This chapter does NOT contain any more horrific incidents. The previous one was more than hard enough to write.

Mark Lansing never wanted to stand out. He was perfectly happy disappearing into a football huddle with the rest of the team until one play made him the talk of the town. Thrust into a spotlight he never wanted, every choice can reshape his future, and every decision could transform him in ways he never believed possible. Mark’s destiny will be determined on the field … assuming he can figure out how to dress the part.

Having just married both Nancys, she was the focal point of my dream the next night, though I kept seeing Nancy change between my Nancy and a version of Victoria’s Nancy who had the most outrageous of the tattoos and piercings of the guests at her wedding. On Sunday, December 3, it was my Nancy who I found in bed with me.

CHAPTER 16
The night ride was as silly as usual, with a sizeable pick’n’mix of children, either riding on tandems or their own bikes, if tall enough. We rode out in the dark, stopping at a particular spot to play Headtorch Pooh Sticks, then convened for CAIK at Pluto (and Charon). It may have been demoted officially, but Pluto still marked the end of the Solar System for us. There was an obligatory Comedy Offroad Section down some dirt track or other, and then we looped back round to visit Saturn once again, and the ride back onto the racecourse. The Fisher was standing out against the predawn glow, but we still had our lights on, as the day’s first skylark took wing.

Another one brought to mind by comments on a story, this time prompted by the Home Office man in In the Green chapter 34.

Chapter 62:

CHAPTER 34
“Mum, this is Jen, my fiancée”

We had had to make all sorts of allowances for the extreme time difference, staying up past midnight, and god knows what time it was in Christchurch, but there was Mrs Meads on screen, and she seemed to be smiling.

“Hiya Jen! Call me Raewyn, eh?”

The River and the Stone
Chapter 1: Session One — The Gathering of Currents
The waiting room of Dr. Vance’s office was quiet, save for the low, continuous hum of a white-noise machine near the baseboards. On the deep leather couch, eighteen-year-old Leo sat with his ankles locked in a wide, rigid figure-four stance—his right ankle resting square over his left knee. His right thumb came up automatically, the edge of his thumbnail digging into the dry cuticle as his left heel tapped a rapid, impatient beat against the carpet.

Part 15 The Shiny New Penny

Monday morning arrived on time and so did Sam to take me to the studio. Odette went in Tonys’ Porsche and Tanya went with Steve, via his place so he could get a change of clothes. It looked like the penthouse had gone from housing one tenant to now looking after five, at least.

At the studio we had a cast meeting to talk about the direction that the show would go next. We ended up with a good set of scenes that would take us beyond the halfway point, and we would think about the further plot lines then.

CHAPTER 33
Ange and I looked at each other, clearly weighing up the conversation that evening in Nice, and then I answered for both of us.

“Neither, woman”

“Yet! Admit it!”

Ange sighed, theatrically.

“You getting paid as a matchmaker or something?”

John was currently waist-deep in a cardboard box filled with crocheted doilies and yellowed newspapers from the seventies. The attic of his grandmother's house smelled like old cedar and dormant dust, a cramped space where the roof slanted low, forcing him to hunch his shoulders. He had spent the better part of the morning moving stacks of magazines and sorting through porcelain figurines that looked like they belonged in a museum of things nobody actually wanted.

Sunday Morning Pantyhose XXXIV
By
Tracy Davis

This is a true story of how my Mom feminized me as a teenager. She had caught me wearing her pantyhose the summer before seventh grade. I got the surprise of my life the first Sunday of junior high, when she bought me pantyhose and started encouraging me to wear them, and then it was all downhill from there. -- Tracy

I felt my face turn pink. My feelings about Josh had changed.