Waif, continued
by Chessman
Part One: The Final Beach DayMolly Malloy walked up to the gaggle of giggling girls and boys sitting on the beach. Beginning the morning of 15th July, Molly had been walking her beach post nude. Grease pencil, like the kind used for triathletes to mark their numbers, was used to letter GUARD on the outside of her left arm and right leg.
“Hi, kids, how is the last week of vacation going, remember, school starts on Monday,” Molly smiled at Tad, Brad and Ronnie who were lounging on the beach and waiting for their friend, Waif, to come back to the shore from the break line of waves she was riding along with Loretta and Hank, the two junior life guards. With them were five other girls, all sixth, seventh and eighth grade level.
“Miss Malloy, we are more than ready. We have book reports for our summer reading, and Waif has been showing us algebra and geometry, so I think we are more than over the two month brain drain of summer,” Ronnie told the teacher. “I guess it is Ms. Malloy again and not Molly, right?”
“None of you are my students, so Molly is fine, Ronnie. I was actually looking for Amy and Tammie, have you seen them today?”
“They are off someplace with their other grandmother, their father’s mother, Ms. Fiona. There is a big stink going on with the two grammas. Gramma Andrews has convinced her granddaughters to go to school in the NIS program. Gramma Farrell is against the idea, and has taken action to get the twins removed from their mother’s care, claiming she is unfit. She dragged the kids off to see a counselor today.” Ronnie reported, and then she added, “Waif is legally an adult so can determine her own fate, but, the girls are being used as pawns in a battle of wills between two distinct lifestyles.”
“Not your words, are they Ronnie?” Molly asked.
“Nope, Molly, they are Waif’s and I just remember what she says. She told me when she was sick and always in the hospital the two sides of the family played this same game over her treatment. Her father’s mother was against her mom and dad having another kid to try and cure Waif. Gramma Farrell believed God’s will was for Waif to be strong and suffer unto death and reap her reward in Heaven. Gramma Andrews convinced her daughter and son in law to go ahead and have the second child. Turns out they were the twins. The stem cell therapy worked, then the bone marrow therapy worked and now there are three grandchildren. Fiona Farrell still resents the science and medicine that intervened in what she sees as the true plan. Now that she is well, Waif says she is in remission, but all of us are praying she is well, the families are warring over how the twins shall be raised.” Ronnie reported, “Me I’m happy it’s just me and my mom. She makes good money writing her articles for the newspaper and magazine and I’ve never met my father, or either set of grandparents, so no one fights over how I’m being raised.”
“Yes, we know you are being raised by wolves, wild thing,” Brad teased. “Look at you no modesty what so ever, sitting there sprawled open for everyone to look at.”
Ronnie blushed and changed her position, then came back at her tormentor, “Hate what you see Bradley? You sure are taking good long looks; maybe you need a camera to take pictures that will last longer? Hmmm, Mr. Happy doesn’t look like he hates what he sees either!”
Molly Malloy ended this with, “What were you taught about respect, the two of you? Boundaries must be maintained. What the two of you have just done is what falls under the rules of sexual teasing. If this happens in school public paddling is the consequence, you both know that.”
A joint, “Yes, ma’am,” came from Ronnie and Brad. Molly Malloy continued her walk down the beach, smiling. The small smile on her lips came from wondering in her head how long it would take the two twelve year olds to know that they actually loved each other.
Molly spotted Waif, riding in a small swell on her hot pink short board, thirty yards further along the beach and waited while the girl bounced out of the surf with the board tucked under her arm.
The teacher-lifeguard and the eighteen year old under-developed young woman had formed a bond in the last two months plus they had known each other. The two spoke freely on every topic and Waif considered Molly both a mentor and a friend. She was the go-to adult in Waif’s life when none of the other adults made any sense.
“Hey, Moll, got a minute or do you have to watch your water?” Waif called to the guard on shore as she bounced out of the littoral back wash.
“I can talk, walk, and watch at the same time Waif, it is mostly your surf crowd in the water with school starting Monday.” Surfers know the water, watch for each other and can use their boards as floatation devices if necessary, they were much less a rescue risk than the average middle aged male down for the weekend going in the surf line too deeply while showing off for his small children playing on the beach.
“Okay, then, I spotted you and the grade sixers talking before, while I waited for that wave. I suppose she who knows all and must speak same, told you about the twins?” Waif shook her wet hair and spiked her board into the sand, kicking up enough sand around the tail to keep the board upright.
“Briefly, yes,” Molly laughed, “The child has a future as a CIA listening post. She quoted you word for word.”
“She remembers everything that is important to her, apparently math is not one of those things, she is of the eight girls and boys I have been tutoring, the poorest of the students. However; no one will ever be able to fault her empathy. From the day we met she has been totally involved with me, my illness and my life. I love her like the middle sister I never had and the twins adore her as well.” Waif ran her fingers through the tangled curls of her hair. She looked at her adult friend and asked, “Does it itch?”
Molly had, unconsciously, been scratching at her left arm pit. “Not so badly now, the pubic hair when it started growing back out; now, that itched like crazy, but this isn’t too bad.” The NEA had passed a NIS ruling for teachers who would be instructing their classes nude, that all teachers should when possible allow their body hair to grow back fully to demonstrate the ‘natural look’ of the body.”
“How many women who have lasered off their body hair will not be able to comply with that ruling?” Waif laughed. “Hey, if I decide to be a teacher, what do I do, wear a wig?” This set both of the women off in a fit of laughter.
“Waif, sometimes you make me laugh so hard that tears run down my leg,” Molly blurted between chuckles. This of course set the two off again. A few minutes of quiet ended with, “You know the possibility exists, sweetie, that when the twins go through puberty, your body, with their stem cells floating in it might also transform fully into womanhood. I saw the research on line and it suggests that one in three kids who received stem cells and marrow from pre-pubescent siblings will undergo at least partial pubescence when the siblings do so.”
“So at age twenty-three or so you are telling me I could actually, possibly, become a woman? By then every guy my age who may have been interested in me will be taken. What do I tell a potential husband? Marry me now and maybe in five years we can have sex? See Paul out their carving waves? Molly, I really like him and I know he likes me but I’m not girlfriend material, just a surrogate little sister. I am not the kind of girl a guy wants. At least not in the way I want to be wanted.”
