by Jayne Louise
from Jayne’s Nature:
The Governor’s Bluff .
by
Jayne Louise.
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A Kindle™ e-text.
Surf City Source
New Jersey
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The Governor’s Bluff
Text © 2006 by Girls Of the Dove LLC.
All rights reserved.
No part of the manuscript or artwork included in this e-text
may be reproduced, stored or transmitted by any means
without express written permission from the Publisher.
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Text edited by Melissa Stockhart.
HTML edited by The Girls of The Dove.
From the original America Online journal of July 2006
Surf City Source media group
New Jersey
www.surfcitysource.com
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Introduction
Our most exciting adventure at Batsto
I look back on this story now and realize it’s pretty dramatic. But I didn’t embellish anything– in fact I left out some things! The little moments of intense excitement in this story and in most of my other ones are just part of the whole experience of being nice normal girls who get naked and cavort around in the great outdoors. We are not exhibitionists and we don’t get naked for other people to see us. All the pleasure of doing what we do is the thrill of actually getting to do it, so all the ‘close calls’ and other moments of sheer panic when we might be ‘exposed’ (please pardon the word!) are exciting in the same way that walking a high-wire, or climbing a rock face, or jumping out of an airplane with a parachute might be, because they emphasize our complete vulnerability. It’s not the chance of being seen that’s exciting, but the faith in a God that will not let anything terrible happen to us. And so far, God has been just. And we are grateful to be good girls in His sight.
A word of caution: there are many dangers for any person, clothed or unclothed, prowling about the Pine Barrens, some of which can be much worse than a mild scratch or a case of poison ivy. Also, technically, some of the activities we have pursued in these adventures are against the rules. To allay any formal concerns, we rely on our intentions to not disturb anyone else and on our conscious efforts to defend the pristine natural environment as citizen caretakers. Therefore we, as The Girls of the Dove, do not endorse anything we have done here, do not advise others to follow our examples or surpass such activities on their own, and do not accept responsibility for anyone who does anything following our examples. This advisory is made for legal as well as for ethical reasons. And anyway we’sre sure you can find your own unique way of having fun without copying what other people have done.
Jayne Louise
New Jersey, September 2006
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For every one that does evil will fear the Light,
lest his deeds be reproved;
but he that does truth will seek the Light,
that his deeds may be made manifest,
and be shown to be of God.
– John 3: 20-21
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The Girls of The Dove,
in
The Governor’s Bluff.
by Jayne Louise.
Prelude
A bluff gets called
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
On Monday the governor threatened to close down the state government unless the Legislature passes a budget including higher property taxes, higher income taxes and an increase and expansion of the sales tax in what is already the most expensive state in the country to live in. Daddy’s been calling it a ‘temper tantrum’. He’s been expecting it, because the Legislature won’t be held hostage by a guy who obviously doesn’t know how to inherit a balanced budget from the last governor.
So, Mr. Corzine really did shut down the government as of 8:00 tonight. For us, this means Batsto would be closed and empty tomorrow. Angel came over after dinner and with Mom and Daddy we all went out on the boat to watch the borough fireworks. This was good because we were able to get the whole boat ready for tomorrow. We flaked out sails and filled water tanks and stocked the cabinets with water bottles and food and other provisions, and we left all our clothes and personal stuff board. Then we put the boat at the bulkhead for the night and sat there watching the Bay fireworks till about 10:00.
We did think of sleeping out on the boat, but that wasn’t the plan and Mom and Daddy expected us home, so we all went back in Angel’s car and got ready for bed. Angel slept on the floor in Jem’s room. I know they were up late chatting and giggling about stuff, and I wondered how ready they would be to get up at 5:30.
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I
The invasion of Batsto
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
We got up so early that we were able to leave the dock at 6:00. This was good because we’d catch the incoming the tide in the River. Some of us (I won’t say who!) were mostly asleep and didn’t even get to brush teeth, and none of us was really fully dressed. There was no one about at this hour, and Jem staggered across the yard from the car in what she’d slept in, a plain white cotton tank top and pink panties. Jules was in cute white floral-print sleep shorts and a t-shirt. Angel had a real swimsuit on– her purple/maroon one. I just wore my cute little yellow-and-white cotton gingham bikini, the one I made to sun in when I was 16.
We got the boat off the bulkhead at the of the float and powered the whole way down to the River, catching the last half of the incoming tide. Jem and Angel napped a little on the dinette bunk– they had been up talking pretty late last night. Jules and I did put sails up, to help us go faster and spend less fuel, but we had an extra tank of gas and I was interested only in getting there fast.
We phoned early for the bridges and charged right through with the motor buzzing away. Fortunately the bridge operator is a county employee, not a state employee, so we knew we wouldn’t have that problem. As Daddy said, the goal of a government shutdown is maximum disruption with minimal risk, and what better way for a Democrat to get taxes raised than to disrupt rich conservative yacht owners by not opening state bridges for them?
