Rape

The thirty-two year old blond looked at her watch and found that it was 3:30am. Anne sat at her computer, thinking about the things she had not accomplished because of her “surfing the net” all evening and early into the morning. She had found a few porn sites and was a little frustrated since it had been awhile since she had enjoyed the pleasure of a hot horny man. The stunning trim figured woman walked into the kitchen to find something to munch on and found the cupboard bare…again! She had forgot to go to the supermarket again and now it was too late to go to the store she normally visited. She thought of a pizza, microwaved in minutes and a glass of wine. The all night supermarket would have to do this morning. She slipped a light jacket over her short shorts and tanktop. Anne knew she was a little underdressed for going out this late at night, but figured “what the hell”, it’s been hot all day and most women were wearing shorts…but of course not to the market at 3am.

The divorcee of three months walked to her car and drove the few blocks to the large Super Store so she could find that pizza she wanted. As she entered the store she saw only a handful of customers in the large building. Only one register was being manned and she chose a cart and started down the wide empty aisles. (more…)

Steve hung up and told Bethany what Sandra said about coming over and they thought that was a better idea than sitting in Steve’s basement with his parents upstairs. They said goodbye and told them they were going to Keith’s and he would be back later tonight. Steve’s parents liked Bethany and gave her a welcome to come by anytime and hugged her goodbye. They got in Steve’s car and headed over to Keith’s place only a couple of miles away.

“I wonder if they had as much fun as I think they did?” Bethany asked, leaning up beside Steve on his side.

Steve put his arm around her and said, “Well, if I know Keith, he made sure it was a great experience. He loves Sandra and he’d wanna make sure she was the best she’d ever had. And I guess that since it’s her first, it would be her best.” And they both laughed and then wondered if their first would be just as exciting.

“You know, I’ve known you just as long as I’ve known Keith, yet I’m just really getting to know you. That’s really weird, isn’t it?” Bethany stated.

“Yeah, I mean you and Sandra have been friends pretty well as long as Keith and I. I’m really glad we finally met.” He replied and they laughed again. (more…)

It had been a long day, starting at 6:30 a.m. Sending her husband and son off to school, then cleaning house all day, only to have to go to work that night.

Awww yes, work. Nothing seemed to go right that night. She usually enjoyed working outside at night. However, tonight was awful. It seemed like every time she went outside, it rained. No, rained was not the correct word. Poured!! That’s it, it poured. Of course, she left her raincoat at home too. By the time her night was over, she was wet clean through. Now she knows what a drowned cat feels like.

She wearily dragged herself into the house. She strips down to her underwear and drops her clothes in the laundry room. As she heads to her bedroom, she stops to check on her son. Kissing him lightly, and tucking him in she walks through the house to her bedroom. On the way through to the master bath, she glances at the bed. Her husband is sound asleep, curled on his side away from her.

As quietly as possible, she strips off her soggy underthings and steps into a hot shower. Trying to chase the chill off, she turns the water as hot as she can stand, just letting it stream down her body.

Sighing, she takes her silk like sponge and starts gently rubbing in her favorite body wash. Her nipples have been wet and cold most of the night and are now very sensitive. “Mmmmmmmm, this feels wonderful,” she thinks as she slowly runs the sponge down her body. “I’m so tired, but this is so relaxing.”

She softly runs the sponge between her legs. Lightly scraping against her clit as she massages the soap into her pussy lips. Feeling the excess hair, she gently and quickly shaves herself smooth. Though her husband never touches her there with anything other than his cock, he likes her shaved. Yawning, she rinses off and steps out of the shower to wrap herself in a big soft fluffy towel. (more…)

I was alone that night….a rare occasion. My husband and daughter had left earlier that day…they were going out of town for an in-law get-together that I got out of by pleading my job. Well, I DID have to work a few hours that morning, but the rest of my weekend would be FREE!! I was going to have the house all to myself!! I couldn’t believe my incredible luck.

