by Jayne Louise
‘Ow!’ I heard Jules cry, and looked up just as she slapped her arm with something. ‘Crud,’ she said. ‘I need more Off.’
I smiled a little and stood up, starting back towards them. They were both carrying the boots, Jules still pecking at her arm with the boots together in one hand. Jem stepped down into the water by our mooring line, peering downwards as though she’d find Cape May diamonds or something. She stopped once or twice to pick up some shell and then let it go because it wasn’t perfect enough. ‘I think we should go,’ I said to Jules then.
She nodded. ‘I’m getting really hungry. Do we have to eat stuff on the boat?’
I shrugged. ‘What would you rather do?’
‘I don’t know… go to some restaurant maybe.’
I laughed. ‘Not a lot of places to choose from here!’
She made a face at me. ‘I meant like over in Tuckerton, or Beach Haven,’ she said. ‘Like for the night.’
‘Ask Jem what she thinks.’
‘Jem!’ she called, whirling around then. ‘Do you want to go to Tuckerton for the night? Maybe eat at Stewart’s?’
I shook my head. ‘I am not navigating all the way up there,’ I said.
Jem only waved a little and bent to pick up another shell. ‘Can’t go to Stewart’s like this,’ she said.
‘So true,’ I said.
Jules suggested that we swim back out to the boat– all of us. So we put the canoe’s mooring line back the way it’s supposed to be, leaving the boat’s little anchor in the front of the canoe, and just cast it adrift like that with the paddles tucked away and all our stuff in it. Then we all waded into the water and just followed the little anchor’s line back to the boat. It was fun, kind of daring in a way, and we all felt very free and safe and comfortable, not like the anxiousness we sometimes feel being naked in broad daylight. We were on our way home and there wasn’t much that was going to worry us about that.
Other boats went by and everything, but we stayed low in the water and I don’t think any of them ever suspected we were naked. It was almost 6:00 and the sun had cooled off a little and there was nearly no wind in the back channels. But we did have gas. Jules got on board first and scampered forward, taking up the little anchor’s line. The anchor was caught under the forward seat of the canoe and just came along with it. Jem hooked the towing bridle back onto the canoe and then guided it aft, while Jules carried the line back to the cleats on the stern. Jem let the canoe go and came round the back of the boat just as I was hanging on the boarding ladder. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘I’m having a pee.’
Jem laughed. ‘Okay.’ She hung onto the outboard motor there for a while and then said, ‘Are you dehydrated?’
I took a higher hold on the ladder. ‘Not after that!’ And I climbed aboard with a big ‘woosh’ of water falling off me.
Jules handed me a towel and we both went down to dry off and find something to put on. I was done with the gray-green shirt after two days and put on a navy-blue t-shirt, tying it up around my ribs, and my little black cotton shorts. Jules put on another tanktop and the cute little white shorts that make her look like about 11. It’s that adorable little ballerina body she has, you know. We decided to motor on up the bay a little farther and then maybe stop at Dock Road or somewhere for the night and heat up something for supper there. Home was at least three hours from here– there really wasn’t much point in hurrying that far in the dark. So Jules called home on the cell phone.
I stepped up into the cockpit to prime the gas line and realized Jem was still not on the boat. The canoe was dangling out on the end of the towing bridle, like it would be if we were under way. I started to feel really apprehensive till I saw her head coming around the other side of it. ‘Hey,’ I said, ‘you twit. What are you doing?’
‘Having a pee,’ she said, and laughed.
A speedboat had come under the second Great Boulevard bridge and passed by going south, closer to the boat than we’d seen anyone else go all afternoon. They waved to me. I waved back. The canoe bobbed over their wake then. I held onto the backstay as the swells reached Dove. ‘Pretty long pee.’
‘It’s delightful!’ she called up, and I don’t think she meant the pee. ‘I love a nice evening swim.’ She reached forward with both hands, lowering her head, and took a few strokes, using the frog kick as in breaststroke. Her bottom came up out of the water each time she brought both knees up and out. I know exactly how pleasant that feels too!
‘Anything bite your toes yet?’
‘No, Mom,’ Jules was saying, stepping up into the cockpit with me, ‘Jem is not here. Right now she is hanging onto the canoe about fifty feet behind the boat, goofing off.’
‘She’s having a delightful pee,’ I said, and laughed.
‘And she’s having a skinny dip,’ Jules said to Mom. ‘She’s been naked most of the day, actually.’
‘Oh dear!’ I heard Mom say on the other end of the phone.
‘It’s all right, Mother,’ I called at the phone, ‘we’re keeping a rein on her.’