“Waif, you have two more years of high school and then college for all of this to work out for you. It is frustrating for you, but do not let Fiona Farrell get in your head. Her opinion is that you should be dead; with the ‘it was God’s will crap,’ can poison you on many levels. She doesn’t even believe the twins should have been born.
“God wanted you alive to be the gift to all of us who have met and come to love you. You have a purpose here and now. You are a survivor. Look at the wounded warriors we had at the beach last week. None of them are whole, either. Burned, scarred, missing limbs, but playing the cards they were dealt with dignity.
“Do you know who they most admired? You! One sergeant mentioned to me that you were the bravest woman he had ever met. Living your difference to make a difference and doing it with dignity.” Molly smiled at the look she saw on Waif’s face. “He said, I volunteered to serve and knew this, meaning his injury, could be a result. That kid had her disease thrust upon her unwillingly and yet has turned it around to make it a force for good.”
* * *
Several miles away, Amy and Tammie Farrell were having a horrible day. For the first time in six weeks they were clothed. Worse, they were wearing identical sundresses in pink. Neither liked pink and when they had worn clothing on a regular basis they had always made sure that they were dressed differently. If Amy wore a skirt, Tammie wore pants. When Tammie wore green Amy wore blue. Fiona Farrell had her grandchildren identically matched right down to the underwear, ankle socks and Mary-Jane shoes. Even worse, their hair was tightly gathered into a side pony tail over each girl’s right ear. They sat in the waiting room of a social worker for child protective services and waited for their grandmother to finish speaking with her.
Their interview lasted no more than ten minutes. The woman, asked each girl about their grandmother, Ruth Andrews, about their mother and sister and their father and about their friends. She asked each girl to draw a picture of a house, a tree, and a person of their family. She then showed the children into the waiting room, toys and books and a television were there to amuse the children, but they chose to sit quietly and wait for their paternal grandparent to come and get them.
Fiona Farrell was having an even worse day than her two young grandchildren. Giovanna Buonacour, MSW, EdD a licensed social worker and counselor to the state board of children’s protective services was explaining the facts of life to Mrs. Farrell.
“You are quite correct, Mrs. Farrell, where you come from such behavior is not allowed, at least not yet. The moral climate toward nudity in public is shifting rapidly and some jurisdictions have embraced this change more swiftly and completely than others.
“These girls are perhaps the well-adjusted of any child I have seen in many months. The drawings they made are well beyond the detail one expects in their age group. The family picture is most telling. While their grandmother Andrews, their mother and their sister as well as the twins are depicted as nude, you and your son are both wearing clothing. Your son as an officer in the service is in appropriate uniform and you are in a dress. They accept your difference. I am asking you to try to accept theirs.
“The person they drew is a nude pre-pubescent female. Both pictures have similar features, a girl with short brown hair, big blue eyes and a scar that runs from the navel to the right hip. You may not realize it, but these girls knew their sister was in severe pain and when hooked up to the pumps and blood cleansing machines just before the bone marrow transplant was near death for the second time in her short life.
“They were five going on six when they were asked to share their bone marrow with their sister. Both knew it would hurt and only one may have sufficed; however, both love their sister so much that they willingly agreed to share the pain if Waif, as you call her, could get better. Now they are seven, soon to be eight, and you wish to rip them from the girl who has been their role model, mentor, and playmate all of their lives. On another level, they do not wish to be separated from their mother and both adore their maternal grandmother.
“I have spoken with your son, the twins’ father, via satellite computer link. He is also not in favor of removing the girls from their family just to appease your sense of modesty and morality. Mrs. Farrell I can only suggest that you get with the times and accept that public nudity is here to stay. Times change and if you do not change with them then you shall be left behind the curve of society.
“Racial segregation ended. Gays and lesbians now have equal rights to live openly and publically as couples. Nudists now have the right and privilege to walk openly among the textile community. Clothing is a choice, an option and some say a status symbol. For years schools enforced a uniform dress code on students so that rich or poor all children had the level field of sameness in clothing. Now that level field has advanced to no clothing. What can be more socially leveling than all people being nude?
“So, Mrs. Farrell, your application for custody of the twins based on your perceived moral failure of their parent and grandparent, is being denied.” Doctor Buonacour rose and showed Fiona Farrell the door to the waiting room where the twins sat.
“I would like to thank you two lovely young ladies for coming to see me today and share part of your life history and your wonderful pictures with me,” Doctor Buonacour told the girls. “Good luck in your new school this year, I am sure you will do well. Say hello to your sister, mother and grandmother for me. Your Grandmother Farrell loves you very much and wants what is best for you. As with most families sometimes adults try too hard to do what is best for the children and wind up doing the wrong things for the right reasons. This may have been one of those times. Get home safely, all of you.”
* * *
Fiona Farrell was an unhappy woman. With the state child protective service agency ruling against her, she had two choices. The first was to return the twins to the Andrews home and continue to allow the naked wanton women in that household to corrupt her innocent grandchildren. The second choice was to simply retain custody of the children and move them to a state where the evils of the NIP/NIS laws had not been enacted into law.
The plot developed in her mind, but, for now she would return the children to their mother sister and the other grandparent. She had the money and the power and influences to make her plan work. But, she needed time to establish residence in a suitable place and arrange for the twins' education.
The hour and one half drive from the social worker’s office to the ocean community of Shoreside Park gave Fiona plenty of time to plot and plan. So involved was she that the twins begging for a potty break and something to drink was ignored until it was almost too late.
When the twins got back into the car they had already tossed the underwear they had been forced to wear into the trash in the ladies room. Respect for Fiona Farrell kept them in the sundresses, only as long as it took to run up the stairs of the beach house and into the arms of their mother.
Part Two: School Can Be Cool (and Cruel)
Molly Malloy looked out at her class of third grade children and smiled. She knew most of them from school last year and the beach activities during the summer months when she held the post of senior life guard for the town of Shoreside Park. Among the new group composing her class were Amy and Tammie Farrell. The younger sisters of Waif Farrell were busily detailing the horrid day last week when their grandmother, Fiona Farrell, had dragged them to a meeting with a social worker.
“The worst thing was we had to wear those icky clothes she picked out for us,” Amy told Amanda Sun one of the girls who had bonded with the twins over the summer.
