Chapter 90

Patricia’s mother was at the table when we arrived, sitting in the chair beside Arthur’s former spot. My seat, marked by a towel, was opposite Arthur, with Patricia next to me.

“Where’s Arty?” Patricia’s mother asked, looking in the direction of the den.

“He needs a little time,” Patricia said, smiling.

“You told him everything?”

“Most of it, yeah.”

Patricia’s mother then looked at me. “I just remembered I haven’t introduced myself to you yet. I’m Monica.”

I smiled at her and said, “Thanks for reminding me. I knew you had told your name to Louisa in the shop, but I couldn’t remember it.”

“No problem, we haven’t spoken to each other that much.” She then looked at Patricia and asked, whispering, “Did you tell her?”

“About Arty’s interest? Yeah, I did,” Patricia whispered back.

“Judging by his reaction, he really is into it.”

“I guess so.”

“Here he comes!”

I glanced left and saw Arthur approaching. I discreetly checked his groin area—no bulge, so he must have recovered. He joined us at the table.

“Let’s dig in,” Monica said jokingly.

Dinner was simple, healthy home cooking, but I liked it. Monica made mashed potatoes, peas, and a nice-looking hamburger. Each of us had a serving, with extra mashed potatoes and peas in bowls on the table.

We began eating. While simple, Monica had seasoned the dinner perfectly. I loved the nutmeg in the mashed potatoes—it made them much tastier. The peas were fresh and had a pleasant extra flavor. The hamburger was perfectly cooked. I was grateful for the invitation; when I started eating, I realized how hungry I was from running earlier.

“What do you want to drink?” Monica asked me.

“Anything’s fine,” I told her.

“Soda, water, just name it.”

“Some soda would be nice,” I told her.

“Coke or Lemonade.”

“Coke, please. Thank you!”

“I’ll get it, mum,” Patricia said and got up.

“So,” Monica said, while looking at me. “How did you end up like this? I already picked up some of the things you said, but still, I think there is something more behind it.”

I looked at her and said, “It’s a rather long story.”

“And what would be the short version?”

I thought about it while Patricia filled our glasses and sat back with us.

“To be honest. It all started with me feeling an urge. I have always been fantasizing about certain things, and this summer, I wanted to do one of them for real.”

“Okay?” Monika said to urge me on.

In short, I wanted to do a nude walk in the forest, but with a twist. I hid chains attached to trees, planning to lock myself out of my home, visit all the trees to replace a key, and then return inside.

“Sounds interesting,” Monika said while smiling.

I noticed that Arty was also listening very intently.

To make it more daring, I chained my hands behind my back and my ankles together to make moving harder.

“Now it’s getting a little weird,” Monika said, but I saw her smile and knew she was joking.

“I had been preparing for this a long time, but of course, the day I did this, something went wrong. I was caught by a group of, well, Arthur’s age.”

“Oh my!” Monika gasped.

“But they were kind to me. They didn’t abuse me or anything, and eventually walked me home. While taking some pictures of me, of course.”

“I bet with their...”

“Of course,” I responded with a giggle.

“However, once home, they decided to have some fun with me. So, I needed to come with them to one of their aunts’ homes. My next-door neighbor, in fact. And this, while I was naked, of course.”

“How did she react?”

“She was very understanding. Apparently, she and my mother had talked about me and expected something like this. That was confirmed last Friday. Since then, except for a few exceptions, I’ve been naked with them.”

“Did they force you to do that?”

“Well, yes and no. They are now very good friends, and we have even started a little business together.”

“A business, what kind of business?”

I smiled and said, “Well, it’s one of those ... umm ... nude websites with me as the main attraction.”

“Really? Aren’t you afraid this could give you trouble later in life?”

“Maybe. But with people more at ease about these things, thanks to the many girls and boys that did this in the past couple of decades, I don’t think it’s that bad anymore.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Yeah, mum, while we were running through the street, she only got ... let’s say, positive reactions. Except for one woman who tried to be nasty with her, but we managed to get away from her.”

“You will have some people stuck in the old ways like that. It’s just who they are. But I’m going to be very honest with you, girl, I think it’s very brave what you are doing, and I don’t have any objection to it. People should be able to express themselves in any way they want, as long as what they do doesn’t hurt anyone else. But, nevertheless, I still need to warn you. What you are doing can also get you into a lot of legal trouble.”

