Chapter 71

When I woke up, it was still very dark. I wasn’t sure how long I had slept, but it was apparent it couldn’t have been that long.

I woke up because my tummy was complaining. Well, not exactly my tummy, but more my bowels. I needed to go to the toilet, and I needed to go now.

I sat up on my cot and thought about what to do. I couldn’t just go into the woods and relieve myself there. First, it wasn’t the proper thing to do, and secondly, I also needed something to wipe my buttocks with. This gave me only one option. I slipped off my cot and, on my knees, crawled to Brad’s cot.

I gently shook his arm, and when he made a slide sound, I whispered, “Sorry to wake you.”

He grunted a little and then turned to face me. While it was dark, up close like this, we could see each other’s faces.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “What is it?”

“Umm ... I need to go to the toilet.”

“Need a flashlight?”

“Umm ... it’s a number 2,” I answered, glad he couldn’t see me blush.

“Oh!” he responded. “Give me a second.”

He swung his legs over the edge of the cot and stood up. After he had taken a few things from a pile of stuff, he said, “Follow me.”

I got up from the ground and followed him. Once outside, the moonlight was bright enough to make us see most of the surroundings. I also noticed that he was holding a flashlight and toilet roll. Something else I noticed was that he was only wearing gym shorts. He was also barefoot, just like me.

“Follow me,” he whispered, pointing to somewhere ahead.

While I followed him, I enjoyed the cool air all over my body. During the night, the temperature dropped to a more comfortable level. The summer temperature never drops too much, but the cool breeze makes it lovely this evening.

We walked past all the tents toward the big tent. We walked past it to the right and then went to the back. Eventually, we ended up at what they had built as a latrine. It looked a little like a small shed with eight doors next to each other.

I noticed that he was rolling some toilet paper around his hand and then pulled it off the roll. He handed the roll to me while saying, “Here, take this. You’re not the only one who needs to have a go.”

I entered the first stall while he walked towards a door a few doors from where I was standing. The toilet itself was little to speak of. It was just a wooden plank with a hole you could sit on. It was good that they had closed the sides so that not too much oder of the deposited waste could be noticed. I think I have smelled farts that reeked worse than this in the past.

I went sitting on the toilet and started to do my thing. When I let out of loud fart, I had a rush of shame coming over me. I really hoped Brad hadn’t heard it from where he was sitting.

And then, I heard a loud fart not coming from me. I couldn’t help and started giggling. Which in return made him laugh.

“Sorry about that!” I heard him say when he was done laughing.

“I can say the same,” I told him.

“At least we are in the right place,” he added and chuckled.

When I was done, I wiped myself clean and left the stall. I seemed to be the first one out.

I had to wait a few minutes, making me look around at the back of this large tent. Some machines were attached to the tent; from what I could see, I thought it had to be an Airco and maybe a cooling cell.

When I heard something behind me, I saw Brad walking towards me.

Knowing what he had heard made me feel ashamed, although Brad was a gentleman and didn’t say anything about it.

“I don’t know about you,” he said. “But I’m not really feeling tired right now.”

“Me neither,” I had to confess.

“Want to go inside the mess tent and have something to drink?” he asked me.

“Sure, that would be nice,” I told him.

He motioned me to follow him. Together, we walked to the front of the large tent and then went inside. It was darker inside the tent than before, but a few lights were still on. They gave just enough light to make me see enough from the inside to be comfortable.

“What do you want?” Brad asked.

“What do you have?”

“Anything you want.”

“Do you have fresh orange juice?” I asked.

“I’m sure we have,” he told me. “Just go sit over there, and I’ll be right back.”

He pointed to a table to the side for four people. I went to it and sat down. While waiting for Brad, I noticed this tent was rather fancy compared to others I had seen when I went to summer camps in my youth. The temperature inside felt just right. I’m sure I had been right about those machines in the back being responsible for that.

“You’re in luck,” Brad said when he returned. “There was still plenty of freshly squeezed orange juice.”

He was holding a large glass of orange juice in his hand; it looked like he had the same size glass with lemonade for himself. He placed the OJ before me and sat on the chair opposite me. We both took a sip of our drink and relaxed in the chair.

He looked at me, and I felt he wanted to ask me something but didn’t know how.

“What do you want to ask?” I urged him on.

He smiled at me and said, “You see through all people, don’t you?”

“Maybe,” I responded with a sly smile.

“I just wanted to ask you something about before,” he began and hesitated momentarily.

“Just spit it out!” I told him. “You can’t ask or say anything that will offend me.”

“Okay, here I go,” he said, sighing. “Are you always so easy with sexual things?”

“Can you elaborate?”

“Well, you masturbated yourself in front of me and my friends. And I think you weren’t the slightest bit embarrassed about it.”

“Well, I wasn’t embarrassed,” I told him. “Did I feel a little awkward doing it? Sure. But I didn’t feel any shame about doing it.”

I noticed he was looking at my body and said, “You’re so comfortable with your body. Even now, you are sitting there, talking to me, as if you aren’t even naked.”

“I don’t mind people seeing my body anymore, I think,” I told him. “I don’t know why, but a whole new world has opened for me this week.”

“Do you mean the thing that you told us earlier?”

“That, and other stuff. Since I have been caught naked in the woods by those who I think are now my best friends, I haven’t felt anything terrible anymore about being naked among people. Not that I was afraid before, but there was always something in the back of my mind that people would find what I was doing was wrong and maybe scold me.”

“But this week, I discovered that most people don’t get mad about it. Maybe a little curious and, well, also maybe a little naughty at times. But I rarely had a bad experience with anyone. That’s also why I’m so much at ease now.”

“I can understand that, but I don’t think people would react the same if it was a boy or man running around. Don’t you think so? You are a gorgeous woman. Don’t you think that’s also why people don’t thread you badly?”

“Could be ... I don’t know. Maybe I’ll convince a man to do it with me one day. Who knows.”

Brad smiled and said, “Before you ask. I’m not going to do it.”

“I wasn’t expecting you. But ... maybe one of my friends would do it for me. Could be fun.”

“Maybe. If you ever do, let me know, okay.”

“Why? Would you do it when you know you could get away with it?”

“Never!” he said. “But, I’m just curious about it. That’s all.”

I smiled at him in a teasing way.

“But there is also something else I want to ask,” he said to distract me from the current topic. “You also told us about that condition of yours. Aren’t you afraid you would do something one day that could get you hurt?”

“From what they told me. I would never do anything that would hurt me or others.”