She came down the stairs slowly. She was nervous, very nervous.
In the living room before her, she could hear the fluid conversation of her parents and her older sister. They were waiting for her. They were going to celebrate her eighteenth birthday, to share her entrance into adulthood.
Her mother saw her first.
"There's my beautiful baby!"
"Happy birthday, sister!"
"Yes, happy birthday! It's hard to believe our little girl is an adult now."
She met her father's eyes momentarily and blushed. She didn't feel any different. Just the same as she had when she was seventeen years old and three hundred and sixty four days old. It was much ado about nothing.
"Come, sit here in the chair," her father instructed, a wide smile on his face. Her mother and sister's grins were just as big, and she could tell that they were genuinely happy to be sharing this moment with her.
Obediently, she moved to the tall leather arm chair that was her father's normal seat. He stood before her, his gaze warm. The leather was cool, chilling her through the long draping of her dress.
"Congratulations, darling," her father began, "on reaching your eighteenth birthday and adulthood."
Her mother and sister dutifully cheered at that and she blushed again. So much hullabaloo.
"You've entered a different world than when either I or your mother turned eighteen. And its even different from when your sister turned eighteen. This is a world that is new to you, and new to us."
She nodded her head eagerly. She had seen some of the things that they played on TV and seen what some of the young women wore these days. It was different to say the least.
"Now that you are eighteen, you have a choice that you must make. It is the same choice that your sister has made, that your mother had to make, and that your grandmother had to make before her."
This seemed ominous, she thought. No one had mentioned such a thing. Her sister's eighteenth birthday had been celebrated after she was put to bed last year, so she did not know anything of this.
"You can choose to become an adult here, and remain with your family in the safety of our lands. Or you can leave us, and become an adult elsewhere, in a cold world that does not know you, and does not care for you."
The question puzzled her. Were they saying she needed to decide if she was to stay or leave now?
"It is a decision that only you can make. We would rejoice if you remained with us, and mourn our loss if you left. Will you become a woman here or elsewhere?"
She was quiet for a moment, not certain that she was ready to make such a statement. She could hear her sister and mother both whispering for her to stay from across the room. Each was sitting primly in their normal seats, their clenched hands digging a furrow in their skirts. She had no intention of leaving home, in the near future at least. And not in the distant future, either, she surmised. That left her with one choice.
"I will stay, and come into adulthood here."
"HOORAY," her sister and mother cheered in unison. Both leapt from their seats and grabbed an arm and hauled her from the room. She glanced over her shoulder at her father, who was once again smiling brightly as he settled into his chair.
The two women on either side of her practically carried her into her parent's bedroom and then into the bath. She was surprised when they shut the door behind them, leaving them in the tiled washing room.
Her sister began to tug at the ribbon which bound up her hair, letting loose the long locks of sandy brown curls. Her mother undid the three buttons on her bodice and then the buttons on her forearms that kept her sleaves tight to her wrist.
"What are you doing," she asked, surprised by the rush to undress her.
"We're getting you ready, dear," her mother replied gently as she lifted her dress over her head.
"Being a woman is wonderful and you must be prepared," her sister laughed.
Once she had been thoroughly stripped of her clothing and stood cold and nude before her mother and sister, the two others began to remove their own clothing. When all three woman were naked and their hair was unbound, she blushed. She had not seen her sister nude in at least a few years, and her mother perhaps never. All shared the same dusty blond hair, thin stomachs and curved hips. She and her sister's busts were similar in their size and still quite firm atop their chest. Their mother's bosom was fuller, wider, and heavier. It had seen the usage of two children and thirty five years of life, but still was remarkably perky.
Realizing that her gaze was wandering, she blushed and looked to the floor.
She heard her sister start the bath behind her.
"Come darling, into the tub," her mother instructed.
Carefully she stepped into the steaming pool of gradually climbing water, and was surprised to see her mother and sister follow her into the large basin. The large tub had been an unusual expense for the family, and even with the three women in it, there was still some room.