At about 1:10 we moored at our usual place. Jem, still in the pink panties (ever the underwear princess, even on the boat), waded in with the mooring line for the tree as usual. Angel was too eager to get naked and took off her swimsuit, leaving Jules to bring the canoe alongside the boat. I went down the ladder and lowered myself into the water to take the stern anchor out. The water was warm, not surprising since it was now a falling tide. I dove down to set the anchor and waded up along the side of the canoe to help Angel and Jem carry our stuff ashore.
We each carried a small backpack, mostly for food, drinks, and other necessaries, with one of the screened summerweight sleeping bags strapped on top of it. We had several bottles of Dasani water that we could fill up from the drink fountains at the historic area and packages of prepared fruitcup, applesauce, and pudding as well as some bagels and rolls and fresh bananas, peaches, and apples. It’s a pretty low-calorie diet, but personally I never feel like eating when I’m hiking and swimming and running around. Mostly I feel like sipping cold drinks. The fourth backpack carried all the towels and blankets for our camp-out. ‘We can always come back here if we need anything else,’ Jem said. ‘Even if we have to come after dark.’
‘Sure,’ I said. That’s why the boat was well stocked. I set the padlocks as usual and stepped over again to w
ade ashore.
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We had thought of taking the canoe up the creek to the waterfall, but just because the historic area was closed wouldn’t mean some people wouldn’t come to canoe anyway. We were taking with us only enough for the hike in and out. I still had on the now-wet cotton bikini, and had packed shorts and my pale-green cover-up shirt. Jem changed into little blue cotton shorts and a t-shirt, so that was all the clothes she’d need. Jules had put on her red-and-blue bikini, and was bringing her sleep shorts and a t-shirt in the backpack. And Angel was still naked for the hike, but she packed a little black tank-top and some denim shorts. We all had sneakers and socks on, and I had a bandanna tied round my head and Angel had on sunglasses and Jules had on her white Trenton Thunder ball cap. I think that is all the clothes we had on or with us when we started up the path to Route 542.
The road was not busy. Angel stopped in the little clearing, where the rangers often turn around, to put on her shorts and tank-top. I ventured across the road first, guided by the sounds of cars approaching from the curved portions to either side. The cotton bikini was mostly dry now and I felt very comfortable. I made it with no elastic– it has to be tied pretty tightly if it’s going to get wet, but it wasn’t intended to be wet. It’s unlined and too… white. Once we got under the trees and had vaulted the fence into the park area, we all relaxed. There were no lights on in any of the buildings. The gift shop was closed. A notice in the door window read that due to the state orders, the facility would be closed from 8:00 PM on July 4th till 8:00 AM on July 7th, which was Friday. ‘Wow,’ I said out loud. ‘So it’s really real.’
Angel laughed. ‘So I got all dressed again for nothing?’
Jem laughed at her. ‘We did have to cross the road.’
‘But no one saw us.’
‘Shhh,’ I said. ‘We’ll need to secure the perimeter.’
Angel giggled. ‘I love how that sounds. Like we’re spies.’
‘Honey,’ I said, ‘we’re worse than spies. We’re what has to hide from spies.’
‘Good point,’ Jules said, and we started around the gift-shop building to the historic area’s entrance.
There was the same sign on the other door. The bars were down over the entrance paths. We went around them and out in front of the ticket window. The shed where the vending machines are was locked up, so that wasn’t going to be an option. While we were standing there we heard a car coming up the lane towards the parking area.
‘Hide!’ I urged in a hushed voice, and we all darted back around the ticket booth and crept up towards the gift shop again. The state police cruiser came into the parking area, slowly, making a careful lap of the paved area and slowing to a stop in front of the ticket booth. It was hot, the officer had his windows up, and we were unable to hear him talking on the radio. Once or twice his high-temperature fan came on, making that impatient whirring sound while he sat there. We four crouched down low behind the gift-shop building, the packs with the light-green sleeping bags on top sticking up on our backs, listening till he drove off again. Then I slipped off the pack and ran out to the ticket booth, ducking my head around the corner to see him go. He went out of sight past the hedgerow and I followed him, watching as he drove out onto the lawn to go around the chained gate and carefully steered back in before the deep dip that was there to keep other people from doing what he was doing. I only had to tuck myself inside the hedge a little as he drove off up the forest road, and then he was gone and we were free.
I strolled back– there was no need to hurry now. We had all day. Jem stepped out from beyond the ticket booth and waited there for me. I felt beautifully free, in the soft cotton bikini I had made just for occasions like this, when I didn’t have to be fully dressed and could wear anything, or nothing, as I wished. ‘He went up the other way,’ Jem said.
‘Yes. He’ll come out on 542 farther down. But I do expect them to visit this place often. We have to stay on our guard.’
