 
 THE MEASURE OF MAN

 An Epic by Gil Gamesh

Chapter Fifty-Eight


As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the measure of man.


CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Stuart Andersen, 29; Joanne Andersen, 26

Kavan Stuart, 17; Kathryn Jenssen, 17 

Arial Stuart, 16;  Brad Weaver, 17

Kerry Stuart, 12 ¾; Nicole Whittaker, 15

Ryan Spenser, 18; Laura Robinson, 18

Kenjiro (Ken-chan) Daniels, 15; Akiko (Kiki) Daniels, 17

TELLING THE STORY
Kavan Stuart

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(KAVAN)

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On Thursday, at school, Kathryn and I met with Arial and Brad and Kerry during lunch period and we all decided what we wanted for the pool party. Brad insisted on giving me fifty dollars to cover some of the cost. I took it because I don’t like to argue over stuff like that in front of everybody. I decided I’d put it in an envelope and put it in his drawer in Arial’s room. After school, he and Arial were working together on his Dad’s research project so Kerry rode home with Kathryn and me. We stopped at the supermarket to get what we needed. I didn’t think it would cost much more than Brad had given me but we ended up spending over twice that much.  

When we got home, we started getting everything ready. Mom said she would mix up the hamburgers and do other stuff in the kitchen if Kathryn would help her. Kerry and I cleaned the grill, washed off all the outdoor furniture, and swept up around the picnic area under the tree and around the pool. We pulled a half-dozen foam rubber mats out of the basement, washed the spider webs off, and spread them around near where we going to put Brad’s tent. Kerry dug out all the old squirt guns and boogie boards and other stuff we played with in the pool and checked to see what still worked. 

After dinner, Dad and I talked about the pool party and I assured him that we wouldn’t have any problems and he and Mom shouldn’t worry about us. I told him again that there wouldn’t be any alcohol. I told him Ryan had asked about that when I invited him and he said he didn’t drink because his father was an alcoholic and he didn’t like to be around it.
 
When Dad pulled out his billfold and offered me a hundred dollars, I shook my head and told him I didn’t need it. He insisted and said he had some work he wanted me to do so I took it. I decided I’d hang on to it to see if he actually had something he wanted me to do and if he didn’t I’d give it back to him. I wanted to be responsible for everything, especially paying for our party. I’d already saved enough in my bank account with Mom that it wouldn’t hurt me to pay for our fun.

Friday was a perfect day in late May with temps in the eighties and only a few white clouds. After school Kathryn and I went straight home to finish up everything for the party. I drove around to the back of the house and parked in Dad’s half of the garage. It wasn’t safe to park in the street in front of our house so I’d told everybody to drive around to the back. With Arial’s little car and my truck garaged in the basement, we could get at least four more cars in the back yard. 

We went in and made a quick pit stop and then changed. I put on the Speedo Kathryn had picked out for me, black in back, gray in front, red stripes on the side, and she put on a bikini in hot pink with black accents. She told me mine was sexy with my red hair and freckles; I told her that hers was probably going to cause a few hard-ons. We put on knit shirts and shorts over our swimwear like Kathryn and Arial had decided we should. Kathryn put on a shirt that said, “I’m with stupid!” I dug out my baseball cap that said, “Kiss my ass!” in Russian.

Kerry and Nicole rode with Brad and Arial so Nicole could stop by her house and change. They were in Arial’s little car and she parked it in her spot in the basement garage. When they came out in the back yard, I saw Nicole was dressed like we were, in sandals and shorts and shirt. She stayed in the back yard with me and Kathryn while Kerry went in to change. When he came back out he had on some old shorts of mine that were too big on him and a shirt with the sleeves cut off. The sunglasses were a cool touch as usual and his long hair looked like he’d moussed it and forgot to comb it. When Brad came back out, he had on shorts and shirt and sandals too but he still looked buttoned down and neat. Arial was her usual neat-freak self, beautiful and perfect.

She asked Kerry and Nicole to help her carry stuff out of the house and then told me and Brad where to put up the tent. I told her I thought I was in charge of everything. She just stuck her tongue out at me as usual.

Brad had parked his Jeep in the back yard when he came Friday morning. He’d brought a tent and some other stuff for the party, and then ridden to school with Kerry and Arial in her car. Arial had wanted something for shade and she liked the tent idea after Brad suggested it. The first thing we did was set up the tent between the pool and the picnic area. Brad said it was a four-man tent, eight by ten feet, but it didn’t look big enough to sleep four. On one side, we raised a flap on poles to make something like a porch and then opened that side of the tent. When we got through with the tent, I stood back and looked at it.

“What do you want this thing for?” I asked. “It’s heavy as hell and there’s still not much room in it.”

“Damn, Kavan, you just don’t appreciate good stuff,” Brad answered. “I got it at a garage sale for fifty bucks and it costs about four hundred new. You could be in this thing in a storm and still be nice and dry.”

“Have you already tried it out?”

“Not yet. Arial said she’d go camping with me if I got a better tent. She said she wasn’t going to sleep in the little one I use when I go backpacking. I got this one so Her Royal Highness would go with me.”

“Well, when are you going?”

“Sometime this summer. You and Kerry want to go?”

“I don’t know. With Kathryn gone, I’d planned on just working hard and saving everything I could. Take Kerry. Maybe he could get Nicole to go and the four of you could have a lot of fun.”

“Yeah, he’d probably love to get her out in the woods,” Brad said. “Maybe Arial and I could show them how to do it.”

“Shit, he knows how. Just let him and Nicole figure out what they want to do. Anyway, there’s not enough room in that thing for four people.”

“Sure there is,” he said. “It’s eight by ten. A twin bed is three feet wide. We could put three blow-up mattresses inside and put two people on each one. We could squeeze six in. It might be tight but it would be fun.”

