Three or four months before the conversation that inspired the telling of this account took place, Hannah had given birth to a healthy baby girl. Hannah was visiting one lazy afternoon when she reminded me of Juju and an adventure that we had shared together one weekend when she and Damien were home from university.
Hannah and I were sitting comfortably by the pool, naked as always. I was chatting with Hannah and holding my granddaughter when she started to grumble a bit and make little sucking movements with her lips and tongue. Knowing instinctively what this meant, I handed the baby over to Hannah and she started to feed immediately.
As had happened to me when I was feeding her, Hannah's boobs had grown at least a cup size, maybe more, since giving birth. She seemed to take motherhood naturally in her stride. Although there were a few anxious midnight phone calls because 'the baby won't stop crying', she eventually settled down and was now relatively at ease.
Watching my daughter nourish her child in the same way that I nourished her brought back fond memories. Now that Hannah was a fully grown woman with a family of her own, Ben had told me on many occasions that the resemblance between her and I grew stronger every day.
Hannah was roughly the same height me, maybe a tiny bit taller. Ben loves to tease me and tell me that from behind our hips and arses were almost indistinguishable, not to mention our thighs and calves. I think that Hannah's boobs were slightly larger and firmer than mine, but our age difference more than accounted for this. If I squinted, Hannah was almost a younger, prettier, more savvy clone of me.
As she sat there feeding her daughter, Hannah told me about what she remembered of the weekend that Juju came to visit. She also said that her father had done a good job of writing our memoirs so far, but that she thought that I should give it a go too.
As these memoirs were Ben's little pet project, I wanted to make sure that he was OK with me trying to write a chapter or two. When I spoke to him later that day, he was full of enthusiasm and encouraged the idea.
So, here goes . . . .
Hannah was laying back with her legs spread wide bracing herself securely. I was behind her looking over her right shoulder and Damien was looking over her left shoulder. Hannah was looking down at Ben providing coaching and encouragement.
Ben's face was red with exertion and he was sweating profusely. He locked eyes with Hannah and repositioned himself, ready for one more try.
"Come on, you can do it!" Hannah said encouragingly.
"Yeah Ben, you've got this." I said.
"Not long now, keep going." Hannah added for good measure.
With one final effort, Ben let out a huge groan throwing himself forward before landing face first next to Hannah.
"Well done!" I said.
"Well done indeed." said Hannah as she stood.
"Here Hannah, let me help you with that." said Scott as he stepped towards Hannah.
"Try to remember not to let the rope wrap around your wrist, if your father had fallen and you needed to take his weight, you could have easily ended up with a nasty spiral fracture." he continued as he disconnected the carabiner from her harness.
"Yes, yes, yes, I know that Scott! I just got caught up in the moment. I was careless, I know." she responded with equal parts anger and shame.
"And you Ben." Julia said as she offered him her hand, "Use your legs to push yourself up, not your arms to pull yourself up next time."
"Legs. OK, got it." he responded still out of breath.
Hannah and Damien were on a brief break from University so they decided to come and visit their ageing parents for a change. This time, they brought their room mates Julia, she prefers 'Juju', and Scott. The four of them had managed to find accommodation together. It was small with two bedrooms, but both bedrooms were 'masters' with ensuites each. They also had a small communal lounge/dining/kitchen area as well as a combination powder room/laundry/store room. Perfect for students.
I could easily tell that Hannah was my daughter. Not only was I there in person when her bulbous cranium popped out of my dainty lady parts, but she hated wearing clothes. Don't get me wrong, I also hated wearing clothes, but I grew up in a household where clothing was encouraged as the norm. Hannah, on the other hand, was raised in a household where clothing was worn sparingly at most.
Both Hannah and I started out the day with our hair tied back, wearing very loose fitting tank tops with large gaping low cut arm holes and deep plunging necklines. Neither of us wore a bra of course, so there was sideboob aplenty on display that day. It was not exhibitionism, we simply felt that we needed less restrictions for our climbing activities. Juju was also wearing a similar tank top, however, her modest boobs were restrained by a sports bra underneath.
All three of us ladies were wearing yoga shorts. The visible outline told me that Juju had knickers on. Naturally, Hannah and I were knicker-free. All three men were wearing tattered shorts and t-shirts, what else?
Juju's modest clothing surprised me slightly. Hannah told her and Scott what to expect in our house. In fact, it was very similar to their current living arrangements. She had a swim in the creek yesterday afternoon naked, she ate dinner with us naked last night and was the same at breakfast this morning.
Romana, my younger daughter, shared some naked breakfast with us that day, but she had to get to work early. She had been working part-time in an entry-level position for a while. The previous evening her manager called late and offered Romana the early morning supervisors' shift. It seemed that Romana's normal supervisor was not available and her manager thought that it was time for her to try stepping up. She was not happy missing out on the trip, but the opportunity for advancement was a significant and overwhelming incentive to do so.
Whilst Hannah and Ben were still recovering, the rest of us started to pack the climbing gear into our backpacks so that we could continued the hike to our final destination a few kilometres further on up the hill.
"Hold on a second." Hannah called out as she stood up.
I looked over and saw her removing her top as she approached me. She arrived next to me and handed me her top.
"Can you please put that in the bag?" she asked offering her top to me.
As soon as I took her top, she reached down and removed her yoga shorts passing them to me as well.
"It's still a bit cool." I said noticing her erect nipples.
"Once we get going again, I'll warm up." she responded.
Whilst it's true that Hannah's sense of modesty was fairly lax compared to the rest of society, she was usually cautious when it came to public exposure due to the legal implications of being caught naked. Luckily, our family had been hiking this particular trail since the kids were very young and Hannah knew the area well.
Ben, Hannah, Romana and I would often join forces with Sally, Susan, Damien and Caroline and hike this trail naked. It was on private property and we had the owner's permission to visit whenever we liked. Part way along the trail, there was a very large rock outcrop that we had been saying for years that we wanted to try climbing, we just never got around to it.
