Another great chapter of the progress of the company, the relationships between the main characters. Thank you Paladin.
I'm intrigued however by a passing comment in the early part; of a ‘project’ at the university - now as often as I can recall from earlier tales by our favourite tale spinner, these somewhat ‘passing remarks’ often reappear a few chapters down the line. I await the reveal of this ‘project’
happy dayzzz…
Another good read - Thank you kind sir.
i await, albeit with a bit of impatience, for the next chapter(s) - Levi is going through several years of suppressed teenage development in a similar numbers of weeks! I feel that Fr. Costas will be having a regular visitor for counselling and real life education very soon.
The eye contact and attraction between the boys leads one’s imagination along several devious routes. Romance? A Bully finding a new target?
The first weeks in the new school will, I’m sure, set our minds at rest.
Thank you for another, very emotional, chapter.
It will be interesting, as the tale progresses, with Levi starting in a new school making new friends - girl friends , boy friends? - I’m sure there will be some romantic twists and turns to come as teenagers each come to terms with their own individual sexuality.
I only hope that Fr. Costas can calm Levi’s teenage angst after his distorted religious upbringing imposed by ‘Pop’
Yet another ‘good read’ chapter in this tale of juvenile enlightenment.
Now that Levi has started to meet his father’s friends, I await with anticipation his reaction to members, of his own age, in the population of Thompsonville. They may be not as understanding, of his cloistered upbringing, as the more adult group he has met so far.
Before he went to sea - like me - he attended a pre sea training course - on H.M.S. Conway in reality a ‘sixth form college’ albeit on an old wooden hulled ex navy ship the course there concentrating on Seamanship, Navigation as well as ‘normal’ school subjects. When Masefield was on the ship she was moored in the River Mersey near Liverpool Pierhead. During WW 2 she was shifted to the Menai Straits - between Anglesey and the Welsh mainland - It was there that I attended.
When I was not much older than Levi, I finished my formal education & went off to sea in my chosen profession.
Then I started learning about peoples, cultures, countries and how they all mesh to make the whole thing work.
Levi certainly needs to have his eyes opened and to observe the whole world not just a narrow corridor that he has been brought up to observe.
i think that the poem ‘Cargoes’ by John Masefield ( an old boy of the last school I attended - albeit many moons before me!) sums up the diversity that makes up the whole.
Maybe I’m just ancient - but - the nearest thing to a calculator I ever has at school was a slide rule. I still use occasionally, best tool for getting good, maybe not perfect, results.
Also I didn’t get a mobile phone until I was about 45! Now I feel it would take a surgical operation to separate a teenager from the phone!
Another great chapter in this ongoing story of teenage realisations, albeit in very harrowing circumstances.
As to the biblical references especially Leviticus - it should be explained that this was not written by God but by a man, or men. Also it has been translated from the original, possibly Aramaic, through to Greek, to Latin thence to the modern languages. Every translation incorporating maybe errors due to the social norms of the man or woman translating, The King James Bible being a prime example of this. More modern translations have improved the scripts.
Enough of this Bible bashing - but it should be gently fed to Levi - that it is all the words of men.
thanks again for all that you write for our enjoyment.
I’m beginning to sense that Levi, is pondering about his extreme religious upbringing and the contrast with his natural father’s relationship. Is he also thinking of his own sexuality, has he also got a ‘very good’ male friend? Is he torn apart, in his mind, between his upbringing, his loss of his mother, his own sexuality, the same-sex relationship of his father.
i look forward to more revelations in this story, told in his usually great style by Mark Ponyboy Peters.
Levi, at 15, is coming to terms with the situation that all his parental support has been removed, and he is alone in the world.
Matt is also coming to the realisation that he now has parental obligation to a 15 year old boy that he doesn’t know.
Trying to imagine how each of the characters will react, or maybe over-react, to the situation is I feel being well explored by Mark Ponyboy Peters, in his usual meticulous writing style.
Now, having read more of the ‘Traditions’, I am intrigued as to how the relationships will develop in this ‘prequel’ knowing something of the future relationships…
Thank you for giving my old grey cells something to think about whilst awaiting the next chapter…
Another good read…
I am, as others are I’m sure, intrigued that the divorced wife has not appeared yet! Considering the publicity that Nathan’s actions occasioned.
Also the fact that the extensive narrative of securing the apartment makes me wonder - are these things linked?
I look forward to the next and future chapters.