After taking a long hot shower and smoking a fine phat one, I’d settled in to watch one of my favorite movies….The Blair Witch Project. Just to add to the effect and creep myself out a little further, I turned off all the lights (except my red lava lamp) and lit a few candles. I was really into it….that’s a helluva creepy kewl movie to watch while high…all that raw fear…it always gave me a thrill I could never pinpoint or understand. That night, however, it seemed to be causing a paranoia it never caused before….I seemed to hear things outside the window, and even from the kitchen, but when I’d get up to look I would see nothing. I decided that it was totally normal for me to feel a little paranoid. It was the first night I’d spent totally alone in 6 years at least! Add to that the fact that I was high…and watching a movie in which paranoia very nearly had a starring role! Eventually I ignored the noises. (more…)

Joanne had to walk alone from work, because her boyfriend wanted to prove his point. What his point was, she did not know. It did not matter; she was walking at two thirty in the morning from her job at the local bar. She tried to walk fast in her black heeled boots, but did not want unwanted attention. The night was warm, yet she still wore her large black hoodie. The bar shirt was tight across her size 36-D breasts and the neckline was a deep plunge. Her denim skirt was short and pleaded like a Catholic school girl outfit. In fact, her hoodie was longer than her skirt.

Lost in thought for her safety, Joanne didn’t notice the footsteps right behind her. While she was walking at the opening of a dark alleyway, she felt the strong arm wrap around her waist and lift her off her feet. Whoever grabbed her pulled her into the alleyway in the blink of an eye. Fear caught in her throat as the thing carried her off into an open door to a warehouse. Joanne was afraid to scream or kick for she felt something metal against her ribs.

The man brought her to a small room with one light bulb hanging from ceiling. He threw Joanne onto a large pile of blankets and a mattress. She finally looked at the man who brought her to that place. There was a black bandana on his head under a black cowboy hat. He had a full beard of brown and black hair. His bright hazel eyes seem to glow in the dim light. (more…)

My name is Paul. I am 18 years-old. This is a story of how I took my sister Amy. Amy is about five foot nine. She has long sandy blond hair and a body of a model. I loved her tits they were a perfect 36c. She’s a cheerleader at our high school. She is also 18 years-old. She’s popular, unlike me. I guess that I’m what you would call a dork. I have a couple of friends that are on the chess team with me. We are always trying to be cool. It was a hopeless task.

One weekend our parents went out of town. It was Friday and like always Amy went out with her friends, while I staid at home. I sat at home watching my dad’s porn videos. I got horny as hell. Lately I had been noticing my sister a little more. I guess what I’m trying to say is. I had begun to lust after her long muscular legs and her perky large tits. I would snick into her room and grab a pair of her panties; usually a thong and I would wack off till I was about to explode. I would rub my cock into her panties and soak them with my cum.

So there I was alone on a Friday night watching my dad’s porn videos. Damn my life is sad. I was so horny. I went into Amy’s room and began my usual activities. I searched her draw for a pair of her panties then I would start whacking off. I kept thinking about forcing her big tits into my mouth. Sucking on her nipples. I knew that I was going to cum soon. My balls were so tight. Then I heard a door slam shut. “Shit,” I said I quickly put her panties back and ran out of her room. After slipping my hard cock back into my pants. I walked down stairs. (more…)

The air in the small library was becoming close. Kevin, and his wife Sharon, both teachers in the small private school sat grading papers. They could have done it just as easily had they went home. But Sharon always enjoyed looking out the window at the view of the river as she worked. Kevin looked across the table at his lovely wife. She was a petite woman when compared to his hulking football frame. They had been very lucky to both have landed jobs within the same school.

It was well pass 5pm and they had been at it for about an hour. But working late at the school was one of the things that had endeared them with the administration. They were seen as two very highly educated, devoted teachers. That they were the only ones left in the building was not new. They often worked late then locked the front door on their way out. The night janitor would be in by nine to clean up. The fading sunlight, as it shown on his wife, made Kevin smile. He loved looking at her. Even in the practical school clothes she was forced to wear, he could see all the sexiness trying to burst out.

