but two medics/academics). A hazing orchestrated by Anton and carried out by Ableard. If not a hazing, perhaps it was an escapee from Beyond The Veil, the evil black metallic seaweed, a distant "cousin" of the imposter Wisdom Tree, "leader" of the Black Forest. Whatever it was, it appears Ali knew or at least suspected it was likely to happen.

Although I think it an abhorrent practice on animals, I would not object if someone branded Rylee. She is a fucking idiot.

Quite the adventurous young Miss isn’t she? Are dachshunds good swimmers generally? Good gentle exercise I guess, which should keep her looking svelte and youthful.

I have to agree @mastershakeme, @SilentandBroken's suggestion to have the epilogue from Noah's POV was an excellent idea. It worked very well, after all, Noah was the motivation for the whole story. Off-screen George has made Bubba's acquaintance and he is not happy @weinerdog. Bubba likes his "prison bitches" in all shapes and sizes, but his absolute favourites are the cuddly ones, ones whose big booty's he can squeeze, pinch and smack hard, before ploughing them unmercifully. He likes to call George his "girl" and reminds him with a slap or two, that his "pussy" belongs to Daddy.

I like Ximo's sense of humour "Good evening Sergeant Major, Sir!" and he is a very quick thinker on his feet. I doubt Gerardo's friends thought Ximo’s connection with Gerardo was anything other than what he indicated. An enticing start to this continuation of what promises to be an interesting story yet again @Gary L.

Welcome back @Gary L. I look forward to the continuation of this story. Hopefully Almodóvar might be reading it and he will approach you to make it into a sprawling cinematic masterpiece. There might even be a part in the film for you, Paolo, Greta and Lilibeth (they could play themselves in the present day). Do you speak fluent Spanish? Does the language vary much depending on what part of Spain you live in?