When a noise wakes him at 2am he goes to investigate only to find his mother's boyfriend passed out on the living room floor and his mother feeling very merry indeed!
The customs of all cultures seem strange and for little purpose when viewed from outside their context. Ceremonies and rites of passage matter tremendously to those inside, but to the rest of us, we just starch our heads. This is a short story of one such custom as seen through the eyes of the principal involved. Sure we can wonder why, but in this case I say, Why not?
James is 12 when his father abandons him and his mother Ellen. She asked James to brush her hair and it becomes a nightly bedroom ritual but then he grows older and at 15 he is having thoughts about his mother that he shouldn't have. What to do, what to do?
A brother and sister seek out the help of Lord Mason DeGraves out of concern for their quadriplegic mother's plight, not realizing what the consequences might be for all three of them. A deal with DeGraves always has a sexual price. A story based in Pan's Lord DeGraves universe.
Nineteen-year-old Phil didn't want to go with his marine biologist mother to the island to help with her research but she insisted. Phil could not help but think, "why would I want to go to the south pacific and study mollusks for three months when I could be hanging with my friends for the summer?" It's amazing how fast a Polynesian Beauty and some very strange local customs could quickly change Phil's mind.
It's a new era of parents arranging sex dates for their children. Fourteen-year-old Hannah's date for the junior cotillion ball is 16-year-old Jacob, and the cotillion program expects them to have sex by the end of their date. Their parents plan a ribald night in a nihilistic culture that promotes teen sexuality with virtually no limits. The kids might be reluctant at times, but by night's end they will have satisfied themselves and entertained their parents.