Chapter 15: The Second Wide Game

The second Wide Game had more rules. Jo-Lene wanted to avoid the girls exposing themselves quite so much. Not that she particularly objected to Clive getting an eyeful of camp friends’ boob, but some of the younger, more impressionable campers might be upset. Or they might simply revel in it and joyfully tell how ‘Tracey Malone and Jilly held me down and tore all my clothes off; oh! Just the top Mama, nothing rude, and they found my ribbon and then Clive walked past and saw me and then I got dressed and went for a shower and it was such fun and ... what? Clive? Oh he was the camp boy. Nooo not camp in that way, definitely not camp in that way. He said I had nice tits. Oh Mama, tits isn’t a rude word. It’s just slang, you know. He said... ‘ but by then it would be too late, the matriarch would be on the phone to the ‘action against porn’ or her lawyers and the camp would be no more. Which would be a pity, because these girls, many of them dainty ladies when they arrived, learned to be free-er and happier. Many would surprise their similarly well-bred spouses in years to come by announcing a camping trip for the family and Tristan or Xavier would find himself sleeping under the stars with an entranced child, listening to his wife talk about when they saw a bear in the woods.

So, anyway, this wide game had more rules, and four umpires instead of two, and Clive was banned from the field; just in case.

“Seems unfair, since I introduced the game.”

“Mr Skythe, you know what happened last time. Supposing Lulu was stripped to her undies and you saw? Oh, you can smile, but her father is Under-Secretary of State for Education. He might be less keen on extra-curricular nudity.

No doubt your fan club will make it up to you.” She smiled at him, he still had the feeling he was about to be eaten, but he resisted the impulse to step back.

“Yes, I know. She said he might pick her up if he had time. I’m hoping to have a quick word; if I could get a reference from him then that would be useful in an application for post-grad at Yale.”

“There, you see? Better to talk to him without the image of his pretty little girl’s mammaries in front of your eyes.

How are you finding Doctor Thorne?”

This was book three in the Barchester Chronicles.

“Good, it even distracted me a little ... nevermind”

“Oh, Clive! Surely not finding a good book better than sex? Oh, dear.” She was laughing. Once more, old hands at the camp looked up at the barking laugh. They were finding it hard to get used to a jovial leader. In past years some had nicknamed her Stalin. There was no doubt the camp was still well-run, enjoyable and valuable. Now it was happy. Happy was not a description that would have arisen before. Morning talks even covered subjects like being nice to each other, looking out for each other; where previously they would have been an opportunity to remind campers not to drop litter. The camper who dropped litter would still find herself in danger of being dragged to her doom by an angry crocodile though. Jo-Lene still saw all in that mysterious way she had. She had had a ‘quiet word’ with Melissa-May and Janet-May, twin sisters, about their overly demonstrative public displays of affection. What she did not say was ‘don’t do it’, it was more nuanced; left things open to interpretation – it meant ‘don’t do it so publically’. She understood that they still shared one bed at night; she wouldn’t interfere provided the noise wasn’t too disturbing.

The game commenced, and Clive went down to the boat shed to do some maintenance. He wished he could be walking around the game, but understood the reason why not. Despite all of Jo-Lene’s new rules, he was pretty sure there would be some pretty robust searching. One rule was that the secret band could not be inside under-clothing – meaning bras since the midriff to the knee was still forbidden territory – but he was sure some girls would find themselves fully exposed from the waist up. Last time, he heard, a couple of girls were stripped to the waist even after they’d surrendered their prizes. He hadn’t seen, but he did believe. These girls would be no different, they like to humiliate, and also liked to be exposed ‘involuntarily’. It was all part of the excitement.