Arial and Kerry and Nicole came back with arms full of old bed spreads and blankets to put on the foam mats. She made me move a couple of the mats so they were in the shade of the tent. I was just waiting for her to give me my next job when I heard a horn blow.  

It was Kenjiro and his sister. Kenjiro was driving and Kerry invited him to drive into the pool but he stopped. They both had on what looked like a long shirt or maybe a short kimono, white with black Japanese characters on it, and black shorts. She was beautiful: thin with almost nothing on her chest but with an exotic face and straight black hair and dark almond eyes. If I didn’t like tits so much I’d have been glad to jump her bones.

A couple of minutes later Ryan and Laura drove down the driveway into the back yard and I pointed to a spot for him to park. Ryan looked as buttoned down as Brad and Laura wasn’t much looser. Stuart and Joanne came last, blowing the horn as they came down the drive. They were in his little convertible with the top down and both were wearing baseball caps and sunglasses. When they got out of the car, I saw they had on shirts and shorts and sandals like the rest of us. They didn’t look much older than me and Kathryn. 

After everybody was introduced, Arial explained why she’d asked them to wear shorts and sandals and a shirt. She wanted pictures of everybody, in couples and in groups. She said she’d burn them to a disc for anybody that wanted them. She told them the camera would be on the table during the party and anybody could use it.

I let Arial tell everybody what we were going to do: eat and swim and play some silly games. Brad asked her what sort of games and she told him to just wait and find out. Maybe he was worried that it might be games like we’d played at the cabin.

She had two plastic cups, one for the guys and another for the girls. She said the girls were going to draw a name first and that it couldn’t be the name of the guy who had brought them to the party. Then everybody had to talk to the person whose name they drew and nobody else for five minutes. Kerry griped because it didn’t sound like fun to him. Nicole told him to cool it because we were doing it so everybody got to know somebody else, maybe somebody new. It was a good icebreaker. I got to talk to Laura on the first drawing and Nicole on the second. 

After that, we stood around and talked and posed for pictures for a while. Arial told everybody to go up the steps to the deck if they needed to go in the house and follow the signs to the bathrooms. Brad took Ryan and Laura in tow and showed them around. Kathryn must have been talking girl talk with Nicole and Kiki because they all shut up when I came near. Stuart and I carried the soft-drink cooler out of the basement and Kerry brought the cups and other stuff.

Finally, Arial announced it was time for the first real game. We drew names again and I got Kiki’s. Kathryn told everybody to get something to drink out of the coolers and we’d play the game while we had some hors d’oeuvres. Kiki and Kenjiro had brought a tray of hors d'oeuvres and so had Ryan and Laura. Arial handed each of the guys a plastic plate and told the girls to fill them up. She led the way with Ryan and explained what to do. She said there were seventy-two servings, six different things, and we had to put two of each on each plate. I held the plate while Kiki loaded us up with stuff. When I looked around to see what we were supposed to do, I saw Arial and Ryan standing near one of the foam mats.

“OK, everybody, listen up,” Arial said. “We’re playing shipwreck. We’ve all been on board a sailing ship in tropical waters. The ship has sunk and these are our life rafts. Pick one because you’re going to be on it for a long time.”

I put the plate and my drink down near one of the mats and then put Kiki’s down next to mine. I looked around for Kathryn and saw her with Kerry. Stuart was with Laura, Brad with Joanne, Ryan with Arial, and Kenjiro with Nicole. I didn’t see how shipwreck was going to be that much fun. When Arial told me how she wanted the foam mats arranged, she acted like it was going to be fun to play and I guess I expected something wild from her.

“Arial,” Kathryn said, “you’re forgetting something, aren’t you?”

“What?” Arial’s face was a picture of innocence and I knew something was up.

“If we’re all going to be on life rafts, aren’t we supposed to be in just our swim suits?”

“Oh, yes, I forgot,” Arial said. “Everybody take off everything else.”

She pulled her shirt off, pulled her shorts down, and kicked them up in the air. I glanced around at the others and then looked at Kiki. She unbuttoned her kimono and tossed it to one side, slipped her shorts off, tossed them, and I think my eyes bugged out. She had on a couple of thin strips of black material with white Japanese writing on them. Maybe she didn’t have that much up top but she sure as hell was sexy in that outfit. When I finally looked up at her face, she had that smile that said she knew what I’d been looking at. I let my mouth shape a silent “WOW” and I think she replied “Glad you like it.”

I glanced around again and saw Kenjiro in something that was identical to Kiki’s except that he had on just one piece. Kerry had worn the blue Speedo with the red waistband. Kathryn said he was sexy as hell in it and, from the smile on Nicole’s face when he turned around for her inspection, I think she agreed. Kerry drew a circle in the air and she turned around to let him get a good look. She might have been little on the slim slide but she was showing about half a fine rear end.

Stuart did have on a Speedo and Joanne had on a two-piece outfit that looked like she’d bought it before she was nursing a baby. She looked pretty damn good for a woman with a baby just a few months old. She caught me looking at her breasts and winked at me. I licked my lips slowly and deliberately. She knew what I meant.

Even Brad and Ryan had on Speedos and they were the ones I wasn’t sure would do it. I think Ryan got bug-eyed checking out six bikinis. Arial and Kiki were probably the closest to naked and he couldn’t decide which one he wanted to look at the most. Brad was standing there with one arm around Arial checking out all the other females.

I’d seen naked women most of my life but a pretty one in a Bikini could still get a rise out of me, especially that sexy thing Kiki had on. It looked like everybody had done what Arial and Kathryn wanted them to do. We all had on something that was as close to naked as we could get away with. Maybe this was going to be fun, almost as much fun as it would be with nothing on.

“OK, everybody, you can sit down on your life raft,” Kathryn said. “And pay attention because we’ll give you some more instructions when you’re settled.”

