Our daughter Cassie had been best friends with Sandy since both girls were in the seventh grade. My wife Sara and I had moved into the neighborhood when Cassie was starting in seventh grade. We had found a nice, wooded lot on which to build and we affirmatively wanted Cassie in this school system.
The neighborhood, the schools, and our township came to play a large role in our lives. The schools were excellent and the parents in the district were more progressive and open-minded than was common for our region. Alone among the public schools in our state, this school system had a drop-out rate of zero. Ninety-nine point five percent of the seniors graduating from the high school went on to college. The faculty and staff were paid well above the statewide average. Taxes were higher, but everyone seemed to think that the community got good value for its money. Although it took me several years to learn why, I was struck by the high percentage of faculty who were themselves graduates of the high school.
As I said, the township was an island of progressive thinking in a region where "progressive" was commonly viewed as a dirty word. When parents in a nearby school district began a campaign to remove several works of classic literature from their school library as being too "pornographic," the parents in our district started a campaign to put the works of Anais Nin in our school library. They succeeded too.
I'm not sure how it started, but Cassie and Sandy were fast friends within a couple of months of us moving into the area. Sara and I had no complaint. Sandy was well-behaved, polite, and surprisingly articulate and thoughtful for a child. Like Cassie, Sandy was an only child. Soon the two girls were staying over at each other's homes. There was never a hint of a problem.
Our daughters were so close that it was, I suppose, inevitable that we would become friends with Sandy's parents, Mike and Vickie. Sara and I were financially comfortable. I am a lawyer and Sara is an architect. Mike and Vickie were, however, wealthy.
Coming straight out of engineering school, Mike had appreciated that there would be a growing demand for companies that did environmental remediation and that, given that the need for their services was often urgent, such companies would have substantial pricing power. Somehow, he had found the capital to start an environmental remediation firm in his twenties and had been extremely successful. Later on, he branched into related businesses such as consulting with industry to avert, rather than just clean up, environmental problems. Vickie was a successful ophthalmologist.
Mike and Vickie had a mansion about a mile from our house. Sara and I dined there many times as did Mike and Vickie at our more modest home. One of us was frequently driving both girls somewhere until they got their drivers' licenses. Mike was obviously very bright, and a truly gentle human being. Vickie was blonde, sexy, very smart, very energetic, and sometimes very direct. In sum, they were good people for whom we developed great respect and with whom we developed a friendship.
As they got into high school, Cassie and Sandy also developed, into very beautiful young ladies. Sandy was much like her mother: blonde, a bit short, with a full figure that was impossible to ignore. Cassie also took after her mother: a bit tall with long gorgeous legs, a small firm butt, and moderate but firm breasts. Like her mother she had fine brown hair and a face which became more beautiful the longer you looked at her.
As a small child, Cassie had not been interested in sports. However, Sandy was a tennis player and had Cassie playing before she finished eighth grade. Sandy was a good player, even as a child. What surprised me was that Cassie rapidly developed into a very good player as well. I guess Cassie has inherited her mother's athleticism. God knows it didn't come from me. In their freshman year of high school, the two girls were already playing doubles on the varsity team.
My next surprise came when both girls tried out to be cheerleaders during the summer after freshman year. I had always thought of cheerleading as being something that objectified women and of cheerleaders as peripheral to the games at which they cheered. I had thought that Cassie and Sandy were both too intelligent and too independent to want to be cheerleaders. I was not, however, surprised that both girls made the squad. I was surprised again that they stayed with it, cheering during the fall and winter seasons and playing tennis in the spring.
Before Cassie came along, Sara and I had certainly not been prudes. Several of our trips together had been to nude resorts and we had even gone to Hedonism once. However, following Cassie's birth, Sara had become very self-conscious about her body. We also felt that we owed it to Cassie to live our lives a bit closer to the straight and narrow. Our nudist experiences of our twenties were ancient history by the summer between Cassie's junior and senior years.
Another, coincidental, link between Sandy and Cassie was that their birthdays were just a day apart. Both girls turned 18 about a month after finishing their junior years. Of course, Mike and Vickie hosted a large party for both girls (we provided the food). Given that it was a bunch of teenagers out of school for the summer, the party was very well-behaved.
Damn near anything was likely to be discussed at out dinner table. Still, Cassie caught me very off-guard about a week after her and Sandy's party.
"I was talking to Sandy today. Her parents had wanted to get some family pictures taken once she turned 18 so they did it yesterday. It sounded really great. All three of them were nude."
I was sure that I had heard my daughter incorrectly. "What was that last part?" I asked.
Cassie casually replied, "Sandy and her mom and dad had their pictures taken in the nude by a professional photographer."
Still not fully understanding what Cassie was saying, I asked, "Together?"
Cassie gave me her infrequent, but usually earned, look that silently asked how her father could be so dense. "Of course together."
I looked at Sara who just shrugged as if to say that this was news to her also. However, Sara did not look as appalled as I think I must have. There was an extended silence which Cassie finally broke.
"Sandy said that it took a couple of hours and was a lot of fun. They should have the proofs in a few days. I can't wait to see them."
Another, longer silence settled over the table. Cassie broke this silence too. Although, this time, she was a little hesitant and less self-assured.
"Mom, Dad, do you think that is something we could do?"
This time, I knew exactly what Cassie was asking. However, I wanted it out there expressly. I was also interested to see if my daughter could say it outright. "Do what? I asked.
Cassie shot me another, more ambiguous, look and then looked at her mother. "Could we have our picture taken together with all three of us naked?"
