Chapter 1

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 13 2005 8:30AM

William (Bill) Herschfeldt took his wife Caroline into his arms as they waited for the taxi that was taking him to Tullamarine airport. "I should be home late Thursday afternoon," he said as he patted her on the bottom and took one of her firm 38C breasts into his hand. Then grinning he added, "Will you be doing any painting while I'm gone?"

"You know I will darling. His name is Justin Robertson." responded Caroline as she wiggled in her husband's strong embrace enjoying the feel of his hands on her bottom and her breast. "And he'll also be naked when I paint him and in all probability will also have an erection."

"You will of course be having sex with him, won't you?"

"Oh Bill REALLY! Now you know better than to ask a question like that. I mean we do have an unspoken agreement don't we. Unless of course you plan to tell me all about what you do in Sydney with those sexy young things when you're not in those business meetings of yours. After all we did decide that what we don't know won't hurt us, didn't we. Especially in the current climate of sexual freedom."

It was at that point that a toot of a car horn out the front indicated the arrival of his taxi. Bill gave his wife a last kiss and continued to hold her hand as they walked to the front door. Grabbing hold of his case with his other hand he gave Caroline one last kiss before saying, "Maybe we'll sit down and talk when I get back on Thursday. Would you like that?"

Caroline smiled, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him passionately. "Oh darling you know I would. It's about time Tara and Valerie both got to know the real William Herschfeldt, that fun loving adventurous man I married."

"I can't promise anything darling but I can promise to try. Who knows maybe one day I might let you paint that picture of me that you've wanted to do for so long so that you can hang it alongside the picture of you reclining on our three-seater couch."

Caroline gave him a very ladylike giggle and patted his bottom. "Then I'd know you've changed. But that's for later, we can't have you missing your flight now can we?" She stepped back and adjusted her dressing gown so that there wasn't a chance of anyone, especially the taxi driver, discovering that she was nude beneath it.

Bill walked out to the taxi and placed his case in the boot before indicating to the driver standing between the front and rear doors of the passenger side that he would sit in the front passenger seat. After the driver had opened the front passenger door he sat down and after closing the door used the button on the doorhandle to open the automatic window so he could lean out to kiss Caroline who had bent forward expectantly. "Bye darling," he said as he kissed her. "And I promise, we will talk."

He continued to wave until he was out of sight of his wife near the end of their street, Hawke Street. Realising that he hadn't had any breakfast he asked the driver to go through the drive-thru of the local McDonalds

A couple of minutes later they were following a white van and a four wheel drive through the drive-thru. When the taxi driver pulled up at the window and ordered the bacon and egg macmuffin meal and the large juice he'd told him he wanted Bill found himself just staring. At the window was a topless girl wearing just a bow tie with a name tag that said Tina. At first he thought she may have been naked but when, after he had passed the money to the driver to hand to her, he saw her momentarily leave her seat he realised that she was wearing French cut yellow panties that matched her bow tie.

As they pulled out of the fast food restaurant and began the long journey to the airport Bill turned to the driver Steven. He had noted on his taxi licence, posted as per the law in a prominent place above and to the left of the driver, that his name was Steven Byrne. After he had taken a small bite of his hash brown he couldn't help but ask the driver who looked as if he was in his middle to late fifties, "Steven, how long have they been... er... dressed, or should I say undressed like that at McDonald's restaurants?

The driver thought for a moment before he answered his passenger. "Oh since the end of November. What's that make it, about two and a half months." He laughed. "You know I think every time my grandchildren stay with Marge, that's my wife, and me, they are always after going to McDonalds. Especially the boys."

"So does that mean that Marge doesn't join you?" asked Bill as he finished his hash brown and took a sip of his orange juice.

He grinned. "Oh no she comes too. At our McDonalds they have a small section where young men serve dressed in small briefs that are tight enough to highlight their..." He hesitated. "To highlight their physiques."

Bill laughed. "My wife would be love the idea. She's a big fan of the human body, she paints nudes all the time and I think she would like nothing better than sitting in a McDonalds and painting some of those gorgeous young people."

Steven Byrne thought for a moment. "Excuse me for asking but something about your name seemed familiar. Is your wife's name Caroline, the woman that had that exhibition that was forced to close down a few years ago courtesy of some very narrow minded people who thankfully no longer have a say in such things?

"I only ask because my wife managed to buy a copy of that picture of a mother and her two children, a boy and a girl. It was the one where the mother was seated on a couch naked with her legs spread so that her equally naked children could occupy a knee each.

"It seemed that people were offended because not only could the mother's genitals be clearly seen but also those of the young teenage children." The taxi driver glanced briefly at Bill before continuing. "It was also rumoured they were upset because they were both resting their head on their mother's shoulders while they each had a hand cupping a breast and because the painting was purported to be of an actual family. Was that true?"

Bill didn't hesitate. "Yes it was. I did meet the family, and you wouldn't get four nicer people. Now the father didn't want to be in the picture but he had no objection to his wife and children being painted in that manner or to the picture being hung in Caroline's exhibition. He even had no objection to copies of the picture going on sale, he said the idea of a picture of his beautiful wife and children naked hanging up in someone's home was wonderful."

"And do you still keep in contact?" asked the driver.

"Not as much as we would have liked because the father's job took him back to England where he was born. The family had to leave not long after the fuss of the exhibition's closure and we haven't seen them since. Caroline though stays in contact and should we find ourselves in England at any time during the next few years she says that we will definitely have a place to stay."

That seemed to end the conversation for a while and Bill sat back as the cab turned onto the freeway. They might not be holding a conversation but the driver's talk about his family and the mention of that wonderful mother and her son and daughter and their loving husband and father had certainly given him pause to think. And think he did. As he had long suspected his wife's name was for people to put two and two together when he introduced himself. He had used the excuse of his wife being so well known for her paintings and the fiasco of her exhibition to distance himself from her hobby, but he was beginning to think he was wrong. The 'Sexual Freedom Charter' was no flash in the pan and it was most assuredly changing people's opinions and ideals about nudity and sex. Maybe, just maybe he should change along with it."

His mind drifted to the picture of Caroline naked and lounging on the three-seater couch in the formal lounge room and picture of him she wanted to paint to hang next to hers. Fortunately she was insisting that in that picture his cock would be flaccid. Up until now he had steadfastly refused to pose for such a picture. Indeed he had consistently refused to become involved in any pictures thinking that with those changing attitudes towards sexuality that Caroline might decide to display any picture of him at the exhibition that was being planned or sell it to that massage parlour that had hired her to paint a series of pictures for them.