We all sat down and then Arial took over.

“All the guys are part of the ship’s crew. The girls were sailing with their old maiden aunt, who” – She made a pretense of wiping tears from her eyes. – “unfortunately went down on the captain.”

“Arial, you mean, went down with the captain, don’t you?” Kathryn asked.

“Oh, yes, what did I say? Forgive me,” Arial said. “Anyway, the guys have been trying to get the girls to screw with them, I mean crew with them, but they haven’t had any luck. This is their chance.”

“There’s just one thing to watch out for,” Kathryn said. “There’s a great white shark circling around under the life rafts so don’t put your hands or feet overboard.”

“And you’re all starved so it’s time to eat before we do anything else,” Arial said. “Please try the hors d'oeuvres that Kiki and Ryan brought. I hope you’ll try everything but just eat what you like, please.”

“Oh, there’s one more thing,” Kathryn said. “You can’t feed yourself. You have to feed the other person in the life raft.”

We all sat on our foam rubber life rafts and ate the goodies. At first I felt stupid feeding Kiki and then having her feed me. We had trouble keeping our legs on the life raft and we kept bumping knees getting close enough to feed each other. Every time I fed her, her lips touched my fingers and, when she fed me, my lips just happened to touch her fingers. When I fed her the last stuffed mushroom, she held my hand and licked the juices off my fingers and I felt it all the way down in my Speedo. I kept looking in her eyes and she kept looking in mine and I wondered if she was thinking the same thing.

I guess everybody else was doing about the same because there was a lot of silly stuff happening on the other life rafts. Ryan got embarrassed when Arial had to tell him to look at her fingers when she fed him. He got back at her when he apologized and told her he was looking at something else he’d like to have in his mouth.  

Kerry got up on his knees and introduced himself to Kathryn as a nobleman’s son pressed into service aboard the sailing ship. Then he pulled the waist of his Speedo out a little in front and pretended he was a ventriloquist. He acted like somebody in his Speedo was talking and said something like “Pleased to ‘eat you, m’lady,” or maybe it was “meet you.” Kathryn didn’t let him get away with that. She leaned over, pulled his Speedo away from his stomach, looked down in it, and said, “Pleased to meet you too, little fellow. You’re cute.” Some of the guys almost rolled off their life raft laughing, including me.

When we were through eating, Arial called for everybody’s attention again.
 
“Kiki brought the smoked-salmon sushi rolls. Did you like them?”

She got a lot of good comments. The little rolls were good. I’d eaten two of them. Kiki insisted that I eat them and I hadn’t protested when she fed them to me. She said she got enough sushi at home.

“There’s just one thing wrong with them,” Arial continued. “They have a very strong aphrodisiac in them. If you ate even one, you’re going to be very horny in a few minutes.”

That got a lot of suggestive comments, mainly from the guys. I thought it really would be nice to have Kiki feed me something like that. Then on second thought, I knew I wouldn’t need the aphrodisiac.

“You forgot the stuffed mushrooms Ryan brought,” Kathryn said. “Didn’t they have something in them too?”

“Oh, yes, I almost forgot,” Arial smirked. “The pate stuffing contained a very strong sleeping potion. If you ate just one, you’re going to be very sleepy in a few minutes.”

“Hot damn,” Kerry said, “I ate two salmon sushi and no mushrooms. Watch out, Kathryn, you’re about to get crewed.”

Kathryn held her hand up to her mouth and yawned. “Oh, I’m sorry, Kerry, I ate two mushrooms and no sushi. You’ll just have to row your own boat.”

“Just wait a minute, Kerry,” Kenjiro yelled. “She’ll never know if you do it or not.”

“No, Kerry, you can’t do that,” Joanne said. “You wouldn’t give a girl a date-rape drug and then have sex with her, would you?”

“Shit, I’ll never get screwed,” Kerry pretended to pout. “I might as well be sleeping with the sharks. I guess I’ll die a virgin.”

“Does anybody get to have sex?” Arial asked. “Brad, do you get to do it with Joanne?”

“I don’t know,” Brad answered. “Joanne and I both ate sushi and mushrooms. Can we do it in a hurry?”

“Sorry, you’re half asleep already,” Arial said. “Just enjoy your wet dream.”  

“Kavan, how about you and Kiki?” Kathryn asked.

Kiki and I had done the same thing she and Kerry had done. “You gals have got this thing rigged,” I said. “You know Kerry and I both like sushi.”

Nobody got to have sex. Kenjiro and Nicole had done the same thing as Brad and Joanne. Stuart had eaten two salmon sushi and one mushroom and Laura had one mushroom. Arial had fed Ryan two sushi and he’d fed her two mushrooms.

Next, Arial and Kathryn decided it was time for a quick dip in the pool. They wanted the guys to do a six-gun salute of cannon-balls off the diving board while they sat on the sides of the pool and watched. We decided we wouldn’t unless the girls did it too. I didn’t see any reason to give them a show unless we got one in return. They made us go first and I didn’t mind, even if they were shooting at us with the super-shooters. The show was pretty damn good watching from below when they did it and we squirted them good when they came off the diving board.  

After that, Kerry and I decided on something we wanted to do. We wanted to have a battle with the girls on the guys’ shoulders. I told everybody it was something we did every summer in the creek at the cabin. Most of the time it was guys on guy’s shoulders but sometime it was girls on guys. I didn’t tell anybody we sometimes did it naked at the cabin. I had Nicole on my shoulders first and she got pulled off in no time. After Kathryn got pulled off Kenjiro, I got her on my shoulders for a while. Kerry tried to get Laura on his shoulders and she squealed like he’d grabbed something. Maybe he had. It was all a lot of fun but after a while the girls decided they’d been groped and dunked enough and said it was time to grill hamburgers.   

