sixteen

Half an hour later Alice was clean and smelling of perfume. She had washed and dried her hair, all of her hair, and was sitting in her bedroom listening to the conversation downstairs. Her father and the traitorous car had returned. It was standing innocently below her bedroom window. She stared at with thoughts of malice. Because it couldn’t keep going for two more minutes longer two more people had seen her bare behind, and front. It was also obvious from the loud conversation that Janice and Ted were still there. Now Alice was on the horns of a dilemma. She could hide upstairs in her room, and no one would think the less of her, or she could go down and join her family and friends. What should she do? She reached for her phone.

“What should I do Charlie?” she asked her friend who was lounging comfortably in an armchair watching television with her parents and not a stitch of clothing between them.

“I dunno Alice” she replied, “just wait a minute.” There was a brief pause before she continued “Sorry, I was disturbing my parents’ viewing”

“Should I go down, or should I stay in my bedroom”

“They’ve already seen you, you say”

“Yes, I’ve just explained”

“So, what’s the problem, you might as well go and join them”

“What if I upset them?”

“They wouldn’t have come into the house in the first place. And remember the cause”

“You’ve changed your tune”

“Ah well, nude with mum and dad isn’t that bad after all”

And with that not very helpful comment Charlotte rang off.

For the second time that day Alice stood nervously at the top of the stairs, shifting her weight from one bare foot to the other and wondering what to. Everyone downstairs was fully dressed, she was nude. What would they say when she walked through the door? She had been naked with them only thirty minutes before. They hadn’t seemed to mind then, but they had stumbled on her by accident. This time she would have chosen to expose herself. How would they accept that? Would they be convivial and see her as she was. The same girl next door they had always known who just happened to be naked, or would they look away, mumble some excuse and hurriedly leave. She curled her bare toes in the carpet, twisting in her dilemma. A sudden noise from behind made her start.

“Hi sis, what are you doing?”

Greg spoke to her much he would normally. This broke the spell, why had she hesitated; nobody was expecting her to be wearing any clothes.

“Just had a shower” she told him as she confidently walked down the stairs. The sound of conversation drifted towards her, and, like a bee tracking down a patch of flowers she followed into the lounge. Her parents were sitting opposite her neighbours, glass in hand talking animatedly.

“Hello sweetie” said her mother, “would you like a glass of wine”

“Yes please” replied Alice rather too enthusiastically, as she lowered her self into a vacant chair. She felt the upholstery envelope her bare flesh.

“Oh my” said Ted who, sitting opposite, watched as she uncrossed her legs and leant forward, breasts hanging vertically down as she accepted a glass of red from her mother

“Come, come, Ted” scolded his wife, “anyone would think you had never seen a naked woman before”

Alice glowed. This was the first time that she had been referred to as woman. Hitherto she had been a girl dressed in girl’s clothes; jeans, T shirts, brightly coloured jumpers and short skirts; the clothing she had worn since primary school. It was just a few sizes larger now. Stripped of this uniform her body’s maturity was plain for all to see, the firm well formed breasts, the wide hips and the patch of flame red pubic hair, which she had kept despite the modern trend. Some of her friends at university practised pubic topiary with the zeal of a bonsai enthusiast. Despite much ridicule Alice had resisted joining them.

“No boys like a hairy fandango” they advised her. But this was contrary to Alice’s experience. When she did allow her boyfriends to explore the regions south of the knicker line they treated the discovery of her burning bush akin to stout Cortez first staring on the Pacific.



And so a naked Alice spent the rest of the night in convivial conversation with her parents and neighbours. In a small hamlet several miles away Alice’s two cousins were having a solitary half an hour in their bedrooms. Later they phoned their friends to relate their wonderful afternoon, but nobody would believe they spent the afternoon playing Frisbee with a naked nineteen year old girl with ginger pubes.

A few streets away from Alice, Charlotte whiled away her Sunday evening watching television, her long body lying stretched out on the sofa, while her parents sat opposite her, all three oblivious to their nudity. Next door her neighbours, Stella and Tom were just getting up, having spent the early evening in the bedroom.

Around a corner and someway to the north Lizzie’s family were going about their business naked, as they normally did. Nude for Africa Sunday was no adventure when everyday was a bare day.

Next door to them Edgar Street had spent the evening eating cream coated strawberries from his wife’s bare body. Unfortunately for Marjory her husband’s excessive fruit intake had necessitated a very rapid visit to the toilet at a rather crucial moment. And so at the same time as Alice stood barefoot, and bare everything else in her hallway bidding farewell to her neighbours, Marjory Street sat watching the evening news, miserably wiping the last of the cream from her flaccid nipples.