Sharon was petite, when compared to her husband, but against anyone else, she held her own. Standing 5′6″ and weighing 140, she was by no means a tiny woman. Kevin stood 6′ and weighed 185. And her tough, no nonsense attitude with her students was legendary. Sharon looked up from her papers and saw the smile on her husband’s face. “I bet I know what you’re thinking?” Kevin smiled at her. “I think about that whenever I look at you. In fact, I’m thinking about taking you right here on this desk.” Sharon laughed. It wouldn’t be the first time her husband had fucked her in the school library. (more…)

Clara stood in her room and stared out into the backyard. Her step-brother and his friends were hanging out by the pool, doing cannonballs into the water and just generally goofing around. Her breathing quickened as she watched the five of them, their lean, muscular bodies, shining with water as they jumped off the diving board.

At nineteen, she was only a couple of years younger than her step-brother, but they had never become friends during the few years their parents had been married.

However, she had noticed the way he sometimes looked at her. When she was by the pool on quiet afternoons she had caught him staring at her in her tiny bikini, or in the morning when she was preparing her breakfast wearing only a thin silk robe. She liked the heat she saw in his eyes and always tried to do something to turn him on even more, like giving him a glimpse of her breasts bending over for something or reaching up into the cupboards of the kitchen, causing her robe to ride up, showing the bottom curve of her ass.

Out by the pool she always wore white bikinis, the tinier the better to tease him. She would dive in the water, turning the fabric almost transparent and then lay in one of the deck lounges, her body glistening wet, nipples stiff and erect. More than once she had noticed the bulge in his shorts before he either dove in the water himself or just abruptly left.

Normally her Mother wouldn’t tolerate the guys behaving like that, especially making so much noise. However, her Mother and step-Father were away for the month, leaving the house to the two of them. (more…)

It was 6:45am as Sabrina glanced at her wall clock on her way out the door. She was going to be late for her new temporary assignment, which is unusual for her. As she locked her apartment door she gave old lady Hendricks a wave then ran to the elevator. Smiled at the gorgeous Italian in apartment 612 as she opened her car door. As she drove through the slow moving morning traffic, she tried to think of a believable lie that would help her keep this assignment. After five years of going from one company to another she finally had the chance to become permanent. Being late on her first day wasn’t a very good impression.

By the time she parked her car it was 7:15 on her watch. She entered the building out of breath and her mind racing with worry. “Can I help you, ma’am?” the guard asked as she approached the Information Desk.

“Yes, sir. I’m looking for Jackson & Harvey.” He pointed towards the elevator and instructed her to get off on the 16th floor, “Thank you very much.”

Her heart began to beat louder and faster as she reached the 16th floor. The office wasn’t as big as she expected and unusually quiet compared to what she was use to. The lady at the front desk looked at her from the top of her glasses, “May I help you?”
“Ummm. My name is Sabrina Wilson. I was sent here by the Office Experts Agency.” She knew she was sounding extremely nervous. It matched the butterflies that filled her stomach. (more…)

She woke up slowly, dreamily, in her favorite position. Belly down, face snuggled into the pillow, she could feel the warmth of the sunlight streaming through the window caressing her bare skin. The wetness between her thighs reminded her of the incredible dream she’d had… of Him, as always. As she became more alert, she started to stretch… which is when she began to realize that this wasn’t an ordinary morning. Feeling the resistance in her arms and legs, her eyes flew open, only to meet an unnatural darkness.

As panic began to set in, she heard a deep, low chuckle from beyond the foot of the bed. “So, my little one, you are finally awake. Good, because I have many things planned for you this morning,” said the well-known voice. A shiver wracked her body, bringing goosebumps to her exposed flesh. Over the course of their relationship they had discussed many things, including some of her darkest desires, but she had never believed that he would follow through on them. She was about to find out just how badly she had misjudged him! (more…)

I woke up, uncertain why I had woken up. It was dark and I felt funny, my arms were aching and had that pins and needles feeling. I did not want to move them because I knew it would be painful to do so. My head was woozy feeling; I think I drank too much last night, for I did not remember coming home.

I pulled my arm down from above my head but it only moved about two inches. A strange rattling noise accompanied my movement. Why wouldn’t my arm move more? I pulled again and felt resistance. I shook my arm and heard the sound of metal; something cold was around my wrist. I shook the other arm and it was the same. I could move them just enough to get the feeling back into my arms and that was all.