I had just lit the charcoal to start grilling hamburgers when I heard Arial ask Kerry to do the penguin. He said he’d do it if I would do it too. It was something we learned to do last summer. We’d been practicing diving and then swimming under water and Kerry had turned it into fun. Nobody had seen us do it except Arial and Kathryn.

We’d dive off the board, nothing fancy, just a simple head-first dive, swim under water from the deep end of the pool to the shallow end, and then kick and pull ourselves out in one fast movement. If we did it right, it looked like we were propelling ourselves out of the water by swimming like penguins. The part I didn’t want to do was the penguin walk going to the diving board and then again when we got out of the pool. I thought it looked stupid but Kathryn liked it. She said my butt was every bit as cute as Kerry’s.

I pretended I didn’t want to but I guess I really wanted to show off in front of everybody. Kerry was standing there with his arms straight down on the sides grinning at me. I handed the spatula to Stuart and lined up behind Kerry. We did the stiff-legged penguin waddle to the diving board and then Kerry hopped up on it. I waited to see how he’d do.

He stood there, took a few deep breaths, a few short steps and then one long one, came down perfectly, and then flew up and over in a dive with almost no splash. Damn, he’d done it perfectly. I gave him a second to start swimming underwater and then I took off. I got a better lift off the board, went higher, and then went in cleanly. I swam to the shallow end, gave a few quick kicks, grabbed the drain gutter, and pulled out. Kerry was already standing there grinning and I knew he’d come out like a penguin too. I lined up behind him and we waddled back to the picnic area.

I guess everybody was impressed. Kerry and I got kisses and hugs from Nicole and Kathryn. Then Kerry went around and got a hug and a kiss from the other ladies. I was checking the grill when Joanne grabbed me and hugged me and kissed me. Then Laura and Kiki were teased into doing it too. I just got a quick cheek kiss from them.

I had just started to put on some hamburgers when Joanne came back, looked at the raw hamburgers, and whispered, “I like my meat big and rare…really rare…raw…and full of blood!” I put the barbeque apron on; I needed to hide something.  

The hamburgers were a big hit with everybody and I got lots of compliments on how good they tasted. I didn’t tell them Mom had made them up for us. Joanne had brought dessert for us, double-chocolate brownies, and they were a big hit too.

I guess everybody was too stuffed to play for a while. Arial and Brad sprawled out on one of the life rafts under the tent canopy so she could get out of the sun and most of the others did the same or got in some shady spot. The sun was getting low but it was still pretty hot if you were directly in the sunshine.

We lay around talking about school and what we were going to do for the summer. Stuart got a lot of questions. I’d introduced him as my half-brother. Laura was curious about that and he gave her an explanation without really telling her what Dad and Ms. Lauren had done. Then when he mentioned his job and said he already had a PhD, Ryan got him to tell about that. We got to talking about college life and Stuart and Joanne told us some wild tales.

Kiki and Kenjiro got lots of compliments on the kimonos they’d worn. Kiki explained that they were called happi – she said happy spelled with an i – and were traditional Japanese wear. She said her Mom had bought them on her last trip to Japan. She showed everybody the design in a circle on the back and explained what it was. It didn’t look like a dragon to me. She said her Mom was a buyer for an American company, an expert on Japanese art stuff, and she went to Japan about twice a year.

 Arial had told everybody how to get to the bathrooms in the house so I didn’t think anything about it when different people or couples disappeared into the house for a while. I glanced up at the deck once and saw Ryan and Laura up there looking down at the pool area. Ryan was behind her and slightly to one side and it looked like he was kissing the side of her face or maybe just whispering in her ear. He had his hands on her breasts and she had one hand over his with the other hand down over his crotch. He’d never told me how close they were but that answered it.

A little later, Kathryn and I went in the house to pee. She took her bikini top and bottom off, wet a cloth, then sat down on the commode and peed and wiped her face with the cloth. I pulled my Speedo off, leaned back against the counter, and watched. When I finished with my turn and turned around, she was brushing her hair. I sat down on the commode and watched. She used both hands, lifting her hair with one and brushing with the other. I loved the way her dark hair fell around her face even if it was shorter now than it had been during the colder months. I especially loved the way her breasts looked with her arms up. I’d always thought her breasts were perfect, just the right size for her, and with her arms raised, they were even more beautiful.

When she was satisfied with her hair, she straddled my knees and started with mine. I’d been letting her style it since Christmas and it was longer now than it had ever been. She parted it in the middle and then brushed back on each side. I still wasn’t used to the way it felt on my ears and neck but she said she loved it longer so I let her have her way. My hair wasn’t as straight as Arial’s and Kerry’s. It had more of a natural wave to it, sort of like Mom’s. It wasn’t as red as Mom’s, more of a bronze color than red, and Kathryn said it made me look like a lion. I still hadn’t made up my mind whether I’d get my usual summer buzz cut when she left.

“What do you think of Kiki?” she asked. “Do you like her?”

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “She’s beautiful in a sort of exotic way. I guess I just can’t figure her out.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re open and warm and when you smile you sort of light up. I can tell you’re happy because you smile with your eyes too. When she smiles, her eyes don’t match her lips. I couldn’t tell whether she liked being on the raft with me or if she was just putting up with me. I guess I don’t know what to think about her.”

“She’s very beautiful, Kavan. I think she’s just a little shy and maybe uncomfortable because she doesn’t know us. Why don’t you try to get to know her this summer? Ask her for a date.”

“Don’t start trying to line me up with somebody else, Kathryn,” I said. “I just want to work and be by myself this summer. I need to think about us and about what I want to do. I love my job at the landscaping business and I want to look into college programs in that area. I don’t need to get involved with another girl.”

