by Jayne Louise
Angel and Jem had gotten up when we got back and we found them wading along the side of the lake. I suppose by now it was hot enough for a refreshing dip. But we had to be careful, because far across the lake was the other canoe-launching spot, and it’s often visited by school groups and Y members and Boy Scouts, as well as by people renting canoes from farther upstream. I love swimming naked, as long as I can really swim. I practice different strokes, especially breaststroke because of the frog kick that makes me giggle because it feels so ticklish. We all kept to the narrower end, right before the bridge, where the water goes deeper and a little cooler and we were out of sight from where the canoers launch. There was no one there at present, but those canoe-pick-up vans are all over this area and could have arrived at any moment. We decided to swim over there after dark as part of our adventure.
* * *
Later we went over to the swings, something else we’ve never done in daylight. Angel said she had never been back there at all. So we packed up our things, leaving them in an alcove beside the Dumpster, and made our way around the back of the mansion to the parking lot. It was a daringly long walk along the back fence of the parking lot to get there, and we were all anxiously awaiting the return of the state trooper, but we made it to the swings before anyone came up the road and were able to play there well out of sight of the parking area.
I love swinging anytime, but I absolutely
love it naked. It’s not just the movement of air all over me, though that’s very nice too. It’s the little flip my insides make at that very moment when I stop going upwards and start to swing back down. My hair seems to stand up on end and goosebumps come up all over, and everything inside me seems to quiver for that one little second, and then I am dropping through the air and then shooting right up again backwards, and the same thing happens on each swing. I’ve never been on drugs, but swinging naked is the closest thing I know to getting high.
The rest rooms there were locked, so all we could do was to rinse off our hands in the drink fountain. Jules got Angel and Jem to lift her up so she could see if she could squeeze in through the high window. I knew this would be a vain effort, so I wandered out past the picnic area and might have started back along the fence at the back of the parking lot till the sound of an approaching car came up the lane again.
I leaped back to the cover of the trees and crouched low, almost on the ground. If the car had come past the locked gate, it was either a state trooper doing the same thing as before or someone driving in illegally and aware he or she was doing it. The other girls heard it too– I heard Jem whisper to me from the corner of the building.
The white SUV came in along the hedgerow and turned in to the parking lot. I froze, not even breathing. I wasn’t completely hidden, only tucked up inside the shade of the evergreen trees, and they did not come all the way down to the ground. So I was relying only on my sun color to hide me. But the driver wasn’t interested in that. He stopped the SUV at the foot of the ticket booth and got out, walking quickly up the path in the direction of the rest rooms. Well, that made sense. I took the opportunity to back up into the trees more, scratching my back on some prickly pine branches, and by the time he came out we were all safely away from his sight. Like before, I stepped out to see him go. It’s important to always be concerned about where our next risk will come from and how we’ll be able to perceive it. That’s what’s kept us so safe for three years of doing this.
* * *
* * *
II
The requisite naked sporting event
A volleyball net was set up over a sand pit and Angel and Jules were pretending to play, jumping and swatting in the air and diving sideways into the sand. ‘Funny,’ Jem teased, though we did stand there and watch them a while. We would have joined in but we didn’t want to disrupt their game, you know. I think Jules won. –ha! Then Jem said, ‘You know, we could play for real, if you wanted.’
‘I thought of that,’ Jules said, and she bent around to dust off the sand.
One of the things we keep on the boat, just in case we ever need it, is a volleyball. I didn’t know how pumped-up it was. But we also keep a pump there. ‘We’d have to be able to go back and get it,’ I said.
‘Well,’ Angel said, ‘not all of us have to go.’ She thought again about that. ‘Though I guess we should at least stay as teams….’
I looked at her. ‘I’d go,’ I said, ‘but only if I know you guys will be safe here.’
‘Oh, we’ll be safe,’ said Angel.
Jem made a wry face at her and turned to me. ‘I think I should stay,’ she said quietly, ‘if you go. Take one of those twits with you.’
I nodded, agreeing with her point. ‘Where will you be?’
‘Are you really going?’ Angel asked eagerly. ‘So we can play?’
‘We’re not playing right away,’ I said. ‘Not till it gets darker. It’ll make too much noise and distract us. Besides, I’m not hiking all the way there and back again and then have to compete with you.’
Angel laughed at me. ‘Like I’m going to be any competition? I just think it’d be fun.’
‘Yes,’ Jem said to me, ‘it has to me you versus me, and then those two split up.’
‘Hey!’ Jules said then. ‘I’m better than you are!’
I laughed. ‘All right,’ I said to Jules, ‘it’ll be you and me against those two. Just promise me you’ll be safe till I get back. This isn’t exactly a safe spot. If a car comes in you could get trapped here.’
So we all made our way back along the fence, in the open, warily eying the road across the lawn out there. The only cars we heard were way out on Route 542. Jules and Angel went back to the lake to take a dip and rinse off the sand. Jem put out the blanket again, about where we had been before, and got out her novel to read. I smiled at her, sitting there cross-legged with the book in her lap. ‘You look comfy.’
