Mmmm...not bad, though I definitely have mixed feelings as of this second chapter. I actually had to stop and take a few deep breaths at the confrontation in the police station. Even if we don't agree on everything, I have a pretty good relationship with my parents, so I had a very strong negative reaction when the officer made that disparaging comment about Lisa's parents. My own inclination would have been to appologize for talking out of turn but to defend my parents' good name and remind the man that it isn't nice to speak ill of the dead. I likely would've gotten another swat for that, but I could live with that.

Then again, I'm a fairly honest person and despite it being a likely futile course, back in part one I would've gone with the truth as I knew it. I would've started by admitting that I couldn't explain to Hilda how it was possible for me to be an adult in the body of a child and that I would understand if she still didn't believe me, but would request that she hear me out. Assuming she allowed me the chance, I would attempt to demonstrate a knowledge of things beyond a child's ken, and hopefully could at least convince her that I was an exceptionally bright child afflicted with an overactive imagintation. I could live with that too (since there would certainly be some truth to it), but I have my principles.

Please note that the above is not a negative criticism of your work - your characterization of Lisa has been very good so far with no unexplained changes in her behavior, no words or actions that noone in their right mind would chose though she's human enough to make mistakes. In short, she acts quite believably, rational but not perfect - a real person rather than an ideal heroine of some action stories or the perfect victim of most porn. I'm curious to see where things will go with this and how she'll adjust to being the nice bunny's adoptive daughter.

Me, I'd survive but be really unhappy when I found out I was in a society with no internet, no videogames, little sci-fi in movies, none on TV, and that I'd have to wait better than a decade (for the late 60s) for even one of those to change and nearly 40 years for the last of those to change. I mean, I like the music, the mostly cleaner environment, and the lower rate of violent crime back then, but otherwise I'd be happier to be bounced 50 years forwards into the body of a child...unless of course the future turns out not to be so bright as we might hope. Anyway, eventually though I'd calm down and make the best of it by putting effort into creative writing so I could be a successful sci-fi author as an adult. After all, I don't think furry porn would go over well even in the early 70s. ;)

Yeah, I have no idea what my point is to all of this other than to let you know that your story made me think. I'd say that's a pretty good thing. Thanks for sharing!

First of all thank you for the positive feed back on the story, its refreshing to actually get a viewpoint from a reader after posting these stories on specialty forums where people tend to have their frontal lobes removed temporarily. I'm glad that you feel that Lisa's characterization is up to par so far because my worries have been that she's not a very strong character in the way of characters. What I'm really scared of is her becoming boring, but I don't want to make such drastic changes that she just comes off as completely random.

And I wasn't at all offended by the above two paragraphs, its perfectly natural for people to have certain reactions to the stories. In fact, I'd be a bit sad if people didn't have reactions to the interactions between the characters. Its my job as the writer to envoke some sort of thought or feeling out of the reader, not to just drag them through a story and expect them to derive some sort of amusement out of it.

Actually truth be told I'm eccstatic that you had that sort of reaction to the part at the police station. And I believe that you're absolutely right, it wasn't cool for that guy to talk about somebodies dead parents that way, and Lisa should have stood up for them whether they were real or not.

Its been shown on numerous occassions that the Fifties in America had sort of a shut in mentality. Sexism, Racism, and all sorts of other isms were starting to come to a head and a lot of people who didn't want to let go of those things could see the end of the rope coming. Of course after the war alot of people started to settle in, and education started to become a very big deal in the fifties, so there were an increasing number of people who gained the facilities to question the authority at all levels, particularly the beatnicks, though they were something of a fad there were still those within them that were seriously very smart.

So the blanketed sexism and the outright direspect of Lisa's made up parents might or might not have been an uncommon scenario. I'm just trying to paint a picture of what the Fifties may have really been like on information from websites and textbooks. Still it does my heart good to hear that I've helped someone have deep thoughts about the story, so thank you again for the positive review.

Heh, well, I've given my share of brief responses to stories, but since I had a strong reaction to this one, that merited more than a "Dawwww, kyoote kitty!" As for Lisa, a strong character doesn't necessarily need to be a blatantly dominant character. Based on your comment, you understand that the key to a good story is conflict, but you want those conflicts to arise naturally. You've thoroughly established that Lisa has few strong ties to her old life and she likes this bunny lady and wants to make her happy. In order to introduce conflict into that without seeming random, you either have to introduce an external source of conflict (e.g. a lothario after Hilda who does not get along with her adoptive child), or Lisa needs to have desires, mores, and motivations which are strong enough to cause her to occasionally come in conflict with Hilda or Hilda's friends and neighbors. Her strength of character will show in how she deals with such issues or fails to deal with them. Obviously these aren't mutually exclusive either - internal and external conflicts at the same time could force her to start picking her battles or to greatly revise her strategy. Indeed, there must be a strategy - even if the present has its share of happiness, the happily ever after must be something which is not yet a fact but rather something which must be strived for.

