The Mysterious Stories of Caroline

This looked like it was heading into interesting territory. We're a former street kid from India, adopted by an American woman, from whom we later ran away. We went through the American foster system after that, but now we're on our feet working in a help centre for new immigrants. Also, the woman who took us out of India and into the US has just been arrested for molesting a child.

So many wonderful places this could go, and I have no doubt it'll go there. But then I'm faced with just a block of text and nowhere to go from there. I'm wondering if I should just quit, when the screen clears and suddenly I'm on to the next scene.

That's just rude. What if I'd turned away from the screen just then to, I don't know, blow my nose or something? What if I'm a slow reader and didn't manage to finish reading the text before it moved on? What if I'm a fast reader and thought I'd hit a bug? This isn't some action shoot-em-up where I know I've got to give the screen my full, undivided attention -- the reason I do IF in the first place is that I'm allowed to take things at my leisure, as fast or as slow as I like.

Maybe if I've got time before the ending of the judging period, I'll come back to this and see the rest of it, because there is definitely a compelling story going on. But I've got a fair bit of stress in my life right now and I promised myself that I wouldn't waste my time on anything that thought it could play havoc with my time. No breakfast for you.