“I’m not pushing, Kavan,” she said. “I just want you to know it’s OK with me if you do date someone else. It’s what we agreed we’d do.”

All the time she was brushing my hair, I kept my eyes on the soft curve of her stomach and the tangle of damp curls on her mound. I could see just the beginning of her cleft and I wanted to get my mouth down there again. I didn’t want to think of another girl. I had the one I wanted.

Kerry and Nicole vanished once and, when they came back, he said he’d been showing her his computer. I checked his Speedo and it looked like he’d been showing her his hard drive. His hair had been combed or brushed straight back, not parted like it usually is, and hers had been brushed too. I knew they both had hair that was a damp mess like everybody else’s when they left. I guess Arial noticed it too.

“Who did your hair, Kerry?” she asked.

Kerry grinned at Nicole and that answered it. “Nicole wanted to brush her hair so I let her use my brush. I told her I had cooties but she didn’t care. She let me do hers and then she did mine.”

I wondered what else they’d done for each other.

Kathryn and I finished picking up and putting away so I looked around for a place to sit down. I was ready to lean back and relax. There was a little L-shaped stone wall at one corner of the pool near the diving board and Kiki and Nicole were sitting on towels on the wall. Dad and I had tried to use just the flattest stones on the top when we built it and it was OK to sit on, except when you had a bare butt. 

Kerry and Kenjiro were back in the pool and it looked like Kenjiro was trying to do the penguin. Nicole and Kiki were watching and acting like cheerleaders. Stuart and Joanne had pulled two of the life rafts over to the stone wall, put one of the mats against it and the other flat, and they were sitting side by side on the mat, watching, leaned back and relaxed looking.

That looked good to me so I motioned for them to move over. Kathryn was talking to Brad and Arial. I pulled her over to the mats and we sat down side by side. I put my arm over her shoulders, pulled her up closer to me, kissed her on the cheek, and whispered in her ear, “Thank you.” 

“For what?” she whispered back.

“For helping me,” I answered. “For playing hostess. You’ve been making sure everybody has a good time and has whatever they want. Have you had fun too?”

She turned her head and looked me in the eyes.

“It’s been perfect, Kavan,” she said. “It’s simple things like this - being with nice people, being silly with each other – I’ll miss it this summer.”

“It’ll be here for you this fall,” I said. “You go to New York this summer. My family will still be here this fall. I’ll still be here.”

She half-turned toward me, slid her hand up my leg, over my crotch with a little pause and squeeze, and then tickled me on my stomach.

“I know,” she said. “What if I’m not? Will you be OK?”

I slid my hand down to her breast and pushed my fingers under her bra until I felt her nipple,

“I told you I will,” I said. “What did somebody say? Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

“You haven’t lost me, Kavan. I just need to be on my own for a while.”

“I understand. I really do. Just remember I love you.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Joanne asked. “Stuart and I need to go in the house for a while. If you want to lie down and get it on, you can have the whole life raft.”

“We can wait a little while,” I said. “Has Stuart got to pee again? Damn, it must be rough to get so old he can’t hold it for a while.”

“I’m not the one about to overflow, Kavan,” Stuart said. “It’s Joanne. She wants me to go help her.”

“Help her what?” Kerry asked. I looked up and he and Kenjiro were standing just behind the wall, dripping water. I wondered how long they’d been standing there.

“She needs to put something in a bottle for Kieran Lee,” Stuart said. “Would you like to help her?”

“I wish you’d brought Kieran Lee,” Nicole said. “Kerry’s told me all about him. He’s crazy about him and little Paul.”

“Arial and Kerry have been great about baby-sitting since we moved here last summer,” Joanne said. “Kerry has even learned to change Kieran Lee’s diaper.”

“Yeah, and when she puts her milk in a bottle, I even like to feed him,” Kerry said. 

“Well, that’s what she needs to do, Squirt,” Stuart said. “Would you like to help her bottle up a little milk for Kieran Lee?”

“Shit, Stuart, don’t try to embarrass me in front of everybody,” Kerry said. “I think it’s neat how Joanne is about nursing him and letting me learn about it. I don’t mind helping her use the breast pump.”

“If you don’t mind letting Kerry help, would it be OK if I watched,” Nicole asked. “I’d like to learn about it too.”

“Maybe you could just bring everything out here and put on a live performance for the whole crowd,” Stuart said. The way he was grinning when he said that was just like Kerry does sometimes. He tried to duck but Joanne punched him in the stomach.

Joanne didn’t do a live performance but she did let Kerry and Nicole help her. They were in the house for maybe fifteen minutes. After they came down the steps from the deck, Kerry held Nicole’s hand while they walked down to the pool. Joanne followed behind them and I could tell she was looking at two sexy little butts and grinning about it.   

The sun was finally low enough so that the trees were blocking it and the pool area where we were was in shade. Dad had liked the big trees when we bought the house. When we started swimming in the nude I understood why. Dad and Kerry and I had done lots of work cutting and clearing from our house part way down toward the creek but Dad wanted the big trees left for a privacy screen from the view on the next ridge. 

Stuart and Kerry and I pulled the rest of the mats close to the pool area so we could all be close together. Ryan and Laura claimed one of the mats and stretched out on it. He lay down behind her, spooned up to her, and put his hand on her stomach. Kenjiro was sitting in the lotus position, like Kerry does sometimes, and Kiki was beside him kneeling Japanese style. Brad was sitting with his legs spread and knobby knees up and Arial was backed up between them.  I decided it was time to ask the question.

“Laura, we don’t usually swim like this,” I started. “We do something different.”

She looked puzzled. “What?”

“We usually swim in the nude,” Kathryn said. “We do everything pretty much like we did today. We just don’t have anything on when we do it.”

