by Kara Bryn
She threw the bathrobe onto the bed and went to retrieve the raincoat. "Here," she said as she held it open behind me and helped me into the coat. I gratefully buttoned it and tied the belt around me.
"Look," she said, pointing in the mirror, "Do you see anything different? From yesterday?"
I knew what she was getting at.
"Well, no, but…" I protested.
"No buts! Come! Stabilisers off!" She turned and picked up her coat and walked towards the door. I was being carried along by the force of her personality but, also, because I couldn't see a reason not to be. I slipped into my shoes and followed Mia into the corridor.
Out in the street I stopped and looked around me. It seemed amazing that everyone was carrying on as if it were any other day. I was conscious of the fabric of the raincoat against my skin, of the air on my legs, and colours seemed brighter than ever before.
"Let us walk," Mia said.
If walking around in a coat over my underwear had enhanced my senses, it was nothing compared to wearing nothing beneath. I felt like I saw the face of every person that we passed, that I had time to study it, to assess whether they could discern my secret or not and conclude that, no, they could not have the slightest inkling.
I became worried that Mia would take me to one of her regular cafes. That a waiter would try to take the one item that hid my body from the world but, instead, I realised that we were walking into the park again. Our shoes crunched on gravel paths until we reached the same bench again. Mia looked around and I did the same. When I turned back she was already sitting, coat folded beside her, and resplendent in her nudity and bright red shoes yet again. She was looking at me, begging the question.
I sat on the other end of the bench. I could sense her disappointment.
"I don't know how you do it," I said. She sat, so confidently, the dappled sunlight through the trees dancing on her pale skin.
"I don't know why you don't do it," she replied. I didn't want to attempt to argue. A ray of sun broke through the trees and bathed us in its warmth. Mia stretched her arms over her head, her eyes closed, her back arched and those perfect breasts pushed forward as if she had not a care in the world. After a few seconds she relaxed back onto the bench. I envied her for her freedom.
On a sudden whim I untied the belt and took off the coat and laid it out on the bench beside me. The sun on my body felt amazing and I breathed deeply. Then, a breeze rustled the leaves and I felt it wash over my breasts, cooling me and titillating me at the same time.
Mia didn't even turn her head as I did all of this. I think she wanted me to get the message that she was not excited by the idea of seeing me in the nude. It was as if I'd said I didn't want a coffee, but now I did. No big deal.
My senses were on high alert. My head turned at every leaf rustle, every bird that disturbed a stone or twig. Mia turned her body towards me, one leg crossed over the other and her arm draped over the back of the bench.
"I came here with a boyfriend once," she said, "All he wanted to do was have sex on the bench. It took me far too long to realise he only wanted me for my body." I looked at her: I could have made that assumption for her very quickly.
"Were you… how long ago was that?" I asked, wondering if it was a patron or someone who had already seen her nude.
"Oh, many years ago," she said, "Before I moved here, and before I really started working. It was a mistake." I dared not ask more, but wanted to know about her recent life.
"And now?" I asked. I felt entitled to answers since she had brought me out here, enticed me to sit naked on the bench with her.
"People come and go," she said, "It's very hard, you can imagine, for someone to accept what I do, but not to be excited by it, not to be attracted to me because of it. It's much safer if I just put that part of my life on hold."
I sensed some longing in her voice; that she wished she could have a normal life, but not in a normal way. I realised how driven she must be to be able to deal with that conflict and not take the easy way out.
I heard a crunch of gravel and my head snapped around. Not twenty feet away was the old man from two days before, I crossed my legs over one another and my arms over my chest.
"Why didn't you say something?" I hissed at Mia. She must have seen him coming from where she was sat.
"It never occurred to me," she answered with a shrug.
I watched him as he approached. His eyes darted between Mia and me and, by the time he'd covered the distance between us, there wasn't an inch of our bodies that he hadn't scrutinised.
"Hola," Mia called to him. He replied in Spanish and Mia laughed. He paused, and then the old man's eyes danced as he nodded in my direction and added something else.
"What did he say?" I asked, surprising myself, given the situation, by smiling along with the pair of them.
"He said it's good to see the flowers blossoming today." And then Mia laughed a more genuine laugh than I had heard from her yet. "But then he looked at your arms crossed over your chest and said 'but it's a shame that some of the petals haven't unfurled'."
I had to laugh too. Maybe, if the world was only full of unthreatening but witty old men, sitting around in the nude would be a viable prospect.
However, after being surprised once, I now doubled my alert. My head was darting back and forth making sure there was no-one approaching from either end of the path.
"Come," Mia said, sensing my discomfort. "I think there may be some rain coming." I looked over my shoulder at a patch of darkening sky.
"Well," I said, "At least I've got a raincoat." This brought another genuine laugh from Mia. Was it that, now I was meeting her on her terms, I had finally broken through her defences?
Mia stood, picked up her coat and threw it over one shoulder. I wasn't about to do the same so, as we started to walk, I wrapped myself up tight in the raincoat. The sky was darkening overhead.