A lot depends on where you want this story to go. Having surrendered the unbelievable truth, it will be nigh unto impossible for her to try going back to it now unless something major happens which would lend her story credence. That leaves two other major avenues - passively or passive-aggressively trying to live the lie she's woven, possibly with occasions where she feels forced to a more aggressive stance. Obviously any aggressive behavior (not necessarily physical aggression, of course) is simply not going to work for her - she's a single child going against an entire culture. Passive is what she's been so far, but she is in the unique situation of being an adult in a child's body. While her knowledge of history and sociology is crippled by being in a different world with similarities but not necessarily perfect parity, she still has quite a bit of knowledge about how the world works, how people think and interact, and she's undergone the full measure of cognitive development. With work, she could be quite manipulative should she put her mind to it. Personally I don't see her exercising that ability much, especially not against Hilda, but it could definitely come in handy when she does start running into conflict. You probably know all that, but sometimes it helps to have these things stated by someone else since they may come at the idea from a different angle.

I must say, I'm impressed that you could write a character with views not entirely paralleling your own but who still feels like a real person rather than a flat caricature. That's a cognitive trick I haven't fully grasped, I must admit, and for that matter, I suspect some published authors haven't either. If you can fully master that talent, I think you've got a future in mainstream publishing. It's been said by more than one accomplished author, if you can write good characters, the stories will write themselves.

Now your overall depiction of the society though, that I have some small quibbles with. I admit my own personal experience only goes back as far as the mid 70s, but like you I have my own thoughts on the past. I feel you are correct about a lot of different social issues growing and stress fractures starting to show in the foundations of society, but as I understand it, the 'children should be seen and not heard' mentality was already on the way out. Just take a look at popular culture of the time - it may have portrayed an idealized view of reality, but the ideal itself says a lot about the culture. Lassie, Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver - these are all shows which had their start in the 50s and which portrayed children who were strong (if not always believable) characters. A Christmas Story is a much more jaded (but arguably very realistic) view of this same time period, and has perhaps served as a strong inspiration for soap in the mouth scenes in some cub stories.

Sexism was also swiftly eroding thanks to the war - women might still be 'the weaker sex' and there were (or for that matter, there sometimes still are) issues concerning unequal pay, but men couldn't as easily pretend women were truly weak or stupid after Rosie the Riveter. These views weren't entirely gone, and different regions had different mores anyway since TV and mass transportation had not gotten very far in the process of shrinking our world, plus this is an alien world with a culture that may have social pressures not exactly mirroring those in our world, so your story isn't invalidated. I do feel that in our world the attitudes Lisa reflects on would have been much more common in the '20s or '30s, and a more common reaction for the 50s would have been to scold the child for correcting her elders. Respect for one's elders was still a strong thread in the culture of that time, and cartoons like Kids Next Door would have had parents all but storming whichever studio was foolish enough to air it. Amazing how fifty years have seen such a radical change in thought.

Racism was, of course, alive and well back then, so I can't help wondering how long before little Lisa runs afoul of that - perhaps making a friend across racial boundries. While we still hear about racism in the news, prejudice is now mostly a personal thing but largely dead at a cultural level. Everyone has biases and tends to form broad generalities about other cultures, ethnic groups, political groups, religions, etc., but the mark of the truly prejudiced is being unable to see past the stereotype to the individual. Lisa doesn't strike me as a strongly prejudiced sort, and she is kind-hearted, so I can easily see her coming into conflict should she be exposed to discrimination. What's even more important to recall though is that at the heart of every prejudice lies a kernal of truth that spawned all those gross inaccuracies. Black people were viewed as ignorant and lazy because some black people (much like some white people) really were lazy and willfully ignorant. Many others were ignorant because they were denied proper schooling which only strengthened this view. Just because many black people were wrongly viewed as dangerous intruders in a white neighborhood, they had their bad apples same as anyone, so if Lisa isn't careful, she may find herself defending the wrong person.

Of course, it wasn't just black versus white - in this time before martial arts movies, asians were expected to be the self-effacing lower class workers seen on the silver screen, and deviation from that in these post-war days could get you labeled as 'one of those slant-eyed imperialists' or worse. Native Americans were STILL being exploited and forced off their lands and were almost always the bad guys in any wild west movie that featured them. Furthermore, even among the various caucasian groups, it was perfectly okay to tell Pollock jokes, everyone 'knew' Irish were drunks, Scottish were miserly, Germans (Jerries or Krauts) were either violent or fat people in lederhosen, etc. Some of these generalities still survive in mutated, watered down form today while others have been added. People aren't really much less prejudiced than they once were - we've simply modified our prejudices to be more positive concerning other groups...except the French. Noone likes the French.
;)

(Seriously, I had a friend who's mom was French - I've nothing against the people as individuals, and yes, she shaved her legs. Hmmm...now there's an amusing notion - the furry world could flip that with French poodles being seen as weird and unnatural for shaving their legs!)

Anyway, those are my random and not so random thoughts. Hope these give you something to think about and get those creative juices flowing!