“Yeah, can you believe pink hair ribbons, pink sun dresses, pink panties, pink socks and Mary-Jane shoes,” Tammie, her face displaying the displeasure of her grandmother’s taste, added in, “We are twins but for golly sakes we don’t want to be matching book ends. Amy likes art, I like soccer. Neither of us likes pink. I like purple and Amy likes green. Our grandmother has this weird concept of how life should be for us. We don’t want it and our mom sure doesn’t want it for us.”
Amy continued, “But, our dad is overseas for at least another year, and some judge grandma Fiona knows gave an order in court that she has rights to extended visitation with us. Our mom couldn’t fight it. Her lawyer is a friend but mom says that we don’t have enough money to pay him the kind of billable hours needed to mount a full court battle. I sure don’t know what all that means, but I know with dad serving in the military we are not getting paid anything like what he made on his civilian job before he was called up. We moved in with grandma Andrews to save money. The lease on the townhouse we had in the city was too much for our new income level. Mom stored our furniture and stuff and now we live with Grandma Ruth. That’s my mom’s mom.”
Amy paused for breath and Tammie took over. “We love it here, Miss Molly and Loretta and Hank and all of you have made us feel like we belong and have lived here forever and that’s just what we want to do, live here forever,” Tammie ended just as Molly’s “ahem” caught the children’s attention, “Melody, Amanda, Amy and Tammie please take your seats so we may begin.”
All four of the girls took the special seat towel designed for the school from their back packs and spread the towel on the seat attached to the desk assigned them. Their nude tanned bodies slipped into the seats and the lessons for the day began.
Loretta Lake, who had a younger sister, Melody, in school with the twins, and Hank Sun, Amanda’s older brother, rode in a three wide seat on the bus with Wendy Ann Ingrid Farrell. The eighteen year old girl with the body of an eleven year old was on her way to her first day of classes as a junior [eleventh grade] student in the newly clothing optional Bayside High School.
The school was a thirty minute ride from Shoreside Park, requiring the bus to travel over the causeway from the barrier island community across the bay to the mainland where the regional school district maintained its high school for grades nine to twelve.
Paul Wilcox, fellow surfer, Shoreside park resident, senior class varsity surfer and the current object of Waif’s romantic fantasies sat directly behind the trio. “Waif, don’t get too upset with the kids at school when you meet them. You are going to hear from some that you are a ‘daughter of Eve’. The religious conservative kids from the mainland orthodox community will probably be the worst of the vocal abusers. Their community is against women and men bathing together on the same beach in swimsuits, so this whole Naked In Public/Naked In School program is going to throw their leaders into a frenzy of picketing, demonstrations and riling up their kids to activism in school.
“We are supposed to have an assembly when school begins and rules will be explained by Doctor Suarez, our principal. I hope after that the year gets off to a smooth start. I don’t have the option of doing the consenting nudist thing full time. As a football player I am required by state law to wear the full uniform and to be clothed in school for the football season at least. Same with baseball in the spring, so I’m with you in spirit, but my scholarships to college depend upon my sports seasons.
“I, and the entire sports program, intend to support all of you as you go the clothing optional route. I have had email from my team mates, my coaches and the school athletic boosters. Everyone is behind this shift, at least those who have come forward.”
“Well we are here, so there is no turning back at this point even if we wanted to,” Loretta Lake grinned, rose from her seat exposing her lithe totally tanned body and grabbed her backpack to get off the bus. Waif and Hank followed, Hank telling Paul, “My coaches tell me that the swimming, diving and surf teams will have the option of competing nude.”
“Yes, and so will the beach volleyball players, track and field teams and the cheerleaders and gymnasts,” Paul agreed. “The full clothing rule is being applied to all contact sports. I mean, come on, common sense dictates that football and hockey require a lot more than just skin.” Paul replied with a grin.
Loretta added,” So that means girls field hockey and boys and girls lacrosse as well I guess.”
“I think the principal shall be giving us the definitive answers at the assembly, Loretta, but you are probably correct.” Paul finished the conversation as the four friends pushed through the front door of the school into the chaos that is the usual form for first day of school.
Loretta and Hank were also entering grade eleven, and the trio of summer friends found themselves assigned to room 207 for their home room. Waif entered the room with the usual gasps coming from the taller and more developed girls and boys with whom she would share this school year. Hank settled them down with, “Hey, everybody, I would like you to welcome Wendy Ann Ingrid Farrell to our class and our school. She and her family moved to Shoreside Park this summer. Waif, as she likes to be called, just turned eighteen. Hey, yes I know she looks like she is eleven, but trust me the wicked smart brain packed into the small body can take on any one of you and she swims like a fish and surfs like she was born on a board.
“Let’s get it out of the way. She had a rare blood disease that required her to undergo complete marrow replacement when she was eleven. Because of the radiation and other stuff she has never developed physically. With her illness, she lost a couple of years in school, so she is here with us. Loretta and I found a friend and a fun companion in Waif this summer and I hope the entire junior class will find the same qualities in her as the year goes on.”
The rest of the homeroom students came over one by one and were introduced. Several of the boys wore clothes and Waif quickly and politely remarked they must be part of the football team. Only one shook his head negatively. John Jakes rolled up a pant leg to reveal full leg braces. “I was riding on the back of my brother’s motorcycle two years ago, when we went into a skid. I jumped the wrong way; the bike rolled on top of me and crushed both of my legs. I can’t walk without these braces and the special canes. Hey, I guess that makes us both medical miracles in a way, no one thought I’d live either. Here I am though, and I’m very glad to meet you.”
Nine girls in the homeroom besides Waif and Loretta had entered nude. This declared their status as ‘confirmed nudist’ while the other seven girls were sporting tank tops and cheer shorts. A girl who introduced herself as Karin, explained, “We know that Principal Suarez will be calling out names today for the mandatory one month NIS all of us must complete to graduate. All of us are willing to do our month, but not all of us are ready to commit to complete full time nudism like you two have done. So we all decided to wear the bare minimum in case we were chosen at assembly to strip and begin our month.”
Of the ten boys seven, including John Jakes, were clothed. Hank was nude as was a boy named Bill Reilly and another named Justin Thyme. Hank with the swimmer/surfer lifeguard body was buff. Bill was lanky and gangly tall, his muscles not having caught up with his bone structure. Justin was fit but soft and stood five inches taller than Waif's four feet eleven inches. Either Justin was destined to be a small man or he had not had that final growth spurt that determines adult height. His pubic hair was slight and light and where Hank and Bill displayed manhood, Justin was still a boy.