As we walked along the path I saw eyes looking in our direction at Mia, naked and with her coat over her shoulder, casually walking beside another woman in a raincoat. But still, nobody called out, or came over to us, or did anything more than watch from afar.
Mia saw me watching the people around us.
"And do you think," she said, "They would be paying us any more attention if you were also without your coat?"
I knew the answer to that, but that wasn't the issue.
"That doesn't mean I'm comfortable with it," I replied.
"Ah," she said, "And you only do things that you're comfortable with? I don't believe that."
She was like a terrier and she wasn't going to let go of an idea once she had hold of it. I was starting to get annoyed.
"Look, we're all different. You're happy walking around like that, and I'm happy for you. But most of us aren't. Instead of getting everyone else to see things from your perspective, why don't you try seeing it from theirs for a change?"
She stopped and turned to look at me.
"I have made you angry. You're right." She looked around us. "People look at me. I want them to. And I forget that you also get some of that attention, but then only a very little of it. I should imagine myself in your place."
She turned and resumed walking. I wasn't sure whether the right message had gotten through, but it felt like I'd at least made some kind of point. I was still fuming inside, however, and now it was as if she'd won the argument just by agreeing with me. I realised how frustrating it could be to talk to Mia.
"Okay, fine!" I said. She stopped and turned again. Quickly, I unbuckled the belt, fumbled angrily at the coat buttons and almost threw it off my arms.
"Satisfied?" I said as I stood there with my hand on my hip.
So was this the way I could face being publicly nude: by being driven to it by anger?
Mia merely shrugged.
"My satisfaction is not the issue," she said, and started walking again, her buttocks swaying gently as her hips rocked.
With the coat over my arm I scampered to cat
ch up with her. If I didn't have the coat for protection any more I felt I had to stay close to Mia.
Mia was right, of course: we got no more attention as a pair of naked women than with Mia alone. The startling thing was that nobody would meet my gaze, and nobody would come near us as we walked together. I turned around a couple of times and saw people taking photos on their mobile phones after we'd passed, or from the other side of the road, but nobody would do so anywhere within what could even broadly be called close proximity.
We walked in silence, Mia was thoughtful, and I was still angry. She had to have her own way every time, and she would be unrelenting until she got it. She had such conviction that she was right that she wasn't capable of compromising, because compromising would be an inferior choice.
As I calmed I started to become self-conscious again. I resisted the urge to put the raincoat back on, but I found myself carrying it in front of me so I could partially hide. How had I gotten myself into such a state that I was happy to walk naked through the streets of Madrid? It drove me mad that I had been driven mad… and that Mia had gotten what she wanted out of it.
Soon we reached Mia's apartment and, just as we stood under the canopy over the doorway, the rain started to fall. Mia looked up at the sky.
"I love it when it rains here," she said, "It's so rare and so powerful when it does."
The rain was pouring down and the streets were already drenched. People were running for cover and two nude women were no longer the main attraction.
"And I didn't get my coat wet either," Mia said with a smile as she swung it from her shoulder. "Skin is so much better at keeping out the water. And then when it stops, you dry very quickly." It seemed logical, as much as every bizarre thing that Mia said did on some level.
"I will fetch us an umbrella," she said, looking intently at my eyes and trying to read a response, "We must walk some more. I can't miss this opportunity."
For an English woman, walking in the rain is an all too common opportunity. Mia took out her key and moved towards the door and I followed her. As she opened it she turned to me.
"Stay and enjoy the rain," she said, looking at the deluge streaming over the canopy edge. "I will only be a few minutes."
I started to unfold the coat to put it back on. Mia shook her head.
"Without stabilisers," she said, taking it from me. I don't know why I didn't resist. That was my moment to make a stand. Mia looked around. "There is nobody out now," she said, quite correctly, "The rain has sent everyone indoors."
I looked around me and, before I could turn back, Mia had disappeared inside and the door closed with a click.
And, without knowing how, I was left standing beneath an entrance porch in the centre of Madrid in a torrential downpour wearing nothing but the shoes on my feet and a small bag over one arm. I looked down at myself: what would anyone think if they saw me standing here? What would anyone who knew me think if they found out about this?
The air was cooler now and very pleasant, but still warm enough despite the rain. Still, I crossed my arms tightly over my chest, as if covering my nipples would make all the difference.
It seemed like an age had passed and I began to fear that Mia was playing a trick on me, that she would not be coming back at all. I turned and anxiously pressed the buzzer to Mia's apartment. There was no response.
I stepped backwards out of the doorway and almost collided with a middle aged couple with an umbrella between them. They looked me up and down, mumbled something to each other and shuffled quickly along the pavement. I was going to kill Mia when she came back down. I pressed the buzzer again and heard a click.
"Mia!" I almost shouted.
"One minute," she said. I breathed a sigh of relief: at least she was coming back down. I turned and faced out towards the street again, watching sheets of rain bouncing across the pavement and forming rivers in the gutters. At least I was dry under the canopy, and I was getting angry again. It seemed to give me strength.
Time passed before I heard the door open before me. I deliberately kept my back turned to Mia. She had to know how angry I'd be by now.
"I can't believe you left me out here like this," I nearly barked at her, shouting loudly over the rain.
