Lamu is an island off the coast of Kenya. It is a tourist destination, whose infrastructure has been deliberately held in its 1960s state. This is its main attraction. The other islands in the archipelago are even more virgin. This story, though, is set in the main island.
"Let me change into my swimming suit," said Helga. She tried to hide in the sparse vegetation near the beach. It did but a bad job of concealing her taking off her trousers and panty to pull up the bottoms of her bikini. She tried to hold her kikoy over her chest as she took off her blouse and put on the bikini top, but with only one hand free it was very awkward.
Her fiancée, Hans and I chuckled at the sight. "She might as well have changed right here!" he laughed.
"Good thing it's not windy today!" I returned and we both guffawed.
She came back holding her clothes ready to put them into the bag they carried. "What were you two laughing at?" she demanded.
"Not so much 'at' as 'about'," answered her fiancée with a meaning glance in my direction. I was not sure how she would react to the knowledge that I had caught a glimpse of her tits and her thighs. I felt pretty sure that if it were just the two of them she would not have gone through the rigmarole.
"You two guys are not telling me everything," she looked at us accusingly.
"Neither did you want to show us everything. That's why you went into the bushes, isn't it?" I said with my eyes on Hans.
"Should I have changed in front of you two?" she asked, but without any heat.
"We are all grownups here, Helga," answered her future husband. "Besides which, once you get into the water, that pink material sticks to your body, leaving nothing to the imagination. Josh here only needs to wait til you come out of the ocean to see most of you. Even the little that is covered will still be plainly visible."
Even I was a little taken aback by his attitude. We had become that special kind of friends people make when on holiday, or on a long train journey. The first time we had met was at Ali Baba's house. This gentleman, we learnt, lay in wait at the town square, accosting those he thought were tourists and invited them to dinner at his house in the evening for a small fee. He promised to send someone to show you the way from the hotel. Since there were only two tourist-class hotels in Lamu it was not hard to find the invited guests waiting at the lounge at the appointed time.
When the boy who came to pick me up arrived promptly at 7:30, I found out there was the German couple who were also going. Another boy had gone to the other hotel. As we navigated the narrow streets suddenly we were enveloped in darkness; the lights had gone. The boy had a torch for just such an occasion. The lady stumbled and leaned onto me. I held her hand the rest of the way, since her man was having similar problems in the dark, despite the valiant efforts of the small torch. Severally her breast rubbed against my upper arm as she struggled with the uneven terrain and darkness. I could tell they were smallish ones, quite in keeping with her slender frame.
When we arrived the other group of four were also arriving. Since Ali had told each that it was a 'meal with a few of my friends' it was not surprising to any of us, who had never met before. We were ushered into the typically Swahili house. There was a carpet in the living room where we were bid to sit.
"A Swahili meal is best eaten sitting on the floor. That is why there are no chairs in my household," explained Ali Baba. I felt this was a nickname and he kept his real name secret, for reasons of his own, probably to do with taxes on the money he made in this way. In all probability he only spent a small fraction of the previous night's takings buying the provisions for tonight.
"I had worked for many, many years in the tourist hotels so when I retired I continued taking in guests but in my own way." he explained. "Before the food is served, we will introduce ourselves, for are we not all friends from now on? When I come to your country, won't you accommodate me in like manner?"
It was easy for each of us to assent to this seeing that he was quite advanced in age. It turned out that all of us were tourists, but one man was an expatriate working in the capital city with an agency of the United Nations. My situation was a bit reversed, for while I was a native of the country, I worked with British expatriates at an international school. All the other five were foreigners visiting the country for their first time.
On the way back, the lights had still not returned so we had the same troubles of stumbling through the dark streets. Helga hung onto my hand with greater ease this time having seen that her fiancée was not in a position to protest. I caught the impression that she enjoyed this closeness and brought her tits into contact with my arm more frequently than strictly required. I responded by exaggerating my movements so that I enjoyed them all the more. It was a very enjoyable give-and-take which came to an end all too soon, in my opinion.
Back at our hotel, we found it was still only 9:30, too early to go to bed. To my delight, Hans suggested that we went to the hotel rooftop to have a drink or three. Soon talk was flowing freely. It was not until midnight that we decided to go down to our rooms.
On the stairs as we neared the fourth floor where their room was (mine was the next floor down), Helga slipped on the step. She came crashing down on both Hans and I. Taken by surprise, he was not able to reach the bannister in time. I grabbed it, but the weight of two grownups proved to be too much. All three of us ended up on the floor. Helga started us giggling at the ridiculousness of it all. She was the first up, followed by me. Then we helped him up. She had grazed her knee and her elbow. None of it was serious enough to warrant a visit to hospital at night, so we ended in a hug, intentionally and upright rather than the one we had been forced into on the floor. I felt Helga holding me tightly and we stayed glued together slightly longer than strictly necessary.
"Good night Josh!" with a smack on my lips.
"Good night Josh!" said Hans.
"Good night both!" I replied as I continued on my way down.
It was at breakfast that we made plans to go swimming in the ocean.
"Funny that we hadn't noticed each other before Ali Baba came onto the scene!" mused Helga. "We must have had breakfast, lunch or dinner among the other customers of this hotel but never met or spoke!"
"And to make matters worse, I will leave on Thursday," I told them.
"That gives us only two more days together. Let's take the Long Beach Walk the brochure talks about," proposed Hans.
