by Jayne Louise
A guard beside the back of the ticket booth pointed at us strolling across the grass, and then two other people stepped over and stared us down as we approached. I wasn’t worried– of course we’d pay admission if they asked us to. But all we really wanted was a hot dog and a Coke for each of us. ‘You can’t come in that way,’ the older guy was saying to us from too far away. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
I pointed at the back of the snack shop building, never slowing down, never changing course. Two guys about our age with their mother saw us then. Beyond, in the parking lot, were maybe two dozen cars and even a school bus with some summer student trip. Well here is where adventuresome Jayne would have to make her impression!
The ranger had come around the other side of the snack building and met us as we got to the path. ‘Do you have tickets?’ he asked us.
‘No, not yet,’ I said sweetly to him.
He stopped and looked at me. I wonder if he had ever seen a chick in a bikini visiting this place in his whole career! ‘Oh, well you have to get them then,’ he said.
I nodded, stopping and looking right at him. ‘Do you think we can just get a snack and leave?’ I asked. ‘We’re hiking and just need something to drink.’
The woman stood beside him with her arms folded, looking at us like we were the worst people she’d ever seen here. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘were you going on the tour?’
‘No,’ I said to her. ‘Not necessarily. Do we have time?’
‘Well, the last tour starts in thirty minutes.’
I nodded, thinking about it. ‘Well if we can eat by then, maybe we will.’ And I smiled at her, like the whole world could be just as nice as you please, just because I was smiling. It’s a trick Daddy taught us for playing on stage– no matter how badly you think you’re doing, so long as you smile like you can’t imagine how bad you are, they’ll never hold it against you. We had a very positive review of one of our very first– and worst– shows two years ago, and according to our dad, that’s why.
The kids from the bus tour came back just as we were stepping away from the counter with our hot dogs and Cokes. It was one of those church-run tours from the city and most of them were pretty urban, girls and boys both. Of course they looked at us– we were the only teenaged girls there and so lightly dressed, you know. I didn’t really blush, but I did get goosepimples. But it felt great– God forgive me– like about the closest thing to being naked, and I didn’t have a naughty thought about it, even in front of other people.
So we paid for our tickets and went on the mansion tour, just because we wanted to. The bus tour people were leaving and there were only six or seven people besides us. We got to contribute to a few of the questions and the guide asked us to share we we’d learned from being here before, and no one made a fuss out of me being in a bikini at all. That made me feel even more terrific. There is something really satisfying about being dressed like this and still being able to be taken seriously for having a brain, even morals. After all it doesn’t really matter what a girl wears at all. It only matters what her character is. Mary Wollstonecraft said, ‘Elegance is inferior to virtue.’ In other words, a good girl with a brain is much more powerful than a bimbo in a bikini. If the good girl with a brain happens to look like a bimbo because she is wearing a bikini, it shouldn’t mean anything.
We ended up in a conversation with the college girl who was guiding the tours and one woman who was like a supervisor there, and it was well past 6:00 before we started back across the grass towards the road. A state trooper drove by just as we were going over the fence. He turned his head and looked at us. Fortunately he was gone around the bend before he would see us duck into the woods.
* * *
* * *
Evening
It was hot and the bugs were starting to come out. Nevertheless Jem peeled off the t-shirt and walked topless. The shorts that needed the bandanna to hold them up were riding right on top of her bottom. I took off my t-shirt too and used it to swat bugs off of all of us. But there would be Off on the boat.
‘What are we doing for the night?’ Jules wanted to know.
‘What would you like to do?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know…. I want to go for another swim, but I meant like for dinner and all….’
‘Are we moving the boat?’ Jem asked.
I shrugged. ‘We don’t have to. We have enough to eat. I thought we could go for a swim, like she says, and maybe take the canoe out later.’
‘Oo,’ Jules said, ‘let’s do that then.’
So on the boat we got out the little grille and sat in the cockpit, under the awning, grilling more hot dogs and precooked hash browns from the cooler and three ears of early corn that we had swiped from what Mom bought on Sunday. The men and boys with the canoes came back, waving and calling hello, and we smiled and waved back like good neighbors. Jem had put the t-shirt back on when we’d first seen them, but after we’d cleaned up the supper things and played a few hands of cards she took it off again, and the shorts, and went down the ladder into the water to float around. Jules said she was probably having a pee. Then the last of the Boy Scouts came back, skirting the trees along the shore of the River to be out of the tide so that we scarcely noticed them till they were 50 yards away. ‘Jem,’ I said quietly over the side, but she’d seen them and sort of backed towards the bow of the boat, keeping her shoulders at about water level. ‘Hello,’ I called to them as they turned the corner into the creek.
‘Hello,’ said the father said. Then he asked, ‘Do you camp here all night?’
I shrugged. We had nothing to fear from this guy. ‘Sometimes,’ I said. ‘Sometimes farther down.’
