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Ride On 3

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CHAPTER 3
I was still on late turn, of course, so she bullied me into getting the tourer out of the shed and loading it with panniers.



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This story is 26 words long.

Ride On 2

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CHAPTER 2
I pulled on the lycra again after lunch, and rode the five miles to the station, where I punched in the code on the keypad and locked the bike up in the yard.



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This story is 34 words long.

Ride On 1

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CHAPTER 1
I put the bike in the shed and settled the rucksack onto my shoulders as I tugged the straps tighter to compensate for standing upright.



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This story is 26 words long.

The end of the affair

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That is it for Sweat and Tears, Dear Readers. My muse is dormant now, as she has been screaming at me for the last few months and has felt the need for a rest. Thank you for staying the course, those of you who could. I knwo there are some who couldn't get past the unpleasantness, but I trust all understand it wasn't written for any salacious reason. I wanted that part of the story to be as brutal as I could manage while keeping at least some restraint and tact.

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Sweat and Tears 48

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CHAPTER 48
Tom had a stack of neatly-bound files waiting for me when we got back, but Em took my arm.



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This story is 20 words long.

Sweat and Tears 47

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CHAPTER 47
I was calmer by far when we returned to Maryport. The trip had moved me in so many ways, moved me profoundly.



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This story is 23 words long.

Sweat and Tears 46

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CHAPTER 46
I was still in a complete mess when it was all over. Clearly, this had been something they had been planning for a while, and as my balance returned I began to wonder what the hell they had needed to do to be able to walk into what added up to a local council building and get married.



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This story is 59 words long.

Sweat and Tears 45

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CHAPTER 45
That was indeed the start of a new life and lives. Em was home in a few days, and as a constant stream of wellwishers, including several pupils, came round the house to pay their respects and leave flowers and chocolates, babygros and bootees, we learned how little sleep it is possible to exist on.



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This story is 56 words long.

Sweat and Tears 44

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CHAPTER 44
I watched Kaz’s face go through a series of twitches, and I could almost track them, from ‘I’m too young’, to ‘How?’, then ‘Who?’, and finally ‘Ah!’



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This story is 30 words long.

Sweat and Tears 43

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CHAPTER 43
My wife was fussing with my hair as I looked in the mirror, and I slapped her hand away gently as she tried to reset my ponytail. If this went on, I was going to have to get it cut off.



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This story is 42 words long.

Sweat and Tears 42

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CHAPTER 42
That was an odd time, truly odd. I had spent my entire, if compressed, academic career listening to people tell me things, explaining to them what I thought I understood, and then listening to them correct me, sometimes dismissively.



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This story is 40 words long.

Sweat and Tears 41

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CHAPTER 41
Three years we had at Bangor, three years of growth mental and physical, and although I know I am biased my Emily became daily more beautiful.



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This story is 27 words long.

Sweat and Tears 40

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CHAPTER 40
That took me full circle, back to those articles about April Ashley, and I felt an odd sense of calm as I spoke.



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Sweat and Tears 39

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CHAPTER 39
Bangor was three years of intensity. I was racing to a high level, and though never scaling the heights of those wonders Coe and Ovett I wasn’t doing too badly on the UAU circuit.



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This story is 36 words long.

Sweat and Tears 38

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CHAPTER 38
We had enough resources between us, and independence, to take rooms of our own rather than be tied to the halls of residence.



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This story is 24 words long.

Sweat and Tears 37

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CHAPTER 37
I stood outside the car in shock. The place stank of wet smoke, of burnt plastic and cloth. I knew, at that point, with absolute conviction that the bastards had finally got one of us, and cursed my lack of conviction in dragging her off to foreign parts.



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This story is 49 words long.

Sweat and Tears 36

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CHAPTER 36
That night was a private party, in effect, as all the pent-up stress of our exams erupted into collision and collusion with the joy of being reunited with such good friends.



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This story is 32 words long.

Sweat and Tears 35

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CHAPTER 35
I had my session with my lady shrink before we went.

“So you’re rich, then, Stevie. Does that make you happy?”



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This story is 23 words long.

Sweat and Tears 34

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CHAPTER 34
School felt, some days, as if it was burning me at both ends, rather than a candle, and it was only the people round me who stopped the cracks from spreading.



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Sweat and Tears 33

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CHAPTER 33
The papers were full of interest, as it turned out, and Dave and Aidan were more than happy for a little more income from me. Aidan was still so self-effacing I could have forgotten he was there, if it wasn’t for his military style commands.



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This story is 47 words long.

Sweat and Tears 32

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CHAPTER 32
I remembered that hospital, Mitchell’s den. He was long gone, crawled into some hole or other, but the smell of the place still brought the fear back.



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Sweat and Tears 31

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CHAPTER 31
When you are a small child, Summer lasts forever, and for me it was almost like that.



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Sweat and Tears 30

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CHAPTER 30
That was living, as Nana would say. How to sum up what I consider now as my first true holiday? I could list the climbs we did, or the peaks we crossed, or the silliness in boats on Derwentwater, or…it would be just that, a list, and while each of the items there brings me a memory, a smile, it remains a series of names and dates for anyone else.



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Sweat and Tears 29

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CHAPTER 29
We returned to Boot with me buzzing away and the other three somehow completely relaxed, after another four climbs.



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Sweat and Tears 28

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CHAPTER 28
Tessa was suddenly looking more than a little confused.

