It was only spring but it had been a very hot and humid day. What I really wanted to do after getting home from work was to go for a swim. But it was spring. The council rules said that the local swimming pool opened for the summer season. A heat wave during spring didn't count. Rules are rules. And bureaucrats are idiots, but the pool stayed closed.
I was sulking around the place after dinner when a friend dropped over. Marie was also hot and sticky and desirous of a nice cool dip in some water. She also had an idea.
"Why don't we cut across the park to the river and have a dip in that old swimming hole," she suggested.
"For one reason, the council have posted no swimming signs," I groused.
"That's only to force people to use the pool and the pool isn't open. They're not going to enforce the rule right now."
Marie had a point there.
"Um, what about the riff-raff that usually hang out there?" I asked.
"Both the riff and the raff are rather young. They're there after school. At this time of the evening they'll be at home watching TV."
I conceded that Marie might have the right idea. It may not be a very good idea, but in this weather it was the right one. We slipped on our bikinis and headed out.
OK, so it seemed to have turned into a very good idea. There was no-one around and the water was cool and refreshing. Marie, being Marie, had to push it a little.
"Skinny dipping?" I nearly shrieked at her. "Are you crazy? We're out in public. What if someone comes along?"
"What if they do? It's nearly dark. All they'll see is a couple of girls in the water. They won't know we're deliciously naked."
"Ha. And what if they decide to hang around?"
"We out-wait them," said Marie quite coolly. "Besides which, we'll probably spot anyone coming in the twilight and as soon as it's dark anyone who comes won't even see us."
The whole idea was absurd and how I let myself be talked into it was beyond me. We finished up swimming naked, our bikinis neatly piled on top of our dresses. Marie was correct about the twilight. It was getting dark quite quickly now and any passers-by probably wouldn't even notice us.
That's what I thought until I thought I spotted movement on the bank near where we left our clothes.
"Ah, Marie," I said softly, not wanting to make our presence known. "I think there's someone at our clothes."
"Get the hell away from our things," bellowed Marie, apparently not quite so worried about being caught skinny-dipping. "If I have to come over there you'll catch it."
I couldn't help but think that if a naked Marie suddenly appeared on the path yelling and cursing, she just might catch something, something along the lines of arrest for indecent exposure.
Mind you, she did get a prompt answer. There was a loud "Maaaa" from the bank and Marie burst out laughing.
"It's just one of those feral goats that the Council is promising to round up," she said. "They're harmless. We'll just go and shoo them away."
She swam over to the bank with me close behind. Then she was clambering up the bank onto the path, clapping her hands and going, "Haaa! Haaa!" Then she was screaming and running back into the water with a bloody great, smelly, billy goat charging at her. Just to show I don't always follow Marie I led the way into the water. With some haste I might add.
"Plan B," Marie muttered. "We'll just wait until the goats go away."
We continued sporting about in the pool. As long as the goats didn't decide to join us we were quite happy. It wasn't all that long before we heard them moving off. It was also nearly full dark.
"About time we headed homeward," I said, heading towards the bank.
I strolled over to where we'd left our clothes and they weren't there.
"Ah, Marie, I think we have a problem," I said.
She joined me looking around for our clothes. Our sandals were there but that was it.
"Those damn goats," growled Marie. "They've dragged our clothes into the bushes. We'll have to feel around and see if we can find them."
"Don't bother," I said sadly, holding up half a bikini top. "They didn't take them so much as they ate them."
There was a short interval at this point while Marie expressed her opinion of goats, Councils that didn't get rid of them and bureaucrats who closed public pools during a heatwave because that was what the rulebook said.
"Now that you've had your say," I said after her little tirade was finished, "what are we going to do?"
"Go home, of course, but I think we might wait until it's darker. We've at least got our sandals. We can cross the park walking on the grass. That way, no-one will hear us, but if anyone is on the paths we'll hear them and can hide."
"And after we've crossed the park?" I asked. "It's still two blocks to my house."
"We'll sneak down the street. If we see anyone coming we can hide behind any handy fences or bushes. We'll be right."
"We'd better be. If it looks as though we're going to be caught I'm going to throw you to them as a sacrifice while I run like the clappers."
While we were waiting for it to get darker we fished around in the nearby bushes hopefully. I found a nice long stick which I decided to keep.
"What's with the stick?" Marie wanted to know.
"Self-defence if we need it. Man or goat will cop it if they come near me. And I can use it to hit you when we get home for getting me into this mess."
Marie laughed and fished around for her own stick. We abruptly stopped looking for sticks and clothes when a stick Marie reached for wriggled away. We moved well back from the bushes after that.
Finally it was dark enough for us to venture forth and we started sneaking across the park, staying on the grass and near bushes where possible. We actually made it more than half way across before we ran into anyone.
We heard the crunching of feet on the gravel path and hastily took cover behind some bushes, peeping out to watch the couple pass. There were a few lights in the park, mainly dotted where paths happened to cross. The approaching couple passed under the one nearest us and I was promptly spitting chips.
"Isn't that Tod and Amanda," whispered Marie, nudging me.
"Yes," I said through gritted teeth.
Why was I annoyed? How about because Tod has been pressing hard to be my steady and to get me into bed. I was almost ready to accept both propositions. And here he was walking through the park at night with Saint Amanda. She makes me sick with her more virginal than you attitude. Which raises another point. Why was she wandering through the park at night with a man, let alone one who was supposedly fixing his interest on me?
