"Dune what Comes Naturally" by Jeanette Brennan (anon584c@nyx.net). A creative feature of this story is that it is written by a fictional character. As I proofread the preceding sentence, I realized how badly it missed the point. Actually, in a legitimate sense ALL the stories in this contest are probably written by fictional characters. That is, almost everyone uses a pseudonym when posting on a.s.s. What I meant to say was that in this case Uther Pendragon has written a pair of stories and has given credit for them to Jeanette and Bob Brennan, two fictional characters in his long-running "For... " series. So if this feature really works, the present story should not only be a good story; it should also appear to be the work of Jeanette as opposed to Bob or someone else.

In this story Marlene's mother tells her to be home right after the movie to which the girl is going with her boyfriend. Since they are on a tight deadline, they leave the movie early and go down to the beach to make out. But while they're making out in an area where they cannot be observed, they hear someone else nearby doing a bit more than just making out. If Uther Pendragon has done his work well and if you are familiar with his other work, you should now have a pretty good idea how this story will end - or at least it will seem like an ending that Jeanette would have written for her entry in this contest. It worked for me!