“Do you think so?” Patricia asked.

“See. While many people are more accepting of, well, nudity and other more extreme forms of sexuality, the law is still lagging behind, and being naked in public, or performing some sexual acts, even between consenting adults in private, can result in prosecution. Most of the time, they get an amicable settlement in the form of a fine. But now and then, some of them end up in court and get a more severe punishment. So, Anita, try to be careful what you do in public. And if you get caught by someone from an official agency, like the police, when you are naked outside. Just cooperate with them, and you probably will get off with a fine. But never engage in a sexual act in public, that’s something you will end up in jail for and in front of a judge.”

“How do you know all of this?” Patricia wanted to know.

“Have you forgotten your dad’s a lawyer?”

“No, of course not. But I thought he was a corporate lawyer?”

“He is now, but in his early days, he defended a lot of people who were considered sex offenders, while the only thing they did was to be a little too sexual in public. Luckily, those days of putting everyone on the sex offenders list are over. But back in the day, even a woman accidentally showing a nipple in public could end up on the list. It has been very bad for a while; luckily, when we got a more liberal president, it became better again. Now, the only real sex offenders that end up on the list really deserve it, but at the same time, they are also helped, if possible. And, of course, in the past decade, something changed in our society, and there is a lot less crime.”

“Wow! I didn’t know anything about this,” Patricia said. “This is something that has never been mentioned at school.”

“Well, while it was bad for some, sex crimes have often been hidden from what they call the normal people. It’s only when you are part of the system, even as a lawyer, that you find out about the darker side of society. But, as they say, those days are mostly gone now. And I’m sure glad about that. Because,” she looked at me again, “if you had been running around like that, forty or fifty years ago, you wouldn’t have had any fun doing it. By now, you probably would have ended up in a hospital because ... well, there is no nice way to say this ... You probably would have been raped by a group of men.”

“Wow! Really?” I asked, shocked.

I knew there was a time women had to be careful alone, but not that it was this bad. I’ve never heard of any women being raped in my memory.

I realized I, too, sometimes worried about being molested—even raped—doing what I did. Still, in my mind, I’d decided that if someone asked for sex, I might have said yes.

It was maybe also, well, I had some fantasies about being caught and then having sex with that person or even persons that had caught me. So yeah, maybe women’s mindset has also changed over the years. We were more open-minded about sexual encounters these days, even with total strangers. And with the advancements in medical care, STDs were almost completely gone. Also, thanks to the easy methods available to test ourselves and prove that we were totally healthy. It’s now safer to have sexual encounters with strangers.

I really hadn’t thought about this like this until now, but that’s maybe also why you don’t hear about people being raped anymore. Because when they feel like it, they just have sex with each other, while in the past, women would often say no, afraid to attract a disease, or maybe because the morals back then were that sleeping with strangers was not done. So, some men would get frustrated and force themselves on women. Could it be this simple? Maybe. I had no clue, but I do know it’s much safer today than back in the day.

“You were deep in thought,” Monica said when she noticed I was back paying attention.

“Yeah, just some things you said made me think.”

“About, stopping what you are doing?”

“No. Not exactly, more on why it was now much safer to do it than back in the day.”

Monica smiled and said, “Okay, you got one of the points I made, but not that it’s still illegal.”

I smiled at her and said, “Who knows, maybe I’ll change the law by what I am doing. If those people in charge like what they see.”

Monica giggled and said, “Yeah, maybe! Who knows. I for sure wouldn’t mind seeing more people just doing what they want, if it’s wearing less and showing more.”

“So, mum, you wouldn’t mind me running around naked then?” Patricia said, smiling mischievously.

“Don’t you dare, missy!” Monica said. “Or your bottoms will be fiery red!”

“I thought you were so open-minded about it,” Patricia complained.

“You’re still sixteen!” Monica said. “Until you’re eighteen, you do as I say, and don’t break any laws.”

“So, you wouldn’t mind me doing it then,” Arthur shimmed in.

“As if you would, bro,” Patricia said. “You’re way too shy to do a thing like that.”

And to prove Patricia’s point, he started blushing while he looked at me sheepishly. Nope, he wouldn’t be running around in public without clothes, I was sure about that.