She nodded, smiling at me. ‘We will.’
We walked together up the path towards the gift shop. Just around the corner, in the middle of the path that led up to the mansion and the rest of the historic area, Angel was stepping out of her shorts, trying to get them off over her sneakers. ‘Already?’ I teased her. ‘Someone’s impatient!’
Angel giggled and peeled off the tank-top, half tripping as she managed to step away from the shorts by dropping them and kicking them aside in the gravel. ‘You know it! And I get to be the first one!’
We all laughed as she danced around like an idiot. Jules pulled off her bikini top and tucked it into the side pocket of her backpack. ‘We’ll need to find a safe spot,’ I said, ‘not only to stash the stuff but to get to in case there’s trouble.’
‘I have an idea about that,’ Jules said, and beckoned us around to the side of the gift-shop building. There in the middle of the wall were the rest rooms, the doors inside a little porch with a drink fountain and a third door for the utility stuff, exactly like at the bathing beach where we often have showers. ‘Yes,’ Jem said, ‘this is perfect.’
‘I wish there were a way to lock it,’ I said, inspecting the unlocked facilities on both sides. They each had only one toilet and a sink. ‘We might not be the only ones here today. We don’t want to just pile the stuff up here.’
‘We could go back to the boat and get one of the padlocks,’ Jem said.
‘There’s nothing to lock it to.’
We stood there and stared at the available facilities for a few minutes and finally Angel stamped her foot and said, ‘Hey, guys, I’m not getting naked for nothing. Let’s find a place to lie out, or something, and we can worry about this later.’
‘Are you kidding?’ Jem teased her. ‘We can lie out anywhere. Right here, if you want.’
‘No,’ I said, ‘but this will make a good spot for us to camp tonight. Close enough to the facilities in case we need them, and away from where night patrols can see us.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ Jem agreed.
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With all our packs then, we hiked onwards into the historic area. Angel wasn’t the least anxious about being naked already, even though we hadn’t really checked all of our perimeter. Jem and I went on ahead like advance scouts, peering round bushes and trying locked doors and listening intently for any voices or traffic. All we ever heard was the occasional car going by on Route 542, over a quarter-mile away. Remembering we had once been tracked by a groundskeeper and dog, we made sure we had covered every building and every gate before deciding we really were alone here. By then it was about 3:00.
We settled on a lovely spot right in the middle of the mansion’s side lawn, shielded by some shrubs and trees from the lake and far enough around from the gravel path that no one there would see us. Our ‘escape plan’ would be to go around the back of the mansion like we’d done that night we had to run from the groundskeeper. At worst we’d make it to the rest rooms and get dressed there. Jules and Jem spread the blanket and we put out some snacks and drinks for our lunch.
I was the last one to take off what I had on. While the others reclined in the sun and shared lotion, I strolled up to the gravel path to have another look around. Batsto seemed more exciting than ever now, with the hot summer sun beating down on every part of me like this. I pushed off the bandanna and left it stuffed with my socks into my sneakers on the mansion’s porch, so I was completely unadorned. It was delightfully free and refreshing. I walked back down the path towards the gift shop, even peering in the windows as though I were shopping. On my way back to the others I went around behind the mansion, just to ensure that the way there was safe for an escape. All three of them were lying face-up on the big beach blanket.
‘Now are you having fun?’ I asked my cousin.
‘Mmmm,’ she sighed deeply. ‘This is heaven.’
‘Mm, I feel the same way.’ I put lotion on myself and lay down next to her. It was anyone’s guess how long it was t
ill we rolled over. None of us cared. I put lotion on Angel’s back and Jem did mine and hers. For a while Jules sat up, sucking on a juice-box till it collapsed, and then lay down too. I only got up again when I had to go to the rest room.
Jules came with me, taking off her shoes and socks as I had done. ‘Keep alert,’ I cautioned Jem.
‘We will,’ she said.
Jules and I walked. ‘Where are your shoes?’ Jules asked.
‘Right here,’ I said, as we passed the end of the porch, and I pointed.
‘Oh!’ She giggled.
We went directly across the grass to the side of the gift shop, safely screened from 542 by enough trees that no one would recognize our brown bodies this far in. Merely to savor the sensation of being outdoors in broad daylight, we strolled back along the far edge of the lawn, just inside the trees and shrubbery along the road. Very few cars even went by at all. We peered into the old worker cottages and sat for a few minutes on the bench of one shady doorstep. I’ve always liked the little cottages here. I would like nothing more than a little house like that on some wide-open clearing beside a bay, where no one would ever bother me and I could be like this all day. I’d write songs and practice and record them, and if I had to go out on tour to I would, but I’d return as soon as possible to my little cottage by the bay and commune with nature again like God intended. I can’t even say how deeply I yearn for that.
