Page 23 of The Outcast
Banni drew in a deep, steadying breath. “I understand that I’m asking a lot of you, but it’s not like I’m telling you to walk through fire. It’sjustbathing.”
“Naked!”
“Then keep your underwear on if you must. Hopefully by the time we get to the next group of candidates you’ll have grown some courage and think less like a Northlander.”
I stood next to Banni when he told the candidates that we were going bathing. “Bring clean clothes and a towel. We’re doing it the French way meaning that men and women bathe together. The water is cold so it will be short and effective.”
“Can’t we split it into men and women?” Lilly asked.
“No. It will all be over in five minutes tops.” Banni sounded exasperated, as if he was dealing with children. “We go down to the river, strip out of our clothes, jump into the river, and quickly get back up.Voila!No more stinky feet or sweaty armpits.”
“Did you say naked?” Aristotle asked with his face scrunched up.
“Oui!Let’s go.”
The eight men were laughing and making jokes as we walked down to the river. I wished Aubri and Indiana had been there, but Indiana had work to do and Aubri was picking up more building supplies.
“That water is going to be ice cold.”
“Stop complaining,” Bjorn told Christopher and Beowulf. “You’re just afraid the ladies will see how small your dicks are.”
“All dicks are small in frigid water,” Banni said and moved on. “Besides, no one is interested in anything but getting in and out of the cold water fast. Aristotle, Bjorn, Allan, and Franklin, you’re all soldiers, surely you must have done this a thousand times.”
“What, bathed in cold rivers?” Bjorn asked.
“Been naked with others.”
“Of course, but always with men. Never with women.”
Allan laughed. “I heard women’s tits get stiff when it’s cold. Is that true, Lilly?”
Lilly looked to me, her face reddening.
Bianca answered before I could. “Yes, it’s true. The same thing happens when we’re sexually aroused, but I doubt you’ll ever see that in real life.”
We all laughed at her harsh comment. Even Allan thought it was funny and played along. “What if I ask nicely? You’re an experienced widow, maybe you could teach me a few things.”
Bianca’s shoulder-length brown hair swung as she walked. “I could, but I don’t want to.”
“Ahh, I see. Are you heading to France to have a lesbian experience, is that it?” Allan suggested.
Banni cut off Allan. “Bianca doesn’t have to explain her reasons to us.”
“That’s okay. I can still fantasize about it,” Allan said.
Once we were down at the river, I held my towel in front of me and undressed without showing off my body. The men were quick to get out of their clothes and jump in the water. It was clear that Banni was comfortable being naked and stood at ease in his birthday suit while hanging his towel and clothes on some branches in a tree next to the river.
Bianca and Lilly seemed uncomfortable about the situation like me, but with Bianca being older and having been married, she held her head high and undressed until she was in her underwear. By then half of the men were already coming out of the water and I realized my mistake. The longer I took to get into that water the more men would be done bathing and watching me.
“Come on, let’s hurry up and get it over with,” I told Lilly, who looked like she was about to cry.
My mother, Kya, would have done this without blinking. As a Motlander she had showered with both male and female classmates all through her school years and she found it healthy and natural. All through my childhood, I’d heard my father, Archer, argue that community bathing for the students at the school would be over his dead body. His resistance was so deeply ingrained in me that it felt dirty and wrong when I stood half naked with nothing other than my underwear on.
This is no different than swimming in the lake each summer with my classmates. Underwear or bikini makes no difference.
In my peripheral view, I saw Banni walking into the water with poise, as if it weren’t ice cold. He disappeared under the water and came back up shaking water from his short black hair while shouting, “It’s fresh.”
“What?” Keith was almost done dressing and looked up. “What do you mean it’s fresh?”
