Here Comes a Beach

"Sylvia, why are you not in your bathing suit?"

***

Sylvia's first year at the university came to an end and now it was the time to relax. She was going on her summer break and she'd planned it thoroughly. Or so she thought.

She'd spent her entire life in a small town on the East Coast. Save for that one time in Beijing. That's why she decided to spend her first summer vacation abroad.

She had been abroad only once before. It was the International Science Olympiad, which took place in China. She qualified for the national team to the ISO quite by an accident (she had been an average student), but she took it as an opportunity to meet new people and widen her horizons.

Beijing had opened her eyes. Never before had she met so many different cultures. That's when she'd made friends with a group of students from southern France.

And that's when she'd decided she must spend summer on the sandy coast of the azure Mediterranean.

She was a quite tall girl with long light-chestnut hair. She was a bit plumpier than she could wish for, but she hoped she could hide that defect with a proper bikini. After all, she had been waiting for that holidays for so long. It was the time she promised for herself.

"Mailys and Elise will surely know the best spots," she'd thought, planning her trip. "When I arrive in France, I will text them immediately to meet them."

***

"Why, that's my swimsuit. And why are you..." replied Sylvia.

She'd just arrived to the beach to meet Mailys and Elise with their companions. Her two French friends were standing in front of her. Nude. Completely nude. And visibly disturbed by something Sylvia was missing.

"Erm, it must be some misunderstanding," said Mailys.

"Better it be," said Elise's boyfriend.

"Oh, let's go somewhere we won't attract attention," suggested Elise, leading Mailys and Sylvia away from the sea. She was the shorter of the two French girls. She had black and slightly curly hair. She was also fitter than Sylvia.

The American girl was shaken. What did go wrong? Did she say something? Was she late? She tried to pinpoint the exact thing that misfired.

It took her a while to notice they were heading towards the beach lockers: a small wooden construction used as a dressing room.

"Sylvia," started Mailys. She was much taller and thinner than Elise, her hair was also black, but straight and long. "When we told you to put on your, erm, 'bathing suit', we meant 'nude'. It's kind of an idiom here. It's how we call it."

Sylvia looked around her. Then she realized.

Around a half of the people here were nude.

She didn't notice it before. First, she was in a haste to meet her friends for the first time in France.

"So, is it kind of a nude beach or what?"

"Wha...?" Mailys started, but Elise interrupted her.

"Sylvia, our customs in Europe are a little bit different than in your country, and you must conform to it. Do you remember when I sent you that message about the ban on bikini?"

"You mean, burqini ban, right?" Sylvia tried to alleviate the situation with an innocent look. But when her eyes met the startled expressions of her pen-pals, she understood she was digging herself deeper. "You're not talking about a 'bikini ban', right? It was just a slip, a typo, Elise, right?"

"Look, Sylvia, people from Eastern Europe and the Middle East live in patriarchal societies..."

How could it be possible, Sylvia thought? She'd heard some rumors about Islamic swimsuits being prohibited on the beach by a few European countries, but all swimsuit?

Well, Elise texted her something about 'bikini' or something, but that must've been an auto-correct fail. That just couldn't be real.

"... and that's when the government enacted the liberation law," Elise continued, not noticing that Sylvia hadn't been listening. "Long story short, the government tried to keep this whole thing secret, so other countries wouldn't get mad. But, as always, there've been some leaks. Or so we thought."

"I don't think I understand... What about the swimsuits?"

"Sylvia," Mailys tried to explain, "it's targeted mainly at immigrants. They just want to make sure they'll accept our values and integrate well. I don't think you're in danger here, as an American tourist."

"Still, we'd prefer you to go in your 'bathing--', erm, to go nude, if you want to come with us."

So that's why they are at the lockers. They want her to dress in her bathi--

They want her to go nude.

But she thought they were her friends!

"We are your friends," replied Mailys. Suddenly Sylvia realized she has cried that last line out loud.

She sat on the sand, hiding her head in her arms.

"Yes," followed Elise, "we only want what's best for you. You see, we don't want to get in trouble. But there's a couple of place we'd like to show you that are a bit more, erm, 'restricted.'"

"Look Sylvia," Mailys sat on the ground next to her. "That's just the matter of people being sexually repressed and we, as a country, want to fight the oppression. We want to give women their bodies back.

"When you arrived here, we had thought you already knew about the liberation. Well, we thought it's the reason you're visiting us. In Beijing, you appeared to be a very open-minded person, so we assumed you'd have..."

"It is em- em- embarrassing," Sylvia sobbed.

"You have a choice. Hey, you can go back to the hotel now and come back when you feel more comfortable. Or, you change now and enjoy the perfect weather with us," offered Elise. "And it looks like you need to change your clothes already, your top is soaking wet with your tears."

It was a nightmare. Stupid war, stupid government, stupid French... Her dream holidays ruined by one stupid law.

"Oh, come on, Sylvia."

She seriously considered going back to her hotel room. She just wished to be there alone, eating ice cream and watching movies with French dubbing on the local TV. Who needs friends who make you cry? Who needs a beach that wants you burn in shame?

And, for a very short moment, here came a sudden thought. "Do you want to spend the rest of your vacations overeating and crying? Do you want to spend the rest of your life like that, wrapped in a cocoon?

"You've planned your trip so minutely and now you're giving it all up? Maybe you truly don't deserve it then."

"Yes", she said very quietly, not realizing it. But it was enough for Mailys to hear it.

"And now we're talking!"

***

Sylvia, powerless, felt like a doll in Mailys and Elise's hands. Led by their hands, she stood up, with her eyes closed, her cheeks plastered with tears.

She felt her bikini top being taken off by a pair of hands. Then the same happened to her bottom. She couldn't help it. She didn't resist.

Did she agree to that treatment? She didn't remember.

***

She felt being pulled in some unknown direction. She didn't have a choice. She couldn't see where they were going, her eyelids still heavy and gluey.

She just gave up.

***

She wiped her eyes with her hands and slowly opened them. It took a while before they accommodated again to the amount of sunlight and for a moment she was blinded.

Then she remembered she was on a beach, with her French friends, completely nude, save for her sandals.

She put her hands down. And before she could make it to cover herself, her hands got grasped again by her bare friends, Mailys on her left and Elise on her right.

Before her were two young men she'd seen on the beach before.

"Sorry for the lack of a proper introduction... We've been just a bit... stressed-out..." started one of them, the taller and more tanned one.

"Yeah, sorry for that."

"Anyway, my name is Leo," he reached out to Sylvia. Elise let go of her hand. "And this is my brother, Nathan." She reached out to the younger boy. "Our sister, Nicole, will join us shortly."

***

She tried not to focus on her state, but she was still shaken.

She was sitting naked on the beach. Surrounded by other people, most of them strangers. She wished to cover herself with her hands, but she knew she was not allowed to. "It will look suspicious", Mailys explained to her. "It's like somebody in the America tried to hide... I don't know, what are you putting on display?... Tried to hide an American flag, while trying to wave it at the same time. It just contradicts itself."

Still, it felt somewhat wrong. If it was supposed to be liberating, why was anybody trying to force her into it?

She tried to focus instead on the sea, and the sun, and the breeze. Just to keep her thoughts away from her body. Away from her shame and disgrace. Away from all these men looking at her.

She felt dozens of eyes trying to take a glimpse of her body. But when she looked at Leo or Nathan, there was something sad in their looks. Were they envying her?

She looked at Mailys instead.

"Can I ask you one more question?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Why have all these men got their swimsuits on?"