"Forays" by Uther Pendragon (anon584c@nyx.net). A foray (which can be correctly pronounced three different ways), is defined as (1) a sudden raid or military advance, or (2) a venture or an initial attempt, especially outside one's usual area. This story takes the second definition into the arena of romantic post-partum sex.

My main problem in reviewing the Bob and Jeanette Brennan saga is that their fictional life is so close to my own real life. In the present episode, I can very closely relate to the sensations of returning to a sort of renewed normalcy after the birth of a child. Like Jeanette, I have gone through that experience in collaboration with an intellectual but supportive husband, with a church community as an important part of my life, and with a renewed confidence in myself as a lover and as a person. Like Jeanette, I started my marital alliance with the clear perception that my husband was the sexual expert in our relationship, but I soon developed an awareness that I was pretty good at it myself. Like Jeanette, I enjoyed the mixture and even the confusion of feelings related to the baby and to my sexual relationship with my husband. The main difference between myself and Jeanette is that she speaks French a lot better than I do. I'm going to file a copyright infringement lawsuit if Jeanette starts writing reviews for a salacious newsgroup.

So while I find it difficult to be objective about this new installment in the Bob and Jeanette saga, I find it easy to say that this is another good one. Read the story. Let it speak for itself.

Think back to your last experience of missionary-position sex. Not the one in Macy's window, but the one before that, alone in the privacy and comfort of a bedroom with your significant other. Was it really so boring that you would have skipped it if the reruns on TV had been a little better? Or was it a time of passion and satisfaction?

Uther Pendragon bets on the latter. He thinks that hot sex, even hot descriptions of sex, don't require three sex toys, two visiting firemen, and a large German shepherd.

"Forays" is a weekend in the saga of Bob and Jeanette Brennan, now married ten years and very new parents. Their baby is becoming a bit more predictable, Jeanette has recovered from the delivery. They are beginning to notice the external world and even make forays into it.

Bob is turned on by seeing Jeanette breastfeed their baby, 'The Kitten.' Jeanette misses the 'tiger' that Bob sometimes was before her pregnancy made him careful. Each makes plans to satisfy those needs. The Kitten, presumably without planning, interposes her own immediate needs. They cope, and ultimately everyone's needs are satisfied.

This isn't a "Lust Weekend." Bob and Jeanette get on with their lives and then make love at bedtime. They do the laundry, prepare meals, change diapers, write history exams, and attend church. Jeanette signs up for a French course and practices her French on The Kitten. Bob's puns in French are no more edifying than his puns in English. When you check, however, you find that more than half the words are spent on the sex scenes.

An Aster story makes you wish that you could live in his universe, a Viddler story makes you glad that you don't live in his, a Deirdre story makes you suspect that you might. You live in Bob and Jeanette's universe (except for time flow). Don't you wish that you lived with one of them?