Summerabbacat

It might work to your fantasy's advantage @weinerdog. Jacy would be so distraught he would need to seek comfort in the arms of another. Fletcher would not be able to comfort him as he would be dealing with his own grief, so Jacy would turn to Killian for comfort, and voilà.

The manner of Russell Anderson's death brought forth memories of Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf and perhaps the greatest death disc of all, Leader Of The Pack by The Shangri-Las. An interesting start to your latest offering @Lee Wilson. Did you ever visit Parsippany when you lived in New Jersey? Some very impressive architecture on very old houses.

Very entertaining @Josh Aterovis.

It appears certain Alexander shot Bridget, whether it was accidental or premeditated is uncertain. It appears certain he was involved in the looting of the dig site, at the behest of Ricky whose gambling habit was apparently not as successful as he boasted. I feel a little sympathy for Alexander who was being blackmailed by Ricky because he was from a poor background, due in no part to his mother's alcoholism. I have no sympathy for Ricky, he is vile, and it is not as if he was in the wong place at the wong time. He came to the dig site with the intent to further blackmail Alexander to do more looting to fund his gambling habit. I am not convinced it was Joyner who murdered Professor Healy. I still think his murder was a crime of passion, possibly committed by a femme fatale. Initially I thought Elyse Pike or Susan Urban the most likely, then somewhat facetiously Professor Howard, but what if it was someone so obvious I had dismissed her. What if it is Lily who murdered Professor Healy. You have kept us guessing to near the very end @Josh Aterovis. This has been your most baffling murder mystery to date, with no deranged traumatised Todd, psychopathic Caitlin, cruelly abused Caleb or vicious cold-blooded Razi emerging as a more obvious killer.

James' parents are such a disappointment, a homophobic father and a spineless mother. As for his brother, an oxygen thief whose parents have done him a disservice by always bailing him out of trouble, funding his carefree lifestyle. When their father dies hopefully James will be able to convince his mother to say NO when Sam wants another handout. James is a far more forgiving person than I am, I believe I would have severed all ties with my family if they were like James'. Hideous people.

What a wonderful surprise, a second instalment of Traditions this week. You have been busy @Mark Ponyboy Peters. I cannot remember if any of we readers have asked this question before, but is the owner/manager of the service station at which Charlie works, the Matt, he of the black Commodore, which is possibly long-retired by now? "It was then that I remembered I had taken a couple of photos on my phone, so I pull it from my pocket and found them, then showed them to my mother. One was when Trinity was performing on stage. The next was just as we were saying goodbye. ‘That’s Patrick? Oh, my!’ was all mum could say. I swear, if she’d been wearing pearls right at that moment she would have been clutching at them right now." This was just too funny. It was such a vivid image, Kieran's mother clutching a string of pearls. If she was a 1960's/1970's Aussie housewife she could have had a cup of tea, taken a Bex powder and had a good lie down to get over the shock of seeing Patrick resplendent as Trinity de la Creme. I am so enjoying the simplicity and the overall serenity of this little gem @Mark Ponyboy Peters.

The 'Epilogue' to any @Lee Wilson story is usually a mixed bag of HEA for the likeable/loveable characters, and not so happy HEA and often dire consequences for the homophobes and child molesters/child killers (think Abel and Kathy Taft). This one was a little different in that the only really vile character, Phil Lassiter, met his death well before the story concluded. Things worked out well for all the boys, although lesser so for Art and Seth, which is why I chose the 'sad' emoticon for this chapter. I think @Gary L wisely suggested you not kill-off Seth @Lee Wilson. He was a very likeable character, and although he and Art appeared only briefly in comparison to Sam, Virgil and Scott, they certainly made a good impression on this reader. Looking forward to the next story from the giant (in GA literary stature) of Georgia.

OMG that is soooooo cute.

The shifter from San Diego, @weinerdog. Distinguished gentleman by day, desire-driven daredevil dachshund by night. Loves being petted by San Diego's finest marines.

They are gorgeous dogs, aren't they? Such personality. An acquaintance of mine has one and his former flatmate had the father of my acquaintance's dog. The father passed away late last year after a very short illness. He was 20 and in remarkably good health still. Both he and his son were/are truly lovely dogs.

James was definitely set up by his boss/the company he works for. Whilst part of me is appalled by this, another part recognises Jeremy was clearly out of his depth and James is proving to be the better man for the job. As for James' relationship with Evan, it seems Shalamar, featuring the fabulous Jody Watley, sum it up perfectly:

I cannot praise this story enough. My fellow Hugillites who have already reviewed it, have done a fine job in doing so. The only thing I can really add is that this story, like many of Robert's other stories, included some most amusing Hugillisms and a character named Eileen, who uses the "brown word" as an adjective to describe just about anything in preference to using "fucking". She is a hoot. Read it and guffaw.

