Stories

Leaving home for the first time and heading out into the big, wide world to forge a life for yourself can be a daunting thing for anyone . . . unless, of course, you have your best friends right there beside you, sharing the experience with you, the ups and downs, the highs and lows . . .

We first met Matt and Luke, Tim and Guy, and all of their friends in After We Danced, The Rip and Song For Guy. Now they are living together in the small town of Thompsonville, a place they had quickly come to love . . . and their adventures have begun!

For sixteen year old Danny Anderson life is about to change. School is out and summer is here and hanging with his friends is all he wants to do, but there are some things he just can't share with his best friend, Nate. And then a handsome young stranger, not much older than he is, arrives in town and his world is turned upside down. The summer was now turning into something he could only ever dream of as he begins a journey of self-discovery filled with new adventures and experiences, a new friendship and just a hint of danger.

The new kid in town was quite the looker, but for Tim Patterson: gay, seventeen years old and single, he didn't think he'd stand a chance . . . even with his best mate, Ben Walker doing his best to interfere! What he didn't count on, however, was that the new kid in town had a secret of his own, and that the two of them were more alike than anyone could realise. And so it begins. Boy meets boy . . . and everything that they both hoped for looked like it was falling into place. Can they truly make it work? Can they avoid the pitfalls that seem to come with young love? Will they be able to find a way to work it all out?

"My grand-father always used to say that everything that happens to us in life happens for a reason. And when we look back on our lives there are some moments that just seem to stick in our minds forever and I can now see what he meant by that."

For Scott Fraser there was one such moment that he remembers well. It was the time when, as a teenager, he saved the life of a young boy who was about to be swept out to sea.

What he couldn't have prepared himself for, however, was what would happen when that same boy comes back into his life some years later . . .

Best friends, Luke and Matt, have been inseparable since primary school and now, after twelve long years of schooling, the end of those school years are finally within sight. All that is left to do is make it through the night of the school formal, before starting their final exams.

So what will the night bring for the boys and their group of friends? What secrets are about to be exposed? How will they, their families and their friends all react to the events that are about to unfold? And what will they discover about themselves . . . about each other . . . and about life?

Dallen's interest in nature and American Indian culture leads him on a series of adventures that will change his life forever.

Caleb attends an old-time revival, which leads to a religious experience of a different kind.

Logan's summer as Recreation Assistant with the Forest Service turns into more than just campground maintenance and public relations.

Boccaccio's Decameron, a story of renewal and recreation in defiance of a decimating pandemic, relates how ten self-isolated Italians pass the time regaling each other with tall tales during the Black Plague. While Covid19 wasn't nearly as decimating, the opportunity for such entertainment did exist. As a takeoff on that idea, this short story might well be a modern version of one of the tales, recounting events of earlier, less stressful times.

An athletic high-school senior and a studious freshman form an unusual friendship.