Her mother and sister crouched into the water and she started to follow.
"No darling, remain standing," her mother corrected.
Curious, she straightened her legs and felt the hot liquid climb her ankles and calves. Her sister added some powders to the tub, and soon the smell of lavender radiated throughout the bath enclosure. It was divine.
Trying to remain calm and mature, she could only watch as her mother and sister each took small bars of soap and began to scrub her feet. They would rub the little blocks between their hands and then apply the sudsy build up to her bare body. As the water climbed and rinsed their work, they progressed higher.
Eventually, the water lapped just above her knee, and her mother tightened the faucet to shut off the flow.
It was so luxurious, so calming, she reflected as her sister and mother continued to cleanse her knees and thighs. She saw them share a glance as they moved higher.
Her mother's hands returned to her bare bottom, and she felt an odd tickle as she began to apply the soap. Her sister's hands moved to her inner thigh and the same tickle emanated from her touch. Each of the other women began to gently pet and stroke her, their hands caressing then softly scraping at her tender flesh. She shivered as she felt the sensations seeming to converge between her thighs.
"That feels funny," she informed them. Her mother's hands were now pressing between her cheeks, cleaning the hidden recess of her bottom. Her sister was pushing her digits between the softness of her thigh and the substance of her pelvic bone. Both of them were delicate, tender, and creating a significant and unique reaction in the pit of her stomach.
With a knowing smile, both of the women glanced up at her. Her mother rose from the soapy water, until her naked body was pressed tightly against her own. The touch of wet, warm skin across her whole right side somehow made that same tingling return. She began to recognize that the center of the gathering sensation was not in her stomach, but lower yet.
The soft, experienced hands of her mother began to pet her thin waist and lower abdomen. From there, they climbed, until her mother was cleansing her breasts with a soft circle motion.
"Oh," she gasped as her mother's fingers tweaked her nipples. Both her mother and sister giggled.
"Move your legs further apart, sister," her older sibling instructed.
Obediently she did, full of trust and reveling in the wonderful sensations that the bath was creating.
Her sister's fingers moved from her thigh and cupped her lightly furred mound. It was relatively smooth, unblemished but for the seam that all women had. She noticed that her mother's was surrounded by fuller pink formations that seemed to somehow extend from within her. Her own was pale, and the pink barely showed from between the outer mons. Her sister's hands were now stroking over it, all five fingers slipping between her thighs and pulling back.
The touch of her mother on her breasts and her sister there in that most mysterious of places was causing her to tremble. One of her sister's digits slipped into that soft division and gently tested her.
She moaned again, her hand moving to the back of her sister's head to steady herself. For a few more moments, her sister and mother continued their gentle rubbing and petting until she was certain she would faint. Just when she was confident she was about to explode, her mother spoke.
"She's ready."
Each of her female relatives rose from the tub and stepped onto the cool floor outside. They carefully escorted her dizzy frame from the tub and then toweled her. She was sad that the bath had ended. The feeling she was experiencing was unlike any other.
Once she was dry, her sister retrieved a nightgown she had never seen before.
"This is my gift to you," she said, "to celebrate your becoming a woman. I hope each time that you wear it, you will remember this evening."
She smiled at her sister warmly and gave her an appreciative kiss on the cheek. Her sister seemed to be as warm as she was, she noted.
The nightgown was foreign to her- it was all lace, with very little solid traces of cloth anywhere. There was a delicate flower pattern that covered the whole of the bodice of the skirt, and as it was pulled over her body she realized how little it hid. It was beautiful, and caressed her as gently and as lightly as her mother and sister's hands. When it was in place and her mother began to work on the long row of ties that lined the back of it, she smiled and clutched it tightly to her skin.
"Mother gave me one like it when I turned eighteen," her sister informed her, recognizing the cute smile that the gown evoked.
