John Henry

“All rise,” The court clerk called out. It had been two days since the judge heard closing arguments, and Diego was getting nervous. Billy tried being reassuring, but for Diego, this was an open and shut case, which should've been dismissed months ago. “You may be seated,” Judge Arthur said, as he and everyone else sat down. “Is the Petitioner and his Counsel present?” “Yes, Your Honor,” Mr. Clarke said, standing up. Diego looked over and saw Calvin was in a wheelchair, with a neck bra

I want to everyone to keep in mind that I don't have a problem with religion or Christianity. My issue is with hypocrisy and people not minding their damn business. The Moral Majority doesn't have the right to impose their views and beliefs on others, because they're the first cry about it when they "feel" it's being done to them. I also won't put up with their gaslighting other. Attacking people and not expecting it back doesn't work for me. You don't get to run your mouth and then tell the person/people you're bullying that they're not allowed to say anything in return will get me to say something real quick. What the left needs to do is stop getting gaslit and say something back, and more than just, "Don't say that. You'll hurt my feelings." Fuck that. The far right doesn't give a fuck about my feelings and I don't give a fuck about theirs. If Trump had been killed that day, I would've celebrated, and I feel zero shame in that, nor would I let them try to guilt me for it. The left lets the right bully them, while the left also bullies anyone who stands up to the right, which only gives the right more power. The assassination attempt then the following RNC proved this. Fuck them. I hate those bitches, and don't give a fuck what they think. I'm unfamiliar with Mark Kelley, as I try to avoid anything Arizona after the places started acting like Florida. I specifically brought up McCain because the man did what he felt was right for the people, while most other politicians only looked out for their corporate daddies. He even left the hospital after a treatment for his cancer to protect Obamacare, since the Republicans were trying to hold the repeal vote without him. No Republican today would do that. Hell, I think Bernie Sanders or maybe AOC are the only politicians who would do that today.

As Childish Gambino says, "This is America."

Bryan has been a treasure to write, and I can't wait to keep writing his story. There are essentially two major types of Conservatives in the US: Fiscal and Moral. The last well-known fiscal conservative was John McCain, who was probably their last moderate politician. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have the health care system we have, leaving millions without any kind of health care. It's not a great system by any means, but it's better than it was. Moral Conservatives are the ones you hear the most from. The list is way too long to post, but look up pretty much any Republican, and you'll find a Moral Conservative. "Log Cabin" or "Tea Party" are just flashy names for the same trash. The Republicans love to promote Abraham Lincoln when they run their mouths, but he was a Progressive not a Conservative. Before Franklin Roosevelt, the Republicans were largely Liberal or Progressive, while the Democrats were Conservatives. During FDR's terms as President, both partiers started to move towards the Center, which got a lot of shit taken care of; however, after WWII, the Northern Liberals started more towards the Democrats, while the Southern Republicans started being more Conservative. Things completely flipped with Richard Nixon, a Republican and not-so-secret racist, lost the Black vote to John F. Kennedy, which had never happened before, after Kennedy said he'd pass a civil rights bill that Nixon refused to draft as Vice President. Since then, the Republicans have moved further to the right, entering into Fascism, while the Democrats have moved further left into Socialism. Journey as a whole isn't not political; however, their keyboardist, Jonathan Cain, is a Trump supporter. His wife, Paula White, was Trump's "spiritual advisor," and is a "Prosperity Gospel" preacher. Basically, she tells people to send her all their money, and she'll pray their cancer away instead of them getting treatment. Neal Schon, who founded the band, doesn't like her at all (she's also racist, and he's definitely not), which caused problems when she and her husband tried taking over the band's finances. Neal and Steve Perry have both legally blocked Jonathan from using Journey's music to promote Trump.

No, I think we can call it fact.

I'm trying to move Bryan's snark forward with his age. He's almost 15, and needs to get more edgy with his sarcasm.

In the US, it's the Christian right that has the loudest voice when it comes to "traditional family values," and all that crap. Although we have the second largest Jewish population in the world, you don't often hear from the Orthodox Jews or even Conservative Muslims about this topic, which would usually put at target on their backs by the Christians. I mean, there are Gay Conservatives (don't get me started) who have supported Trump, who get attacked by Trump's supporters. I avoid anything that could be right leaning in the slightest. If it wasn't for Neal Schon's influence, I probably wouldn't listen to Journey, anymore.

For some reason, GA is saying it's spelled wrong no matter how you do it.

Yes, the quiet ones are often the most dangerous.

We'll see if Calvin learned his lesson(s) next weekend for the final chapters.