The bell rang and the teacher formed the class up for the march down the stairs to the school gymnasium, set up with folding chairs and with the bleachers pulled out for seating as well. The class found their seats and waited while the other groups of students from various grades and home rooms filed into the large room.
Principal Dorothy Suarez climbed the stairs to the riser stage at the front of the gymnasium and the student body fell into a hush. “Welcome back to our returning students. Welcome to our new students in grade nine and all of you who have transferred from elsewhere. Welcome to our new faculty and our returning staff. Welcome to a brand new year with a brand new reality.
“The seven feeder school districts, the regional board of education of Bayside, and the state board of education have enacted two new programs for this school year. First, as you see scattered among the student body, is the ‘confirmed nudist program’. Any student, faculty, or staff who appeared for the beginning of school today nude, will be expected to participate in all school, community and social functions as a confirmed nudist for the entire school year. Those of you having made this choice please join me on the stage.”
Of the eight hundred students and one hundred faculty and staff about fifty students, mostly in the eleventh and twelfth grades, strode to the stage amid catcalls and some rude remarks. Waif stood with Loretta on one side and Hank, Bill and John on the other in their cluster of junior class students. Representatives from the other junior home rooms were African-American, Southwest Asian and Oriental as well as mixed race and white both boys and girls. A few sophomores mostly girls and all the younger sisters or brothers of senior or junior class students who opted for nudity clustered with the juniors.
Of the seniors, it appeared that the entire varsity swim and diving team as well as the beach volley ball and gymnastics teams opted for full time nudity. Two girls that Loretta pointed out as cheerleaders were also in the cluster of nude students.
Fifteen faculty and staff joined the students on stage. Most were in compliance with the NEA request that faculty regrow their body hair. One particularly attractive female in her late twenties distinguished herself with the dragon tattoo that covered her right leg from knee to hip.
Principal Suarez began again once the group of nude students and staff were settled behind her. “I shall introduce you now to the woman appointed by the school district to be the Dean of Discipline for the Nude In School/ Nude In Public program as Bayside High School, Dr. Sean Gottet.”
The woman with the dragon tattoo came forward and thanked the principal for her introduction and for the floor. “Students, faculty, staff may I take a moment to speak to you all about who I am and what I am assigned here to do? Mores are changing in this society. The moral center has shifted and things that were hidden in a closet or swept under a rug a generation or two ago are now front and center in the public eye.
“We have suffered through scandals with teachers and students having illicit sex, and we have suffered through the epidemic of teen age pregnancies. We have suffered through homophobia and racial prejudice. We have suffered through changes in what is considered a proper core education for our society. Now, we are midstream in the next period of turmoil; the shedding of our last societal inhibition, our clothing, and the discovery of the freedom that is the human body openly and honestly displayed.
“My task is to promote modesty and virtue through nudity in school. A naked boy or girl is not a sex toy for others. She or he is simply stating to the world, his friends and his school that she is comfortable enough with her body to allow those around her to see her as she really is. It is a position that is both vulnerable and powerful.
“My duty to those who have made this commitment is to enforce sanctions against any and all who might exploit the vulnerability of the confirmed nudists standing here. “It is also my task to assure that each student participate in the mandatory one month Naked In School program. With limited exceptions, each of the students sitting on the bleachers or in the chairs in this gymnasium shall be naked in school for one month during the four years they attend Bayside.
“Seniors and juniors will, by the end of the next period select a scrabble tile from a velvet bag. Those selecting a VOWEL, will strip off and begin their month of Naked In School at that time. NIS shall mean any and all classroom, field trip, sports activity or community project required of the student in that time period. Freshmen and sophomores shall have a full month of health education and physical education orientation before their grade levels begin participation. Health education shall discuss male and female anatomy and physiology including menstruation and male and female arousal. Physical education shall allow those willing to participate in gym classes nude to acclimate themselves. Beginning October first, sophomore and freshman students will participate in the same selection process as the junior and senior level students.
“Each faculty member will also take a one month turn at the NEA mandated au natural teaching program. Any student, who during his or her mandatory turn at nudity, who wishes to declare themselves a ‘confirmed nudist’ may do so and complete the school year nude for all in and out of school activity. Faculty members are encouraged to commit to the Nude Educator program full time.
“My office is next to that of Principal Suarez. My door is always open. Any student needing counseling, support or wishing to file a grievance for harassment or mistreatment may come to me directly. Thank you for your time, and now I turn the program back to Principal Suarez.”
Dorothy Suarez had disappeared behind the massed nudist student and staff on the stage. When she emerged the fifty something mother of three grandmother of one was head to foot naked. A collective gasp rose from the student body. “Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, I have always led by example. No one is free from the mandatory one month of Naked In School. IF this body can be on display for all to see for the next month then none of you have anything to hide from me, your peers or yourself.
“I echo Doctor Gottet in her words concerning interfering with or harassing those students and faculty you see along side of me and whom you shall see once the selection process gets under way for the student body. Mind the boundaries, look but don’t touch unless invited to touch by the nude student.
“Those requiring or requesting relief shall be given the usual fifteen minutes alone time to accomplish their need. All of this will be covered for the freshman and sophomore classes in their health education classes. Thank you for your time and again welcome to what should prove to be a very fulfilling and exciting school year. You are dismissed to your classes.”
Part Three: Homecoming and Coming Home
Home room was unusual the first week of October. The selectees of the first round of one month nude in school had finished their mandatory time without clothing. The second drawing had gone without a hitch, using the same scrabble tile selection process. Now, following the sophomore and freshman completing their introductory courses in anatomy and physiology, there were kids from all class levels going about school and extracurricular activity nude.
Three of the girls in Waif’s home room decided to sign the paper work for confirmed nudist status after the first month of school. Two boys were also now full time nude while several others had drawn vowels and were now doing their one month stint. Then there was the elephant in the room. Homecoming, the big game, the big parade with floats and marchers and the big semi-formal dance with alumni from many years graduation classes attending.