"I'm sorry," I heard her say as the door clicked closed and a key turned in the lock. "But you made me think. Something you said, about seeing things your way."
I knew that meant she had something planned for us. Exactly how far was she going to make us walk around naked? I turned around, and then anger turned into shock.
"Mia…" I said, "You're… you're dressed?" The blood drained from my face.
I stared at her and she looked down at herself. She was wearing dark leather boots, a long, tight skirt down to her ankles and a long-sleeved roll-neck sweater. She had a camera around her neck. She looked beautiful and sophisticated as she opened the large golf umbrella and held it over us.
"Yes," she said in her matter-of-fact way, "You made me think, about seeing how it felt on your side. I wondered what it would be like."
"But… that's… that's not what I meant!" I protested, "I didn't mean 'see what it's like hanging out with a naked woman'!"
Mia shrugged. "Come," she said, "this rain is perfect."
She started to walk away but I stopped still with my hands on my hips.
"Uh-uh," I said, shaking my head. "Let me in. I want to get my coat."
"My coat, you mean," she said with no trace of humour.
I sighed in frustration. "Mia, you know what I mean." Surely she'd show some sympathy?
She shrugged again. "You may wait here, if you like. Or you know the way to your hotel." She turned and began to walk away again.
I looked around: it was better to be with Mia than to wait here naked for her to return. I knew that compromise was not something that Mia understood. No wonder she was single. I scuttled after her.
The umbrella covered our heads but I could feel the rain splashing against my ankles. We walked in silence and I resigned myself to following Mia around until she had decided that my ordeal had lasted long enough. Except that, for her, this wasn't an ordeal: it was an experiment, and an experience to be savoured.
"I envy you," she said, "It's wonderful to be nude in the rain."
I could have strangled her: if it's that great then why didn't you just do it and leave me as I was?
We arrived in the main square. There were a handful of people, apparently tourists, and all holding umbrellas. The rain was too heavy to be outside without one. Some of them looked in our direction and pointed and muttered to each other. I folded my arms across my chest and tried to huddle in on myself.
"Are you cold?" Mia asked me.
"No," I said, "I just don't want to be here."
But that didn't seem to matter to Mia. Maybe I should have claimed to feel the chill and hope for some sympathy, but it still felt very warm despite the rain.
We kept walking. We appeared to be heading directly towards a young couple looking at a guide book. They noticed us when we were only ten paces away and I could see the surprise in their eyes as a naked woman walking towards them in the rain.
"Hold this," Mia said and handed me the umbrella. She skipped across the distance between us and under the cover of the tourist's umbrella. I couldn't hear what it was she said to them but she handed them her camera and scuttled back to my side. She put an arm around my shoulder. The smooth wool of her sweater caressed my skin.
The young man with the camera pointed it at us and took a couple of photographs. I stood there with my arms crossed angrily. Mia appeared to thank them in Spanish and then went back to them. Instead of taking her camera back, she talked to them some more as if she were explaining something. Then she took the umbrella from them and they came towards me. I wondered what fresh torture had Mia thought up for me.
The couple came and stood either side of me beneath the umbrella and Mia took a photo of the three of us. They were laughing and joking, and the w
oman gave a playful slap to her partner, probably in response to some comment about my body. Mia laughed and chatted with them before she re-joined me.
"This is interesting," she said, "I find it difficult to get people to approach me when I'm nude, but it's easy for me to approach them now and then they seemed happy to participate."
"Yeah, well, I'm not," I said.
"Oh, Rosie," Mia said, and put an arm around my shoulders again. "When you look back on this day you will remember it and you will be glad you've experienced it. And what is life if not memories?"
She was certainly right that I would remember it, but I would have preferred at least some say in the matter.
"Just get it over with," I said. I knew that whatever I did or thought would make no difference.
Mia smiled. The next twenty minutes were occupied with Mia giving the camera to various baffled tourists and getting them to take a photo of us together under the umbrella. That was really just a way to get them to agree to have their photo taken with me, the nude woman in the rain.
The rain began to subside and, with it, the number of people in the square grew.
"Come," Mia said, "I like to remember the square empty and rain-soaked. You made it look beautiful." I wasn't about to thank her for the compliment.
"What now?" I asked as we walked towards one of the archways which led out of the square.
Mia shrugged. "We could walk," she said, "Your hotel is not far from here."
It was my turn to shrug. "And does it make any difference what I want?" I asked.
She gave a genuine smile. "Not really," she said, with a wink that was not quite enough to win me over.
We walked, and the streets grew more crowded as the sun broke through the clouds. Steam rose from the pavements as they heated. I had given up crossing my arms over my chest and I caught sight of my reflection in a shop front. It was so incongruous, seeing myself there, naked, beside Mia, who was covered from head to toe.
"Are you hungry?" she asked me. I shrugged: again, did it matter what I said?
Mia led us into a café and I recognised it as the one we had met at two days before. As we entered the clientele turned their heads and muttered as they looked me up and down. I tried to act nonchalant, and maybe they would question their own vision if I didn't act embarrassed about my situation.
