"Pickles" by Dulcinea (Dulcinea97@aol.com). It's very difficult to accomplish what Dulcinea does in this story. We all know that bananas, carrots, and cucumbers have phallic significance; but Dulcinea manages to convey the excitement of turning a lover on _over the telephone_ by eating a pickle. I got wet just reading the story, and I was just munching on a chocolate chip cookie. How could that be?

Normally, Dulcinea's stories are excellent but too short to make my Top 15 lists. This is not a shortcoming; the stories simply do not compete with the more complete plots and character developments that these other stories exemplify. This story is an exception. It tells a really stimulating story completely yet concisely.