Karin Romanov was one of the girls opting out of clothing for the rest of the year. “I thought I would be disgusted with the whole nude experience, Waif, but I much as you said, actually found it liberating. My mom says my posture has never been better and my dad, well my dad told my two sisters and my brother that the new standard for around the house, yard and pool was Karin’s outfit. He hasn’t worn a stitch at home since the second day I was in the program. Mom cannot use tampons so the only time she wears anything at home is during her cycle. Rowdy, my brother, is more embarrassed than my sisters or I the poor kid can’t seem to well let’s say he has real problems urination wise most of the time.”
Waif smiled, “Rowdy doesn’t have that problem with me in the locker room, Karin, and by the way he is a very good linebacker for a sophomore. How old are your sisters?”
“Twelve and eight,” Karin replied.
“Mine are twins and they will turn eight soon. They can be a handful when they get to pranks and teasing. Think that might be part of the problem?”
“Might be part of it, Waif, but I think it is more testosterone rampage. Dad had hoped football would channel it, I think it made it worse. Oh, by the way Homecoming is just around the corner. Are you walking with a float for the parade? Did Paul ask you to the dance?” Karin asked hoping she might still have a shot at getting a date with the football player.
“Paul and I are surfing buddies, bus buddies and I tutor him as well as most of the other players on the football team. Frankly he hasn’t asked me. But I do have a date for the dance. He is a football player, and he won the date on a bet.” Waif smiled.
“Oh, spill,” Loretta had just walked over and it was her demanding the ‘deets’ .
Waif smiled, “You know I’m tutoring the team? Well, the lineman they call Whale was on the verge of losing eligibility for the team and failing English this semester. Paul got him motivated to follow my study plan for the major book report on Moby Dick by telling him Paul would get him a date with any girl in school for the Homecoming dance if he got an A on the report. Richard Richards, aka Whale, turned in an A paper three days ago. He asked ME to go to the dance with him. I told him I had nothing to wear. He laughed and told me to come as I am he liked the outfit.”
The three girls were still laughing when Justin Thyme and John Jakes walked in. John drew an “E” the second round and was nude save for the ankle to hip leg braces. Andrea Merkle, a wheelchair bound paraplegic had drawn an “I” the first round and had fulfilled her month. This changed the exemption for physically challenged students. “What’s so funny?” John asked the girls with Justin looking on.
“Not you guys for sure,” Karin noted eyes fixed on the spot below the navel that seemed to fascinate every woman in the building now that John was nude. The word large was inadequate. Flaccid every girl thought’ I could never manage that’. Karin had seen John erect only once and that one glance had left images in her dreams that left her weak kneed. “Waif was telling us how she got her date to Homecoming by being payment for a debt.”
“Oh, yeah, you and Whale, I thought he was tossing a pile of manure when he told us he was going to the dance with you.” Justin replied.
“Nope, and he is a sweet gentle guy once you get past the huge muscled football lineman he wears outside,” Waif smiled.
* * *
Fiona Farrell met her two granddaughters at the gate outside their school. The two ran up to their grandmother and hugged her, both children feeling her body go tense at the touch of two naked sweaty girls wrapping arms around the grandmother’s skirt. “Please stop, until you are washed and clothed, girls, you will soil my linen skirt with your sun screen and sweat.”
Belted into their towel covered seats in the third row of the Lincoln Navigator driven by Fiona Farrell, the girls asked why their mother had not picked them up as usual.
“She had errands to run, babies, and I have a wee surprise for you both today, so I came to get you instead.” Fiona responded.
Kathy Farrell arrived at the school pick up area fifteen minutes later.
“Hey, Molly, where are the girls? I am sorry I am late, but I had a flat tire when I got to the car and had to use two cans of auto inflate and sealer before I could get here. I called the office but no one picked up the phone,” Katherine called to her friend and the teacher of her youngest girls.
“Oh, Kathy, their grandmother picked them up about thirty minutes ago. Sorry about the office, the principal was dealing with a disciplinary problem and the office manager was in the copy room away from the phone.”
“My mom picked the girls up? I thought she was tied up with school board business all afternoon at the high school.”
“Not Ruth, Kathy, it was your husband’s mother, Fiona. She said she had a surprise for the girls and off they went. Since she is known to us as family and has picked up the girls before, we didn’t ask her for a permission slip from you, I mean she is on the list as a primary contact in case of emergency.” Molly replied, sensing something was amiss now due to the look on Katherine’s face and the body language she expressed.
“I don’t know, it just feels off, Molly. Fiona has been making this big deal over the girls being invited to be in the Homecoming junior princess court and riding the float for the Homecoming Queen in the parade next week. She was going on about matching frilly dresses and tiaras and proper shoes. Perhaps she figured she’d get her way if she took the kids shopping without me knowing. Mom and I thought sea shell necklaces and flower crowns would be proper, the girls have beautiful tans that really do not need to be hidden under frilly dresses. But Fiona sees every event as a good excuse to try and force the girls back into clothing.” Katherine had a tone in her voice suggesting she was trying to ease the anxiety not only of the teacher who had allowed the girls to go with their grandmother, but herself as well. Katherine picked up her cell phone and speed dialed her mother-in-law’s phone number.
A recorded message played after several rings. “I shall not be answering this phone again. Until and unless you and your mother come to your senses, Katherine Farrell, I have taken custody of your minor children to assure they are raised properly and decently clothed.”
“Oh my lord, she has snatched the kids, Molly. Here let me replay the message for you.” Katherine did so and Molly Malloy went wide eyed.
“Should we call Dave Wilcox? I don’t know what the time limit is before you can put an AMBER alert into play but Dave surely would.” Molly said, referring to the Shoreside Park Police Chief who was Paul Wilcox’s father.
Katherine called Waif to alert her, just in case Fiona came for her as well. She then called Ruth Anderson and told her. While she was doing that Molly Malloy was on the phone to Shoreside Park Police who dispatched the juvenile division officer and Chief Wilcox to the scene.
Officer June Pierce was the first to arrive at the school yard. She had Molly and Katherine repeat their back stories for her report and then began asking questions. “Your Equinox had a flat tire? Do you have the OnStar vehicle assessment application on your smart phone? Okay, let’s get that record scoped up and printed out, I want to see exactly when your tire began to lose pressure.”