Mom laughed. I bent down to squeeze the fuel bulb a few times and freed up the pull cord. Jules told Mom we were about to leave for our anchorage tonight and got off the phone.
‘So, nitwit,’ I said, ‘are you helping?’
Jem laughed, swimming out away from the canoe a little and rolling onto her back. Another speedboat passed by, this one to the south of us. They waved. Jem never even noticed. ‘Can you tow me home like this?’ she asked.
‘No. Get on the boat.’
She didn’t dress, even then. She just stayed in the hatchway so the fishermen on the Great Bay Boulevard bridge wouldn’t see. We motored off around the research station and joined the broad western channel heading towards the Manahawkin bridge. In another hour it was 7:30 and we were all starving. I steered us over towards the mainland, where the breeze would carry most bugs away from us, and we dropped the big anchor in about five feet of water. Jules started up the little grille in the cockpit and I brought the canoe alongside, setting the fenders against the hull and padlocking it to the cleat as usual. There was not much traffic at all and Jem stood up in the cockpit, brushing out her lush blond hair like a goddess. I could barely stand to look at her any more.
I did get the princess to help set up the table in the cockpit, and we put Off on all over before washing our hands for supper. The water tank was close to empty– we had not filled it this morning as we had planned. And half the ice in the 5-day cooler was gone. Jules served up supper from the little gas grill, precooked hot dogs and a can of macaroni-and-cheese, and we had the rest of the boxed cake for dessert. Jem phoned Mom, since Mom had requested it, and I guess Mom gave her some words about being naked all day. But I heard Jem tactfully explaining to her that that’s why we came here, that we are always very careful, and that I had been very responsible about everything and that I swam down to get the canoe after we were locked out of the boat club and all that. They exchanged ‘I love you’s and then she got off the phone.
‘So,’ she said, standing up at the end of the little cockpit table, ‘this is our last night then?’
‘Sure. But we’ll be home soon.’
Jem nodded. ‘Yes. I just wish we could get back at night, though, like that last time.’
Jules laughed. ‘When you walked home in your underwear!’
Jem didn’t argue. And she didn’t blush. ‘It was comfortable,’ she said. ‘What’s wrong with wanting to be comfortable?’
‘So sit your comfortable tush down,’ I said, ‘so we can play rummy here.’
She laughed, but she slid in next to Jules and I dealt the hands.
We played until it was too dark to see the cards and the bugs were starting to like the lantern too much. Then I switched on the masthead anchor light and we got ready for bed. Down below there were still a few bugs, so we each spread Off all over and I decided to leave the battery
-powered bug-zapper on all night. It’s not that noisy and not that obnoxious, and with the mosquito screens in the main hatch and the forward hatch, and the door to the head left open unless one of us went in there, it was not obnoxiously hot either.
We didn’t set the alarm clock. Tomorrow would be bikinis and a brunch of leftovers, and then about ninety minutes till we were home. As we said our prayers, each of us added a short collect about what we were thankful for, and as usual I went last. Jules thanked God for keeping us safe and helping us have a good time without anything bad happening. Jem thanked Him for health and safety, and for His forgiveness for her being so self-indulgent. I just said I was grateful for two wonderful sisters and best friends, and for the trust and love and admiration we all have for each other.
Then after we all said ‘Amen’, Jem said, in the dark, from the middle of the dinette bed above my head, ‘That’s not God, sweetheart. That’s what we choose all by ourselves.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘But it’s wonderful.’
‘Yes it is,’ Jules said.
‘Kiss to you,’ Jem called gently from the other bed.
‘Kiss to you,’ said Jules too.’
‘Kisses!’ I said happily, turning my head to blow them towards them. Then Jem turned and kissed Jules, and we all settled in under our own sheets and went to sleep.
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About Jayne
Jayne Louise was born in December 1987 and lived most of her youth in the seacoast resort of Surf City, New Jersey. She was taught in piano, cello, violin and guitar from an early age and co-founded, with her two younger sisters, a pop-music trio in 2002. The teens toured during the next three summers, adding the girls’ cousin and two others before recording, in 2006, their first of three CDs of original faith-based and youth-oriented rock music.
Besides music and literature Jayne’s interests include swimming, surfing, sailing and naturism. She first published components of the collection, Jayne’s Nature, online via personal blog and profile sites, chronicling the innocent adventures she and her sisters shared whilst hiking and boating throughout the New Jersey Pinelands.
She currently works in artiste management for a public-relations agency based in Ocean County, New Jersey.
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More adventures are told
in the upcoming complete edition
of Jayne’s Nature,
from Surf City Source media group.
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