Another literary triumph from the pen of "the Hugill". The Hugillverse has delighted we, the faithful, on many occasions now @Robert Hugill, none moreso than this whimsical little romp whose primary objective appeared to be, at least initially, to uncover the fate of the Nimrud Panther, which turned out to be an artefact that our resident "scatological queen", Eileen Garner, would have proudly referred to as, quite accurately apparently, a "shitting ugly little lump of turd". For the most part this story introduced some of your most charming characters yet in the form of Louis, Charlie, Joss, PJ, Ian and even Tom, and of course Eileen. Even the "horrors" like Aunt Daphne and Graham had nothing on Norman, Sheila, Jackie, Venetia and Deirdre. A first-class experience yet again Mr Hugill.

You figured out White Deer @weinerdog! It must be because you are a hound that was bred to scent, chase and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals. I know a buck is somewhat larger than a badger or similar creatures, but your keen sense of smell likely detected an unusual mix of deer and human when you got the "scent" of White Deer. When I first read the deer-shift, I thought I must have either missed a previous shift or been on drugs. With this story, has @Josh Aterovis perhaps developed a new sub-genre of paranormal stories, deer shifters? Are their "shifting" characteristics similar to those of wolfshifters? Was Felix Salten who wrote the novel, Bambi, A Life In The Woods in 1923 perhaps a deer-shifter, or have I completely misunderstood and really am on drugs? As for who killed Professor Healy, I have always thought his murder was a crime of passion, likely committed by a femme fatale, which was why I honed in on it being either Elyse Pike or Susan Urban, particularly after it emerged they are lovers. But, what if it was a completely different woman who murdered him, one who was besotted with him, one whose sexual advances he rejected, one whose sexual harassment of him caused him to be so vehemently opposed to any relationship between Elyse and Susan. Professor Howard. I have tried to think of what purpose she has served in this story, and to date she has served no purpose at all, other than to confirm what type of person Professor Healy was and that a couple of the artefacts Killian showed her a picture of were perhaps local. Given this, has @Josh Aterovis included her brief appearances to date just to "put her in the picture? I speculate she may have in fact murdered Professor Healy, whom she indicated she thought of as a son, however, a son for whom her attraction was anything but maternal. Killian had a sense of deja vu when he visited her on the second occasion. Is he a dachshund shifter like you @weinerdog and he recognised her perfume, perfume he had smelt on the body of Professor Healy?

I hope your speculation is correct @VBlew because I have not the faintest idea of what is happening. @Laura S. Fox's imagination seems to be boundless, which makes the story fascinating for we lesser beings.

The story has had many comedic moments, mostly courtesy of Jack. And those moments have been so joyous that they have counteracted the dark moments by and large.

The elder Lamonicas, particularly Nona, appear to be very easygoing and welcomed Seth, knowing he is Art's boyfriend, without any fuss. I am sure the boys will have an enjoyable time, what with the sightseeing and Nona's delicious meals. I envisage a trip abroad will do wonders for Seth's confidence. Back in the USA, three families joined together to celebrate Christmas. This must have been a comfort for Maureen in particular, knowing she and her children have not been ostracised due to Phil's crimes. I did not expect Virgil's parents or Scott's parents would react negatively, but one can never be sure and actions speak louder than words. Having Maggie present would have been great support for Maureen too.

Recurrent, like gastroenteritis, which I had when I was 2 years of age. Luckily, I have no recollection of it, but my mother said I was in Bellingen Hospital for some time in ICU initially, before I was released. This was back in the mid 1960's so it was quite a dangerous illness then I have been led to believe.

As I somewhat facetiously stated @Paladin, just like a gastric bug.

She was "easy" @Cane23 and Martin was desperately horny. She may have even lied to Martin and tricked him into marriage. "You knocked me up Martin, so we will have to get married or my father will kill you". She has proven that lying comes to her as easy as fucking profanity (which I cannot criticise her for, as much as I would like to), so a fake pregnancy would not surprise.