The record showed that the tire was suddenly deflated at 2:20 p.m. about ten minutes before Katherine would get into the car to go to the school to pick up the girls. “Well, we cannot prove anything from circumstantial evidence,” Detective Pierce told the mother and teacher, “However; it certainly looks suspiciously like a stall tactic to slow down Katherine from arriving at the school to pick the girls up. If you did not have the cans of flat fix, Mrs. Farrell, you might have been even longer having to change the tire, or calling road service to do it for you. Coupled with the message on your mother-in-law’s phone, intent is clearly there.
“I believe we have sufficient cause to issue the AMBER alert, but I don’t have the authorization. Chief Wilcox will have to review this and issue the alert.”
Dave Wilcox rolled up several minutes later, huffing out of the marked vehicle, he apologized and said, “Stupid fisherman with a heavy truck and no four wheel drive stranded himself on the beach with the tide running in. It took two tow trucks to get him out. What’s up here, June?”
Summer season over, the Shoreside Park Police reduced itself from a summer force of twenty-four part time officers and traffic enforcement personnel to the nine police officer regular year round force. One chief, one lieutenant, two sergeants and five patrol officers, each having a specialization in addition to their regular patrol duties, covered the small town more than adequately in the off peak months. Fewer officers meant multi-tasking for all, though, which is why a chief could be tied up with a mired vehicle instead of sitting behind a desk acting as the administrator of the department. Court appearances, the prisoner transport and processing that occasionally occurred, days off and vacation time that could only be used after the summer rush, left this department with a usual shift of not more than four, but usually three, police on duty at any time during the day. Usually the headquarters was manned by a dispatcher and a reports clerk, both civilian employees.
Chief Wilcox listened to his officer, and then asked additional questions of the mother and teacher. “If this is a kidnapping under custodial dispute, your mother in law has almost an hour head start on us, Mrs. Farrell. Do you know where she might be headed?”
“Not a clue, Chief, sorry, but she has money and influence and if she is going to hide the girls somewhere, she will have planned this carefully, in advance,” Katherine replied.
“I’ll need the identikit pictures of the girls taken at the beginning of the school year, for the alert. I’ll need a description of the vehicle, I hope she did not switch them out, maybe we’ll get lucky and have a description and picture of Fiona Farrell for the alert,” Dave Wilcox was making demands on the fly, and once all was in place he used the school’s facsimile equipment to send out the AMBER alert to the county and state police departments.
Soon every electronic message board on every highway was flashing “Amber Alert…twins Amy and Tammy Farrell, taken by paternal Grandmother. Vehicle, Lincoln Navigator, license HR 2725, digitized photos of the girls and grandmother followed the written alert.
Fiona Farrell had plotted her time line well. She had underestimated her daughter in law with the cans of tire inflator, thinking she would need road service to come and change her flat tire. That cut twenty minutes of escape time from her plan. Further, little girls after school usually needed to urinate and hydrate. She had not built in time for a potty stop and snacks cutting her lead time even further. She was heading for the automobile ferry at the end of the state which would take her into a more friendly state which had not yet passed the NIS/NIP laws. The Lincoln would be left at the dock site there; she had a new Ford Escape with plates and registration in the new state waiting for her under the new name she had selected. She cursed under her breath, they had missed the early ferry by twelve minutes and another would not arrive for half an hour.
Lewis and Brigit Murphy saw the Amber Alert flash for the first time near mile parker 5 on the state highway leading to the auto ferry. “Oh, those poor girls must be scared stiff,” Brigit remarked to her husband behind the wheel.
“How could any person steal a child?” Lewis replied and looked ahead in the queue of cars waiting to load for the next ferry. “Wait, what was that car they were in?
“A white Lincoln Navigator, why,” His wife replied.
“I cannot see the license plate yet, but there is a white Navigator five cars ahead of us in line. Call the emergency number, use your cell phone, at the worst we inconvenience those people, but if that is the correct car, maybe we help get those kids home tonight.”
Under the guise of preventing air pollution from idling vehicles, police from several agencies began going from car to car in front and behind the Navigator asking drivers to turn off their engines.
A state police sergeant walked up to Lewis and Brigit Murphy’s car and once Lewis rolled his window down, offered in a low voice, “Thank you for the tip, it is the correct car and occupants. We will need you to file a report and you might have to testify in court at the trial. But the two of you can consider yourselves among the good Samaritans of the world for your help.” The ferry pulled in and began to unload, and a sign reading ‘Wait Time until Boarding is now Twenty minutes” went up.
Ten minutes later a state police helicopter flew over the ferry terminal and landed in a nearby clearing. Three minutes after the helicopter was on the ground, Fiona Farrell was in custody and ranting madly against the perversity of the nudity laws and her desire to protect her grandchildren. The twins ran into their mother’s arms, “She was gonna steal us Momma, she really was,” Tammy yelped sobbing into her mother’s bare left thigh. Amy was similarly sobbing and slobbering over Katherine’s right leg. Both were hugging tightly enough to impair circulation.
Part Four: Courts
In most small towns, high school sports are the major social events of the week. Yes, parents with children who played the lesser sports would show up and root for their offspring whether those sports were tennis, fencing, volleyball, or swimming and diving. What really put the area to a standstill were the major sports; those being basketball, soccer, and football. Girls’ soccer was added to the program as a Title IX balance field sport for boy’s football.
Each of those sports had a close-the-town-down-we-are-going-to-the-game show stopping showcase. For football this was Homecoming Weekend. It started Friday with the parade and alumni reception, which was a dinner-dance event held at the ballroom of the local Holiday Inn. During the parade the Homecoming king and queen and the princess court were presented. Usually the king and queen were athletes, scholars or a combination of both from the senior class. These were kids who were popular due to their achievements rather than simply a pretty face or well-muscled body.
The princess and prince court were junior class student athletes who would be the core group vying for the title of king and queen the following year. Most had worked hard in freshman and sophomore year to win a spot on the princess court as juniors.
Despite this it surprised only Wendy Ann Ingrid Farrell that she was spotlighted as first princess on this year’s float. Two months ago she was a virtual stranger to everyone in the school, yet the junior class had voted her on to the court with an overwhelming affirmation. The second princess won her spot with forty fewer votes than Waif. “But, you deserve this more than me. I’m the new kid and you, well you have been around since kindergarten and everyone knows and likes you,” Waif had protested to Karin Romanoff when the announcements for court were made.