A cold feeling seeped into me as I realized I was tied to a bed. I tried to pull my legs up to my chest and found them chained just as my arms were. Tied to the bed, only able to move enough to keep the feeling in my limbs and keep me comfortable, well as comfortable as a person who is tied to bed can be. A person who does not know how they got into that bed or even if it was her bed. (more…)

“Crowded” didn’t begin to describe the subway at this time of day.

Like little salty fish in a can, people were pressed tightly together within the metallic walls of the train car as it rushed from station to station. Flickering on and off, the sickly light cast by the florescent bulbs above did little to cure the claustrophobic feeling that hung thick in what little air there was. The people were a mix, as they stood clasping the handles over their heads, or sitting upon the barely cushioned seats.

Buried within this sea of bodies, she stood near the doors. Her back to the rest of the humanity in the car, she looked out at the rapidly passing walls of the tunnel. Refocusing her eyes, she looked upon the reflection that stared back at her in the glass of the sliding doors. A simple blouse and skirt covered her, along with a jacket for the chill that had settled as of late. The sparkle of her eyes had dulled just a bit from fatigue; their light blue-grey color, however, still shone brightly even within the image cast by the tinted glass. The long dark hair that fell to her waist had been gathered into a slightly off center braid. The sudden memory that came to her then, as she pulled the thick length of hair over her shoulder, made her lips bow into a smile. (more…)

Cheryl sat in the back of the diner, the smell of stale grease and strong coffee permeating the air. Sipping the black java, she hoped it would keep her awake for the rest of the shift. She worked the graveyard shift and activity in the diner lived up to the name. Checking the clock on the wall, she realized her break was over, so she stood, leaving the coffee cup on the scarred table.

“Your admirer is here again,” Patty, the other waitress, said as she entered the break room.

“Of course he is. It’s Thursday night isn’t it?” He came in every Monday and Thursday night… had for several months now. He always sat in Cheryl’s section, usually in the same booth. The man was a mystery. All Cheryl knew was he was a trucker. She didn’t even know his name.

Wearily, she walked out of the break room and entered the main area of the diner, crossing over to the coffee pots and pouring a steaming cup. She placed it in front of the man and asked, “The usual?”

He simply nodded, and she walked behind the counter to place the order. As she did every night he came in, Cheryl studied the man, as if she could learn about him if she looked hard enough. In all the months he had come into the diner, the only words he ever spoke were to place his order. Cheryl often caught him staring at her. He never looked away or acted as if he were embarrassed at being caught.
(more…)

“The way I see it, Andrew,” and here I paused for effect, “you only have two choices. Either you do what I’ve asked, or you go to jail.” Andrew was pissed and if my gun hadn’t been in plain sight on my desk, I might have been concerned. But he hadn’t just stormed out, which meant that he understood that I had him. For the past two years Andrew and I had been embezzling funds from the company. Well, he wasn’t aware of the theft at the time, but it was his signature on each of the forms. The money was already in an off-shore account that was not traceable to me. When Andrew finally clued in and confronted me, I spelled it out clearly for him. If he said anything I would testify against him, and he would go to jail for at least ten years. The reality of this situation took a few days to sink in; but when he found all of his carefully guarded documentation missing from his desk he suddenly became more agreeable. Now, he stood in my office, looking at a rather large pile of shredded documents, and trying to decide what he should do. You see, his holier-than-thou attitude had kind of pissed me off, and I decided to show him just how much power I had over him. I had just presented him with a demand that he have his wife come to my office and give me a blowjob. How he convinced her to do it, I didn’t care, but if she didn’t have her lips around my cock by lunch time tomorrow I was going to make a call to the authorities and his wife and kid would spend the next ten years trying to make ends meet without a breadwinner. Glancing at the gun, Andrew didn’t say a word and just left the office. I wondered what would happen. (more…)

Karen Mathews was 32 years old and found herself sitting alone in her apartment feeling lonely and depressed. Her boyfriend of 2 years had just informed her he was dating someone else. Karen sat and replayed their last conversation over in her head.

