Chapter 9

I looked next to me at Trudy. I realized that her fair skin was in much more danger from the sun than the rest of us. It could cook her tender flesh in a short time.

I asked Trudy, "When was the last time you applied sun block sweetheart?"

She answered, "It was well over an hour ago. Maybe two hours. I'm not wearing my watch".

"And that was obviously while you were wearing your dress too, wasn't it?", I added. I reminded myself that her dress departed in the canvas bag with the jerk.

Trudy nodded yes.

I reached into my back pack and pulled out the bottle of sun block. I thrust it past Trudy towards Brenda. Brenda took the bottle from me with a familiar look of concern on her face.

"She's fair skinned and in danger from the sun", I began while looking into Brenda's eyes. "Coat her with this stuff from the top of her forehead to her toes. Front and back. Meanwhile, I'll work on plan B", I instructed.

Brenda gave her nod. She crawled around behind Trudy and opened the bottle.

"Trudy", I began, "Can you tie up or hold up your hair somehow so that Brenda can cover all of your neck and your shoulders?".

Trudy didn't answer me verbally, but in five seconds, her hair was tied up in a bun on the back of her head.

(How do girls do that? I guess that's something that I'll never figure out. Girls tie, untie, fasten and unfasten a variety of things behind themselves. Completely out of their line of sight).

(They do it fast too. It takes me over twice as long to do any of those tasks for them, and I'm looking at what I'm doing).

(All I do know is that all of that is fascinating for a male to watch. If the female catches the male's eyes during any of that observation, she smirks. That's because she can see that he's fascinated. It's written all over his face).

Brenda began applying lotion.

I began to take stock of our resources. I had to get Trudy covered as much as possible. Sun block was not going to be enough for such a fair skinned girl.

If I didn't come up with a solution soon, we'd be leaving the festival very early. That would be no fun and a waste of money.

My mind raced. Jillian's top was in my back pack, but that wouldn't work. She is a petite girl with a small chest. She wore an extra small sized top.

Trudy was a taller woman. Comparing her to Brenda, they seemed about the same size. I knew that Brenda wore a 'medium'.

Brenda's top was way back in the car. Not an option.

I looked at Tina and remembered that she was wearing a spaghetti strapped top. That would leave Trudy's shoulders exposed. Nope.

'Knude' started their first song. At the beginning they announced the title as "Take Your Clothes Off''. Within the first ten seconds of the song, the two pieces of the scarlet red bikini got thrown into two different places in the crowd.

It was nothing short of two shark feeding frenzies to see who would get the pieces of the bikini as a souvenir.

Then pieces of clothing worn by the audience started to get thrown onto the stage and landed at the twin's feet. In normal conditions, this would have been a distraction to me. I would be using all of my senses to figure out who was undressed and what they looked like.

But, I had a mission to complete. The clock was ticking. And then it hit me. Sandra. Even though she had a bigger chest, she was still about the same size as her mother. She was wearing a full length pink t-shirt with sleeves.

'Best possible solution', I thought to myself. But, as I looked at her watching the stage, I realized that it would not be easy to get that bashful girl to part with her shirt.

This was going to have to be handled del-i-catly.

I crept over and asked Jillian to make some room so I could sit between her and Sandra. Jillian reluctantly brought her knees together to grant my request.

'What a show off', I thought. I might have to put a leash on Jillian's exhibitionism.

Once seated, I leaned close to Sandra so she could hear me over the music without me shouting.

I asked, "Sandra, do you know what the phrase 'taking one for the team' means?"

Her face changed to a confused look and she shook her head 'no'.

I explained, "It's a metaphor usually referring to a sports situation where one individual makes a personal sacrifice for the better good of the group or the team. Do you understand?"

Sandra nodded 'yes'.

"Honey, I need you to take one for the team", I said while glaring back at her, waiting for her reaction.

I could see it in her eyes that she was processing the idea. Her eyes looked at the ground for a moment and then back at me.

"What do you want?", she finally asked.

I tried hard not to grin. I was making progress.

"Look past me at Trudy who is sitting next your mother", I said as Sandra craned her neck around me. I continued, "If you didn't notice, her dress went into the bag carried by the jerk that almost hit her in the face with his arm. The bag left in his hands".

"Your mother invited her to come home with us so that she would have a safe place to be while we sorted this out", I added.

I went on, "I'm sure that you've noticed that she is of Irish heritage. She's not like us honey. No matter how much or how often we coat her with sun block, the sun is going to broil her into a hospital situation".

"Unless and until we get her covered soon, we will all have to leave the festival real early to get her to the safety of the car. You don't want that, do you? Remember, it's not her fault. Trudy didn't ask to be abandoned".

I could see in Sandra's eyes that she was still processing the information I'd given her.

I interrupted her thoughts by saying, "Sandra, I need your shirt to let Trudy be covered by it. I've eliminated all the other possibilities. Yours is the only one that will fit her and give her significant coverage. I know that you are very shy sweetheart, but take one for the team".