“No, you walk into a room and suddenly if there was discord there is calm. You can always lighten a moment with a joke or a funny take on the situation. You set the example on how to be nude in public and still be a modest and virtuous girl. We all thought that once stripped naked we would turn into wanton sluts. You set the example on how not to let that happen. Well, okay, if you look at Margie or Nan your example didn’t work for everyone. But, nearly all of us who are now nude are only comfortable with ourselves and our nudity because you blazed the path for us.
“Add to that the fact that almost every male jock and a couple of the female ones as well owes their academic eligibility to one small woman who willingly began tutoring them, for free, and you have the prime reason everyone voted for you. Just sit there wave and enjoy it.” Karin paused, and then continued, “If I had been bold enough to do half the things you have done since you have been my classmate, I might feel worthy to sit here next to you.”
The Bayside High School Screaming Gull marching band led the parade with the color guard and twirlers up front.
Then came the Homecoming King and Queen and the court of princesses on their float.
Each of the regional elementary schools sent a contingent of junior princess to the parade. Shoreside Park was represented by Ronnie Peters, Brad Williams and Amy and Tammy Farrell. Ronnie and Brad represented the middle school age children, Amy and Tammy the lower grades. There were sixteen students on this float six of them nude, four of those came from Shoreside Park.
The next float traditionally held alumni football players and cheerleaders, some of whom were parents of current players and cheerleaders. Dave Wilcox and his wife were on that float as were Ivan and Lori Romanoff.
The last float held the current football team and cheerleaders. Four of the cheerleaders were nude, two having drawn vowels in the last round and two who started the year as confirmed nudists. The football players were all in uniform. Their turns at the letter draw would come following the final game of the season Thanksgiving afternoon.
The floats paraded down River Road along a route lined with fans and families waving and cheering and then into the football stadium where they circled the field on the cinder track used for track and field running events stopping on the home team side of the field. The band marched on the field and played the alma mater of the school and several rally songs.
The cheerleaders did their routine asking the crowd, “Who’s gonna win,” and getting the answer “Bayside”. Followed by several “We can’t hear you” calls from the cheerleaders and even louder yells each time of “Bayside.” Then the cheer team changed to “Who yells loudest?” For which the crowd knew the response to be, “Gulls Fans”. A few exchanges of ‘We can’t hear you” and louder roars from the stands and when the crowd had screeched that last response the cheerleaders stepped aside. It was then that Dorothy Suarez stepped up to the microphone and named the homecoming king and queen and the junior princess court for the crowd.
Louder cheering and the announcement that the football boosters and alumni association expected to see all alumni and spouses at the dinner dance later that evening and the entire Homecoming court would be at the event along with the cheer squad. The marching band performed another tune while the stands emptied and the parade portion was complete.
Ruth Anderson walked up to her three grandchildren and hugged them telling them how proud she was of them all. “Where’s Mom,” Waif asked expecting her mother to be there.
“She was detained at the county court house, your other grandmother had a preliminary hearing to set bail on her charges, she said to tell you she was sorry to miss the parade but would be at the dinner tonight as my plus one and she would catch you up there.” Ruth Anderson responded.
“Look at the twins, they are exhausted from the excitement,” Ruth continued, “It is a good thing they are staying with Brett Peters tonight or that dinner and dancing would be no fun at all.”
Waif laughed at the twins when she glanced at them as their heads were nodding even as they tried to fight to stay awake, “Come on Bugs it is time to get you home to Ronnie’s house. Brad and Tad and Ronnie are going to be watching you tonight, so you best behave or no more sleep overs.”
“I’m a Bug,” yelled Amy. “I’m a bug too,” responded Tammy, “I’m a Stink Bug what kind are you?”
“I’m a Bed Bug I bite and I chew!” Amy giggled and Waif regretted the day she began teasing the twins with those nicknames.
The alumni event that evening began following the parade. Around five thirty Katherine Farrell walked into the ballroom and spotted her mother and Waif walking in the buffet line. After getting her name tag and identifying herself as Ruth Anderson’s daughter and Waif’s mom, she caught up to the rest of the family searching the selections for what they wished to eat. “Hi, Mom,” Waif looked up and spotted her parent, “Try the flounder, it is very flakey and totally boneless.”
“I just might, right after I try the cabernet or the merlot, Waif, it has been one of those days,” Katherine responded.
“A white would go better with fish, but you name your poison and the open bar is over to the left,” Ruth told her daughter with a smile.
“I am too tired to care, mom, honestly. Fiona’s lawyers tried every trick in the book to get her out on bail. They cited health conditions I never knew the woman to have, offered to surrender her passport and put up her townhouse as collateral, offered to have her wear an ankle bracelet monitor and at that point the judge almost relented.
“I had to laugh, though; our prosecutor nailed the old girl and her team when she told the judge that all the terms were agreeable to her, if and only if, Fiona Farrell surrendered her entire wardrobe as well. She could be released on bail using her townhouse as collateral after surrendering her passport and wearing the ankle bracelet but nothing else.
“Fiona sputtered something into her lawyer’s ear and he told the judge that his client would rather stay in custody than have to be naked in public. So she’s still in the county jail awaiting trial.
“We go back to court after the grand jury hears the case. If they vote to indict her, a trial date will be set within a month of the grand jury hearing. Unfortunately for all of us, including Fiona, the grand jury empaneled now ends its term on the thirty-first. With the holiday season coming up a new panel will not be seated until after the New Year. Meanwhile her tricksters with law degrees will be looking for loop holes in the law to get her out and get her off.
“Rumor from the prosecutor has it that her lawyers want me, Waif, and the twins to sit through seasons with a court appointed psychologist to determine if we are sane people as we wish to live our lives nude. It sounds as if this entire family will be put on trial before she goes on trial. They are hoping to wear us down. The prosecutor told me that it is not unlikely her lawyers will have a team of private investigators tailing us, just waiting to catch one of us at a bad moment that can be used against us to mitigate Fiona’s actions.” Katherine sighed and gazed longingly at the bar set up across the room.
“Go get your wine, we are at table ten, Waif is sitting with the princess court at table three,” Ruth Anderson told her daughter.
King and Queen of Homecoming was more than a popularity or beauty pageant. Since the voting stressed the extracurricular activities of the students selected for the title as voted by their peers, the football boosters and the Bayside Alumni association awarded scholarships to the King and Queen as well as lesser ones to the junior class members selected to the princess court.
