If you could save someone's life, would you? Anyone's? Ali's older brother has a swastika tattooed on his knuckles, a prison ID number for nearly beating an immigrant to death, and spent his teenage years ruthlessly persecuting Ali for being gay. Blood may be thicker than water, but Ali has spent most of his life desperate to prove he is nothing like Tony. A committed vegetarian, charity-supporter, and blood donor, Ali would do anything for anyone. Ali may share parentage with Tony, but he’s determined not to share anything else if he can help it. So when Tony contracts leukaemia, and Ali is the only match for the urgently-needed bone marrow transplant, Ali is caught between two equally awful choices: to refuse and condemn a man to death, or to donate. And in donating, save the life of the man who nearly murdered Ali's Iraqi boyfriend?

Thicker Than Bone

“He banged the crowbar on the door frame,” Yazid whispered suddenly. “The thunder…”


Ali stroked his fingers through Yazid’s hair and felt it fall in little waves through his fingers. “Just relax,” he coaxed. “It’s alright.”


Slowly, he could feel the tension leaking out of Yazid’s frame, coming back in little fits when the wind shrieked too loudly outside, and then leaking away again when the bang of thunder failed to come. Moxie started to relax, too, comforted by the quiet and the soft, half-asleep movements of Yazid’s fingers at Ali’s waist, and she purred in rhythmic breaths.


“I love you,” Ali whispered once he’d judged that Yazid’s breathing was deep enough and slow enough that it wouldn’t disturb him.


The rain splattered against the bedroom window, and the lamp flickered back into life with a feeble sputter and an audible pop. Ali reached out to switch it off, found he couldn’t reach without moving away from Yazid and Moxie, and gave up on trying.27thAugust 2010


Chapter 71