‘Lucky you,’ he said. We watched him trail his blade a little while the two boys in the front paddled. They seemed pretty little, but they were doing a pretty good job. The creek always runs down here– it’s fed by a falls over a dam at Batsto– and they were gliding pretty well at that moment. ‘Have a good night,’ the man said, and we waved and said goodbye and watched as they went off up the creek.
Jem came around to the stern of the boat then, hanging onto the rungs and leaning back to watch around the rudder as the last canoe crew went past the overhanging trees. They had scarcely noticed her and definitely wouldn’t have known she was naked. I really don’t know if Jem would have cared if they had known. She pulled herself up on the ladder, letting the water sheet off her body, and stood up on the top step, holding onto the backstay wire till she felt dry enough to step down under the awning. ‘Hun,’ I said gently to her, ‘there is another boat coming.’
She turned, saw it coming down the River from Sweetwater, and gave her head a shake before stepping down into the cabin. ‘This place is crowded,’ she complained.
I laughed. ‘But it’s not, really.’
‘Too many boys with canoes.’
‘They’re gone. They won’t even be camping overnight.’
‘How do you know?’
I laughed at her again. ‘They’re rented canoes, hun. They have to be back by dark.’
It was about 7:00 or 7:30. There was still another hour and a half of sunlight. We put on plenty of Off and I got out of the bikini, actually lying down under a sheet in my bunk and having a pretty good nap. Well– I’d been up since 5:45, and there’d been sun and activity, you know.
* * *
* * *
Excursion in the dark
I woke to the sound of something bumping the side of the hull and pulled myself right up to my feet, standing up in the hatch– and meeting eyes with Jem standing up in the canoe alongside. ‘Sorry,’ she said.
‘What have you guys been doing?’ I asked, as though that wasn’t obvious. They were both naked but it was dark, past 9:30, and there was no one on the River for the moment.
‘Recon,’ she said quietly, holding the canoe still where the creek’s current held it against the hull. ‘We just went up the creek a little. You’re
right– we’re all alone here.’
I nodded, rubbing my eyes like I’d been asleep for a whole night. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Do you want to go out in the River then?’
‘Yes, we want to go to Sweetwater,’ Jules said, from the back of the canoe. She had her life vest on, not zipped closed but hanging open like she usually wore it. ‘We heard music– they’re having some big party there.’
I wrinkled my nose. ‘It’s Tuesday night,’ I said.
‘Yes, and they’re having a Tuesday-night party.’
‘Okay. Let’s lock up the boat first.’
So we did, the way we usually do, and then I went down the ladder into the water and had my pee before pressing myself up into the canoe. I had no life jacket at all, and those two had nothing else with them in the canoe. If we were seen, the only modesty would be jumping into the water. But who would see us? All the activity– what little there is– around here after dark is in the campsites. We weren’t in a campsite. We weren’t near a road. We weren’t even that visible from the water. So, feeling adventuresome, we paddled out into the channel and turned down current, gliding upriver towards the bend that leads to Sweetwater. Far below us came the sound of a small outboard boat. We agreed to head closer to whichever shore seemed nearer and to just appear as three kids in a canoe. Very few people with outboard fishing boats care for people in canoes. They’d never even look our way.
Sure enough, lights were on and things were hopping at Sweetwater. It might not have been a party but there was music carrying out over the water and the restaurant seemed full. We sat for several minutes resting our paddles and looking the place over from the middle of the channel. I had a craving for a cold soda from the machine, but we had no money. I really don’t know if having no money was the only reason I didn’t paddle straight over there and strut up the dock to the machine. I do know I felt totally comfortable. The temperature and humidity exactly matched our body heat and sweat level, and we had no sensations of being underdressed even after dark. I think if anyone I knew from school had suddenly appeared I’d have just said ‘hi’ and struck up a conversation, never even thinking about having no clothes.
The outboard boat never came up this far. The houses across the River in Atlantic County all seem to have ramps or docks and the people must have put in over there somewhere. We were alone on the River again.
The tide was still coming in, but it was near the top and we might have waited another hour and simply glided back down towards Dove. But we made our way downriver, me paddling in front and Jules steering and Jem sitting up on the seat in the middle adding a few paddle-strokes and thinking of herself as a princess on the royal barge. We went well past where Dove was anchored and around the bend till we were looking at the boat-launch place and picnic area half a mile away. Not having anything else to do, and aware we would be paddling against the tide on the way back, we crossed the channel and made our way down the Burlington County side.
Halfway there a decent-sized motorboat came up the River, on his way to Sweetwater. There was no way to avoid it– they would pass us at the edge of the channel no more than 50 yards away. It was fully dark and we weren’t too sure of how well we’d be seen, but Jem handed me her life vest and then just half-cowered in the bottom of the canoe, leaning on the square throwable cushion as she waved to the people on the bridge deck. They waved back. Fortunately they did not turn any searchlights on us!