“I’m sorry Karen. You are a very nice person but you are just not exciting. I need someone like Cynthia. She makes me feel like a man,” Karen heard her ex-boyfriend say.

“But I thought we had been so happy,” Karen pleaded.

“It has been okay but it is just not enough for me. I’m sorry but I have to go,” Tom said and picked up the last of his things. She sat and cried as he walked out the door to never return.

Karen was not ugly, in fact she was quite pretty, and she was told she had a good personality. However, this was the fourth time she had broken up with a man after thinking the relationship would lead to marriage. Now here she was again alone.

Karen looked at herself in the mirror. Her body was okay, her 36 c chest looked good and her breasts did not sag. Her hips were nice and her butt firm. She had a pretty face and usually her brown shoulder length hair was nicely styled.

“What’s wrong with me?” Karen signed. As she stood there she began to get angry. Karen had always attempted to do what was right. She always tried to be a good person and was always nice to everyone. (more…)

My wife and I were in a little bit of a rut, so to speak. So we sat down to dinner one night and began discussing our lives together. After almost 25 years together I pretty much thought things were going, as they should. Boy was I wrong!

She proceeded to let me know all about my shortfalls. We finally agreed that the best thing for us would be a divorce. She would keep the house and I would take the motorhome.

I have always been an active biker and decided to take the motorhome and bike to Laconia for the annual rally in June.

This trip would take 2 weeks to make and I was more than ready for it by the time it was time to leave. I headed out of town in the motorhome with the bike on a trailer behind me. I drove for almost 6 hours before stopping and when I did stop it was at a remote campground along the way. I decided to take little nap after setting up and dozed off. About 2 hours later, I heard the familiar sound of motorcycles filling the campground. I looked out the window and discovered that the campground was full of bikers on their way to the same rally I was headed to. (more…)

In The Beginning

The bedroom is illuminated only by the dull glow of the monitor. The man is huddled on a swivel chair, peering into the monitor.

The PC sits atop a long table, the 20-inch plasma screen at the extreme left side. The CPU is located at the man’s feet under the monitor.

The man is wearing a loose t-shirt and black boxer shorts. His brown hair is rather long and tufts of it fall down on the collar behind and cover more than half of his forehead in front.

The man manipulates the mouse with his right hand. His eyes glow just like the monitor does as he devours the images flashing on it.

At the moment, the man has no need of the keyboard: the mouse is enough. That leaves his left hand free as well.

The left hand is certainly not free. In the dim light, one can make out the jerking to and fro motions of the left hand that is buried between his legs.

It all started when he first received a response from an admirer out of the US of A. An admirer who liked the way the man wrote erotica for a site on the web. (more…)

There have been women in my life that I fantasized about fucking. During my senior year in high school the woman I fantasized most about was my math teacher. Now there’s a rare high school fantasy for you. I wanted to be in between the legs of a little mousy middle-aged brunette. The teacher to whom no one would consider giving a second look. The unassuming Mrs. Huxley.

Denise Huxley stood at five feet two inches and weighed about 115 pounds. Her straight shoulder length chestnut brown hair looked so soft, I wanted to bury my face in it. Mrs. Huxley’s doe-like brown eyes, warm smile, and cute little petite figure would bring me a to instant erection every time I saw her. Don’t ask me why, she just did. When she walked by in the school hallway on her way to class I would take a deep breath so I could take in the odor of her perfume as she passed. She always smelled of vanilla musk. The slightest scent of it would have me reeling.

As she walked by I would sneak the opportunity to look at her shapely legs. They weren’t long by any means but I still found them sexy as hell especially on the days when she wore black hose and those conservative 3-inch navy blue pumps. On extremely cold days her nipples would protrude through her blouse. They looked like pencil eraser tips and I would just dream about pinching, nibbling, and sucking on them. In class I would always hope for a beaver shot on the days when Huxley sat on the corner edge of her desk. Sometimes the fates would be kind and I would indeed catch a glimpse of her panty hosed covered crotch. I don’t think she realized how far apart her legs were spread when she sat on the edge. Mrs. Huxley could be a space cadet at times. (more…)

My name is Ben Harter and I have been at the Circuits Annual Las Vegas Electronics show for the last two days. I have bought our department’s gear and have seen what I am interested in. I did well and I still have 2 more days of all expense paid time in Las Vegas.