“I’m not used to this….this sort of acceptance”



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Sweat and Tears 27

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CHAPTER 27
Cunningham was gone, and I was technically free, but what the tramp had made clear to me was that it would never be real. Cunningham, the Allisons, Alf, they would all lurk just beyond that wall of sleep waiting to smile at me at night.



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This story is 46 words long.

Sweat and Tears 26

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CHAPTER 26
We weren't learning some mad form of instant death to our enemies, just some basic moves to break out of someone's grip and discourage them from trying to get another one. Above all, what Tom was trying to teach us was observation and awareness. He was forever saying “What is wrong with this picture?”



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This story is 55 words long.

Sweat and Tears 25

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CHAPTER 25
Karen was trembling with nerves.

“Look, Steve, I know I'm not that much older than you, but it would be a way of keeping the fucking social workers from getting at you if Ada goes. We've talked it over with her, haven't we, Bri, and she is happy with the idea. You've had so much shit we can't bear the thought of you having any more”



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This story is 67 words long.

Sweat and Tears 24

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This s the trial. It necessarily rehashes a lot of the unpleasantness of earlier chapters, but it is drier, less direct. Please read with caution, though.



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This story is 26 words long.

Sweat and Tears 23

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CHAPTER 23
And so it went, day by day and night by night. Em’s parents, Barbara and Peter, started coming round to the house, at first to make sure their daughter wasn’t in some vice den, which she was, in a way, and their initial take on our cuddling was a little off.



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This story is 54 words long.

Sweat and Tears 22

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CHAPTER 22
I woke slowly, for once, no sudden impact of awareness on my mind, and then I remembered, and of course Emily was there next to me, still, awake and looking at me as I slept.



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This story is 36 words long.

Sweat and Tears 21

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CHAPTER 21
Brian was almost hyperventilating, and for an instant the news...eleven bodies…then I saw his excitement, and I realised that it was nothing like that, nothing at all.



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Sweat and Tears 20

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CHAPTYER 20
“Brian, how big is this place?”

“Well, there are five bedrooms–“

“No, the grounds. I want to start running again.”



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Sweat and Tears 19

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CHAPTER 19
There were so many things going on just then, things I didn’t see or know about till it was all over, or very nearly. What I was involved with was my healing, or healing as much as I was able.



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This story is 42 words long.

Sweat and Tears 18

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CHAPTER 18
I have still not named any of the other boys, nor described them,



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Sweat and Tears 17

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CHAPTER 17
That was an evening of deep pain for Nana as Karen and Brian filled her in on what sort of place I was in. Brian explained about his friend’s friend after Nana’s tears had eased a bit, and also, very slowly, and gently, and brutally, why she could not just march in and get me.



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Sweat and Tears 16

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This still addresses traumatic issues, but is largely past the brutal subjects of the last two chapters. A goddess is invoked.



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This story is 21 words long.

Sweat and Tears 15

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****CAUTION****
Severely unpleasant scenes of rape, suicide and other abuse. I want to get this part of the story out of the way as it is unpleasant to write and probably just as unpleasant to read. There is a light at the end of the tunnel...but.



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This story is 47 words long.

Sweat and Tears 14

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CAUTION
This chapter deals quite diirectly with sexual abuse of a child. It is brutal, in my opinion. It was hard to write. Chapter 15 will be worse. As stated before I will send a summary to anyone whowishes to avoid the section.



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This story is 42 words long.

Sweat and Tears

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From Chapter 14 onward this will be getting extremely dark and very nasty. I will, as is my normal style, not be going into unnecessarily graphic detail as I feel that what happens to young Stevie should be seen as shadows on a wall and not a slow motion porn film. I put some detail into his teenaged fumbling with Emily because I felt that certain aspects of that were essential to the plot, but I will not do that for other bits. Such detail is unnecessary.

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Sweat and Tears 13

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CAUTION. This chapter contains scenes of juvenile sexual exploration that may offend. It is not graphic, but it is necessary for the plot. There are also elements that relate to child abuse and these may affect some readers. Obviously, I hope my writing affects my readers, but not in that way.



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This story is 51 words long.

Sweat and Tears 12

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CHAPTER 12
Nana ran us up by Eskdale Moor and Burnmoor Tarn the next day, sticking to the track and the footbridges, but there was still bog, and I understood her insistence of doing without socks as the mud splashed my legs and soaked through the canvas of my shoes.



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This story is 49 words long.

Sweat and Tears 11

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CAUTION. This chapter contains references to rape and torture/kind of a particular kind. If not suitable, I am happy to send a plot summary by PM to anyone that wishes.



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This story is 31 words long.

Cold Feet 86

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CHAPTER 86
February came, with its greyness and endless grim drizzle, and Bev was waddling. Alice, on the other hand, was almost dancing.



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Sweat and Tears 10

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CHAPTER 10
That was rather amazing. Her lips were incredibly soft, and I found out why noses don’t squish when people snog.



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Cold Feet 85

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CHAPTER 85
That was a hard period for me, a bit like riding in an out of control car. I had no idea how to deal with her when she got so determined apart from stepping back, and that was the bad bit. I didn’t want her dead.



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This story is 48 words long.

Sweat and Tears 9

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CHAPTER 9
The week was a good one, as those things go. I felt safe for the first time I could remember, safe and wanted.



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Sweat and Tears 8

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CHAPTER 8
The school day passed far more easily than it ever had at Bowness. I was, for the moment, the centre of attention, and classmates were queuing up to ask me about Singapore, my running, all sorts.



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