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17. THE OLD SWIMMIN' HOLE: Naked To The World!
Casah = cold.
Albanh = Tree, singular, or trees, plural. Could mean 'forest'.

The next morning we hike further up the hill, into the forest. We stop at the site of last night's squirrel roast. Tinunh begins returning the stones we, mostly she, had gathered for the fire-pit, back to the places she found them. I pick some up, follow her, let her place them back in the ground, scatter some leaves to make it look undisturbed. I'm getting the sense we're not supposed to be here. Eenunh scatters the ashes a bit, sprinkles pine needles over them, some leaves. She tosses bones down the hill into a ravine.

We start hiking. In about an hour the stones, loose ones, bedrock outcrops, become more granite, less sandstone. The soil is more of the yellow shale, then just rocky, blue stone, mossy outcrops, and lots of pine needles and leaf litter. The deciduous trees are changing color. It's just a tint here and there in the trees, a few scattered red and yellow leaves on the ground. The Sunstar gets higher, almost high noon. The air is warm; not hot, but very warm, comfortable.

I begin hearing a sound. Is it a wind in the foliage? It doesn't fluctuate, steady, ssssss! I can't see any wind, some movement in the trees, not the source of the sound. The air moves down here, leaves flutter up there, but no wind here on the ground, no major movement in the leaves above. We come out from under the trees. There is a stony creek, spilling from a little higher up! There's a waterfall, a small one washing over the stones, splashing here and there on the way down, and just about a six foot drop, obviously by the sound, into a pool! I can't see the pool yet, big blue boulders ahead. It's noisy! On up the hill and there it is! A round pool, clear water, rounded boulders, water glistening, sparkling in the Sunstarlight.

The girls trample a grassy area, set their pack-bags, canteens and bed-rolls down. They unstrap their corn-knives. They converse. Tinunh strips off her dress. She wears the upper body undergarment. She takes off her shoes and socks, takes off her canvas pants, has on the underwear. She goes closer to the water. She crosses her harms, takes hold of the bottom of her top garment, stops, turns and looks at me. I'm looking at her.

Eenunh says, "Turn around, please." I do.

Soon I hear a bit of the water splashing, Tinunh saying, "Casah! Casah!" 'Cold! Cold!'

I forget I'm not supposed to be watching and glance, look away. Tinunh is in the water up to her waist, her back to us. I saw her underclothes on a rock there.

Eenunh says, "Okay," touches my arm. She sits, takes off her socks and shoes, her pants. I look at Tinunh, moving across the pool, neck deep, moving off to the right side and continuing toward the waterfall.

Eenunh stands and pulls her dress over her head. She's wearing the undergarments. She spreads a single blanket on the pine needles, opens their pack-bags, hers, and gets out her change of undergarments, lays them on her pack-bag. She opens Tinunh's and gets out the fresh underwear. I'm a little unsure if I'm expected to skinny-dip too, but she did make me bring a change of underwear, and now seems to be her chosen time for that change.

"You can watch me," she says, in her... breathy... human voice, crosses her arms to take hold of her top, reaches up, closes her golden eyes, kisses me, and pulls her top off.

Yes! I'll watch! She wriggles out of the underwear. She's grinning at me, touches my cheek. She turns and steps gingerly through the grass, over the stones, to the water and eases in.

"Casah!" she squeals, quietly. Tinunh looks back. Eenunh falls forward, green buttocks sink in the water, moves toward Tinunh, swimming rather than walking as Tinunh did.

I spread my sleeping bag, sit on it. Watch them neck-deep in the water. They move under the waterfall, let it splatter off their heads. They make quiet squeals! I pull off my shoes, my socks. I take off my shirt, my pants. I get my change of underwear out. I walk to the edge of the water. Eenunh turns Tinunh to face the other way. I lay my clean underwear on a boulder, take off the ones I'm wearing. I go back up the hill, get my corn-knife, bring it to the edge of the water, lay it with my underwear. Eenunh's telling Tinunh. Eenunh grins at me. I ease in, and when the water gets up to my... my... I confirm 'Casah!', even though I don't say so.

One of life's great pleasures, Benjamin Franklin said, is to fully immerse oneself in water. I perch, squatting on a submerged boulder, water up to my neck. Soon the water doesn't seem so cold. Eenunh and Tinunh are splashing each other, stop and start splashing water on the bluish stones there at the edge of the pool, turning them dark. I turn my face to the Sun, love the hot rays. It's almost...almost as if our troubles are washed away. Just for a moment I'm not stressed. The contrast, of course, brings it all back to my consciousness. I strive for that... ignorance... again... that lack of concern that wears on me every minute. I'm almost there, almost dozing. The hot Sun. The cool water. The girls talking, water noises from them, the falls. I doze, sink my ears under the water. I hear their voices, muted, water over my ears. Meditate. Moments.