The King and Queen were awarded fifteen thousand dollar scholarships to be applied to the tuition and fees at any university they wished to attend. As first Princess, Waif was given a choice of a three thousand dollar scholarship to the college of her choice or pending her grades and achievements in her senior year, a full scholarship for four years to the Philadelphia University for Fashion Industry and Technology. The offer would remain open until December of her senior year. Each of the other princes and princesses received the three thousand dollar scholarship.
“Wow, Karin what is up with this? They want to give me a full scholarship to PFIT? Why I wonder?” Waif muttered to her fellow princess seated next to her at the banquet table.
“I can think of a few reasons, Waif. First, you deserve it. Second, PFIT will be a perfect fit for you; the campus is a ‘life model’ school with clothing having been optional for about five years now. The emphasis of totality of person is what you have been doing by example since you arrived here. The vice chancellor of the university is an alumna of Bayside High School, an author and educator and has endowed more than a few scholarships for various majors. He is also Paul Wilcox’s uncle as he married Chief Wilcox’s sister.
“See her sitting beside the Chief, the tall nude woman with the silver collar around her throat and the silver wrist cuffs and ankle bands, she is the leading editor for a huge publishing house; the one that publishes his books. In fact she acts as his personal editor before a manuscript leaves his computer for print review.” Karin replied. Karin’s nipples had tightened as she looked at the collared woman one table removed from them. Waif wondered, if the air conditioning had kicked u a notch or if Karin wished she was in that kind of, oh, wait, the flash of light in her brain came just as the sound of her voice squeaked, “Is he the author of Submission as the Road to Power in the Business World? If he is I doubt he would give me a scholarship. My last long hospitalization I picked the book up off the cart the pink stripers wheel around out of sheer boredom. I read four chapters and wrote him a letter picking his premises apart point by point. Another four chapters and another letter went out. I finished the book and wrote him one more letter. He had waited I guess for me to finish and send him the last letter before he responded.
“The letter to me was four sentences long. He thanked me for reading the book. He thanked me for taking the time to comment on his thesis. He noted that my experience with the business community appeared limited and perhaps with more time on the workplace I would appreciate his ideas more. Then he signed it. I still have the letter, tucked into the book. I guess it is stored with the rest of our stuff from the old house in storage.” Waif ended her conversation with Karin as a fifty something male slid up a chair and sat beside her.
“I was passing your table when I overheard your conversation, young lady,” the man who did not introduce himself to her said, “I just want you to know I still have your letters, also. Never have I read a better written defense of the opposite position from any one. In fact, not using your name, I use parts of those letters in my undergraduate lecture. Had I realized at the time that those words came from the pen of a fourteen year old girl in a hospital bed, I might have added a line or two to my response.” He smiled and grasped her hand. “You would be a most welcome addition to the PFIT community, please keep our offer under consideration.” With that he rose and excused himself and returned to his table.
“OMG, Waif, now you have done it. I mean game on, girl. He just challenged you to go to HIS University and take on HIS premises in his classes. That, girlfriend, is a power move if I ever saw one.” Karin gushed.
“We’ll see what we will see,” Waif said without committing to anything. Her thoughts were of what Karin had just said; challenging a man of power on his own playing field would take preparation and confidence.
Saturday brought a day of clouds and warm temperatures, unusual for late October but Indian Summer would last the weekend then Tuesday would begin three days of rain and autumn would set in with a vengeance. Paul and Rowdy played a game of a lifetime. Paul rushed for over one hundred yards and scored two touch downs. Rowdy intercepted a pass form the opposing team and ran it back for another six points. Paul ran the ball in for a two point conversion and that would give Bayside the victory for Homecoming by one point. Whale, Moose and Bear had played their hearts out as well, allowing the holes to open for Paul to run and collapsing back on the quarterback so that he was protected on his pass plays.
Whale Richards pulled up to the Anderson house in his pride and joy, a nineteen fifty-five Jeep Comanche pick up that he and his father had restored to almost factory condition. The one difference was the bucket seats replacing the canvas over springs utility seating the old vehicle had when father and son found it in a junk yard. The new seats and three point seat belts met the legal requirements for driver and passenger restraint.
He knocked on the door and was met by Katherine who smiled broadly and invited him into the house. Waif walked down the steps from the second floor and saw him there, smiling up at her. He was wearing a formal bow tie; Nothing else, just the bow tie. He held out a box with a wrist corsage in it. Katherine took several pictures and the couple was off for their night at the Homecoming dance.
Dance they did, from the first to the final. Whale Richards, six feet four inches two hundred forty pounds of muscle was as light on his feet as any dancer on that television show with the mirror ball as a prize. When Waif tired, Whale slid his hand under her bottom, picked her up off of her feet and simply carried her around the dance floor. She felt like a baby in the arms of her father and snuggled into the boy’s muscular chest simply enjoying the masculine smell of him.
For the first time in her life, Waif was thinking of a boy in THAT way. The ride home found her wet and squirming on the bucket seat and hoping she wouldn’t soak the towel she sat on. Whale pulled the truck over in the drive of her house and got more than he expected. She kissed him like she meant it. Long and passionate enough that he too reacted as all teen age boys do his penis hard and erect. She looked at him and said, “I’ve never…”
He laughed and said, “Neither have I, but I sure wouldn’t mind if you were my first. But, you deserve more than a quickie in the front seat of a pickup truck, Waif. Do you want to go somewhere else or perhaps wait until another time?”
“Point Dunes Park, NOW,” Waif commanded, “Before we both chicken out.”
Two hours later the girl was a woman and she laughed that she had sand in places no girl wanted sand to be. Whale Richards rubbed her shoulder and said nothing. Words would ruin things; there would be time for words tomorrow. He walked her to the door and kissed her one more long good night kiss.
“Call me, maybe,” she asked as he walked down to the truck.
“First thing I wake up in the morning and last thing I do before I go to sleep tomorrow night, Waif. Thank you again for the best night of my life. “
“And thank you for the best night of mine,” she smiled wistfully and slipped inside her front door.
Ruth and Katherine were waiting in the sitting room. As Waif glided through Ruth coughed to get her attention, “Well, did you have a good time at the dance?”
“Gramma, I had a fabulous time at the dance and an even better time after it. That is all you get from me tonight, I’ll talk to you both in the morning.”
The End
Copyright© 2012 by Mark Chessman. All rights reserved.