"Carol & Tom" by Nom de Plume (NomdePl@aol.com). Carol and Tom grew up as twin brother and sister in a dirt-poor environment of western Virginia during the American Depression. When they were 15, they both began masturbating. Since their beds were back-to-back, they each vaguely knew what the other was doing; but although they wondered a lot, they said nothing to each other. Eventually they became much more intimate and then later drifted apart to lead their own lives. Of course, it would be just plain blind luck that kids experimenting like this would not find themselves burdened with a really undesirable pregnancy; and a better (but perhaps less interesting) solution would have been for the parents to offer some sort of sex education to the children. However, this story is a well-written, sensitive account of the early sexual emergence of two young people who had no access to useful information about human sexuality. (Rating: 10)