Chapter 12

Clouds covered the lower end of the valley, and it was raining in Valley's End by the time they got there. The rain in Three Valleys was almost always cool because the clouds formed around the mountains much higher up. When it reached Lower the warm winds that blew in off the ocean and came up the coast would turn the rain warm. Walking in the rain there was like walking in a warm shower.

Sammi and her mother hurried from the cable car, catching amused looks from the locals.

"I've seen that before," her mother said as they undressed. "It's not like they have any clothes that would get wet."

"What about their hair, though?" Sammi asked. "Jeannette and the other girls from Seaside had such well-styled hair. Wouldn't that get ruined?"

"Most of the people out there didn't have fancy hair," her mother replied. She slipped on the sandals they'd brought. "This time of year it rains every day here in Lower, and their hair would get ruined." She picked up her briefcase and a small bag. "I'm ready."

"Just a moment," Sammi said. She put the last of her things in the locker and closed the door. She had her book bag and a towel. She felt a little awkward without the suitcase crammed full of clothes like she'd taken to Center, but you didn't take clothes to Seaside.

"Does it rain much in Seaside? Jeannette didn't say."

Her mother smiled as they rode down the escalator. "Let's just say it rains a lot. This time of year it's usually dry in the afternoon when the light's good for shooting."

There was a covered walkway to the train. As they waited Sammi looked around; Lower had a slightly worn look that had to be from the drizzle. There were a few diners at the restaurant, and a pair of young men with surveying equipment who were discussing something about their work.

"There's always a large crowd for the evening trains," her mother said as the train turned the corner and slowed for the station. "There are a lot of people who live in Upper and work down here, or who live in small communities near-by and make the trip in by train."

"Work down here? You mean they make the trip down the cliff every day?"

Her mother nodded. "There isn't much room for housing here in Lower. Most of the town is a commercial center."

Her mother pushed their tickets through the scanner and they found seats in one of the cars. The rain pulled out a couple of minutes later, dropping quickly and briefly curving away from the river. Sammi looked back. Lower, she could see, was built on a ledge. Buildings had filled nearly every available square inch of usable ground. That's why people commuted up and down the cliff, there was no more room to grow here.

Trees closed in on all sides of them. In the distance the river boomed over another waterfall. Clouds clung to the treetops, and after a few minutes closed around the cars. The rain had stopped and visibility was less than a hundred feet. The moss-covered trees were dripping water everywhere. The train slowed, pulling onto a siding, the doors of the cars opening with a sigh.

A couple got on; the woman was clearly pregnant and had her long hair covered by a bandana. Sammi watched them out of the corner of her eye. She saw a lot of pregnant women in the Valley, mostly newly married women in their 20's. She just hadn't seen them unclothed, even at the swimming pools.

Another train passed them headed toward Lower. After the tracks were clear they started moving. The temperature began to rise as they emerged from the clouds. She knew that the altitude difference between the Lower and Seaside was 3,500 feet. Because of the ocean and the coastal breezes Seaside was supposed to be a lot warmer. The air coming in through the windows was sluggish and moisture-laden, promising a sultry day like you almost never got in the Valley.

They stopped again, and more people got on. Sammi knew people lived back in these woods; they had to like the solitude and wet. She wondered where their kids went to school. It had to be something like where Rod lived. Could she find a place to stay near his school? She'd have to find out.

They topped small hill. The sea was visible stretched out to the horizon, and the clouds seemed like they were cut off with a knife. Suddenly there was blue sky above them. Sammi looked back over her shoulder; she could see nothing but the white cotton of the clouds blotting everything from sight.

"This is one of my favorite views," her mother said, looking out over the ocean. She pointed to the right. "You can see some of the coastal islands over there. We're just starting to develop those."

"Fishing?"

"In part. We don't have to worry about over-fishing like they do in Zero Phase. This is one of the prime fishing grounds on the Pacific Coast, and is the main reason for developing railroads and other connections to Center. In one way it'll be good for Three Valleys, we'll have contact with the outside world without going through Zero Phase. But on the other..." She shrugged. "It'll mean more people from outside."

Sammi thought of more kids at the school, and then realized they would be like those girls she'd met at Center. Somehow she couldn't see any of them taking Sex Ed, or swimming naked, or any of the other things that went on at school. She remembered something Jeannette had said and smiled; restrooms were something they wouldn't be able to handle.

They began to roll past orchards and farms. Everyone in the fields looked tanned and healthy. She saw one guy digging in a ditch. He stopped and looked up at the train, wiping the sweat from his eyes as he did so. The muscles of his shoulders gleamed in the sunlight. She remembered where she was, and stifled the thought she had: if only he'd turned around. She felt a little warm, and it wasn't from the air blowing through the windows.

This might be harder than I thought, she said to herself.

They emerged from the last orchard, the buildings of Seaside sliding past them. The train lurched as it changed tracks and began to slow. With a squeal of brakes and a shudder they finally came to a stop.

