Hi, Allan here.
This story is the last in our short series of 'first' stories between the two trips. In this letter, we focus on Shanti and how her relationship with Mike began. It includes the story of how they first met, their first date together and the first time they had sex together which for Shanti was her first time having sex with any man.
Our original intention was to create a simple story which painted a picture of a shy girl called Shanti who meets and starts dating a guy called Mike. This new relationship encourages her, gives her confidence in herself and builds her into the person we meet in the Letters Series. She becomes more and more out-going as their friendship continues until she becomes that confident, determined girl we know as Shanti.
Well, that was our plan anyway, but like in many of our stories, things don’t always go according to plan. Let me explain what happened. When I was young I had a bad speech problem, a stutter which made it almost impossible to hold a decent conversation. It took a lot of training and therapy to get rid of this and even now when I get excited or nervous it can return slightly. One day I suggested to Anne and Susan that Shanti could have suffered from the same problem as I had. The conversation which followed went something like this:-
“Can you remember what it was like?” she asked me.
“Yes, of course! I’ll never forget it... It was terrible being like that. Unable to talk properly. Unable to hold a decent conversation with anyone.” I said.
“Do you think you can write conversation like that now?” Susan asked.
“Sure, I think I can,” I replied
“How would Shanti get rid of this?” Anne asked.
"It took me a lot of training and therapy," I explained.
"We haven't got that time in the story," Susan said.
“What she needs is something to make a sudden change," I explained. "A big impact in her life... Something that gives her self-confidence too... Something that makes her believe in herself.”
“What about meeting Mike? Would that be enough?” Anne asked.
“I suppose it would,” I replied not really sure how this would work.
“How about if she had sex with Mike?” Anne asked.
“Maybe if she had a mind blowing orgasm the first time? Would that might work?” Susan said with a laugh.
I knew she meant it as a joke but I began to see some potential in her idea.
“I think that might just work,” I said.
“Really? I was just joking.”
“Yes, I know. Well, I’m not. I think we should work on this and see where it takes us.”
So that’s what happened. We started writing the story like this. But it was a hard one to write and soon Shandra and Susan became involved too. It was Susan who suggested that they go the whole way on their first date. The sex scene which followed was mostly her work too.
That scene where Hasina comes to Shanti's defence and attacks Harry is actually based on fact to some extent. It seems that Reshma, my younger step-sister, was getting bullied in school soon after she arrived in New Zealand unable to speak much English. By then, I had moved on and left school but someone did come to her defence and sort out the guy, but in reality, it was Susan, not Reshma's older sister Shandra.
I heard about it when Mum and Dad were trying to establish why the girls had been fighting at school. I really felt a bit sorry for the guy. It seems he took a beating and in the end, Anne and Shandra were involved too when two of his friends came to his rescue. Soon others were involved trying to pull them apart, it must have been really something to see. Maybe it might make another story extra sometime.
Of course with various pieces put being written by the girls, it became my job to put it all together into some sort of story using conversation to connect it all. As we continued working, the story evolved and changed as we went. What was supposed to have been a short story was growing longer and longer until it became the story you are reading today.
But like I said above it was a hard one to write. We’d drop it for a while and move on to other projects and then return to it for another go. By the time we had finished this one story the rest of Volume Three had already been completed and we were working on stories from Volume Four. But the effort was worth it, I think it is a good one.
So this first part tells the story of how Mike and Shanti got to know each other and it ends with him asking her out on a date. We tried to capture the feelings and emotions going through these two people as they grew to love each other. Also, we have tried to capture the struggle Shanti had dealing with her speech problem. In both of these, I believe the story works well.
Extra:-
Recently, just before this story was published, Shandra's sister Reshma and her husband were staying with us. Reshma was watching Shandra and I reading the first part of this story making little adjustments and corrections as we went. She asked if they could have a go so I agreed to let them change a copy anyway they liked.
They were in this office most of the afternoon working on Anne's laptop until finally, they emerged with a new version of the story. They didn't change the basic story too much or the stuttering speech either, but they did a lot of rewording of the rest of the story. The outcome was so good that we just deleted the copy we were holding on-line and replaced it with their copy. It was their final version which we published.
I think you will notice the difference a school teacher can make. We wanted them to carry on and edit each story but they said no the stories should remain as close as they can to what we originally wrote. They have agreed to correct any minor mistakes as we publish each week.
Kia Kaka - Kia Kaha.
Be safe - Be strong.
Allan.
