It was dusk, nearly dark. A warm, late-September evening. Carol and I were sitting on top of a picnic table near the reservoir, she in the center, her feet on the bench, and I behind her with my legs on either side of her as I massaged her shoulders.  We didn’t know each other that well, but there had been a slow flirtation going on and we had somehow decided to take a walk together and wound up here. She was small and da...

It was definitely getting colder as the evening darkened around us, and we walked with our arms around each other’s waists as we made out way back to the campus dormitory where she lived. I wanted to ask her what she was feeling about what we had just done, but I had the sense that she didn’t want to discuss it, was perhaps ashamed of her part in it. So we talked of other things, as if we were still just two people who ha...

The next time I saw Carol was at lunchtime the next day. We were both heading from different directions towards the entrance to the dining-hall next to her dormitory. I had been thinking about something else and so looked right past her at first. She saw me, however, and thought I was ignoring her and that she was the victim of a one-night stand. I noticed her just as her face turned sad and she began to walk away from me...

I didn’t see Carol at lunch the next day, though I waited until nearly closing time. When she didn’t come to dinner, I casually asked a classmate of hers if she’d seen Carol, and she told me Carol hadn’t been at her classes that day. It was pretty obvious that Carol was upset about last night and was too embarrassed to show her face in public. Or at least where she might run into me. This needed to be dealt with. I sat do...

Although we actually did spend time together without doing anything sexual, it was obvious that the intensity of those encounters was what kept drawing us together. Carol was becoming more comfortable with her nature and seemed willing to try whatever I came up with. Some of things we did were improvised around the circumstances we found ourselves in; others were, for me at least, planned set pieces though I didn’t always...

Teaching Carol, Ch. 6 by Zen Mackie Carol avoided me for a week or so—I assumed she was upset because of the incident at the library checkout desk. But I did nothing. She had enjoyed it—she may not have liked the fact that she enjoyed it, but she did—and that kind of enjoyment can be addictive. Sure enough, one night there was a knock on my door and there she was. She was wearing floral-patterned shorts and a white t-shir...

Teaching Carol, Ch. 7 Saturday afternoon, a few days later. It was pouring rain. I made my way over to Carol’s dorm and knocked on her door, then let myself into her room. She had been sitting at her computer but jumped to her feet when she saw it was me. She was wearing dark yellow sweat-clothes with the university insignia on them. And her glasses. As I closed the door behind me I noticed something different out of the...

Teaching Carol, Ch. 8 By Zen Mackie When Carol told me that she was going to have to make a presentation on Parent’s Night at her school I knew I’d have to do something to make it memorable for her. I didn’t tell her I was planning to attend; I simply arrived at her room about half an hour before the meeting was supposed to begin. She answered my knock on the door in a dress of dark maroon silk—or some fabric that looked...

The incident in her classroom seemed to remove a lot of boundaries for Carol as a submissive, and she no longer fought the impulse when it came. In fact, she became very creative herself. Not long after that episode she called and asked me to come over, and when I arrived I found an envelope with my name on it taped to the door, and inside the envelope was a small key. There was no answer to my knock—but when I entered I...

That weekend there was a salsa band playing in the town square late one afternoon. Carol and I hadn’t planned to meet but I was passing by and had stopped to listen for a moment when I spotted her. She was standing near the front of the crowd that formed a semi-circle around the flatbed truck where the band was playing. Within the semi-circle a lot of people were dancing enthusiastically and I could see Carol was watching...

Halloween was always a big event on campus. The students competed with each other to come up with the most outrageous costumes and make-up, and the winners were selected at midnight during the rock 'n' roll costume ball in the Student Union basement. Carol had told me she'd never even attended one of these, never mind dressed up for one, so I was astonished when she told me she wanted to go...and in costume. I said sure,...

Every town in America has one, it seems. Drive along the main drag far enough and you’ll find it, sometimes right on the square but generally on the outskirts of town with the mini-malls and superstores: a small, white building standing by itself. It will be called Dairy Queen or The Corner Creamery or Tastee-Freez and from April through September, you can walk up to the window and buy soft-serve ice cream, milk shakes, m...