That broke the ice and we all talked about it. Ryan and Laura thought it was great that my family liked to be nudies when we used the pool. Kenjiro had already told Kiki and she felt the same way. Kerry kept whispering in Nicole’s ear and she was smiling and nodding. I wasn’t sure they’d feel the same way when I asked the next question.

“We’re going to invite a few friends to a pool party about once a week over the summer,” I said. “We’re hoping we won’t have to worry about what to wear for the rest of the summer. Would you like to come back and swim with us?”

Ryan whispered in Laura’s ear. She listened, turned and whispered to him, then listened again.

“If it’s like today, just without swimsuits,” she said, “we’d love to come back.”

“Who else might be here?” Nicole asked. “I’d like to try it. I think I can talk my parents into letting me. I just don’t want everybody at school to know about it.”

“We don’t tell just anybody, Nicole,” Kerry said. “We just want to invite a few other people. It’s always been family but Mom and Dad said we could invite a few friends this summer if we want to. They said they’d stay out of the way. Like Kathryn said, it will be about like today except we won’t have on swim suits.”

“Well, I’d like to do it,” Nicole said. “I don’t understand why people think it’s bad to be like nudists. I think it would be fun. If it’s OK with your parents, I’ll bet my parents would let me do it.”

Kerry pumped his fist and said “Yeah!” Nicole smiled at him and shook her head. “Don’t let your imagination run wild, Kerry,” she said. 

“Did you ever play twister?” Kerry asked her.

“Yeah, why?”

“Did you ever play twister in the nude?” Kerry asked, then added, “Don’t let your imagination run wild, Nicole.”

She covered her face with her hands. I could still see her blushing on her cheeks and throat.

We told them about going to the cabin with Uncle Alan and Aunt Kara and their families and how we had grown up being nudists with all of them. Kerry told them about the creek downhill from the cabin and how much we liked skinny-dipping and playing games. Arial told them how much fun it was to have dinner on the deck at the cabin with all our relatives and everybody sitting around eating and being silly. I guess we were able to convince Nicole and Kiki and Ryan and Laura that nudists were just like everybody else, except that they weren’t self-conscious about being naked.

For another hour or so, we lay around the pool and talked while the daylight gradually faded into darkness. Occasionally, somebody would get up, stretch, jump in the pool for a few minutes, and then come back to the group. Nicole talked Kerry into doing the penguin again and he talked her into trying it. Everybody watched while they did the penguin walk to the diving board. Kerry swam underwater to the other end of the pool and came out like a penguin. Nicole didn’t try that part. She just swam out of the deep area and came up. Kerry dived in again and came up next to her. I guess they ended up with their arms round each other because their faces were only inches apart.

Ryan and Laura pulled me away from the others and told me they wanted to cut out. He said she had to be home in a couple of hours and they wanted a little private time. I offered to let them use our basement bedroom but they both grinned and Laura said they had already made plans. I didn’t ask what they were but from the way they had been holding each other I guess everybody knew.

“Have you really played Twister in the nude, Kavan?” Laura asked.

“Yeah, with guys and gals both.”

“Well, don’t you guys get excited,” she asked, grinning.

“Sometimes,” I answered truthfully. “The gals do too. They just don’t show it as bad. That just makes it more fun. You get used to it.”

“I don’t know whether I could get used to it,” Ryan said grinning. “I’d like to try. It might take me a few years.”

“Well, I think you’re going to have plenty of time, Ryan,” Laura said.

When they left, Kiki said she and Kenjiro needed to leave too. We tried to get them to stay but they said they’d promised their parents to be in a little early because they were all going somewhere the next day. Nicole had to leave too so Arial and Brad offered to take her home. When Nicole put on her shorts and shirt again, Kerry put on his too. He said he always walked her to the door and he didn’t think he ought to do it in nothing but his Speedo.

Stuart and Joanne offered to help me and Kathryn clean up. I got Kathryn and Joanne to take care of all the stuff that needed to go in the house to the kitchen. Stuart and I bagged the trash, put all the mats in the tent, picked up the towels and pillows and threw them in too, and turned off the outside lights. When the girls came back, the four of us settled down again on the stone wall next to the pool and waited for Brad and Arial and Kerry to come back. 

Kerry came running out of the garage seconds after Arial parked her car. He ran toward the pool, stripped off his shirt, hopped a little while he pulled off his shorts, and then stopped long enough to pull off his Speedo. He let out a loud war whoop, ran to the diving board, and threw himself off. It wasn’t a dive. His arms and legs were spread as wide apart as possible and his head was back. At the last second, his hands went down to cup under his balls. I’d seen him do it before. He came up and started swimming laps. In the semi-darkness it was hard to see him. All I could see was long arms appearing and disappearing in the black water.

I decided it was time to turn my wild one loose too. I stood up, stripped off my Speedo, used my fingers to loosen my scrotum, and sat back down with my legs spread wide, letting it all hang out. Kathryn stood up, took off her top and bottom, shook her breasts at me, and then sat back down beside me.  When I finally looked up at her face, she winked at me. 

Brad and Arial and Stuart and Joanne watched the show. I nodded at Stuart and he pulled Joanne up and they stripped off too. I watched Joanne turn loose her breasts and then pull her little bikini bottom down her long legs. I liked the way her breasts looked, so full and heavy when she bent over. I didn’t know what Kathryn was looking at but she said “Very nice,” and I answered, “Yeah, I agree.” She turned and looked at me and said, “I was looking at Stuart’s dick, Kavan.” It took me a couple of seconds but I answered “Well, so was I.” That brought out a howl from Brad.

Arial stood up and held out her hand to Brad. He looked around at the rest of us and then slid his Speedo down his legs. His dick looked about like mine felt, that it had been too close to hard for too long. Arial did something and her bra sort of fell off. Then she slid her bikini bottom down, caught it on foot, and kicked it at Brad. 