I fall off my perch into the water! I'm awake now. I find my footing, bob in the water. Eenunh is laughing, looking my way. The Sunstar's a little different. How long was I asleep? Tinunh is laying up on a boulder, her forehead on her forearms, a little green lizard in the Sun.

Eenunh's looking at her, talking to her. She begins wading across the pool toward me. She seems to swim a few strokes out in the middle. I speculate it must be deeper there. Soon she's walking, wading again. I'm just crouched under the water. She comes closer, her body rising out of the water. I look. She's standing now, the water splashing between her thighs. I stand up and reach toward her. She grins, brushes my fingertips. She takes hold of my right hand with hers, grips my wrist with her left, shakes it. She laughs at her joke. Her breasts are... bunched by her arms, unbunch as she lets go! I just grin. She steps closer, offers her face up. I take it, kiss her closed eyes, the bridge of her nose, find her lips and pinch them with mine.

"Stop it!" I whisper. She giggles. She stops it, turns and steps to get out of the water. I raise my right hand to steady her. I want to call her back but can only watch her climb the hill. She's in our three pack-bags, comes up with our gloves, wraps them in gray paper. She pulls a towel out of her pack-bag, comes back with the stick of soap, wrapped in a washcloth, the towel, the gloves package. Sitting beside me at the spillway she bathes herself. I watch the soapy water sip into the spillway. She hands the washcloth and soap to me, goes into the water. I wash myself. She comes back, takes the soap stick, washes her face with soap on her hands.

She's watching Tinunh, unmoving on the rock, and grinning at me. She takes the soap and washcloth and pulls me off my stone, to rinse. I do, swimming, or just pushing myself off rocks on the bottom. She's pulling me over to the waterfall. I let it spatter on my head. We turn to come back. We go over the spillway to a small pool there. She washes the blue out of the gloves. We... spend some time down there, her peeping to keep an eye on Tinunh, me just lying on a boulder, in the Sun.

We come back up. Up the hill she goes. I watch. She dries off, grins at me. She's pulling on her clean underwear, which does nothing to conceal her body from my knowing. She puts on the upper garment, and it's just as sensual as her naked. She comes to the edge of the water, motions for me to come out. I do. She dries my head a bit, wipes down my chest, my belly, my shoulders and arms, pats my genitals dry. She turns me, gently, dries my back, my butt, my legs. She throws the towel over her shoulder, points to my underwear. I put them on. She steadies me to stand.

"Get dressed," she says, pointing up the hill. I turn, pull her to me, look in her eyes, half-closed, kiss her.

"Don't tell me what to do!" I say and let her go, walk up the hill to get dressed.

"Don't tell me what to do!" she says, giggling.

I hear her call to Tinunh, Tinunh answer, a moment later, a splash! I pull on my socks, jeans, shoes, facing away from the pool, looking down the hill, under the trees. Out of the corner of my eye I can see her bathing Tinunh. The Sunstarlight feels good on my skin. I don't put on my shirt.

Eenunh and Tinunh have come up the hill, Tinunh wrapped in the towel. Their hair is fluffed out again. Tinunh shivers, perfect white teeth chatter. I think she's playing with it, chattering just for the fun of it. I spin on my butt, scoot to the other end of the blanket, turn my back to them again, look off down the hill at the pool. What a wonderful place! Eenunh seems to know where she is. She's been here before. I wonder if I should ask about it. Sometime. Not now. Now is just for us, now, the ever-elapsing moment of now. A cool breeze blows from under the ablanh.

We wander around in the woods, around our camp area, look up in the trees that have the berries. More up there. We don't climb though. Our bags are full. That night I ask if we'll have a fire. Eenunh says, "No.", points to her two eyes, and out all around. "See us," she says.

'Someone might see us?' I think. So what? I guess I don't want any intrusions either. Or maybe... we're not supposed to be here.

Night falls. The million stars. Sleep. No resistance.

A dream... of Eenunh.

She's grinning...
with tears running down her cheeks...
then I'm still 'here' in a city in the dream...
and she's walking across the street...
in a crosswalk...
at a distance from me...
with lots of other people.

I walk that way but don't seem to arrive at the place where she crossed!

I don't see her!

Where's Tinunh?

My eyes open. It's morning.