The comic relief was needed, and after the previous chapter, I felt that "allegedly" needed a callback.

I wouldn't say that Rick let her drive a wedge. He was just as manipulated by her and Charlie was by Justin, just in different ways. She made sure nobody was around when she fucked with Charlie, and played innocent when Charlie reacted. I've seen shit like this happen in real life (little kids are notorious for doing this sort of thing), so I wouldn't necessarily put all the blame on Rick; however, I'm not going to scapegoat him, either, since a lot of it does fall back on him, and he's suffering for it. Regarding Justin, the signs were intentionally vague. The reader was intended to fall for his machinations just as Charlie (and everyone else) had, but they were still there, regardless. It was a trap that almost everyone fell for, and that was the part of the point. It's why I write from the perspectives I do. If I had written from Justin's perspective, Charlie would've come off as the eager participant instead of the manipulated victim he was. If I had written Brenda from Rick's point of view, Charlie would've come off as the whiny, bratty, rebellious child and Brenda would've come off as the well-intended mother-to-be, who didn't quite get things right, though she was trying her best. Perspective is key in writing. It helps get the reader to the place you want them to be...most of the time. I don't expect anyone to feel bad for any characters I write. I would rather you have empathy for characters you hate than sympathy for those you don't, if that makes any sense.

Diego will have a role in the story but probably not as big as everyone might want. Brenda was certainly a villain with the way she treating Charlie. Her intent was to get him shipped off to boarding school or something in order to have Rick to herself, and she created the wedge between Rick and Charlie. A ton of people fell for Justin, which is what I wanted, but I got a ton of hate mail over it. My response was, "It's not my fault you're too stupid to not have seen it. It's been there since Chapter 1." I don't deal with haters very well. Lol As for Charlie's reaction to Caleb's kidnapping? I can say that if Charlie had gotten his hands on Calvin, Charlie would be in jail for assault at least. Luckily, we're not losing Charlie to a criminal charge.

I feel ya. That seems to be the consensus.

I totally get it, which is why I promised a happy ending. As I mentioned before in the comments to this story (I think last chapter), that I'm known for Game of Thrones style writing. I'm not generally afraid to kill off well-loved characters. I once wrote a movie script where the main character (an gay man) is killed at the end. Apparently, it was so well written a homophobe wanted to play the main character, even though there was a sex scene in it. *shrug* When it came to Growing Up Kyle, that was all 100% off the top of my head. There was zero planning or any real thought put into it. Given some of the feedback I got from some really "bad individuals," I plotted out (for the first time ever) what would become Growing Up Charlie, in which I wanted to show the effects of a victim as it occurred. These same men who wanted bad things to happen to Charlie got their wish, but they didn't like the fact that I showed them the damage their fantasy can cause. Justin's personality and motives where planned from the very beginning, so if you didn't catch them the first time, go back and reread the first chapter. It was there the entire time. Growing Up Ry is the fallout and (hopeful) redemption to the trilogy. Ry also wasn't innocent, either. Everyone else's shit, especially Rick's, hid Ry's part very well. But, as you've read, things are better for the Bartons.

They did do Ry dirty, which is why he's been the way he has ever since finding out the truth. Diego has been introduced already, and that chapter, I believe was already released. The parallel was just the kidnapping. There had been concerns from some readers of both stories that I was going to recreate Growing Up Charlie with Caleb and Bryan, which I don't ever intend to do again. Both Calvin and Justin did what they did for purely selfish reason and were willing to hurt their victim to get it. Brenda was the villain out in the open. Will was the villain the readers saw coming. Justin was the villain only the most clever ever noticed. Brenda was the shadow that Justin used to obfuscate himself. He served his purpose, and I have no reason to teach that lesson again.

They violate the rules given the topics, especially the second book in the trilogy. Wish You Were My Dad is about a teen boy who falls in love with his adult neighbor, which violates GA's posting rules. Regarding the Growing Up Trilogy, it has similar themes but I don't really censor a lot of what happens, including going into graphic details about some of the assaults and violence hinted at in this story. I only censored what happened to Charlie because I couldn't stomach giving the actual details. I upset a lot of people with that story, so I'm a bit gun shy with certain topics now.

