This is proufoundly sad and also lovley at the same time.Poor Cleveland - his own guilt and struggle at the ways in which Simpson exploited him and his desperation knowing that he can't take back the past
and all that running alongside his happiness and being made to feel as handsome as the tall dark one and the smaller reddish one, whom girls seem to like (no, really? :D )
which latter part will go down in this years annual review of Archie descriptions as the most unexpectedly glorious ...
I am smiling because you totally got what I was trying to do.
This was a piece that came easily. It just sort of showed up. I had a picture of Miss C snoring. It began with that and went from there.
Cleveland is growing into a complex and thoughtful guy. He regrets the past on Justinian desperately.
And it is just as well he and Miss C did not meet at age 12. They would not have known how to deal with each other. He might have tried to charm her with a dead bird or something equally gross!
For such a short piece this has left me with a lot to think about. Poor Cleveland, he was another of Simpson's victims in many ways, but I still find it hard to forgive him. I wonder if Archie ever did? I suspect not, though I also suspect he understood. Archie doesn't forget, but neither is he vindictive.
It had not ruined his looks, but made him glow from the inside somehow. Yes, somehow that's right.
He said that once before, to Horatio, when he was half delirious. This is different.
I realized, after writing this, I made a mistake. I have said before, Archie came in at 14. So if he and Cleveland entered at the same time they could not have been 15 together. Archie must be two years older. He would have been 17 when he and Cleveland walked the docks.
Dockside whores still exist, of course. I have seen women in Norfolk throw their dresses up over their heads when sailors drive by. Skinny sickly women with dresses that are not warm enough-- and nothing at all underneath.
As for Archie's forgiveness-- I think he must struggle with it. He did things he was ashamed of. He knows what it is to not be the man you want to be.
It is one of those 'what would I do if it were me,' moments. Impossible to know. I tend to think that there was really no way to win against Simpson, short of shooting him. He was everywhere at once, like a boa constrictor. He was a true psychopath.
You met the Newfie. He got slobber and dog hair all over Edrington's coat. :) I have REALLY got to figure out a way to file down the more blatant LKU bits from Love Continuance before I submit it more places.
This was another story that stayed with me for a long time after I read it - especially the part about Cleveland walking with Archie and being outshone by him. There must have been such a complexity of feeling there - resentment of Archie's good looks, but at the same time perhaps some sneaking relief that he didn't share them, and was not thus Simpson's target for *that* particular type of abuse. Perhaps even some sneaking, reluctant feeling of payback? That schadenfreude when people you are envious of go through suffering
( ... )
Yes. All true. Cleveland will never forgive himself, even if he knows that Archie can put it aside somewhat. I guess that if we are possessed of a normal human conscience we all have things we regret not doing, not saying. Archie and Cleveland have adult regrets.
True. I'm glad I've never been in Cleveland's shoes - that my regrets have been about smaller things. It's easier to read about cowardice in others than it is to be faced with my own.
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and all that running alongside his happiness and being made to feel as handsome as the tall dark one and the smaller reddish one, whom girls seem to like (no, really? :D )
which latter part will go down in this years annual review of Archie descriptions as the most unexpectedly glorious ...
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This was a piece that came easily. It just sort of showed up. I had a picture of Miss C snoring. It began with that and went from there.
Cleveland is growing into a complex and thoughtful guy. He regrets the past on Justinian desperately.
And it is just as well he and Miss C did not meet at age 12. They would not have known how to deal with each other. He might have tried to charm her with a dead bird or something equally gross!
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It had not ruined his looks, but made him glow from the inside somehow.
Yes, somehow that's right.
“Hell is in France.”
Ouch.
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I realized, after writing this, I made a mistake. I have said before, Archie came in at 14. So if he and Cleveland entered at the same time they could not have been 15 together. Archie must be two years older. He would have been 17 when he and Cleveland walked the docks.
Dockside whores still exist, of course. I have seen women in Norfolk throw their dresses up over their heads when sailors drive by. Skinny sickly women with dresses that are not warm enough-- and nothing at all underneath.
As for Archie's forgiveness-- I think he must struggle with it. He did things he was ashamed of. He knows what it is to not be the man you want to be.
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*returns to happy thoughts of Horatio and Archie curled up safe by their fire with a Newfie at their feet*
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Blech-- enough about him. Newfie dogs, you say?
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