Stuart said “Very nice,” and I answered, “Yeah, I agree.” I thought I knew what he’d say next and I was right. “I was looking at Brad’s dick, Kavan.” I answered “Well, so was I. It is very nice.” That brought out some giggles and laughs from three women. Brad looked like he didn’t know what was going on. Poor guy. I did so love to embarrass him when I could.

Brad tried to act nonchalant. He looked up at the stars, scratched under his balls like I’d done, pulled on his dick a couple of times to stretch it out, and then looked back at me and grinned. “I’m glad you two like it. I think your dicks are very nice too.” Arial stuck out her tongue at me and tried to hit Brad but he danced away. I remembered how he had been the first time he was nude with us. He certainly was relaxed about it now. 

Kathryn leaned over to me and whispered in my ear. I turned and looked at her. She had that look on her face, the one that said so much and made me want her so much. From the first time I’d seen it, it always had the same effect on me. She knew how to use it.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

She nodded. “You said I should make up my own mind and then do what would make me happy. It’s what I want to do, Kavan.”

“Yeah, but he’s got the hots for Nicole,” I said. “Do you really think it would be OK with him?”

“Well, the rest of us have somebody to sleep with,” Kathryn said. “I hate for Squirt to have to sleep with just his right hand. Anyway, it’s what I want to do.”

“What are you two talking about?” Arial asked. “What do you want to do?”

I looked at her and realized that she and Brad were listening to what we said. Then I looked further and saw that Stuart and Joanne were listening too. I looked at the pool and couldn’t find Kerry in the dark. Finally I saw him hanging on the end of the diving board. He turned loose and disappeared silently under the black water.

“It’s about Kerry,” I answered. “Kathryn doesn’t want him to be alone for the rest of the night.”

“He’s quite a kid,” Stuart said. “I wonder if he knows how much different his life is from most boys his age.”

“He knows,” Arial said. “We all know how much different our lives are from most kids. Most of them have never seen their parents nude and don’t get taught much about sex. Our parents have always been open and honest about stuff like that.”

“Yeah, you Stuarts are different,” Brad said. “We went to the cabin last winter and Kieran and Siobhan let us treat them like just another couple of kids. I guess that’s the first time I really believed parents were just like us when it comes to sex. I’ll bet a lot of kids think their parents don’t even do it anymore.”

“It was kind of a shock when we moved here last August to find out how different you are,” Joanne said. “You’d all be more at home in California or Oregon.”

“I guess Kerry could go home with us,” Stuart said to Joanne. “I think he enjoyed his visit last weekend. Do you want to invite him to go with us?”

“You mean come with us, don’t you?” Joanne asked, grinning.

“I guess that’s up to you,” Stuart said.

“He could come with us,” Arial said. “Brad and I have played around with him some. We love to have him with us. He’s a lot of fun.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Kathryn said. “I want him to stay with Kavan and me. He got to play with Stuart and Joanne last weekend. Arial’s off limits in one way because she’s his sister.”

“Go ahead and tell them what you want to do,” I said. “It’s OK with me.”

“What’s OK with you?” Kerry asked. “What does Kathryn want to do?”

I hadn’t noticed Kerry walking up and I don’t suppose anybody else did either.  I didn’t say anything. I just nodded at Kathryn and smiled.

“I want to sleep between you and Kavan tonight,” Kathryn said. “I want you both to make love to me and then hug me and hold me when I go to sleep.”

Kerry grabbed a towel and rubbed his long stringy hair into a damp tangled mess. He wiped his face dry, then his chest and stomach, his genitals, and finally his long legs. He straightened up and looked around at the rest of us. He was serious, not smiling, and I wondered what he was thinking. Finally he grinned and said something.

 “I’d rather sleep with Nicole.” He paused. “Shit, I want to do more than sleep with her.  I want to make love to her.”

“We can’t help you there, Squirt,” I said. “That’s between the two of you.”

“I kissed her tonight when we went in the house,” Kerry said, looking at Kathryn. “It was like we couldn’t stop kissing each other.”

“I understand, Kerry,” Kathryn said. “Kavan and I were like that when we first started going together. This isn’t about Nicole. This is about the way I feel and what I want. After you and Kavan protected me at school, I decided I wanted both of you to sleep with me. Is that so bad?”

Kerry didn’t answer. Nobody else said anything. We were all waiting to see what Kerry would decide. I watched his face but his expression didn’t give away anything. He was looking out over the valley behind our house, sticking his little finger in his ear to get out some water, and wiping his hair back away from his face. In the dark, it was hard to see him clearly but I thought I saw a glint of something in his eye. He sniffed, shut his eyes, sniffed again, and I wondered if he was about to cry.

“I don’t want you to go, Kathryn,” he finally said, finally looking at her. “I want you and Kavan to stay together. He’s the one who protected you, not me. All I did was slow Jerome down one time. You want a man like Kavan, not a kid like me.”

Kathryn went to him and pulled him up against her so that his face was beside hers. I could hear her whispering to him. He sniffed a couple of times, said “Oh, shit,” wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, wrapped his arms around her, and buried his face in her neck. I went to them, put my arms around both of them, and held them. We stood there silently for a minute or so. 

“It’s OK, Squirt,” I whispered. “It’s OK if you love Nicole. It’s OK if you love Kathryn too. If she wants both of us to make love to her, if that will make her happy, let’s do it. We’ve got to let her go so she can decide if she wants to come back to me.” 

Finally Kerry pulled away from us and punched me on the shoulder.

“Oh, shit, let’s all get naked and get in a pile,” he said, with that big grin back on his face.

“I second that,” Brad said.

“Brad Weaver, if you haven’t noticed, all of us are already naked,” Arial said.

“Well, I think we should all go in the tent and get in a pile,” Brad said, grinning. “Kavan thinks the tent will barely hold four people. Let’s show him it will hold seven.”

