Ex-teacher and former pupil bond over writing porn
A special thanks to RF-Fast for helping to proofread and ensuring the story is in good shape.
Down By The Creek
It started with my monthly drinks with a couple of my former school friends. To be honest, I'd happily let this tradition die, as they were both a little bitchy and married to wealthy men. Men who cared little for their wives, but a wife was a tick box in their requirements to fit in at the golf club.
"God, what loser posted that?" Kiera asked and tossed me the paper.
In the personal ads were one she'd circled with a pen. 'Young female model sought for photo assignment. Some nudity, nothing lewd.'
"Probably some pent-up virgins trying to persuade a girl to show them her bits. 'Oh, I don't have a studio, but we can take the photos in my parent's basement.' Pathetic."
I had to agree, but the phone number niggled at the back of my brain. Somehow, it seemed familiar. That evening, I found the same advert in my paper and dialled it. As soon as I did, the number on my phone changed to Jason and it started ringing.
Jason was my neighbour's son, recently turned 19, and I had his number on my phone as he'd fed my cat when I'd last been on holiday.
"Hello?" he answered, and I recognised his voice.
Pitching my voice a little higher and aiming for a ditzy sound, I spoke. "It's about the advert in the paper. How much does it pay?"
"Don't you want to know what I'm looking for?"
Switching back to my usual voice, I replied. "I think I know what you're looking for, Jason."
"Mrs; I mean, Claire, what is this?"
"I think you should be answering that question. What the hell are you thinking, doing something like that? I'm disappointed in you." Without meaning to, I had adopted my no backchat teacher's voice.
"It's about my writing." He blurted.
I stopped my impromptu tirade about respecting women and trying to trick naive girls. He'd been quite serious about his writing when I was his teacher. I'd tutored him for a time, until recently, when something happened in the family, and he abandoned his plans to go to university and become a professional writer.
I'd not pried as to why, but he told me he left high school and walked into a low-level job as an admin in a small factory.
"What writing requires naughty photos?"
"Who said they would be naughty?"
"Seriously. Want me to read the advert back to you?"
"Fine, but they weren't going to be that naughty. Topless at best."
"Explain." I ordered, as more than a decade of teaching authority rang through my voice.
It turned out he'd not dropped his dream of writing and discovered he could write and publish stories on Literotica to practise his craft. The more he wrote, the more he improved. That was a direct quote from something I'd told him years before. Not the erotica obviously.
He'd published some stories with reasonable success but needed a proofreader or editor to get rid of the silly errors. His current story begged for some photographs to illustrate it. That was why he was looking for a model.
I'd read some stories on that site and the quality of the stories varied greatly. Some were crude and badly written, but a few were both very well written and highly erotic. The stories I'd read of his when I was his teacher and tutor were quite inventive for his age, and I wondered how it had changed.
"I could do it." I blurted.
"The..." He started to reply.
"I mean editing, not modelling." I laughed at the very idea. He'd not want me to model.
I'm 37 and in good shape, but not about to let guys see me topless so they could stroke their dicks. As I thought that, I was surprised it didn't disgust me as I would have expected.
"You realise it is adult content?"
"I'm not an idiot, and I'm sure I can cope without whatever comes out of your imagination. It's nothing weird, is it?"
"No." He replied, a little offended.
I gave Jason my email and a minute later I got an email from Google inviting me to a doc shared with me as an editor. It was called 'Down By The Creek' and I opened it a little nervously. I'd known Jason since he was little, and it was a little jarring to admit he was now an adult. Too easy to think of him as a neighbourhood kid and trying to avoid thinking that I was getting older as well.
It's hard to be an English teacher without being aware of how tough it was to be a professional writer. Getting noticed, and then staying current, was difficult. Talent was not always enough. Publishers were paying less and less, even for the big names, and everyone was squeezed.
I'd never considered writing porn as a way to advance your writing craft, but in a way, it was clever. A large and eager audience. You'd not get paid, but that removed criticism from other writers who felt you stole their money. And it left your legitimate story private until you were sure they were good enough.
The story was about an 18-year-old who had been sent to live with his grandparents on a farm for the summer, while his parent's marriage imploded. The farm was in the middle of nowhere in almost tens of miles of featureless fields. He'd assumed he would be able to help on the farm, but nearly everything was automated and done using massive machines.