I wasn't in a very good mood. Quite frankly I was in a mood for mischief but I was getting past the age where some things could be dismissed as light-hearted boyish pranks. Try some of my sillier juvenile pranks now and I'd find myself explaining to an unsympathetic judge that it was just a bit of harmless fun and it's not as though anyone was hurt. I suspect judges don't care for a boyish point of view.
Wiser councils prevailing, I looked for some other way to work off my nervous energy. I drove up to the hills and went hiking. Good healthy exercise, just the thing to tire me out.
I wound up high in the hills, perched on a rock, looking down at this valley and watching the burbling brook flowing through it. I was communing with nature and letting my restlessness fade away.
Into this idyllic scene strolled a young couple. I'd guess her to be about eighteen or nineteen and him not much older. For some reason I got the idea that they hadn't been hiking together, just happening to meet up in the valley by chance, but it was obvious that they knew each other.
By an odd quirk of acoustics I could hear them talking, not that they were saying much of interest. They were mildly flirting and teasing each other, more in a brother/sister fashion than girlfriend/boyfriend.
There was a little bit of pushing and shoving as they walked along, mainly instigated by the young lady; he just pushing back in self-defence. A mild problem cropped up when it appeared he either underestimated how hard he was pushing her or her foot slipped on a loose rock. Whatever the cause, she finished up falling. Not onto the grass next to the brook, but after a staggered step it was a case of splash, and she landed flat on her back in the water.
She seemed incensed and he was horrified. I refer to her feelings as 'seemed' as I didn't think she was as angry as she was making out to be. He, on the other hand, was genuinely repentant, having had no intention of dunking her.
She was all "Look what you've done," and "Just look at me," and "My father will kill me if I walk in like this."
Where the look at her command was concerned, he was being a gentleman and not looking. I was being an oaf and looking and wishing I had binoculars so I could get a better look. It was plain to see that her dress was transparent when wet, and I suspected the same probably applied to both panties and bra.
He apologised profusely. You know the sort of thing. "So sorry, I never meant to, never dreamed that you'd go in, etcetera, etcetera."
"I can't go home like this," she wailed. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Well, you could take off your dress and wring out the worst of the water and drape it over a bush. It's quite hot and the sun should dry it pretty quickly."
"Oh, yes, you'd love that, wouldn't you?" she snarled. "Perving on me in my wet undies. I don't think so."
"Offer her your shirt, you idiot," I mentally beamed down to him but he proved obstinately unreceptive. Damn it, man, that's what she wants you to do. That way you're both half naked. Take your chances while you can.
He dithered about while she waited patiently for him to have a good idea. In my opinion, she'd be waiting a long time. He did finally start looking at her and even from where I was I could see him blushing. She wasn't, even though she was the one on display, just him.
He finally got up the nerve to do something constructive. He was apologising again while his hand came up and reached for her breasts. I don't know exactly what he intended because he took too long. She made an angry little sound and took a step backwards, telling him to keep his hands to himself.
There was a bit more give and take, giving on her part, taking on his. The clown apologised again and again. Was he Canadian, I wondered? He finally came up with what he apparently considered to be a good idea. Namely, he was out of there. This would permit her to take off her dress and let it dry with some privacy. With that he turned and departed, standing not on the order of his going.
She watched his rapidly retreating figure and said a word that I'm quite sure her mother never taught her. She did not look too happy and I figured that young man would be in her bad books for a while. She then started strolling along the valley in the opposite direction to her young man.
Watching her walk, indeed enjoying the way she walked, I noticed that the path she was on doubled back, heading higher. Tracing that trail with my eye I came to the conclusion that she would pass the rock I was sitting on, so I sat and waited.
It was only a few minutes and she came scrambling up the trail. I called down to her from my little perch.
"Rather wet, aren't you?"
She gave a little start and stopped, looking around to see who was there. Also where was I, because I wasn't on the trail? I moved over to the edge of the rock and hopped down, walking onto the trail and looking her over.
"That's right. Take a good look?" she said in a rather snarky manner.
"I am, I assure you," I told her. "You're definitely worth looking at, even if you do resemble a half-drowned kitten. A matter of curiosity, why don't you take off that wet dress and let it dry in the sun. It should dry quickly, more so than while you're wearing it."
"Why does a man's first solution to anything involve taking off my clothes?"
"Well, in this case, firstly because it would work and secondly because it would give me an even better view. If you want to go with the first reason and skip the second I'm quite happy to lend you my shirt to wear while your dress dries. I don't mind sitting and chatting to a pretty girl."
"And what would we have to talk about?"
"How about that idiot who gave you the swimming lesson? Is he your boyfriend?"
"Yes, and he's not an idiot."
"You could have fooled me. Here you are, dressed in see-through-when-wet clothes and there he is, gone. Really, the lad should have talked you out of those wet things and then entertained you while they dried."
