Okay, baby, we'll do it! © Alex de Kok, 2003
Grateful thanks to my editor (she knows who she is) for assistance with this story. Any mistakes remaining are mine
* * * * *
Kirsty was reading the local newspaper, sprawled on the couch in that boneless fashion that we older women scorn but secretly - and not so secretly - envy. She sat up suddenly, eyes glued to an item in the paper. She looked across at me, grinning, eyes sparkling.
Uh, oh
, I thought,
trouble
!
"Mom?"
"Yes, dear?"
"Remember, when I was revising for my exams?"
Yes?"
"You promised me a day out with you, at your expense, anywhere I wanted, if I passed them all?"
"I remember. Okay, show me." She
had
passed them all, but I had never doubted her.
She passed the paper over, open. "The item half-way down the right hand column."
I glanced down and felt a bolt of sheer panic. The headline on the piece read, 'City Council Agrees. Nude beach to open Saturday, July 5'. I read further, to find that our local council, who I had described only yesterday to Kirsty as Neanderthals, had agreed to allow public nudity on the beach at Dover Point.
"You expect me to accompany you to a
nude beach
?" I could hear the terror in my voice.
"Yes, Mom, because you promised."
I shoved the paper under her nose. "I didn't expect anything like that!"
"No, but you said I could choose. Not on opening day. We'll go on the 14th."
"Bastille day?" Dragging a vague memory from my long past history studies.
"So it is," said Kirsty, grinning again. "No, Mom, I suggested the 14th because it's National Nude Day."
"National
Nude
Day! Ye gods!"
Kirsty sobered. "Mom, you promised. Anywhere, you said."
"I know, but this!"
She studied me. "Mom, Dad has been dead for three years now. You are a good-looking woman - you are, so don't try to deny it - and I'd be proud to have you with me."
"Thank you, sweetheart," I said weakly, looking at the paper again, wondering how to say 'no'. Realising too that I couldn't, that I
had
promised. I looked at the article again, reading further, to see that as July 14 had been designated National Nude Day, the council had decreed that family parties would have free admission to the beach that day, instead of paying the usual small fee which was charged - in theory - to pay for its cleaning.
"All day?"
"All day, Mom."
"Why?"
"Because I'm a natural show-off and this is my big chance." Kirsty grinned. "I guess really I just want to see if I have the nerve to be naked in public and I wanted my best friend there with me to hold my hand."
"I thought Jeannie was your best friend?"
"Mom! You know what I mean. Anyway, you really are my best friend."
I was touched, but... "You really want to do this? Really, really?"
"Really, really, Mom." She shrugged. "I guess if you really, really
don't
want to, Mom, we can do something else."
There was a pause as we studied each other, until I took a deep breath. "Okay, baby, we'll do it!" Oh, mother, what am I doing!
Kirsty leaped up and hugged me. "Thanks, Mom. Can Jeannie come with us?" Jeannie Evensen was her
other
best friend. She lived three blocks down the street with her divorced father, Tom.
"I guess so, sweetheart. Safety in numbers. Who's gonna notice me if I'm with you sex kittens."
"I would, if I was a man."
I laughed. "Thanks, baby. Tell you what, since this is going to be such an
expensive
day I'll treat the three of us to dinner at Toni's that night. Okay?"
Kirsty grinned. "Very okay, Mom. Thanks, Mom, thanks a lot."
Time often drags for me since Jack died, but the days until July 14 flew by. The day itself dawned fine and dry, with a promise of temperatures in the low eighties. Hot enough. I'd laid in a good supply of sun block and that went into the car along with a picnic basket and a cooler bag filled with soft drinks and mineral water. After my shower I'd studied myself in my bedroom mirror. I'd put on a couple of pounds but I was still basically lean, although my breasts and butt had very obviously not been exposed to the sun. I'd thought about it, but the hedge around our pool still needed to grow a foot or so before we'd be screened from the neighbours enough to swim and sun ourselves naked.
I'd automatically almost packed my bikini, then decisively thrust it back into the drawer. I wore panties and a cotton sundress to travel in - Kirsty was in shorts and a bikini top - and we each had light trousers and top for the evening in a travel bag.
We stopped at Jeannie's house and she came out clad just like Kirsty, carrying a bag with her own evening wear. Like Kirsty, she was home for the summer after her first year at college. Jeannie was blonde and bubbly and a couple of pounds more cuddly than Kirsty or me.
She scrambled into the back of the car. "Hi, Kirsty. Hi, Mrs Anderson."
"Jeannie," I said. "You are now officially an adult, yes?"
"Yes." Puzzled.
"So call me Helen. That way I don't feel so old. Okay?"
Jeannie laughed. "Okay. Helen it is, Helen."
"Can I call you Helen, Mom?"
"Definitely!" I laughed. "Except when I'm establishing that we're a family group to avoid paying, okay?"
Kirsty laughed. "Okay, cheapskate!"
It's only a twenty-minute drive to Dover Point and to my relief there was a lot of room in the car park, which meant fewer people on the beach. We left our evening wear in the trunk, established we were a family group, grabbed the picnic basket and cooler bag and made our way towards the beach, through the pines.
