LITMIR.BIZ

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was a squeak from behind her, as Dot saw too, and within a second, Mary and Mairi were back under the water.

      “Phyllis!” Mary called, her hand cupping her mouth, “Phyllis! We have visitors!”

      Phyllis looked at Mary, and then at the boys Mary was pointing to. Helen grabbed her uniform and held it up in front of herself, apparently discovering her embarrassment at last. But Phyllis simply glanced back toward the women in the water with a wide grin.

      The boys didn’t seem to notice they’d been spotted until Phyllis was already heading toward them. One of them let out a shriek and ducked behind his tree. The others followed suit, but none of them reappeared from the other side to run away.

      “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” called Phyllis in a singsong voice, and Maisie had to laugh. She’d bet these boys had never played a game of hide-and-seek quite like this one. “If you’re so interested in female anatomy, lads, you might as well come and have a really good look while you have the chance.”

      There was the sound of a skirmish, and suddenly a boy was shoved out from behind the tree and held there by his friends as he tried desperately to fight his way back into cover. This boy was older than Maisie’d first thought, more like thirteen, though she guessed he had yet to hit the true growth spurt that came with puberty. Right now, however, he looked like a young deer caught in the beam of a ghillie’s flashlight, quivering yet hypnotized.

      “So, what’s your name then, young man?” Phyllis asked in her best schoolmistress voice, as if she weren’t standing stark naked in front of a boy young enough to be one of her pupils.

      He swallowed before he croaked, “Davey,” but when Phyllis placed her hands on her hips in what would have been a stern gesture in other circumstances, he corrected himself. “I mean, David Matheson, Miss … erm … Mrs …”

      Phyllis nodded at him, the motion of which sent her breasts swinging, something that Davey seemed to find quite hypnotic. “You may call me Miss Cartwright. And now, young David, will you introduce me to your friends too?”

      Davey continued to stare at Phyllis’s chest but vaguely beckoned to his friends with one hand, in the manner of someone half-asleep. Five seconds of noisy shuffling later, the two other lads appeared. This pair, however, had no courage to look at the naked woman; they kept their eyes studiously on their boots. Glancing at them, Davey followed their example and dropped his gaze too.

      “Poor little sods,” chuckled Mary from where she was mostly submerged next to Maisie.

      “This experience could scar them for life,” replied Mairi.

      “I think it’s scarring me for life,” joined in Dot, and they all laughed, sending out ripples around them. The movement of the water against Maisie’s shoulders made her shiver, the delicious relief of cool water on her skin now turning into shivering cold, as goose bumps broke out on any skin that was still exposed to the afternoon breeze. She really wanted to get out of the water now, but there was no way she would stand up with those boys there.

      “So, is it polite to spy on other people?” Phyllis was saying in a clear voice.

      All three boys shook their heads solemnly without lifting their eyes.

      “Then perhaps it’s about time you got off home. I’m sure your mothers will be very keen to hear what you’ve been up to this afternoon.”

      Davey nudged his elbow against his friend, who did the same to the third boy, and all three of them shuffled sideways toward the tree.

      “I’m sorry, boys, I didn’t quite hear what you said there,” Phyllis sounded very stern.

      “Thank you, miss. Sorry, miss. Good-bye, miss,” mumbled the boys as they moved.

      “That’s better,” said Phyllis, as she shooed them away with one hand. “And good-bye to you too.”

      Sensing that they had been released, all three boys suddenly pelted behind the trees, reappearing three seconds later as they dashed toward the thicker bushes beyond. Maisie heard one of them let out a triumphant whoop, which was followed by a succession of cheers and yells, the boys clearly delighting in their narrow escape from the spitting venom of a naked Medusa.

      Hearing the exultant cries, Phyllis put her head back and guffawed. “I don’t think they’ll be back anytime soon, do you?” she crowed.

      “No, but their big brothers will be,” called Mary.

      “And their dads,” added Mairi.

      With relief, Maisie and the other girls left the water and pulled their clothes over their soaking bodies. Maisie wasn’t about to let the presence of the boys disrupt her pleasant afternoon.

      Walking back to where the truck was parked, Maisie tugged at the back of her trouser leg, pulling the fabric off her damp skin. With soaking underwear under dry clothes, it wasn’t going to be the most comfortable ride home, but the swim had been worth it.

      “Thank you for not laughing at me,” Dot said suddenly.

      “Why would I have laughed at you?” Maisie replied.

      “You know, with the swimsuit thing. It’s only that, well, I’m not used to being so open and uninhibited. I’m not very good around other women, I suppose.”

      “But that’s nonsense—you’ve made loads of friends here.”

      “No, Maisie, you’ve made loads of friends, and they all let me tag along because they like you so much.”

      “That’s not true, and you know—”

      Dot put her hand on Maisie’s arm. “I’m serious. I’ve got four big brothers, and their favorite sport is to make my life miserable. My whole life they’ve been shoving me, and stealing my things, and tearing my clothes, and so I spent my time at home trying to be invisible. But then they started picking on anyone I tried to be friends with. It took a while, but in the end, no one at school or in our street dared talk to me because of what my brothers would do to them.”

      Maisie felt heartsick for her friend. “Why didn’t you tell me all this before?”

      Dot shrugged. “It’s not something I’m all that proud of.”

      “But didn’t your mother—”

      “She died when I was little. I don’t remember her much.”

      “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Maisie felt a sudden wave of shame, never having considered herself lucky to have her mother and sister. They had always just been there.

      Maisie and Dot were almost at the truck now, and everyone else was already clambering on board.

      “I always wanted to be one of those pretty girls,” Dot continued, “like Anna and Lillian. Or outgoing, like Phyllis, or someone who makes friends so easily, like you. But that was impossible. My brothers saw to that.”

      “But didn’t your dad stop them?”

      Dot slowed her steps. “My dad,” she said quietly, “well, my dad’s not a very nice man.”

      Maisie almost replied that her dad wasn’t a very nice man either, but Dot’s lowered eyes and stillness told her that her own family problems could not compare, so she said nothing.

      “I’ve never really had a best friend before I met you, Maisie, or any friend actually. And before coming here, I’d never really been around any women either, so I was terrified on the journey here.”

      “But if the idea of being with a large group of women scared you so much,” Maisie asked, “then why would you join what is basically a large group of women?”

      Dot looked at Maisie for several seconds, seeming to consider her answer very carefully.

      “Because,” she said eventually, “the idea of staying at home with a large group of men was worse.”

      Maisie

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