Mark Arbour

Que sera, sera

June 23, 2002 Palo Alto, CA Matt “We’ll send Pedro back to pick you up,” Will told me. Zach and Brad said nothing. Zach looked at me sympathetically, while Brad just looked guilty. I tried to decide which one was worse. “That’s fine,” I said. They dropped me off in front of Casey Bridgeport’s office building, and then headed for Escorial. I went in and checked in with the receptionist, who gave me an odd look, probably because I wasn’t my normal, flirtatious self. After

I'm not sure if that's true. Barry would have seen much more of the internal family dynamics than the average person. He would have been privy to Wally's rants about Will's influence on Zach, he would have seen Zach's reaction when they told him he couldn't be with Will, and he certainly would have been clued in when Will's family rained thunder down on him via Cody.

It seems that every story, you post something that not only makes me laugh, but sticks in my memory, and continues to make me laugh. This is one of them. I'm hoping this replaces the quip "horribly unfortunate old, bald, fat Asian man" in my psyche.

Thanks Kitt! I appreciate the sentiments. Reviews like this are nice. :-)

Thanks for the review! I'm hoping that sometime in the near future I can get to Zanesville...I haven't been there before, which is probably just as well, since it gives me more mental freedom with Claremont. I don't mind if you can't fully endorse a chapter, because that's not all that unusual. I would point out, though, that much of what you said is you not wanting the characters to do what they did (Matt/Wade/Brad), and not whether they would actually do them or not. I say this to point out that often readers bring their own idea of how things should be, and then feel that I'm wrong when things don't turn out that way. I'm used to it, and the kind manner you gave me feedback made it just fine. I think that the issue with Brad, and who was paying Barry, is actually pretty easy to understand. Brad's looking at this guy and sees him as someone who he can influence, no matter who paid him. I don't know if Matt and Wade will end up together or not, but Matt is definitely not going to run Wade out of his life. They've been through too much together, and have to tight of a bond, to let that go. And what we're seeing here is that 9-11 so messed these people up that they acted irrationally. Now that they are recovering, they're recovering their senses (to a degree). This is what JP was saying when he told Will he made allowances for the traumas they were dealing with.

Thank you so much! I think that Matt and Brad are both pretty stubborn and hard-headed, so a knock-out punch is usually required. It's hard for me to quantify just how much time I spend writing. It's usually done when I have free time, and it gets more frenetic when I have an inspired plot idea.

Thanks for giving me your cherry. I'll try to be gentle. ;-) You raise a great point, in that Brad and Robbie's entire relationship dynamic involved a lot of fucking up, and then the requisite begging for forgiveness afterwards. If this really is an epiphany for Brad, then he'll probably start to feel toward Matt like you've suggested. Quite frankly, that's probably the biggest test of all.

Thanks so much! It makes sense that Brad would be struggling to forgive Robbie. Brad has never really been able to let go of anger (or other negative feelings) without a proper apology. He was actually able to figure out a way to get what he needed. And I totally get what you're saying about places. Sometimes I think memories linger at a location, like bits not erased on a hard drive.

Great points Kody! Two of the important issues you raised are the risk that a cover girlfriend/boyfriend can become more important, and that the rules will ultimately chaff against Will's personality. I think the former is the bigger risk, because I think Will can be a devoted partner, and I think that he'll put up with a lot of crap for the man he loves.

Thanks Miles. I don't know anything about this fantasy world (Narnia) that you speak of. My fantasies usually involve penises. ;-)

Great points Maarten, and I think you're right about both conversations. I think that for Matt, he saw Brad as the strong and unflappable guy he'd known since 1998, so it was probably a tough transition for him to adapt to the fucked-up Brad of 2001-2002.

Well, if the Irish would simply change it from St. Patrick's to St. Mark's day, I'd be much more compliant. The egotist in me appreciates a day named almost after me, even if it is about trees.

There's an incomplete timeline in Wiki and another one, which focuses mostly on the US, here. As of the time of this story, only the Netherlands had approved gay marriage. Belgium was next, but not until 2003. Here's a Wiki article on civil unions. In fact, many European countries with civil union laws were slow to adopt gay marriage. The Scandinavian countries, for example, were some of the first to provide for civil unions (Denmark, 1989), but gay marriage wasn't legal in Norway and Sweden until 2009, and in Denmark until 2012. In fact, gay marriage legalization in Europe was pretty slow. It just happened in the UK this year. Domestic partnerships were allowed in the '90s, but the LATE 90s. Hawaii, 1997, and California, 1999. I'm not sure that domestic partnership and gay marriage, other than it being a civil rights issue, would have impacted this family. Their wealth largely insulates them from the benefits and disadvantages of both, and much can be accomplished with powers-of-attorney and trusts. I'll defer to Tim on this one, though. Welcome to Twenty-first century America.

Alright. It's working now. Thanks CIA!

Crap. Well, I didn't pick the winner.

I don't think the link is working yet. GA has to "approve" it first, if I'm not mistaken. I'll let you know when that happens

I have spent some time re-editing "The Gunroom", and have posted the updated file here. The main purposes for this project were to correct some historical inaccuracies (for example, Gibraltar did not have a port admiral, it had a governor), and to fine-tune some of the dialog. For those of you who have downloaded this file previously, I recommend that you replace it with this new one.

Thanks! I think it's possible to meet your soul mate in your teens, but the journey forward is going to be very challenging. Not only do Will and Zach have to deal with the limitations on their relationships due to football, but they'll also be going through some pretty radical changes as they mature. Tough to hang together for that.

Not a big fan of the NewFoundGlory song, but I can see why you picked it for that scene. I liked the flashback to the Cure. It was a good choice then, and it still is. Annie Lennox is just weird. But that was a good song and a great choice. The song from Footloose was just an awesome choice!

Thanks! I thought it would be fun to work that into the current book. It really was a seminal point in Brad's relationship with Robbie.

You're being just a little bit high maintenance. Seriously, the Amber 311 song was my favorite of that bunch, all of which were good. That song doesn't remind me of the beach, it makes me want to get high. I can't see any connection between the Shakira song and the Bangles' number, but that's just me.

I think that's what Brad has needed to do all along. He needed to work his way around to forgiving Robbie.

Thanks for the review! I'm so glad to hear you're doing better, and that I could provide you with some distracting entertainment.

June 22, 2002 Malibu, CA Brad “I hope you know I was just doing my job, Mr. Schluter,” Barry said nervously. “If I don’t know the status of their relationship, I can’t help them out.” “I understand that,” I said. “I think it would have been reasonable to just ask them the question in the first place.” “You heard the first answer I got?” he asked me, to validate his strategy. “I did,” I said. “But you had set yourself up as their adv