Pottery Peter by Rick R. Reed

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I have the idea that there are two Rick R. Reed out there; one that tends toward the horror side when he writes long novels, and one that prefers hot and dirty erotica when he writes short stories. Then I know that he is the same person since, long or short, his characters are always deep, with a background and a future, even if their story lasts only 30 pages.

Josh is a young college student at the end of the '70. At 18 years old he has not enough money to pay for College and so he takes a summer job in a pottery. Nothing fancy or artistic, he basically shifts crates. Josh is also gay but still in the closet, and at the end of the '70 it's not like you can come out and live happily ever after. And so to Josh, the summer is like a torture, being near so many sweaty bodies and not being able to "taste" any of them. He fantasizes about Dale, another young man working there, but he has no the courage to speak to him... Dale is all "straight" man and probably a blue collar worker, so what young Josh, gay and scholar, could have in common with him? To distance them even more, Dale discovers Josh while he is giving head to Kevin, their boss. From that moment on Dale spends the summer avoiding Josh, and Josh is fearing his last day at the pottery, when he will loose Dale and all his summer wet dreams.

Even if short, there is almost a "scary" twist right at the end of the story (and here the "usual" Rick R. Reed comes out again), that actually makes it something more than a simple piece of erotica. I continue to use the word erotica instead of romance, since it's not love that Josh is searching, he is an horny 18 years old guy, and in that moment of his life, he needs more a sex than love. And also the period is right, end of the '70, when the plague of AIDS was not yet fell down on people, and so the only trouble Josh has is to find someone like him.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/PotteryPeter.html

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