"End of the line," a voice said over the loudspeaker. "Please mind your step while disembarking."

Sammi and her mother gathered up their few things. "The hotel is to our left," her mother said as they passed through the station.

They emerged on a business street that looked exactly like the one in Midtown, except everyone was naked. Sammi followed her mother down the street, trying not to look at the guys. The sun was blinding, but they stayed under the canopies stretched out above them.

"There aren't any cars," Sammi said, as they paused next to a street fountain. She was used to the electric delivery runabouts she saw every time she was in Midtown.

"They're here," her mother said. "I believe there's a law that says they aren't allowed on the street during daylight. People get around by walking. They say it's healthier."

"What about outside of town?" She had looked at a map of Seaside; there were a lot of things outside of the central business core.

"That's where you'll see the runabouts, at least during the day. There's the hotel, down at the end of the street." She looked at her watch. "It's just after 1:30; we made better time than I thought we would."

"And your meeting is at 2:00?" They'd resumed walking. Sammi wanted to lag behind and window-shop, but her mother was setting a brisk pace.

"They're supposed to meet me at 2:00 in the lobby of the hotel. We should be done by 6:00, at least today. I expect we'll have to meet again tomorrow. These things are seldom settled in one meeting."

The hotel looked just like the one in Terminus, its exterior a light-colored stone with red trim and tinted glass. It looked as if it had been designed by a committee that couldn't agree on things.

The woman behind the desk was a brunette who looked only a few years older than Sammi. She checked them in and gave them a map of the town. "This time of year most shops stay open until 8:00," she said, "and tonight there's a concert in the city park."

"What about outdoor activities?" Sammi's mother asked. "The last time I was here I rented a bike and took an excursion. Do you have anything like that?"

"The hotel has a number of hiking trails behind the bend of the cove," the woman said. "They're little used right now because school is in session. The views, however, are spectacular. Aside from that, the hotel has a complete range of beach activities that you're more than welcome to use."

"I was thinking of just sitting outside somewhere and doing my homework," Sammi said. "After it's done, though, I might be interested in something else."

"We have canoeing," the woman said. "As long as you stay in the cove it's quite safe."

Sammi and her mother both nodded. "Very well," her mother said. "Now then, which way to our room?"

"Go to the top of the stairs, turn left, and go all the way to the end. Your room will be on your right."

"Sammi!"

Sammi turned around. Jeannette was just getting out of a chair on the side of the lobby. "You made it."

"Jeannette?" Sammi glanced at the clock. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be in school."

"I got a pass out of my afternoon classes," Jeannette said, coming over. "I'd heard you were going to be in town, and I thought I'd show you around the school."

"I called her," her mother said. "I thought you might be a little bored or lonely with me being tied up in a meeting all afternoon."

"Fair enough," Sammi said. This certainly beat sitting around studying. "Let me dump my books and I'll be right back."

The room had two beds, a small bathroom, and a balcony overlooking the bay. Sammi tossed her book bag on one of the beds, and hurried back downstairs.

"We have to get you gooped up," Jeannette said as they left the hotel.

"Gooped up?"

"Don't want you to get a sunburn." Jeannette stopped at something that looked like a shower with a detachable. "This is sunscreen. It's here for the people who come down from the Valley."

Sammi lifted her hair and twirled around while Jeannette sprayed her. When she was done Jeannette led her down the street. "So many people who come down here from the Valley left with a sunburn that the hotel finally put it in."

"Do the people who live here use it?"

Jeannette nodded. "From time to time. Mostly we've don't need it, though. We've been tanning all of our lives."

Sammi was distracted by a pair of men standing with their backs to her. She stared at their butts and legs; they were tanned and looked tight, and she wanted to run her hands over them.

"How are you doing?" Jeannette asked, following her gaze.

Sammi swallowed and looked away. "What do you mean?"

"Being nude all of the time."

"I... uh, it's..."

"Distracting?"

Sammi nodded. "How can you... how do you ignore that... the..."

"The guys?" Jeannette smiled. "Well, first, you're not supposed to stare. Everybody's nude, so after a while you don't really notice. I mean, you do, but you don't." She chuckled and lowered her voice. "And if some gorgeous hunk just happens to pass in front of you, at least you don't react like guys do."

Sammi swallowed. There was a tall, slim guy just in front of them who filled her definition of 'hunk'. He was holding hands with a woman who was clearly pregnant, but she didn't care about that. The guy... she'd love to meet him at a pool party.

"How... how do guys cope?"

Jeannette shrugged, her eyes never leaving the guy in front of them. "I really don't know. They do, that's all I know."

They passed the railroad station and Jeannette cut across the street and started up the hill, staying in the shade. "The school is just up here," she said. "We have a great view of the ocean. It can get really dramatic during the stormy season. The waves hit the breakwater and get flung high in the air."

"Our winters are just one rain storm after another," Sammi said. "My mother had to go to Center last winter. She told me it was like what we saw up on the ice sheet, snow coming down all of the time."

