We were at Mary and Huw's for a dinner party ... eight of us. Huw is a writer of modest achievement - so far as he always reminds us - who supplements his income lecturing at the local university. Mary, a striking woman in her early 40's, is a doctor. Huw jokes that all the great writers -- Dickens, Wilde - did their apprenticeships via the backing of wealthy wives. We always tell him he's not a great writer but Mary is certainly wealthy -- old money.
Their dinner parties are legendary with cost never an issue and this night was to be no different on that count. But it was different for another reason. Something that might have been hinted at before, something deep between us all unspoken in the past suddenly became a wonderful and startling reality.
I was at the party with my wife, Jennifer. The other couples were Tom and Chrissie and Tania and Ivan. Our friendships are very strong, forged by school fetes, sharing the burdens of bringing up families and nights like tonight when there are no rules. Friends with whom you can just let go are very precious indeed.
Huw and Mary's house lends itself to these sorts of parties. There are plenty of bedrooms if people don't want to drive home, so we tend to drink a fair bit. There's a spa, a swimming pool and a lake and in summer, skinny-dipping is almost mandatory with so many opportunities on offer. Summer was also a great time to use the outdoor entertainment area that was big enough to stage a ball.
This night however, we were seated in Mary and Huw's magnificently huge dining room. She had inherited the farm-house from her mother and father, a former Governor with a knighthood. Most of the farm had been sub-divided, adding further to the wealth, but four or five acres of the estate remained, with the house deep inside a grove of conifers. Once again sparing nothing, Mary had completely renovated an old barn at the back of the farm-house, turning it into a surgery from where she worked.
This night, the food was as brilliant as ever. The main course, prime King Island beef fillet, had been whisked away by the maid hired for the night, the cheese and bikkies were out and next round of bottles of "best wine only" opened.
Somewhere around the table, the topic suddenly became silly games we played as children.
Chrissie said she'd played spin the bottle at her 10th birthday party with the boy down the street on whom she had a crush at the time. He was about 13 and he's put his tongue inside her mouth and she didn't know what to do.
"No such problem these days," chimed in Tom. "That tongue of your knows exactly what it's doing."
Tania had been a convent girl and she said she'd only ever played musical chairs and hide-and-seek.
"Well," said Mary, "and you'll laugh at this now, but we used to play a game called funny doctors.
"It started out as doctors and nurses but as we headed into pubescence, got a bit more daring and we'd operate on our sexual buds. I thought it all a pretty normal part of growing up."
"Now you mention it, I did that sort of thing with a couple of my cousins," Ivan said. "I remember I got my first erection that way. They operated on it for me. We really had no idea of what we're doing but I certainly remember being very excited by it."
Eventually, except for Tania who had often battled with her convent up-bringing when we went swimming, we all admitted to a similar experience and mostly remembered how we'd been aroused without fully knowing why.
"Innocence is wonderful," Chrissie said. "It wouldn't be the same now, it would be just pure old lust."
"And what's wrong with lust," said Jennifer, my wife, a girl who never had a problem with such a thing. "Why don't play it now and see what just sort of reaction we all have?"
"You're kidding," Chrissie laughed. "We're all in our 40's, not pre-pubescent and know exactly what causes erections and what's makes them get un-erect, as in ejaculation."
"Wouldn't that make is more fun," Huw said? "Back then we thought we might have been doing something naughty. But if we all joined in now, we'd know how naughty it was."
"You're a dill Huw," Tania said. "But I love you for it."
"No, I am serious," said Huw. "I wish I'd known then what I know now. Then I would really have got off on sweet Susie Parish down the road blowing air on my old fellow to stop it being red and swollen."
We all laughed and then Mary said: "What about we go out to the surgery and have a bit of fun? At least we'll have the right equipment. And it'll sure beat skinny dipping since it is about six degrees outside."
There were a lot of strange and quizzical looks, but no one said no, so we followed her out along the covered walkway and into the surgery.
"Welcome to my workplace, then," she said. Like everything else of Mary's, it was huge and opulent. We stood in the waiting room as she turned on all the lights and set the heating at a summery 25 degrees.
"Okay, I'll open up this dividing wall so we can use the surgery and the waiting room," Mary said.
She moved in first and sat at her desk.
"Not fair," said Chrissie, "you can't be the doctor.
"All right," she said with a wicked little grin, "I'll be the patient then."
"Bags being the doctor," I said.
"Well that's sorted," Mary said. "What's next?"
"Everyone else should sit in the waiting room," I said.
They arranged the plush chairs so they were all facing into the studio and took their seats.
I then went and sat behind Mary's desk and beckoned my "patient" to sit in the chair on the other side.
"How can I help you today Mary," I said in my best bed-side manner voice.
"Doctor, I have a rash I am very worried about," Mary said demurely.
"What sort of rash," I inquired?
"Oh it's red and splotchy and awful," she said.
"Sounds nasty, I had better take a look at it," I said. "Where is it?"
"Oh it's all over my chest," she said. Obviously Mary was up for some fun and there was a cheer from the waiting room.
"Would you like to go behind the curtain then and take off your blouse," I said.
"Certainly doctor."
Mary walked to the screen but not behind it, which meant we could all still see her. There she took off her blouse ... no big deal. We had seen her bollocky naked in the past, so this was pretty tame. I looked around and found her stethoscope. I got up out of the chair and went to her and put the stethoscope on to her exposed chest.
"Mmmm," very nasty I said, "it's really spreading over your body."
"Yes," she said," will you need to see it all to make a diagnosis?"
"I think that would be wise," I replied. I heard a, ahem, titter, from the waiting room and I looked across to see the other six smiling like split melons. And Huw had the biggest grin.
"Would you mind taking off your bra," I said softly.
"If it will help with the cure doctor, of course," Mary said.
She took off her bra and I put the stethoscope on to her chest and moved it over her breasts. I heard a happy little sigh in my ears.
"Look I just need to feel the rash, just to be sure," I said, hearing the words and not quite believing what I said.
While skinny-dipping, we might have "accidentally" touched one another's spouses. However, none of us had ever done anything as deliberate as this.
I wondered what Mary's response might be but she just stood there and pushed her breasts out waiting for me to feel them.
I took them firmly in my hands, lingering a little longer than elsewhere on the nipples.
Mary's nipples have been a source of joy for me. They are deep brown and almost perfectly round.
"Look's it even here," I said, squeezing the nipples between my fingers. " I'd better get a closer look."
"I am in your hands, doctor," Mary said in a voice that left no doubt she was enjoying all this. I leant forward to get a better look and flicked each nipple with my tongue.
"Look, I think a regular daily massage is what's needed," I said. "Like this!"
And again I squeezed her breasts and wrapped her nipples in between my thumb and fingers, feeling them become firm.
"That enough," I heard my wife says and I thought oops, the game's up. But instead of calling it off she was pressing on with it.
"It's someone else's turn," Jennifer said. "I've always envied Mary for being a doctor, so I bags the doctor role next."
Tom leapt to his feet. "Patient," he shouted!
Mary put her blouse back on ... not the bra I noticed ... and we both sat down on the chairs.
Jennifer then invited Tom into the surgery.
"How are you Tom, haven't seen you for a while, what's the problem," Jennifer asked?
"Well," he looked at Mary, "it's a rash."