Joanne whispered something to Arial. Arial motioned with her finger to Kathryn and she joined them. I watched three heads close together, listened to the giggles and whispers, and wondered what they were cooking up for us guys. Finally the girl group broke up and Arial told us what to do.

“You guys get in the tent and arrange the mats and pillows. Close all the window flaps and the door flap so it’s really dark inside. We’re going in the house for something so just wait for us.”

“Arial, what are you and Kathryn and Joanne up to,” Brad asked. He knew my sister well enough to know they’d come up with something new.

“That’s not the right question,” Kathryn said. “The right question is what are you guys up to.”

“Oh, shit,” Kerry said. “I think us guys are in for a hard time.”

“Joanne, do you think we ought to stay any longer?” Stuart asked. “I thought you wanted to get home to take care of Kieran Lee.”

“We can stay another hour or so,” she answered. “Jack and Lauren were tickled that we’d go off and let them keep the kids. If we get back a little after midnight, I can take care of Kieran Lee then.”

“Yeah, but when are you going to take care of Stuart?” Kerry asked. “It might be hard on him to make him wait.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Joanne said. “If it’s still hard when we leave, I’ll think of something to do when we get home.”

The girls went to the stairs leading up to the deck, still whispering and giggling. We could hardly see the white butts going up the stairs but we all watched anyway.

“Well, come on, we’d better go pee before they get back,” Kerry said. 

We followed him to the stone retaining wall downhill from the pool and lined up. I could barely see four streams arching over. I guess we were all trying for distance. Stuart was the one who said it this time.

“It’s great to be a man and take a good hot piss on a warm spring night like this.”

We went back to the tent and arranged things so we had three rows of mats, two deep, with blankets over them, and pillows and damp towels scattered around. When Brad closed the window flaps on each end, it was so dark I could hardly tell who I was looking at.

“Shit, there’s not room for all four of us to lie down,” Kerry said. “I guess Stuart will have to wait outside.”

“Oh, no, Squirt,” Stuart said, “you let Nicole get away. You need to go on to bed.”

“Oh, let him stay,” Brad said. “He can watch.”

“Yeah, like I can see something,” Kerry said.

We kept moving around on our hands and knees trying to find room for four pairs of long legs. I’d just settled down in a corner when I heard Kerry giggling.

“Damn, Stuart,” he whispered, “don’t bite my dick so hard.”

“Shit, it’s your fault,” Stuart whispered back. “Don’t pull my hair and I won’t bite your dick.”

“Let Kavan suck it,” Brad said. “He doesn’t bite and he’s got good manners. He doesn’t talk with a mouthful.”

I decided to play along with them. I tried to make sounds like somebody swallowing something and choking on it. I hocked and retched and pretended to spit something.

“Damn, Brad, you said you’d tell me when you were going to come.”

“Kavan, can I be serious for a minute?” Stuart said. “I want to ask you something.”

“Yeah, what?”

“It’s about what Kathryn said, about Arial being off limits to Kerry. I thought there wasn’t much you and Arial and Kerry hadn’t done with each other.”

“Yeah, you’re right, I guess,” I said. “Over the years, we’ve done most everything with each other except for the biggy. I’ve never tried to get my dick in her pussy and, as far as I know, Kerry hasn’t either.”

“And Siobhan and Kieran knew about it and didn’t mind?” Stuart asked. “They didn’t fuss when you were kids and you played doctor with each other?”

“It seems like I’ve always known how Arial’s equipment is different,” I answered. “I vaguely remember lying on my stomach with my face between her legs and trying to figure out where things were. Maybe I was about six or seven. Mom and Dad had given us our first book explaining sex and I was trying to find her vagina. Mom walked in on us. She just asked what we were doing. ”

“Yeah, but when you got older, didn’t you want to get your dick in there? Did you ever try?”

“I guess I wanted to, just because I was curious. But Dad was always talking to us about how he trusted us when it came to sex. I remember lots of times him talking to me and telling me I’d betray his trust if I tried to do it with Arial. I guess that’s what kept me from trying.”

“How about you, Squirt?” Stuart asked. “You’ve never had your dick in your sister’s pussy either?”

“Nope, I never have either. Dad’s talked to me too, about how he trusts me about sex. I guess I’ve always known we shouldn’t try to do it with Arial. But it’s not just Dad. It’s more than that.”

“What do you mean?” somebody asked and I realized Brad had said something over in his corner.

“Well, I guess Arial and I are pretty close because she’s always been like a little Momma to me,” Kerry answered. “I think we love each other a lot more than most brothers and sisters. I just don’t ever want to do anything to hurt her.”

“Your dick’s not that big yet, Squirt,” Stuart said.

“I don’t mean it that way,” Kerry said. “It’s just that she’s so happy with Brad and I don’t want to cause them problems. I like him. I think he’s a good guy for Arial.”

“Thanks, Squirt,” Brad said. “I like you too.”

“She’s your sister too, Stuart,” I said.” At least she’s your half-sister. I guess you can’t do it with her either. Why are you asking about it?”

“I’m just trying to understand how things are with all of you,” he said. “Brad cold-cocked a jock last fall when he bothered Arial. Now Kerry drops a crack-head when he tries to get at Kathryn. I don’t want any of you guys getting mad at me. I’d like to play around with you but I don’t want to get punched out.”

 “Shit, Stuart, I’m not going to get mad at you,” Kerry said. “You and Joanne have been…I mean…the way you’ve both been so nice to me and taught me stuff…I couldn’t get mad at you.”

“I think I hear them coming down the stairs from the deck,” Brad said. “What do you think they’re going to do to us?”

“Well, whatever it is, I’m just going to relax and enjoy it,” I said. “I’ll bet we’ll like it.”


TO BE CONTINUED:
