Bullies by Colin Kelly

[ChrisR]

What a well-written tale! The characters are all the more real because of their "normalcy" and they really reflect their personalities brilliantly. It doesn't hurt that I'm somewhat familiar with the general neighborhood an can imagine the comings and goings at 'John Muir'. Excellently done. Thanks!

[Bruin Fisher]

Thanks Colin for a great story. Bullying is a topic that needs discussion and your story will act as a catalyst. Bravo!

[Altimexis]

I too enjoyed this tale. The character development was excellent and the ending, if predictable, was satisfying. I really like the character, Scott, and although he may be curious by nature, I suspect his interest in gay issues may be more than curiosity. And if the bullies were in fact themselves victims of some sort of prank, that's a whole story, in and of itself.

One thing that struck me at fist as unrealistic was the way the Samaritan in the Park ran after the bullies rather than helping the victim. But when I thought about it, how many times have I myself cursed at the characters in a TV police drama for tending to the victim and letting the perp get away? It's human nature to go after a moving target. Our brain's are actually hard-wired that way. Police officers have to be trained to ignore their instincts and tend to the victim first. After all, it's vastly better to let an attempted murder go free than to catch a murderer.

Colin does show his advancing age at one point when he mentions catching up on a missed episode of Nova in reruns. I laughed out loud at that one. I may be in my sixties, but I almost never watch live TV anymore. I hardly even use my TiVo and have no intention of replacing it when it dies. Just about everything can be streamed these days, and all the major programs on PBS are available to stream for free.

I really feel sorry for the bullies' parents. No matter what really might have led to the incident, they now face a long road ahead and their natural sons' lives will never be the same. I understand why they couldn't continue to foster the victim, but what would have happened if instead the victim was their adopted son or even another natural son. Also, after three years of fostering the victim and claiming that they loved him, why hadn't they tried to adopt him? Financial considerations aside, that should have been a slam dunk.

[dude]

I enjoyed this story, especially the realistic characterizations.  They all seemed so real and believable. 

While the story was entitled Bullies the story was really all about Mike and how strangers rallied around him in his time of need.

Good job, Colin.

Mike

[colinian]

OMG! Altimexis, please tell me it isn't true that 28 is advancing age! I'll have to go to the surgical supply stores near where I live and see if either of them has a deal on walkers; Doug will need one, too. ?‍♂️

The cable company we use (there are two here), Wave, uses a Tivo for their cable box/DVR. It's easy to set up shows that we like to watch but we don't keep up with the live broadcasts. And the Tivo has Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Plex, YouTube, Here, Yahoo, HBO GO, a half-dozen for kids, all the network and local station streaming, and a bunch of others that we don't pay any attention to. We also have Android TV on our TV and Amazon Fire TV. The number of choices is overwhelming (must be our advanced age).

BTW, the Samaritan in the park did return looking for Mike who had already left; he found Mike's backpack and brought that to the police department along with Lyle's shirt.

Colin

 

[Camy]

Marvelous. Forty five thumbs up!

[Nigel Gordon]

Loved it.