Chapter Two of the tale, taking place the next evening after the events of Chapter One. The story reveals the developing relationship between two young women serving on an NGO work project in Guyana during the 1990s. This story is mostly biographical, just the names and have been changed as well as the timing of some events for dramatic purpose.-Giada
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The falling water was cold but instead of a chilling sensation it was soothing in the sweltering tropics. Heating water for anything except cooking in this part of the world was unheard of, nor were there water companies providing services. Every house had a large cistern on its roof collecting rainwater then minimal pipes attached to walls ran the collected rainwater by gravity to a few needed places.
The old Catholic missionary house the team was staying in had one shower and it was hard for the Americans and Canadians to call it that. It was on the first floor of the house, a small room in the back. The whole small room was the shower for there was no tub, stall or tilework embankments. The floor was a rough concrete surface that sloped towards the outer wall where the water then passed through a metal grill and into a rock bed behind the back of the house. The walls were covered in plaster and painted a pale lime green. On the outer wall there was a small high window as well.
The cold water was no more than a strong trickle coming from a narrow gauge steel pipe sticking out of one plastered walled. It was one of the things Jade missed most about the States, a shower, a real shower. That and peanut butter, she thought, she loved peanut butter and it was difficult to find here in Guyana and when she did find it the price was far too expensive for Jade to afford since it was an imported product, anything imported came at a steep price.
Jade held her head under the slow flow of water coming from the pipe and was attempting to wash her dark hair which she now kept cut into a long bob because of the heat. She was thinking over things she and the others missed like showers and peanut butter. Many of the team members complained quite loudly after they arrived at the missionary house, the reality of twelve sharing one toilet upstairs and the one shower down here was a bit much for some of them.
"This isn't about your comfort; you didn't come here for comfort." Jade remembered telling them. The simple truth was the amenities the missionary house did have, though spartan, were still better than what most people in Guyana had access to and the team would soon learn that.
"You have privilege simply because of where you were born and you have to understand that. And you should not ask for more when the table is bare, you should be humble and give what you can and that includes your comfort." Jade remembered her words still, the event was just a few days ago.
It was enervating for everyone at the end of that first workday, they all were covered in clay and sweat and exhausted. They were uncomfortable, gritty silt coated their skin, and they all wanted to feel normal again, Jade could empathize with them and their discomfort but not with the attitude of entitlement. The team members were all huddled like vagabonds in the main room of the first floor waiting on their turn for the shower and staying inside under cover for it had started to rain hard, those big heavy drops that fell here.
Jade believed that actions always spoke when words failed to. She reached into a pocket of her backpack that day and took out a small Ziploc bag that she kept for this purpose. She opened the bag and took out the bar of soap she kept there and without another word she turned and marched out into the front yard and stood in the falling rain. Quickly her clothing and body were soaked as the clay covering her started to streak like red mud. She unlaced her work boots and stripped off her dirty socks then took off the damp silted shorts and top she was wearing dropping them all on the thick grass as she stood there barefoot, leaving on just her panties and a dark cami top that were soon soaked by the rain as well but not transparent against her dark skin.
She crotched down over the grass and started to wring out her clothes, the cerise colored water seeping through her fingers and dripping down to the grass as she attempted to rinse her top. She then took the bar and soap rubbed it over her shoulder and down her arm as she started to bathe herself in the heavy raindrops. Next was Ellen, taking the clue and the lesson being taught, she came out to where Jade was under the pouring rain and started to strip down as well to her panties and bra and wring out her clothes. Jade handed Ellen her bar a soap to make a further point about sharing.
In time every one of the team members was out under the equatorial rain experiencing what became known among the group and labeled a "Guyanese shower." It was not perfect and it was not home, but it worked and became a ritual for the team on workdays when the timing of the rain matched their coming back from the work site. They still missed real showers, but the point was made; don't complain, find a solution. It was also noted by many after a few days that Jade always wore dark cami tops under her clothes.
Jade mind was lingering on the image in her brain of Ellen's pale sensuous body under the rain. Soaked white cotton clinging transparently to her wet skin, the tease of how she looked naked. She had nice hips Jade thought as she felt the drizzling of the soothing cold water over her face.
Jade savored the equatorial rain, the way it felt lush on her skin and she would often just stand out under the heavy drops until she was soaked. But was not raining outside now and though twilight it was still muggy so the house shower would have to do. Jade's normal practice of being the last one to use the amenities allowed her to relax for a few moments uninterrupted in the damp dark space.
The "door" to the small shower room was a cloth curtain that hung from metal hooks along the upper framing of the doorway and covered the opening. Ellen had come downstairs to have a cigarette and search for Jade, the process of elimination led to her to believe Jade was in the shower. In the hallway leading to the shower the sound from the water dripping onto the concrete could be heard. All else was quiet downstairs, everyone was up on the other floors and dinner was already being served on the second floor where the dining room and kitchen was.
A mischievous grin was on Ellen's lips as she stepped towards the shower, the cloth curtain just happened to be gapping from the door frame a bit. Ellen pressed closer, quietly, silent as she could be and peered around the edge of the curtain. She could see Jade's lithe body standing under the shower pipe. Her back was to Ellen and bowed while her hands were up on the plastered wall as if she were stretching her shoulders.
Jade had no tan lines, hinting to the fact that she must on occasion find somewhere to lay out in the nude. Her butt was small and tight, a description that fit all of Jade's body. Her dark hair was wet and hung in wiggles along her slender neck. Then Ellen gasped loudly as if startled and the sound broke the silence of the moment causing them both to jump. Jade turned to the sudden sound as she covered her nakedness with her thin arms crossing over her front and saw Ellen's red hair and blue eyes staring from a gap in the curtained doorway.