What an evening. I have been so spoilt, first a new chapter of Traditions from the pen of the pony, @Mark Ponyboy Peters, and now a new chapter of Turmoil from the pen of the @Paladin. And if that wasn't a sufficient enough dose of Aussie-ness, Martin and the boys ate Tim Tams and Rick brought prawns from the fish markets for dinner. All we need is a visit to the five "boys" from Kylie Minogue or Kath and Kim, to finish the evening on a perfect high. I have to hand it to you @Paladin, you outdid yourself. Scragtasha is an even bigger bitch than I could have imagined. We learned that: her adultery (a word which usually rankles me greatly, but in this instance it did not) is at least one of the reasons which led to the acrimonious divorce she is homophobic and quoted the usual biblical text contained in Leviticus to justify her opposition to Ben's relationship with Justin she has misappropriated funds, which under the terms of the divorce settlement, were allowances for the children she has lied to Benjamin, at least, about receiving Child Support payments from Martin she is all bluster and is not very bright she is a head teacher at a Christian school, and yet did not "get" Martin's reference to the Ten Commandments Speaking of her employment, I would be very interested to know @Paladin if the Christian school at which Scragtasha teaches is aware of at least one of the reasons which led to her divorce. If the school is one which follows literal interpretation of biblical text, she may very well find her employment contract severed for being an adulteress, something which I would normally find repugnant, but which in her case I would not be troubled, which probably makes me as big a hypocrite as her, but she is a c u next Tuesday and I am not. If Scragtasha's performance on this occasion is indicative of what we can expect from her, I don't believe she poses any real threat. Her accusations are baseless and she is quite stupid. She is like a 24 hour gastric bug, she will cause explosive diarrhoea until you fight off the "infection", and then will be given no further thought, unless she is like gastroenteritis.

I have to confess @chris191070, I share Kieran and @Mark Ponyboy Peters' opinion of this song. Whilst I don't hate the song, I find it very irritating and somewhat unnerving. It was #1 for 4 weeks in 1989 in Australia and I do remember it was played to death. I am not sure why, but the voices of The Proclaimers, whom I think were brothers, always made me think of garden gnomes, which I have always felt were a little "creepy". I lived in Erskineville, not far from the Imperial Hotel in 1995/1996, then in Newtown in 1996/1997 and in Camperdown from 1997 to 2013. Your descriptions of this area were very vivid and spot on @Mark Ponyboy Peters The smell of old carpet and Chinese takeaway was very amusing and brought back many memories, moreso the former than the latter. The cousins' and Charlie's meeting with Trinity/Patrick was very poignant @Mark Ponyboy Peters. I sensed vivid images from his childhood, many of them probably unpleasant, and many images of his life when he first moved to Sydney and likely struggled to find and support himself, flashed through Patrick's mind, like a film noir movie. My hay fever started playing up again, so evocative was your writing. It took me much longer to get to read this chapter than I anticipated because the "other Frida" has commandeered my laptop and also expressed her displeasure with the dinner with which she was served this evening. She has been playing prima donna all day today since we first got up at about 11.30 (it was bloody cold this morning and none of us wanted to get out of bed).

🎉🎉🎉🎉 Hooray ! A continuation of the story about the "other Charlie". I am so pleased to see the return of this story @Mark Ponyboy Peters. I look forward to reading this chapter and hopefully a few more yet, at least, before it concludes. I hope we get to meet cousin Patrick aka Trinity de la Creme in this chapter. Now without further ado I will read it.

I love your brevity @chris191070.

I found it interesting too @CincyKris, particularly that workplace safety issues such as cables lying around and lumber not being stacked properly, are being overlooked or ignored. The building industry in Australia is notorious for not ensuring worker safety is treated as paramount, and if this building site reflects the norm in Canada, it seems it may be the case there too. As noted by James repeatedly, these "small" problems could become big problems if ignored e.g. death(s) on a building site, environmental law breaches. Large corporations invariably scoff at such "trivialities" until the shit hits the fan, at which time it is usually the workers' or middle management who are blamed. In this case it also appears the client has unrealistic expectations, which I suspect is common in this industry, as are labour shortages, at least in Australia. James' job is not conducive to healthy living at present; early starts and late finishes, with insufficient rest and proper meal times. I daresay if challenged in such circumstances many employers would blame the employee and say they are not managing their time well, a typical cop-out again to blame the employee. James' employer does however, seem to be better than the average, or at least his immediate boss is. I think once James returns from his trip to Toronto he and Evan should ease back a bit on the texting etc as one or the other or both may start to find the attentiveness a little suffocating. I think I would, but I am inflexible, grumpy and unreasonable at times. LOL. An interesting story thus far @ChromedOutCortex, one without any tragedy or overwhelming angst. The only real "bummer" in the story to date is James' fractious relationship with his family, whom I assume have largely rejected him because he is gay.