The shiny new sign surprised me, and suddenly it was all too real. 'No clothes beyond this point'. There was a clearing and some picnic tables, convenient to rest the bags on and Kirsty and Jeannie skinned out of their already minimal clothing in seconds. I took a deep breath and was soon as naked as the others, our clothes in a bag I'd brought. I was trembling internally but Jeannie grabbed the picnic basket, Kirsty the bags and they each took one of my hands. There was nothing I could do except go with them, wishing desperately that I had a few more hands to cover myself with.
I was vastly relieved to see some older people on the beach. Some of them surprised me and I was startled to hear my name called.
"Helen! Helen Anderson! Wait up."
I turned, to see a woman I'd worked with before Jack died. "Marcy! I never thought to see you here."
"Nor me, you. But then, why not? Nudity is natural." Her all-over tan attested to that and she looked good. She looked me over, smiling. "First time?"
I made a face. "And it shows."
Marcy laughed. "Not for long, if you do it regularly. Call me next week, Helen. We'll have lunch. It's been too long."
"I'd like that, Marcy, very much."
"Okay, see you." She went back to her friends. Like her, older women, obviously comfortable with their nakedness. I could feel myself beginning to relax, until I turned and Jeannie and Kirsty were nowhere to be seen. I hadn't even realised they'd moved on, but a familiar head popped back over a sand dune and Jeannie waved.
"Over here, Helen."
I made my way over to the girls, aware that there were quite a few men on the beach, aware too that some of the looks coming my way were admiring, to my pleased surprise, and not just from the older men. I straightened up instead of trying to cower.
Kirsty and Jeannie had found a nice spot in the dunes, out of the light breeze, just on the edge of the trees. They'd set out our towels and were waiting for me.
"Hi, Mom - Helen - we were just going to have a swim. They'll probably be okay, but we thought maybe one of us should stay with our things. If you take first watch, one of us will come back, then you can go in the water. We'll all take turns being watchdog."
"Sounds sensible, daughter mine. Okay, but if one of you could put some sun block on my back before you go. I can manage my front."
That was the way the day went, idle hedonism, and I surprised myself by enjoying it. I was aware of the covert looks from the men, usually in small groups, some with partners or families, when one of us rubbed sun block onto our breasts. It was plain to me that some of the men were obviously as nervous as I was, but I enjoyed the jiggle of firm breasts - and some half-hard pricks - when we got into a game of beach volleyball with some of the girls' friends, like them home from college for the summer.
The gang headed off eventually and Jeannie and Kirsty joined me as we sat down, chugging on our rapidly diminishing supply of drinks. A shadow fell over us and I swear I could hear my jaw drop as I recognised our visitor.
"Daddy!" cried Jeannie. "What are you doing here?" She was blushing but not trying to hide herself from her father.
"Looking for you, munchkin," said Tom Evensen, also a little red, dropping into a cross-legged seat beside me. I studied him surreptitiously. I liked Tom, both as Jeannie's father and as a neighbour. He and his ex, Anne, had been very kind to me and Kirsty when Jack died, but I had never in a million years expected to see him sitting naked next to me, nor to be naked myself in his company. "My meeting finished early and I knew you were coming to Dover Point." He gave a rueful laugh. "I'd forgotten it was a nude beach now."
"Kirsty and I were just going for a swim, Daddy," said Jeannie. "Are you coming?"
"Not at the moment, sweetheart," Tom said. "Maybe later."
"Okay." Jeannie grinned at her Dad before she and Kirsty ran off hand in hand.
At last Tom turned to me. "Hi, Helen," he said quietly. "Are you as embarrassed as I am?"
I laughed, suddenly comfortable again. "Probably, Tom, but not nearly as much as when we got here this morning." I looked at him. A couple of years older than me, balding, but generally quite athletic-looking, maybe three or four pounds overweight.
Tom chuckled. "I had genuinely forgotten this was a nude beach now, so it's just as well I had this with me," he said, indicating a bulging carryall. "At least I had somewhere to stow my clothes." He looked up at me. "You look damned good, Helen. You're lovely." There was warmth and sincerity in his voice.
I could feel myself blushing. "Thank you, Tom. You're very kind to say so." I think I was blushing too because I could just see his prick and it looked as if it was half-hard. He caught the direction of my glance and looked down, then laughed.
"There are so many good-looking women on this beach, women with no clothes on, that I'm amazed John Thomas isn't standing at attention, whistling 'The Star-spangled Banner'.
I couldn't help myself, I giggled. Tom chuckled, then looked me in the eye.
"I think the loveliest woman on this beach is you, Helen. Will you have dinner with me?"
Time stopped. I was surprised, surprised even more by the sudden warmth and wetness between my legs, but I didn't hesitate. I'd only dated a couple of times since Jack's death, but this one I wanted.
"I'd love to," I said.
"When? Tonight?"
I had an idea. "I promised the girls dinner at Toni's tonight. Will you join us?"
"Yes! I'd love to. Perhaps we can have a drink by ourselves later. Kirsty has a driving licence, doesn't she?"