I think everyone who has read the Trilogy is Team Ry and probably have been since Billy was still Kyle. It's just a matter of getting to that conversation at this point. Yeah, I wanted Caleb to show the bravery that's been buried this entire time. He was ganged up on at school, but it was just one-on-one this time. Plus, I wanted to show how stupid Calvin is (well, another example, really). He underestimated the meek 11-year-old, who wasn't about to leave his family. You're also right that Calvin is pretty much a stranger to him, so there's no familial loyalty there. There's also the parallel with Charlie's situation for those who know, and I wasn't about to do that again, even though the fictional Calvin is nothing like Justin. I don't think Billy knew but more thought it was a sure bet. The adult Billy learned from his mistakes made in the Trilogy, and doesn't want to repeat them. Btw, there's another story featuring Billy on Nifty, Wish You Were My Dad, if you haven't already read my other stories there.

I wanted this to be a roller coaster experience with the cut scenes moving back and forth in the timeline. Caleb strangling Calvin was planned early on, so I'm glad I could find a way to keep it in.

Lol I got the reference, but yeah, Billy isn't his biological father. I won't spoil anything for those reading the Growing Up Trilogy on Nifty, but Will had done a lot worse, and not just taking a bat to someone....

I'm not one for physical violence (except maybe towards former orange Presidents, allegedly...), but Caleb strangling Calvin was very cathartic. Bryan needed to bring the humor back after such an intense exchange. Billy said what I think we all needed to hear, especially with today's political climate. The judge's ruling will be next week, for good or bad....

Shittyness is a great word to describe Calvin, both real and fictional. I don't know if I ever mentioned these tidbits about the real Calvin, but: 1) He and I used to work together at different locations. One night, he decided to be very late to work, forcing me to rush through my job to go to the other location to do his. Shortly after I get there, he shows up claiming he was in a car accident, despite no damage to his car. Keep in mind, I got him that job, because he wouldn't stop whining about me not getting him hired. We were living together at the time, so on the way home, we drove through the intersection he claimed to have been hit at, and there was zero evidence of an accident (where I live, the cops won't show up unless cars can't move out of the way, which he said was the case, hence him being late). After getting home, I was about to chew him out for being late to work, again, and for lying about the accident. He then told me that his sister called and that his mother might have had a stroke, so he had to go to the hospital to see her. I figured this was another lie, so I contacted his brother and sister. His sister snitched on him in ways you can't imagine, then I talked to his mother who gave me a tone of dirt. I ended up calling him and basically told him to come home now or he's homeless. I found his voicemail response this morning, actually, where he tried chewing me out for contacting his family behind his back, because his family laid into him for his habitual lying. 2) He, years after this, reached out to my little sister who was dying of cancer (currently in remission), going through a divorce and dealing with a literal psychopath of a daughter. My sister contacted me for advice about her daughter, and I ended telling Calvin who was sitting next to me while I was on the phone. That night, he messaged her via Facebook and began to hit on her. My little sister is bipolar and a general emotional mess, and that was before getting cancer. She contacted me the next day about it, because he wouldn't take no for an answer. She sent me screen shots and everything. When confronted, he didn't deny it, but then tried fake crying to play on what little sympathy I had; it didn't work, as I generally have a complete lack of sympathy (it's a condition I'm working on). So, when I say that I'm barely scratching the surface with this story, you can kinda see what I mean, and this still isn't the worst of it....

The remaining chapters will be released next weekend. The line you quoted is a mix of the real Calvin and my own father, both of whom are very much alike. The real Calvin never threatened to wash the boys' mouths out with soap, since he had that done to him as child, but he would give his 3-year-old sriracha for disobeying him. His favorite punishment was spanking. I'm not a fan of that punishment at all, so I'd try to move him towards other things like time-outs or lose of privileges, but he'd take those to extremes, like having both boys (4 and 5 at the time) stand in time out for an entire weekend for misbehaving, and he did that more than once. Anytime I'd find a positive way to reinforce their good behavior, he'd find a way to ruin it and claim it wasn't working. Then, he'd try to hold me accountable for the boys' behaviors when we did things his way. Father of the year, am I right? So, Caleb strangling Calvin in the story is really just wish fulfilment that I think we all can get behind.

Yes. Calvin woke up and chose violence, so Caleb had to choke a bitch....

I had meant to bring up the title before in probably some kind of heartfelt speech by Diego to the boys, so while I was writing Billy's closing remarks, I remembered that I had left it out. Clarke's speech is one we've had thrown at us for all our lives about "traditional families" and shit, so I wanted Billy's speech to be the counter to that argument without it being a personal attack on "those values." I find the Christian Right's "traditional family values" laughable since the support politicians who have been known to cheat on their spouses, abandon their kids, do drugs, hide in the closet, and have the highest divorce rate in the US. So, I could've easily made it political, like Clarke tried doing (his only "real" defense at this point), but arguing isn't nearly as affective as showing.