"Kathy" by the BEAR. This is a sensitive, well-written story about love and sex between an older man and his young female friend who becomes his lover. It contains tenderness, love, commitment and care. In an epilogue, the author gives the impression that this is based on a true story and expresses the wish that the two live "relatively happily ever after." I share that wish.

Since the author obviously wants to apply this to real life, I feel an urge to express my feelings about the issues he raises. In real life I have been close friends with a young person that experienced almost exactly the same relationship as the one described in the story - only it was a young boy with his kindly and loving teacher. They were eventually discovered; and the teacher lost his job and the boy is still sexually confused nearly ten years later. Although some of our society's sexual taboos are silly and it's exciting to break them, there's a reason behind some of our taboos. When actions like those of the man in this story become public and are based on less than perfect motivations, we are usually shocked an disgusted by the "exploitations" of a "dirty old man." In my own experiences I have found that I don't always make objectively wise decisions when I'm naked, aroused, and rubbing my body against someone; and so having a rule against certain behaviors is a good idea. In addition, I think I would be legitimately upset if a kindly old man thought that my husband and I were suppressing our daughters' sexuality and decided to "set her free." The basic problem is that people with power over young people need to respect their need for autonomy and growth; and this rules out pedophilia and incest with young children.

On the other hand, I may be wrong. Some young people may actually find things like this to be a growth experience. I really do think that anti-pedophiles (like myself) should consider the possibility that some people who have sex with young children actually possess some decency and dignity - instead of just demanding that their cocks be cut off. An objective reading of a story like this can help us think things out. What I do know is that I feel lot more comfortable with a great story about erotic sex among consenting adults (like Backrub's "Showoffs" cited at the beginning of this review or Sue's "Slippery When Wet," which I reviewed in Celestial Reviews 2) than with this one. Still, it was an outstanding story. I think it should be assigned reading for the people over on alt.sex.wizards or one of the religious groups, where they could use it as the basis for an intelligent discussion instead of screaming insults at one another about child molesters.