Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Still at it...

Dair's Window is threatening to actually make it to 50K in wordage, to my shock. I won't make it before I head to Hong Kong on Monday night, but I'll have a 15 hour flight to work on it...hopefully with power. Sometimes the seat plugs work and sometimes they don't. We'll just have to see.

But today was a good day for the story. I guess my whining made the characters realize I needed their help here...and so they stepped up. I worked on a long tender discussion between Dair and Adam that Adam's telling. He starts out intending to seduce Dair and make him a client; he's made money as a rent boy. But as they talk and he gets to know Dair, his feelings shift. He may be a few years younger but he's lived on the street and has a realistic view of the world and the people in it...and he sees Dair is still caught in the idea that you should trust people.

During the talk, Adam learns Dair has anger issues and had them pretty much under control, thanks to being away from certain situations for a couple years. But his sister-in-law knows exactly the right buttons to push to send him over the edge then feign innocence when he explodes...and she's still at her old tricks.

Dair hosts a birthday party for himself and invites friends from Seattle and Tacoma, and some bring their kids. The sister-in-law calls child protective services on them and they show up during the party. Adam is there, sees Dair is about to explode so steps in and pretends he invited the women, then he and Marion, Dair's mother, show them around the house. By the time they leave they're kissing Dair's cheek for good luck. All nicely handled.

Now Dair's torn. He knows what happened and is fighting himself over it. Anything he does will cause a massive rift with his brother and disrupt his relationship with his nieces. It might even affect his mother's relationship with them. But he has always stood up for himself and can't let it go. That's when Adam comes in and talks with him...and they share secrets...and Dair finally makes a move on Adam...and things progress from there.

As mentioned, Adam has a very questionable background. There are a lot of things he had to do to survive after being kicked out of his parents' home...and Dair winds up being his salvation as much as he is Dair's. I'm not sure how to handle this, yet, but something I want to keep in mind is...not only was Adam ripped away from Dair but Dair was also ripped away from him. He's a dead man telling his part of the story...so can he feel sorrow about this? Pain? Anger? Like Dair feels?

The question I asked myself for this story was, How do you move on when your soul mate dies? Guess I'm wondering if that's also a question in the afterlife.

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