The Frustrated Teenager and the Embarrassing Parent

A good idea at the time

 It sounded like a good idea at the time.  Martin taking off like that with what’s-her-name almost young enough to be his daughter had left Maggie and Alice stunned and hurt.  But now they were here, Maggie wondered if bringing an 18 year old to a sleepy little town in Greece was really fair on her.  Alice was disheartened when they arrived at the dusty little place where the small number of tourists mixed with black clad widows; local children playing in the street and the occasional stray dog.  Reinforcing rods emerged from unfinished buildings, competing with telephone wires and television aerials to untidy the sky.

She’d really wanted to go to the flesh pots of Malia with Jasmine and Thea but had declined their invitation to the post high school bash to be with her mother in her time of trouble.  Really it was Alice’s time of trouble as well and they needed to be together but she felt angry with both her parents for screwing up their relationship.  “Don’t worry about us,” Jasmine had said, “if you don’t come there’ll be more blokes for us to shag.”  It was alright for her to talk.   Jasmine had been with so many guys she’d lost count – or so she said.  Alice was still a virgin which embarrassed her.  All her friends thought that she’d done it with Leo but their one attempt at intimacy had not gone entirely according to plan and after that they lost the nerve to try again.  They drifted apart; neither of them knowing what to say to the other and each convinced that the failure to consummate their relationship was their own fault.   Neither Alice nor Leo wanted to disillusion their friends who reckoned that they must have had sex during their weekend away.  It was their dirty little secret.

“This orange juice tastes funny,” said Alice at breakfast.

“That’s because it’s freshly squeezed from oranges in that machine over there instead of coming out a carton.  Have you tried the yoghurt and honey it’s really nice.”

The swirl of honey in the creamy yoghurt looked rather revolting to Alice.  “No thanks,” she said picking at a piece of toast.

Maggie led Alice down to the beach where they paid €5 for two sun loungers and a parasol.  “You paid for all day,” moaned Alice, “what are we going to do?”

“You’ve got your book; you can swim; take a walk or just relax.”

Alice fiddled under her tee shirt to swap her bra for a bikini top and then looked back at her mother.  “Mum, what the hell are you doing?”

“Sunbathing, what does it look like?”

“I don’t think this is a topless beach.”

“Well it is now.  I’ve heard that you can take it all off if you just go round that headland.”

Parents can be so embarrassing.  Alice didn’t even feel totally comfortable in a bikini.  It seemed to her that her breasts were too small; her hips and legs were ridiculously big and her mid brown hair although neat and easy to control hung lifelessly at her shoulders.  Maggie saw Alice as a good looking young woman who would be more attractive if she had a bit more self confidence and Leo thought that she was fantastically beautiful but had never had the courage to tell her.  Looking down the beach she noticed a group of three Greek women, probably three generations of the same family, settling down near them.  The oldest one struggled with a towel to change into a full one piece swimming costume trying, not entirely successfully, to avoid showing any bare flesh she didn’t want to be seen.  The next oldest woman took off her jeans and underwear and put on a bikini bottom with only the edge of her T shirt as a rather ineffective shield to preserve her modesty and  then unselfconsciously pulled the T shirt to reveal what Alice thought were not very shapely breasts.  The youngest took yet another approach by coming to the beach with a bikini already underneath her clothes.  Alice jealously noticed the girl’s curvaceous but athletic form and was also struck by her exuberant and outgoing nature making her feel doubly inadequate.   The women relaxed and chatted together apparently taking no notice at all of their disparate approaches to beachwear.  Further away a group of youths walked along with baggy shorts almost down to their knees, stealing sly glances at two older men in tiny brightly coloured Speedos lying together on sun loungers.  All human life is here thought Alice and she buried her head in her book.