She shrugged, already into the reading, and asked without looking up at me, ‘Which one are you taking?’
I bent and pulled out stuff to put on. ‘I don’t have to take either of them,’ I said. ‘I can go and get back before anything happens.’
She looked up at me then. ‘Are you sure? But I would worry about you.’
I put on my light-green cover-up shirt first, tying up it the tails at my ribs. ‘Keep yourselves safe and quiet,’ I told her. ‘And remember your perimeter. You can’t just lie here passively, you know.’
‘Yes, Jayne, I know.’
I looked over at the two of them floating in the lake water. ‘The canoes will be back soon. It’s going on four o’clock. Don’t let them stay there too long.’
She nodded, watching me step into the bikini bottoms. I had not untied them after getting wet and was able to just squeeze into them, but I did have to retie one side for them to stay up.
The other two came out as I was sitting on the side of the porch putting on my socks and sneakers. ‘I can’t believe she’s doing all this for a volleyball,’ Jules said.
Angel stood, watching me tie the bandanna around my head. ‘I think it’s hot,’ she said, propping her hands on her hips. ‘I think that bikini is hot. I think all of this is hot.’
‘Keep quiet,’ I called to them in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. ‘Be discreet.’
‘I’m going to worry about you,’ Jem said anxiously.
‘I’ll be safe. I’m worried about you!’
Jem nodded and then blew me a kiss. I returned it. Then I struck out across the lawn and went out of their sight in front of the house.
* * *
I went straight across the lawn, the way we had run that eventful night two years ago, and made it to the fence before any cars had gone by. Just before slipping through it, two pick-up trucks passed, close together going south. They didn’t see me. I was adequately dressed and it was still daylight, and I was still acting as though I were naked and hiding from the world. I suppose some habits don’t disappea
r.
There were no cars at all when I scampered across Route 542, into the cool, stuffy safety of the forest. Along the path I walked quickly, pacing myself by chanting ‘left, right’ with my breath. I wasn’t anxious about meeting anyone on this path but worried about the three back there. Oh well, I told myself. Jem’s not irresponsible. She knows much more than Angel does, and Angel will listen to her.
Halfway back to the boat I wondered why I’d even wanted to put on the bikini. There was no one here and I’d already demonstrated how easily I could get across the road in daylight. Why had I been so intimidated?
That was a dare for myself, so I stopped in the middle of the path and untied the tails of the shirt to take it off. It was a commitment to staying out of sight, because I’d never get it back on quickly, like with a t-shirt, if I ran into anyone. But I wasn’t going to worry and carried the shirt in my hand, swinging it up and down like a child with a flag. At the boat I took off my sneakers and socks, to save them from being wet, and waded out along the mooring line till I could hop aboard. Down below, in the v-shaped bunk we don’t use for sleeping, was the soccer ball, and I sat in the hot cabin and pumped it up before drinking half a cold liter of Dasani and locking up again. With the ball and bottle and shirt I clambered back off the boat and waded ashore, to sit on the ball and put my shoes and socks back on. Then I tied the shirt around my waist so I could carry the ball, tossing it from one hand to the other.
The woods was lovely in the late afternoon, the lively sounds of birds and squirrels cracking and cooing all over the place. I felt very happy, not worried about anything. By the time I got out to the small clearing that the rangers use as a turn-around, I was willing to dare crossing the road like I was. Cautiously I tiptoed out to the edge of the shade, listening intently. One car had gone by and its echoing sound was just about finished down to my right. I was just about to dash forwards when I heard a quiet zinging sound.
Bicycle! I whirled about and dropped into the sandy bottom of the forest, just as a flash of chrome and bright yellow went by not 15 yards away. The guy coasted a little more and then selected a gear, pedaling harder into the slight curve on his way down Route 542. That spooked me enough that I would chicken out and I put the shirt on and even tied it just to cross the road.
Of course, now there was nothing to fear. I was alone on the road, in spite of a very distant approaching car, and realizing this I stopped in the very center of the pavement and peeled off the shirt again. ‘That’s better!’ I sighed to myself, and then made my way over to the fence and got over it.
Beyond the bushes at the roadside, my only dangers were whoever was in the park. I listened, carefully, creeping slowly along the hedgerow will I was sure we’d had no visitors. Then I turned and went straight out across the lawn again, carrying the shirt and the ball in two hands.
Jules was sitting in the late-afternoon sun of the mansion’s porch, leaning back on her hands and watching for me. ‘Hey,’ she called, not loudly. ‘You got it!’
I nodded, tossing the ball up a few times. ‘How are you guys doing?’
‘We’re fine. Just bored.’
I laughed. ‘How could this be boring? I’ve just had an adventure.’
‘Really?’ She sat up as I neared her. ‘What happened?’
I just shrugged a little. ‘Nothing. But there’s always that risk.’ I tossed the ball to her and turned to sit beside her on the warm wooden porch. For some minutes we just sat there staring out at the lawn, watching the flashes of glass as cars went by on Route 542. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I guess we can play later. When we know we won’t be surprised.’
