Kalico 2: Hypnotized & Naked in Hope Springs

Kalico: Walking Two Miles Naked

Kalico: Thursday Morning, Road Outside Johnson Farm Gate 

Settling Some Issues:

"Hay Girl! Wait for me!" Wallflower called after me as I pulled the little garden wagon behind me up the road toward Hope Springs. She used my new nickname from the Hope Springs Eternal Ladies of Glory Volleyball Team, so I guessed we were continuing the informal arrangement between us.

I mean, I was naked and she was dressed; so I wasn't sure just how vulnerable I might end up feeling. As Flower had pointed out several times, I have a tendency to fall into a subordinate role with her when one of us is naked and the other is dressed.

I wonder why that is? We had started the morning with her naked, because she likes to hike along dark country roads without clothing. While she was naked she had just about talked my arm off.

Now, with the roles reversed, I felt a little bit intimidated to be the only one naked. No, correct that. I felt a lot intimidated to be the only one naked. But she was not pushing any sort of power buttons, so everything seemed fine. However, I still felt an urge to be a little pushy, just to keep myself on an even keel with her.

An even keel: Nautical terminology. It seemed an odd term to pop into my head at that moment. It sort of reminded me of The Professor's remarks about boats and anchors and the German word boot, for boat. And boots and booties, and my bare bootie.

I wondered, fleetingly, why The Professor had picked German terms when he was talking about anchoring. Did he know I had spent some time in Germany when Daddy was in the Army? I had picked up a few German words, although I was certainly not as fluent in the language as I want to be. I hoped my experiences in Europe would help me in the German language class in the upcoming semester.

At that moment, out on Johnson Road, I felt especially "ohne Kleidung, mit meinen nackten Hintern ausgesetzt." Putting my situation in a foreign language makes it sound more exotic. Those German words mean "without clothing, with my bare bottom exposed." Bottom Exposed, or Hintern ausgestzt, was the major feeling I was experiencing.

"Hush!" I responded to Wallflower. "Do you want to draw a crowd? Look! A light just came on in Granny Johnson's window!"

"If all the coyotes howling didn't wake her up, do you think our talking out here on the road will make any difference?"

"Well, someone's awake now. Let's hurry before they come out here and I have to explain why I am naked. And those coyotes keep howling. It's making me nervous."

"Nervous? Savor the feeling! Isn't it delicious? That's one thing I discovered about it. Walking down the road naked brings out all sorts of emotions. Especially early on, before you get used to it.

"I think it's the adrenalin. Right at first you should get a major rush just from the adrenalin pumping into your bloodstream. Can't you feel it?"

"Sort like feeling stupid and scared at the same time? Yeah, that's how I feel," I more or less agreed.

"No real harm is being done, but the fresh air against your skin sends all sorts of intense signals to your brain that you are not used to experiencing," Flower continued.

Adrenalin? Yeah, maybe I was feeling that kind of rush. I was not ready to admit as much to Flower.

"You can toss the lecture into a can," I told her, "and decide if you are going to do what you said you were going to do." I had been pulling rather vigorously on that wagon, mostly to establish that I, not Flower, would have the honor, and fun, of pulling it, and also to underscore the point that it was time for us to be moving.