"Do you think the ice sheet is still moving south?" Jeannette asked. "I heard a rumor that it was."

Sammi shrugged. "I don't know. Could be." She stopped and shaded her eyes. "Where's your school?"

"It's that two-story building there on the left. There's a grade school just beyond it. You can hear the kids on the playground from here. There's a row of trees between us and the grade school, and that seems to block most of the sounds."

The high school was a two-story building with an athletic field to the north or right. As they came level with it, Sammi could see kids at the far end of the athletic field. They seemed to be all boys.

"Do girls have P.E.?" she asked Jeannette as they walked up the steps of the school.

"Couldn't get out of it if we wanted to," Jeannette said. "We were doing swimming this morning. The boys are playing soccer or something."

"Ah. We do a lot of swimming in gym class, at least twice a week."

"That's how I got interested in diving." Jeannette opened the door; it was marginally cooler inside. "Administrative offices and the library are here near the front door. The gym and cafeteria are in back, while most of the classrooms are upstairs." She started down the locker-lined hall. "I might as well show you everything."

"Is the building air-conditioned? It seems cooler, but not that much cooler."

"Fans and dehumidifiers," Jeannette said. "My oldest brother is studying that. He said the only place that's truly air-conditioned is the city's computer room, and that's because of the equipment, not for the people who work on it." She laughed. "The people there actually dress up! He said they keep the place at 65º; that's just a little too cold for comfort."

"Sort of like the lodge of that place we went to near the Ice Sheet?"

"That place was cold. I don't care what they said, the lodge had a breeze next to the floor. I couldn't wait to get up to my room."

The cafeteria looked like any other cafeteria Sammi had seen: tables with benches, and a serving line in front of a kitchen. The locker room had a line of blue tile down the middle of the room, a line that extended into the large shower at the far end of the room. There were kids in the shower; with relief Sammi saw that it wasn't like what she'd heard about the schools near Center, separate showers for boys and girls. The girls were on the left of the blue line, the boys on the right. It matched the lockers on the left where there were girls drying their hair, and ones on the right that the boys were using.

"Why do you have lockers?" Sammi asked. "It's not for clothes, is it?"

"We have to put our books somewhere," Jeannette said. "And for us girls, well, there's that time of the month, you know."

Sammi nodded. She could see two girls wearing panties. She'd wondered what they did about that.

"What do you guys do?" Jeannette asked as they left.

"We share a locker room just like this," Sammi said. "The only real difference that I can see is that the lockers are assigned alphabetically, and we don't split up the shower like you do."

"You mean you... mingle?" Jeannette's face flamed. "Doesn't that lead to... well... you know... touching?"

"Boys and girls touching?" Sammi nodded. "It happens."

"But isn't that... doesn't that..." Jeannette trailed off, her face red.

"Sometimes there's more than just touching," Sammi added.

Today had been a perfect example. They'd been in the shower after gym and Brad Wilkes had gotten an erection. This sometimes happened with the kids who had Sex Ed later in the day. There'd been much giggling about it from the girls, and a few suggestions about what they could do about it.

"We're going to have to get you off," Sarah Borgenicht said, "that's the only way we'll get this thing to go down."

Sarah knelt and took Brad's cock in hand, jacking it as she sucked him. Everyone else stood around watching. Brad must have been close--after only a minute he closed his eyes, moaned slightly, and came. Sarah swallowed as fast as she could, but some of his jism escaped her lips and dribbled down her chin.

Sammi could feel herself getting turned on. Normally she didn't, but today seemed to be an exception. She ran her hands over her breasts--her nipples were taut with feeling and if she hadn't been standing in the shower she just knew she'd feel wetness on her thighs.

"Whew," Sarah said, straightening up, "that was quite a mouthful."

"Got some on your chin," Sammi said.

Sarah wiped it up with her finger. "You better have some for me in class."

Brad was leaning against the wall, his red cock shrinking. He took a couple of deep breaths before smiling sheepishly. "I will."

Sarah asked as she ran her hands over Brad's body. "I'll hold you to it."

Sammi sighed and turned the water on even harder. This looked like it was going to be a long, hard afternoon.

"What was that?" Jeannette asked, breaking her reverie. "You said more than touching?"

"Forget I said it," Sammi said. She nodded at a girl who was pulling on what looked like a thong, though it only covered the girl's pussy. "What's with that? I thought the rule was 'all nude all of the time'."

"Oh, that. She's wearing that because it's her time of the month. When you wear that you look mostly nude; people hardly notice that you aren't." By then they'd left the locker room. Jeannette opened her mouth to say something, but a bell rang and kids began spilling out of the classrooms and down the stairs.

Sammi and Jeannette stepped to one side. Sammi had thought to study the guys, but she found herself distracted by the girls. Their breasts bobbed and bounced as they came down the stairs. It reminded her of when she was younger, and the day she'd learned why you wore a bra. She'd come running up from the trolley stop, and her boobs had actually hurt from bouncing so much. That afternoon she and her mother had gone into town and she'd bought her first bra.