Author's note: Despite my intense passion for sex, I was never crazy about pornographic movies. In general, I found the sex to be fake, the stories very corny, and the acting horrid.
That's why I was amazed when I discovered the work of Viv Thomas, a South African who makes pornographic movies in Europe. Not only is the sex in his movies red hot, it's enhanced by heavy doses of foreplay and afterplay, good acting, and intriguing stories. In fact, big chunks of his movies are devoted to non-sexual scenes, which develop the relationships of the people who are eventually shown having sex.
That makes a great enhancement. Whether it's a loving, monogamous couple, a one night stand, or anything in between, the sex is hotter to watch when I understand the sexual motivation of the two people; what makes them desire each other so intimately.
To top it off, Viv's movies are so well produced that if I saw only saw the non-sexual scenes, I'd guess I was watching a mainstream Hollywood movie rather than a porno.
I'm attempting to apply much of Viv's formula to my writing - highly detailed sex enhanced by the stories behind the relationships. In fact, of the approximately 25 chapters that I plan to write of this story, it's very possible that a few of them won't include sex.
In addition, the story also contains two elements I've rarely or never seen in pornography - Native American women and marijuana, which are two of my biggest turn ons.
This story will focus on the title character, whose name is Shannon, covering about 1/3 of a century, from her 18th birthday to her early 50s. I've always found it interesting to see characters develop over a full generation or more as they're shaped by various experiences.
I hope you'll read and enjoy the entire story, and email me your thoughts on it, however good or bad!
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Shannon was awoken at 4 AM by knocking on her bedroom window and immediately knew it was the day for which she'd been anxiously waiting for six years - Monday, September 14, 1981; her 18th birthday. Desperately unhappy as long as she could remember with her life in a small, rural Michigan town, she decided on her 12th birthday that when she turned 18, she was moving back to her native Crow Indian reservation in south-central Montana.
The day she made the decision, Shannon shared it with her older sister and best friend, Sheila, who was a little over 4.5 years older. No one else ever knew about it. Sheila initially planned to move with Shannon but now had a boyfriend and decided to stay, while still supporting her sister in the move.
Figuring that their mother and step-father would strongly object to the move and try to interfere, Sheila and Shannon made a plan. Over the last few days before turning 18, Shannon would secretly pack everything that she wanted to take with her - mostly clothes and cassette tapes. Then, on the big day, Sheila would knock on Shannon's window at 4 AM and drive her about an hour to the Grand Rapids bus station.
Sheila and Shannon initially looked like they would grow up just like most in their tribe. But When Shannon was just six months old, her and Sheila's father died of a brain tumor. Not quite a year later, their mother was working as a retail clerk in a small store when she was aggressively pursued by a white tourist who found her very attractive. Lured by his wealth, they married in a quickie ceremony three weeks later and she moved with him to Michigan along with her two daughters.
Over the next 10 years, the new couple had five children together. But Sheila and Shannon never fit in. Both were shy and also grew distant from their mother, while always being distant from their step-father and half-siblings. It wasn't any better at school, where they were the only Native Americans and had little social acceptance. That led Sheila and Shannon to cling to each other - a bond that was further strengthened by their continuing to speak their tribal Crow language to each other. And they spent about eight weeks of every Summer vacation back on the reservation with their maternal grandparents, who made sure that their granddaughters were deeply entrenched in their heritage. It was there that they were by far the happiest.
The negativity of their home and school lives affected Sheila much worse than Shannon. While in her early teens, Sheila made her only close friend other than Shannon - an obese classmate named Jennifer, the only black and the most overweight girl at their school, and the only non-white at the school other than Sheila and Shannon.
When Jennifer got her driver's license, she started regularly driving Sheila down to Grand Rapids, where they hung around a rough crowd. There Sheila found her first boyfriend, a much older gang member who was a very bad influence. He got Sheila into heavily smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and smoking marijuana. Sheila, in turn, got Shannon to do those things. Shannon was crazy about marijuana and liked alcohol and tobacco, but never went overboard with the latter two, especially alcohol, seeing that it was badly harming her older sister, who Shannon had previously looked up to very much. Sheila also became obese while Shannon stayed in shape by being on her school cross country, swimming, and softball teams.
Shannon was also left very uncomfortable by her few meetings with Sheila's boyfriend and used that as a warning for her own love life. Since the age of 12, Shannon had been aware that she was bisexual but had still never experienced romance with either a man or a woman. Even though she craved it, she wasn't so desperate for it that she would settle for someone with whom she wasn't deeply in love.
Shannon also fared far better as a student. She had a 3.5 GPA in high school while Sheila dropped out of school at the age of 16 as her grades were plummeting because of her alcoholism.
As Shannon and Sheila exchanged a long and tearful hug goodbye near the entrance to the bus, they promised to write to each other frequently and visit each other as often as possible. Shannon's bus left right on schedule at 6 AM and, after connections in Chicago and Fargo, North Dakota, she was scheduled to arrive in Billings, Montana at about 10 AM the next day. There she planned to get her first tattoo and then call her maternal grandparents to pick her up. Though she knew that they would joyously welcome her to move in with them, she didn't tell them in advance about her plan, fearing that they would let their guard down and mention it to their daughter.