Stories

This story is a prequel and sequel to my previous story, ‘The Boy on the Porch.’ While that was mostly Brendan’s point of view, this will be from the members of the Taft family's perspectives. It will cover things that happened before Nick was kicked out of his house, hit the necessary high points of what was covered in the first story, then continue on with their later lives, expanding on their pieces of the epilogue contained therein. I initially envisioned it to be Nick's story, but quickly determined it would be fairly short, so they all get some attention.

Love looks different in retrospect.

Former policeman Dan and art critic Vaughan’s relationship has an unfortunate start, but second time around they find that life has something different in store for them. Amidst interfering family members and lively friends, their relationship develops. But then Dan’s employer, Francis Heyward starts to take an interest. Heyward is seemingly stupendously rich, a giver of notorious parties and the possessor of an enviable art collection. There’s a question of whether a line should be crossed, and whether Heyward can even be trusted at all.

Verse about life, love and loss

Will Felix succumb to the surrounding flames of his life, or will he rise from the ashes like the phoenix born again?

This is the third segment in the world Volvo Tales. You should read the first two before this one.

Prompt #385 –

Brendan Nelson had a tough week at work. He is a Project Manager at a small software company. Nothing went well on his current project. The last delivery to QA (Quality Assurance) was a total failure, the techs couldn't even install it. Add to that, a serious problem in the development of a new feature arose. Finally, on top of that, the customer was screaming about a bug that hadn't been fixed for months, and now it apparently crashed the system. As if things weren't bad at work, he had to come home to a surprise.

A recent college graduate has a painful coming out to his family but gets a surprising response from his father.

Newly coming to terms with being gay, following an abusive childhood and a failed relationship with a girlfriend, electrician Keith meets Thomas, who runs a local arts charity. Despite coming from vastly differing backgrounds, the two discover much in common, not least the need to come to terms with complex relationships to their fathers. But they also learn to enjoy exploring life together.