Chapter 8: Recruiting Carla - Can a Naked 16 Year Old Help Save Stripped for Florida?

“What flavor would you like?” Carla asked the man who had just pulled out his wallet.

“‘I Scream for Rocky’,” he replied with a laugh, calling Rocky Road by its IScream name. “And just water to drink, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all” said Carla, walking over to the drink fountain behind her to fill his beverage order.

When she handed him his water and ice cream, he showed her his ID and said, “My name is Bob Halson, I’m with Stripped for Florida, and I’d like to speak with you for just a moment about how you might could help us out with something. I believe you’re about to get off?”

“In ... two minutes, actually,” she said, glancing at the clock on her computer screen.

“Could we talk for a second in the food court?” he asked.

“Sure!”

Bob waited beside a table in the food court enjoying his I Scream for Rocky. In just a couple of minutes Carla came out of a door beside the shop. She no longer wore the little I-Scream hat. She still had on the sneakers and the pistachio-colored socks, but nothing else. She also had a small purse slung over her shoulder.

“Please forgive me for contacting you like this,” said Bob as they both sat down at the little table in the food court. “Normally we would send a letter. But it’s rather urgent.”

Carla blanched. Her first thought was of the time a couple of months ago when she and three clothed kids rode up to see a friend in Valdosta, in south Georgia, late one Friday night. They took off on a whim, and Carla didn’t bother to try to round up any clothing to wear before they crossed the state line. She got out of the car at their friend’s house (it was after dark) and stayed the night. The next morning she walked back out to the car in the nude, in broad daylight. As they were driving away, they thought a lady across the street watering her plants might have seen her. And a couple of redneck-looking boys in a pickup truck were behind them almost to the Florida line, until finally, to everyone’s relief, they turned off. There was no trouble--they didn’t get pulled over or anything--but she was afraid this visit from a Stripped for Florida official was about her having been illegally nude in another state.

“Is this about ... Georgia?” she asked.

“No, this is all Florida,” said Bob. “We’d like to solicit your help with a matter that could potentially endanger the entire Stripped for Florida program.”

“Oh my!”

Before Bob started filling her in, Carla said “I have to take some money to my friend Emanuel at Bath and Body Works before he gets off, which is right about now. It’s just past the escalators, on Level Two. Could we talk up there?”

“Why of course,” said Bob, getting up.

Bob and Carla walked to the Escalator and took it to the next floor. They made small talk as they walked. Emanuel was just coming out of Bath and Body Works as they were walking up. Carla handed him the money, they chatted for a second, then she was free to talk.

Bob and Carla sat on a bench across from Abercrombie and Fitch. Bob opened a satchel and took out some papers.

“The weather’s been pretty cool this week,” said Bob.

“Yes it has,” Carla agreed.

“You know, up in north Florida they had a real cold snap last week. The coldest on record and something like 50 years.”

“I heard about that.”

Carla wondered why he was making small talk about the weather if this matter was so urgent.

“The stripped kids up there we’re pretty cold.”

“I can imagine! Were they allowed to wear clothes?”

“They should have been,” said Bob. “But there’s no provision for that in the Stripped for Florida regulations. Their having a meeting in Tallahassee Monday to talk about drafting provisions for unseasonable weather.”

“Well, that’s good,” said Carla.

“It is,” said Bob. “Definitely. But there’s a problem. There are people who would oppose the Stripped for Florida program. We think they’re going to use this hearing to try to derail it.”

“Oh no. Why? I heard it had pretty much saved the state from going bankrupt.”

“You’re absolutely right. It’s done a lot more, too. It’s making Florida one of the most affluent states in the nation. It’s bringing tons of benefits to every resident.”

“So what do they want to hurt it?”

“Good question. You know, Carla, the northernmost counties, at least the ones between Jacksonville and Pensacola--Hamilton, Madison, Suwannee and those--they’re pretty much in a south Georgia mindset. And that’s a whole other world from the world you live in down here. That mindset doesn’t change the instant you cross the state line.”

“Ha! Tell me about it!”

“A lot of residents up there, particularly the older ones, they could never have imagined they’d one day live in a world where kids of all ages would go in and out of stores and restaurants and walk down the sidewalk in broad daylight, wearing nothing more than ... well ... what you’re wearing now,” he said, gesturing toward Carla, who was sitting there on a bench in the middle of a busy mall with nothing on save for her shoes and pistachio-colored socks. “Their brains would have exploded if they knew their grandkids would be going to school naked.”