Sorry to hear about your recent worries, and glad to see you writing again! This chapter was just so beautifully atmospheric in so many ways. I still don't know what to think of the 'ship (and I'm fully aware that the narrative has not specifically taken a stand on it either) but this is a painfully real-seeming evening at the Acres.

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I hope to be complicating the story's view of the ship in the very near future. **grins** These things have a way of complicating themselves, or at least of looking very complicated from the outside. Thank you for the support; it really does mean a lot.

This was a fine reintroduction to the story. Indeed, it's great to see you writing again!
4017447 beat me to the "atmospheric, great slice of Applie Family life", so I'll go beyond and praise the lovely little details like the cellar casserole.

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I actually don't have it in my notes, but I believe I was riffing on "Land that Time Forgot," by Edgar Rice Burroughs.