My wife Tracy had taken a bus tour to the Grand Canyon on the Spouse Program so I had the day to myself. I hadn’t seen much of the strip so I decided to spend the day exploring Las Vegas. I found the strip kind of repetitive so I headed over a few blocks off the strip. On this first block I walked past three adult stores in a row. I decided to go and look in the next store and I entered it to just take a look.

When I walked in I saw the store clerk at the counter. She was a blonde girl of about 25. She would have been very attractive if she did not have rings in her nose, lips and ears. She said, “Hi, can I help you?”

“No, just looking, thank you,” I replied.

I moved quickly past her and started looking at all the gear on the long wall. There were all kinds of gear and toys. Halfway down the wall I came across a big display of penis dildo’s. These were very unique because they looked real. According to the sign they were made from a new material that made them the most lifelike to touch as possible. I could not resist so I reached out and touched the head of a 10 inch black one. It felt so real, it felt like I was touching my own cock, but this fake one was huge compared to mine. I felt up the shaft and even the balls were suspended in a light sac that was softer than the penis. This was amazing. (more…)

She had been walking for a good hour down the deserted road. A small midstate highway that got little or no traffic. She was feeling dusty and discouraged. She hadn’t seen a ride in hours…except the one that had passed her by , the only sign of recognition a small grubby childface sticking its tongue out at her as it zoomed by.

She pushed damp auburn hair off of her face and poured some water out of her water bottle onto her head, providing small relief from the heat. The water trickled down her face and chest, molding her thin camisole to her slightly heavy, round breasts. She was young, with slender arms and waist….strong legs. Her breasts and ass were ripe and plump… well developed for someone her age. She dumped a little more of the bottle down her shirt and gasped at the quick cool shock.

In the distance she could see a vehicle coming, a slight heat waver making it look like a mirage. She knew she looked silly with her damp hair and shirt, but she shrugged on her canvas backpack and prepared to stick out her thumb….

As the van got closer, she waved her thumb in a little dancy twirly motion in the air. She was getting tired of hitchhiking. She had just taken a year off after high school, and was on her way home from her travels. Her 19th birthday was a few weeks away, and she figured it was a good time to settle down and maybe go back to school. She’d lost some weight while travelling and hiking. too many nights with no money, but her ass and tits never seemed to get any smaller …staying round and full. Her paleness went well with her curvy shape and auburn curls. (more…)

It was February. It was cold. It was late. It was dark. It was the Fresno State campus.

I shouldn’t have been out at that time of night. However, I had been helping my friends Tara and Andrea with their Form & Analysis homework. It was a particular bitch of an assignment, and I ended up not leaving their dorm until almost 11:30.

I knew I should’ve driven. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. The fact of the matter was, I didn’t, and now I was walking across campus to my apartment.

As I walked across the campus, I pulled my coat tight around me to try to reduce my shivering. I passed by the music building, as I usually did at night. It was always well lit from the interior. However, I also usually walked past at no later than 9:00.

And as a result, just as I was walking past, the night janitor switched off the hallway lights, sending the music building to pitch black. This sucked. I could barely see in front of me. All I could see was the parking lot lights at the end of the path.

I increased my pace and kept walking. I was about fifty feet from the end of the building when I got hit by a freight train. (more…)

I’d known Michael for four years before we got married, we’d met at university, when he was 22, and I was 19. I guess you’d say I was shy and by the standard of the other girls in my dorm, very reserved. I’d dated boys, but no boy ever had more than the briefest feel of my breasts. And even that, was something that would have caused me to explode with rage, and end any kind of relationship. Never had any boy had his hand or anything else inside my knickers.

So I was not just a virgin, but an untouched one. This rapidly got me a reputation, first as a kind of ‘Holy Grail’, that all the boys wanted to be the first to claim. But over the next three months, they gradually realised, it was a pointless quest, and eventually boys stopped dating me. I guess it was the deeply religious upbringing, which made me so determined I would be a ‘pure’ virgin when I eventually walked down the aisle.

