a grotesque

stripped of her clothing, the child showed the lovely shape of a six-year-old. just past the dimpled roundnesses of babyhood, the little body stood slim and straight, legs and knees closely met, the skin white as the sand into which the small feet dug, pink toe faultlessly matched to toe.

she was going to bathe.

the tide was out. the alarming, ferocious surf, which at flood came hurtling over the reef, swallowing up the beach, had withdrawn, baring the flat brown coral rocks: far off against their steep brown edges it sucked and gurgled lazily. in retreating, it had left many lovely pools in the reef, all clear as glass, some deep as rooms, grown round their sides with weeds that swam like drowned hair, and hid strange sea-things.

not to these pools might the child go; nor did she need to prick her soles on the coral. her bathing-place was a great sandy-bottomed pool that ran out from the beach, and at its deepest came no higher than her chin.

naked to sun and air, she skipped and frolicked with the delight of the very young, to whom clothes are still an encumbrance. and one of her runs led her headlong into the sea. no toe-dipping tests were necessary here; this water met the skin like a veil of warm silk. in it she splashed and ducked and floated; her hair, which had been screwed into a tight little knob, loosening and floating with her like a nimbus. tired of play, she came out, trickling and glistening, and lay down in the sand, which was hot to the touch, first on her stomach, then on her back, till she was coated with sand like a fish bread-crumbed for frying. this, for the sheer pleasure of plunging anew, and letting the silken water wash her clean.

at the sight, the two middle-aged women who sat looking on grew restless. and, the prank being repeated, the sand-caked little body vanishing in the limpid water to bob up shining like ivory, the tips of their tongues shot out and surreptitiously moistened their lips. these were dry, their throats were dry, their skins itched; their seats burned from pressing the hot sand.

and suddenly eyes met and brows were lifted in a silent question. shall we? dare we risk it?

“let’s!”

for no living thing but themselves moved on the miles of desolate beach; not a neighbour was within coo-ee; their own shack lay hid behind a hill.

straightway they fell to rolling up their work and stabbing it with their needles.

then they, too, undressed.

tight, high bodices of countless buttons went first, baring the massy arms and fat-creased necks of a plump maturity. thereafter bunchy skirts were slid over hips and stepped out of. several petticoats followed, the undermost of red flannel, with scalloped edges. tight stiff corsets were next squeezed from their moorings and cast aside: the linen beneath lay hot and damply crushed. long white drawers unbound and, leg by leg, disengaged, voluminous calico chemises appeared, draped in which the pair sat down to take off their boots — buttoned boots — and stockings, their feet emerging red and tired-looking, the toes misshapen, and horny with callosities. erect again, they yet coyly hesitated before the casting of the last veil, once more sweeping the distance for a possible spy. nothing stirring, however, up went their arms, dragging the balloon-like garments with them; and, inch by inch, calves, thighs, trunks and breasts were bared to view.

at the prospect of getting water playmates, the child had clapped her hands, hopping up and down where she stood. but this was the first time she had watched a real grown-up undress; she was always in bed and asleep when they did it. now, in broad daylight, she looked on unrebuked, wildly curious; and surprise soon damped her joy. so this was what was underneath! skirts and petticoats down, she saw that laps were really legs; while the soft and cosy place you put your head on, when you were tired . . .

and suddenly she turned tail and ran back to the pool. she didn’t want to see.

but your face was the one bit of you you couldn’t put under water. so she had to.

two fat, stark-naked figures were coming down the beach.

they had joined hands, as if to sustain each other in their nudity . . . or as if, in shedding their clothes, they had also shed a portion of their years. gingerly, yet in haste to reach cover, they applied their soles to the tickly sand: a haste that caused unwieldy breasts to bob and swing, bellies and buttocks to wobble. splay-legged they were, from the weight of these protuberances. above their knees, garters had cut fierce red lines in the skin; their bodies were criss-crossed with red furrows, from the variety of strings and bones that had lashed them in. the calves of one showed purple-knotted with veins; across the other’s abdomen ran a deep, longitudinal scar. one was patched with red hair, one with black.

in a kind of horrid fascination the child stood and stared . . . as at two wild outlandish beasts. but before they reached her she again turned, and, heedless of the prickles, ran seawards, out on the reef.

this was forbidden. there were shrill cries of: “naughty girl! come back!”

draggingly the child obeyed.

they were waiting for her, and, blind to her hurt, took her between them and waded into the water. when this was up to their knees, they stooped to damp napes and crowns, and sluice their arms. then they played. they splashed water at each other’s great backsides; they lay down and, propped on their elbows, let their legs float; or, forming a ring, moved heavily round to the tune of: ring-a-ring-a-rosy, pop down a posy! and down the child went, till she all but sat on the sand. not so they. even with the support of the water they could bend but a few inches; and wider than ever did their legs splay, to permit of their corpulences being lowered.

but the sun was nearing meridian in a cloudless sky. its rays burnt and stung. the child was sent running up the beach to the clothes-heaps, and returned, not unlike a depressed amor, bearing in each hand a wide, flower-trimmed, dolly-varden hat, the ribbons of which trailed the sand.

these they perched on their heads, binding the ribbons under their chins; and thus attired waded out to the deep end of the pool. here, where the water came a few inches above their waists, they stood to cool off, their breasts seeming to float on the surface like half-inflated toy balloons. and when the sand stirred up by their feet had subsided, their legs could be seen through the translucent water oddly foreshortened, with edges that frayed at each ripple.

but a line of foam had shown its teeth at the edge of the reef. the tide was on the turn; it was time to go.

waddling up the beach they spread their petticoats, and on these stretched themselves out to dry. and as they lay there on their sides, with the supreme mass of hip and buttock arching in the air, their contours were those of seals — great mother-seals come lolloping out of the water to lie about on the sand.

the child had found a piece of dry cuttlefish, and sat pretending to play with it. but she wasn’t really. something had happened which made her not like any more to play. something ugly. oh, never . . . never . . . no, not ever now did she want to grow up. she would always stop a little girl.