She nodded. ‘Or in the morning.’
I nodded too. ‘Very early.’
‘Yes.’
* * *
Till the end of the afternoon we left the stuff stashed behind the dumpster as before and took an extended hike up to the far end of the historic area, at first creeping close to the caretaker’s cottage and then realizing it looked unoccupied. But we would not tempt fate and made our way far around it, towards the other side of the lake where the canoers launch.
As expected, there was no one there, but this was an entirely open spot, part of the state forest but not part of the closed historic area, so anyone could have arrived at any time. We were four entirely naked girls, unsure of where to hide in case we were surprised, hiking along the sandy road mostly by listening and making no noise. But the canoe-launching area was empty. Relieved and excited by the opportunity, we all ran straight out into the water, where we felt instantly safer. Even if canoers had appeared then, we could always stay submerged enough to make it back to the mansion and not be followed.
But no one showed up at all. We spent an hour of the early evening was spent lolling lazily in the water, slowly making our way towards the other side. In places the water went very deep and cold and the natural current tended to draw us towards the waterfall at the bridge, so it was best to not exert any more energy than necessary to stay out of the icky pond grass across from the mansion. By the time the sun had gone below the trees we just paddled for the shore and emerged where we had first camped for the day.
After washing up in the rest rooms, we took our things out to the picnic area beyond the parking lot and spread a towel on the table for a supper of fruit and bagels and juice. By this time we were shooting Off bug spray all over ourselves, but once we were covered it worked pretty well. Then came time for our volleyball challenge.
Jules and I served first. Angel really was not bad at all. She played back when I did, in 9th grade. Although we all made sure we didn’t laugh or shriek too loudly, we did play a real game, which Jules and I won 11-8. It was just about dark by then and Angel complained that the street-lamps in the parking lot were causing glare, so we switched sides and played another game. This time we lost, 9-11. By the time that game was over we could barely see the ball in the air. So we all sat down at the table and drank from our water bottles, which we refilled from the drink fountain whenever they got low.
‘That was excellent!’ Angel sighed happily. ‘Thank God we’re able to do this!’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘He definitely watches out for us.’
‘Something about drunks and little children,’ Jem said.
‘We’re the little children,’ Angel supposed.
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘we are.’
Jules turned around, straddling the picnic-table bench. ‘We didn’t say Grace tonight.’
‘That’s right, we didn’t.’ I looked at her. ‘Do you want to say it now?’
Angel reached over and took Jem’s hand at once, and she and I joined hands and I took Jule’s hand too. ‘Okay,’ said Jules. ‘Bless us O Lord, for the gifts you have given us this day, for the food for our nourishment, for your holy Word to save our souls, and for the safety and happiness we have enjoyed all day today.’
‘Amen,’ we all said, and let go of each other to cross ourselves.
‘That was nice,’ Jem told her.
‘It was,’ Angel said. ‘I think we should sing something.’
‘Right here?’ Jules wondered.
‘You have someplace better?’
‘Let’s make camp first,’ I said. ‘And once we get tucked in, yes, I think it’s very appropriate that we sing something together.’
* * *
So we all got up to lug our things back again. Jules ran off behind a tree to pee and then had to run to catch up. However the parking lot was completely safe now, and we all marched slowly along the warm dark pavement. Jules trotted up, the pack on her back bouncing in rhythm with her footfalls. ‘Hey,’ she said, ‘so what will we do tomorrow?’
‘Anything we want to,’ Angel said.
‘Right,’ I said.
‘I want us to go on a hike,’ Jules said. ‘We need to do something while we’re here.’
‘We will,’ I said. ‘We’ll lie out for a while, maybe play some more v-ball, and have a sw
im. We could find a good place to stash our stuff and swim way up the lake.’
‘If the canoers don’t come,’ Jem said.
‘Yes. Well, maybe a nice hike then.’
For the night we decided to camp right in front of the gift shop, in the soft grass just off the little porch that faced Route 542. Even if the place opened tomorrow, we’d only have to get up before 8:00 AM and be out of sight. We set the sleeping bags up as close together as possible, so our perimeter would be smaller. Jem opened the can of powdered biodegradable soap and carefully shook it out in a circle around our sleeping area. That was her idea to keep animals away. Then, just in case some higher mammal would pay us a visit, we had brought a roll of seizing wire and some short metal stakes, which we set up about 8" high just outside the soap ring. One end got tied around the leg of the bench on the porch. Anyone sneaking up on us in the night would trip, fall (and probably curse, as Angel said) and wake us up before he would reach us.
Jules investigated the nearby trash can, finding a few things at the bottom, but she pulled out the whole bag and carried it over to the men’s room and shut the door on it so it wouldn’t attract animals in the night. Then we stashed the three bookbags with food in them in the can, covered it with the big blanket, and wrapped a bungee cord around it. The last one we clipped around the trip wire, in case someone wanted to remove it in the night. With these precautions we all felt more secure.
