I drove the hover across the water over to the island and stopped. I barely felt the hover touch the ground when she bounded out of the car. She took off what she was wearing and dove into the water.
“Oh! It’s great today! Come on in!” she shouted at me.
I was looking around, wondering where we were and what she was up to.
“Oh, go ahead and strip! Nobody’s going to see us and if they do, they’ll be naked, too! And I won’t try to rape you!” she hollered gleefully.
I had promised to just kick around with her for the day, so I went ahead and undressed and jumped into the water. I thought that with a waterfall feeding into the lake that the water would be chilly. Instead, it was warm and very pleasant as she stated it to be. A few moments later, she was swimming on her back underwater beneath me so that I could look down at her and see everything she had to offer. I could tell several things right then about her that I wondered about earlier. She didn’t have a single tan line that I could see and she didn’t have any pubic hair. Evidently, she kept hers shaved off. I wasn’t sure if I liked seeing a woman without pubic hair or not. However, it also make me wonder whether she was a true blond.
When she surfaced, she said, “If you’re wondering whether I’m really a blond, the answer is yes. You have that puzzled look on your face. I’ve seen Daddy with that same strange look before, so I know how to recognize it. And no, I’m not a virgin. I’ve been with men before and I’ve liked it each time. Oh yeah, I’m taking precautions, but I’d be willing not to in your case if you change your mind.”
I felt then like she had been reading my mind. She had just answered the only thing I didn’t know about her so far that puzzled me. I was also curious about why she knew so much about me. I wondered how much more she knew.
She said, “You swim well for someone from an area where they don’t have much water.”
Right then, I knew that she had been doing research on me. “Do you do as much research on every man you meet?”
She replied, “No. Just the one I’m interested in. The other men I had were mostly for experience.”
Right then and there, I realized she had an agenda and I was it. She wasn’t looking just to get laid by me. She was looking for something more. The only thing I could think of was a long term commitment, otherwise why else would she be so agreeable to my not wanting to have sex the way she tried to do last night? I stopped swimming and merely treaded water as I let my thoughts sift through the information I now had about Miss Annie Reason.
She asked, “Did you know, Captain Oden, that if the war ended today and you stayed in the military that you’d could become an enlisted non-commissioned officer just like Sergeant Clark, only with more rank than him?”
I was surprised that she knew of the Sarge. I asked, “What do you mean just like Sergeant Clark?”
“He was an officer before with a temporary commission just like yours. Didn’t you know that?” she asked.
I shook my head as I answered, “I don’t do research on my friends ordinarily. I accept them on their attitudes and personalities alone.”
She said, “You ought to look up his record. It’s interesting reading. He rose to Lieutenant Commander fighting the pirates when they were real bad. He was mostly responsible for wiping them out. Then when most of the pirates were dead, the military downsized. He stayed in the service and became a sergeant.”
Suddenly, I realized that Annie was a storehouse of information. She might even have information about some of the other things I’d noticed before. She had certainly told me a few things that I didn’t know about.
“What do you know about that court-martial that ended suddenly with a dismissal?” I asked.
She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders before allowing herself to sink into the lake for a few moments. She came back up and looked at me. “I’m going to work on my tan. Want to sit with me and talk? Otherwise, feel free to swim all you want. Don’t worry about anyone coming around and saying anything. This is my property. In fact, I’ve got signs all around it saying that people are welcome only if they enjoy it naked.”
“I didn’t see one at the road,” I said.
“It probably fell down. We’ll stop on the way out to put it back in place,” she said as she stepped out of the water and lay down on the grass covering much of the island.
I kept learning things about her, such as her claim to own the land and lake we were enjoying. For once, I was thinking about doing some research just to see how much she said was true. Just for the heck of it, I went ahead and stepped out of the lake and sat beside her on the grass.
She said, “Don’t block the sun. I don’t want to look like I’m two-toned.”
I went ahead and lay down beside her. “Have you ever heard of a company not being listed in the directory?” She ignored my question as if she knew the answer and couldn’t tell. I went ahead and asked, “Well, how about a person not being listed in the directory?” She still ignored my question as if she also knew that answer.
Both times, her facial expression gave that much away. There was no surprise about such a thing to her. Anyone else I had mentioned it to had registered some surprise on their face when I mentioned it. If nothing else, she was guaranteed of having my company for the next few days because of what she knew, even if she wanted to come out here everyday and walk around naked. It wasn’t going to bother me. I could walk around naked with the best of them.
After awhile, she turned over on her stomach to let her back get some of the tanning rays of the sun. She said, “You better turn over now or you’ll get a sunburn that you’ll regret.”
I followed her advice and rolled over onto my stomach. I wasn’t sure how she timed herself, but eventually she sat up and slapped me on the ass.
She said, “Time to get up or you’ll be in pain all night. You’ve had enough sun. Go get dressed.”
She got up herself and went over to the hover and dressed. I took her advice again and got dressed in my clothes. It was then that she surprised me by pulling a picnic basket out of the storage compartment. She walked over to some trees on her island and set the basket down in the shade. I followed along. By the time I caught up, she had lunch for two set out. We ate lunch together, silently, each of us alone with our own thoughts. Was she trying to make me fall in love with her? Or was she merely wellprepared in order to get and keep attention? I noticed that she hadn’t bothered tying the blouse. It fell beside her breasts so that her nipples showed. If nothing else, it was distracting as I tried to think everything through.
We drove back to the base as the afternoon got hotter. The breeze felt good and I envied her ability to wear her clothing in such a manner. She didn’t bother tying the blouse together until we were just a short distance from the gate. I decided not to comment on what she did or didn’t do as to her appearance. The sentry snapped a sharp salute at me as we entered onto the base.
We went to supper together and the conversation was light for the most part. Then I drove her home and walked back to my quarters, stopping by a terminal on the way. I looked up her name. Truthfully, I was just a little surprised to find that she did own the property she said she owned and on which I helped her re-erect a sign stating nude visitors were welcome. She wasn’t wealthy, but she did own that and some other property, enough that she could be said to be well-off. She certainly wasn’t going to wondering where her next meal would be during her life.
Then, out of curiosity, I looked up Sergeant Clark. Everything she said about him was true. His decorations exceeded even what I had earned so far. It was very interesting reading to find out about the Sarge.