I’d been at uni for two years when I met Michael; he was studying divinity, as he had great plans to enter the church, and travel the world doing gods work. I was immediately in awe of him the first time I heard him defending his religious beliefs with a group of students in the uni bar. As just about everyone else I’d met up to now appeared to be a disciple of the devil, he stood out like a mythical god.

We started dating, and in the following months got very close to each other. Not physically, he never attempted to do anything like that, but we were almost inseparable. Mainly just us two together, in each others company, Michael talking about his grand plans, and me thinking how wonderful he was. We’d end the evening with a kiss, but it would only ever be him giving me a light peck on my cheek. (more…)

The air seemed alive to the smell of hops, apples and sugar as the stalls did a roaring trade this mid-summers harvest day fair. The weather even smiled this day, the sky being cloud free and a delightful heat seemed to sparkle in the air. Outside the public house old men drank fresh brewed beer or the more potent apple cider. Children drank ginger beer and darted to and fro eating greedily coconut ice and toffee apples or bags of spun sugar. On the green a band played tinny tunes to those who would listen and the dance floor was there for the Harvest Dance tonight.

Near the church dowagers fought over treasures or trash depending on your point of view, their daughters twirled parasols as they compared their dresses and wondered who would dance with them. There were even gypsy performers amazing those who watched them with skills with knife and horse. Others played the clown to laughing people who threw money into the caps laid down.

I smiled as I stepped up to the contests of strength and lifted the wooden mallet. Feeling the balance I brought it down with skill and allowed the weight to drive the head onto the rubber stopper, the wooden mark flew up the greased pole and rang the bell on its top. I laughed and took my prize a rag doll that I readily gave to a young girl who was delighted. Did they think that the blacksmith of this village did not know how to drive a hammer and ring a bell. Thirsty I made my way to the tent selling drink and slaked my throat with the sweet apple cider. (more…)

Shannon struggled through the door with the groceries. It had been a long day at work and then the grocery store had been jam-packed with working wives and mothers getting dinner for their families. She sighed to herself. She was only 19, fresh out of secretarial school and she should be out there, dating guys so that she’d have a chance to become a wife and mother. But unfortunately she was stuck taking care of her dad and older brother after her mother had passed away the previous summer.

She’d never really liked her father or her brother. Her dad was lazy and had used to hit her mom. Her brother had taken after their dad and despite being 25 years old now he’d never managed to hold down a job for more than two consecutive months.

She heard laughter from the dining room and she assumed that it was her dad and brother’s poker buddies who were there. That usually meant that she didn’t need to fix them any dinner as they’d be stuffing their faces with snacks. Anytime soon they’d come and demand that she go to the liquor store for more beer. Her friends kept telling her to move out to her own apartment to get away from her father and brother. But how could she? They were her only family and she knew that if she didn’t look after them, nobody would. (more…)

The first time I laid eyes on her, at the mall, I was sure I had seen her before, met her even, but couldn’t place when or where. That happens to me a lot, I’ll see the Costco girl at a restaurant, or the gas station guy downtown at the Square, and find myself trying to figure out where I know them. I’m almost always able to put person to face—but not this time.

I saw her again a couple hours later; I was wandering around the Saturday market when she walked right by. About two inches shorter than me, she wore a loose crimson t-shirt and khaki shorts, her soft brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was youngish, early 20s maybe, and had a small fanny pack around her waist. It struck me that she was very attractive, could have just about any guy she wanted—and then, she looked at me. When her eyes caught mine, I felt it again: I know her, but how?

*

I was at home, revising a story on my computer, when the doorbell rang. Wearing only shorts and briefs, I pulled on an Old Navy t-shirt and headed to the door. I wasn’t completely shocked when I saw her standing on the front porch. Surprised, yes; hesitant to open the door, definitely; maybe a little curious? I’d have to say yes to that, too. After seeing her twice earlier in the day, after locking eyes and feeling the tickle of recognition that I couldn’t quite place, I had half-expected her to show up at my door—and here she was. Like I said, I wasn’t completely shocked. (more…)