Having recounted my first lesbian experience in 'Moving Finger,' 'More Fingers' and 'Fingers and Tongues,' I am remembering later encounters. For, after some interludes, with men and women, in the 1980s, I became in the 1990s, a lesbianyphomaniac, dedicated to woman-sex. And I discovered the ideal cunting-grounds: package holiday hotels in Spain and the Canaries. Inhibited English women are notorious for being avid for sex when abroad, and I discovered that some are willing to consider any sex at all, and married women can be tempted to experiment. Here is my first success:
1
Spain, June,1996. I walked up from the hotel to take coffee outside a café in Mijas. A woman of about sixty asked if she could join me, there being few places available. She was five feet eight or nine, with well-cut, short, white, feathery-looking hair. Black eyebrows, grey eyes, an aquiline nose and a ripe mouth curling up at the corners. Dressed, like me, in a short-sleeved check shirt and knee-length denim skirt, long socks, walking-boots and sun-hat.
Of course, I invited her to sit. She smiled warmly, took off her haversack and settled opposite me. It was difficult to review her figure because the shirt was loose and she was sitting on the rest of it, but I had the impression of small breasts and a biggish bottom. I also had the impression this was a wise woman, but with almost no sexual experience. A combination which made me damp in the pussy department. [I can add here that her measurements turned out to 35-24-44].
This lady was for me! But I would need to convince her of it, and I would be starting from scratch, as I suspected she would not understand the usual signals. Under that shirt and skirt were breasts and pussy unawakened, but, I was sure, ready for enlightenment.
She was aware of my scrutiny, but untroubled and studying me. She said, 'I think you're staying in the hotel down the hill? I'm Lorna.' She offered an enormous hand.
My hand was engulfed. I told her my name, agreed about the hotel, and suggested that, like me, she was a walker. Yes, she was, and was keen to find her way into the countryside. Perhaps we could scout together? A waiter appeared and she ordered coffee for us. After which there were the usual polite enquiries and observations. I liked her directness and wry humour.
'One look and you know what I was,' she said. 'School-mistress, retired now, but can you guess the subject?'
This gave permission to study her further, while she smiled and studied me. 'I thought geography,' I told her, 'But you ordered the coffee in Spanish, so maybe modern languages.'
'Languages, yes. I like to study them before going on holiday, but -?' She raised those black eyebrows into the white hair.
'Without warning, as a whirlwind swoops on an oak, love shakes my heart,' I said.
'Aha,' she said, laughing, 'Sappho! Do you know it in the Greek?'
'I'm not sure of the pronunciation, because I learned it from a book, but I'll try.'
'Pretty good,' she approved, giving the line correctly.
The coffee arrived, she thanked the waiter and asked for glasses of water in Spanish.
'Shouldn't you be at Delphi or Thermopylae?' I asked.
'Been there, and Mycenae and the Acropolis, everywhere, several times, but now they're mobbed with tourists. Do you do Latin as well?'
'My Lesbia, let us love without caring about old men's gossip.'
'Very neat! From Sappho, the Lesbian to Catullus's Lesbia. Do you know the Latin?'
'Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus, rumoresque senum severiorum omnes unius estimemus assis!' I recited.
'Did you learn that from a book, too?'
'Partly, but I also took a course at university.'
.'You know what I did, forty years of grammar school classics. What about you?'
A possible opening. 'I started like you, teaching in a girls' grammar. Then I did some degrees and was an academic, and nowadays I'm an art dealer.'
'All kinds of art?'
'Erotic art,' I ventured.
'Interesting. I've not come across that much. I don't think you mean those magazines in the newsagents with naked ladies baring their bosoms and behinds?'
Not shockable, then? 'No, paintings and sculptures. You'd be amused at how many classical subjects my artists draw on. Literally.'
'I can guess. Leda, Pasiphae, Danae?' She was quick on the uptake.
'Aphrodites all over, naturally, and Andromedas. You should see what that sea-monster gets up to. Or gets up.'
'Perseus turns up a little late in the day?' she offered.
'Well, sometimes there's a sequel.'
'Too good an opportunity for him to miss,' she grinned.
'Oh, he doesn't miss, I promise you. There's even one version in which Pegasus gets his turn, too.'
She did look a little taken aback for a moment. The waiter returned with a jug of water and glasses. She rallied, and said, 'Well, why not? If swans and bulls, why not horses?'
'Well, that brings in the centaurs,' I said, 'Very popular. Especially with the titanesses.'
'I can imagine,' she said quietly.
'Lady centaurs, too, and not just with the stallion ones.'
'Well, there are plenty of clues in the myths to use,' she said.
'Good old Ovid,' I said. 'Plenty of hints there.'
We fell silent, finished the coffee. She poured the water and we drank. Then she said, 'Shall we explore a bit? I'd like to get out of the town and find some countryside.'
'I was going to suggest just that,' I said. 'Have you got some food? The hotel made me a packed lunch. Ah, for you, too. Good. Better have some more water. It's hot.'
We gulped down another glass, stood, hitched on our packs and set off. Everything was proceeding nicely. Walking often promotes confidences, so I was hopeful. She had seemed quite interested in the art, not repelled, possibly a little excited by the imagined sex, though my intuition was telling me again she had precious little, if any, direct experience, of even the most conventional kinds.
We were soon out of town and into pleasant rolling hills with no-one in sight, which prompted her to observe, 'It's like this almost everywhere, including Greece. Once you're out of the resorts and centres you can be alone for hours. Or you can walk with a companion,' she gave me a shy smile. 'Which is a rare treat, for me.'
'It's a treat for me, too,' I said. 'I think we might get on pretty well. Perhaps we can have dinner together tonight?'
'With pleasure. We're both alone, I think? Yes. We can keep each other company.'