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.
I have mailed a couple of people here I consider as long-distance friends to warn them off the episode. I am not trying to be melodramatic, just to spare some wounded people further distress.
My sincerest apologies to anyone hurt by this tale. There are redeeming features to it; please trust me. As before, a precis is avalable for anyone who wants to avoid the actual chapters I indicate.
Comments
I saw trouble brewing, but...
Where ever you go with this, I will follow. You've got me hooked, so here we go!
Wren
as i pmed you
i will have to skip these chapters - they will hit too close to home for me.
"Treat everyone you meet as though they had a sign on them that said "Fragile, under construction"
dorothycolleen
Chapters
I have sent you a mail with the plot of 14 and 15. Those are the crisis chapters
Rough Ride
That last chapter posted as I type, number 15, is the end of this phase of unpleasantness in Stevie's story. I will not promise there will be no more, because the story is still to be told. Karen is there, there is hope. Thank you for bearing with me, and once more I apologise for the necessity of being so brutal. In the comments, I have linked to the stories of two scandals in the UK which were seeing evil unfold at the very time I have set this tale. A scandal has recently been 'closed' in the Channel slands where a 'Thirlmere' was used for children who failed to be contrite. In all three scandals, there were either explicit claims or hints that children were being leant out as if from a library (my metaphor perhaps a bit too obvious) to people includng very senior public fgures.
The backlash in Northern reland against gay men was horrendous. 'That paedophile is gay, blond and left-handed, therefore all gay men are paedophiles'. These are some of the issues I have tried to address, and I could see no subtle way to do it.
Thank you for your patience. I now have to see to some minor characters.
The back is broken
There are enough hints in the last episode posted (17) to give hints as to a possible breakthrough, and now I have that hard part out of the way I am listening to happy, bouncy, life-affirming Capercaillie Scots Gaelic folk. Shout at the devil, dance for freedom, sing for life.
Child abuse
I have been opening some wounds recently with my S and T story, and appositely the Guardian published an article responding to a wave of arrests of men of Pakistani origin whoe were grooming very young white girls because they saw them as 'easy meat' (their words)
The charity Barnardo's, a truly fine body, revealed that it is a lot more complex and much more widespread. There are articles linked to this one, but it makes harrowing reading.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/17/child-traffick...
In another forum, there was a knee-jerk response of 'racism' when the first news came out. This article restores a little balance.