At the picnic area we went into stealth mode, creeping up on the little drainage canal and stowing our paddles away without a sound. I knelt in the canoe and pulled us in using branches, and stepped up while Jem tied us up. We had no idea if there were anyone in the picnic area, illegally or not, so till we had checked our perimeter this was all risky. I crept off into the grassy area of picnic tables, hurrying to the split-rail fence to see if any rangers had come to check on the place. For the moment there was nothing. ‘It’s clear,’ I said in a plain speaking voice on the way back. ‘Anyone need a loo?’
Jules laughed, tossing the life vest into the canoe and coming over the footbridge towards me. ‘No, but maybe a drink,’ she said. We all laughed because, from how she said that, it sounded like she meant a cocktail!
We all sauntered across the gravel parking area to the drink fountain in front of the rest rooms. Jules did go into the women’s room. In fact she was still in there when we heard the sound of a car coming in the lane.
‘Jules!’ Jem urged in a whisper. ‘We have company!’
‘Ee!’ came the squeak, and then we were all silent.
* * *
* * *
Surprise visitor(s)
The headlights illuminated the River over the bulkhead, and then the big tree in the middle of the parking area. The driver hit the gas and sort of raced into the parking area, like to tease his passenger. Jem reached in and shut the lights off on Jem then. Before the car had turned around we slunk around the corner and hid alongside of the building, where trees would block us even if the car turned all the way around.
My heart was thumping. It was not a ranger but some dark blue pickup, like some guy with his girlfriend, possibly looking for a place to make out for the evening. It’d be illegal– the place is closed after dark– and the first trooper or ranger who pulled in would have him. But we three knew that might not happen for the rest of the night! They only make very rare visits here. We’ve seen them, but they’ve never seen us. The reality was that this guy could be here till dawn.
He switched off his lights and we could see two heads in the car, sitting there facing the bulkhead and staring out at the River. We could hear the radio a little. But the engine was still running and he even had the air conditioning on– I heard the engine change tone as it kicked in.
That meant his windows were probably up. We didn’t hear any voices.
Jules was at the door of the women’s room, peering out from the darkened glass. Very slowly she swung the door open and slipped out, around the edge of the door and back around behind us. ‘I didn’t flush,’ she whispered.
‘Terrific,’ I said. For a few long moments we three naked chicks just crouched there, staring at the back of our invader. ‘Okay,’ I whispered to Jem then, ‘got any good plans?’
‘Crawl,’ she said, seriously, though we both knew it wasn’t as desperate as it had been that time we did have to crawl. It’d be over 100 yards across the gravel to where we had to go anyway.
‘Okay,’ I said, not worrying that he would hear my whisper. ‘We’ll just wait. He’ll either get bored of this and leave, or he’ll get too involved with staying here and not notice us.’
‘We can’t get to the fence from here,’ Jem said. ‘There’s no way.’
‘There are other ways,’ I whispered, and backed up, going around behind the building. It was prickly– I’m always afraid of poison ivy there, although it’s really just mild briars. I tiptoed past the other corner and came up in front of the ticket booth, peering around the other side at the back of the pickup at the bulkhead. If we were able to dash, one by one, towards the fence, get below it or even past it, and then just creep along the edge of the woods inside the fence till the clearing of the picnic area, we might just make it. But if either of those two people happened to glance back’.
‘Crawl,’ Jem said again, close behind me. ‘How far is it?’
‘Still too far.’
She looked and agreed. ‘So it would have to be a mad dash then,’ she said.
‘Yes. I say we give it a little more time. He might leave.’
‘Shhh!’ Jules hushed us. We all listened.
The guy had shut off the engine.
‘Drat!’ Jem swore. That’s how she swears.
‘Wait,’ I said, ‘that can be good or bad. They might just not be looking at anything.’
‘They might hear us,’ Jules worried.
‘Not with any noise we could make,’ I reminded her. ‘I say we give it a little more time.’
<
br /> ‘What if they need the bathrooms?’ Jules asked.
‘Then possibly one of them is going to find out you didn’t flush.’
A car came down 542 then. We listened till its sound vanished behind the woods and then faintly reappeared far off down the road. ‘I wonder if these people know about the rangers,’
Jem said.
‘It’s marked "Closed dusk to dawn",’ I said. ‘They know they’re not supposed to be there.’
They’re in the same trouble we’re in.’
Jules said, ‘Except they have clothes on!’
‘Maybe not now,’ I said, and we all giggled a little.
‘We have the advantage then,’ Jem said. ‘We could probably make a dash for it right now.’
I nodded. ‘We probably could.’
Suddenly there was another flash of light. We all looked– another set of headlights was making its way down the lane to the parking area.
‘Back behind the building!’ I urged us all in a whisper, and we ran back to where we had first been, around the corner from the door to the ladies’ room. The second vehicle came in, more slowly, its headlights making weird flashes on everything. I peered round, realizing almost too late that it was a searchlight– the ranger had come to patrol the area. ‘We’re saved,’ I whispered, with my back flat up against the side of the building.