Two

Three o’clock on a winter’s morning, the ebb tide of the soul. As Belvoir Avenue lay sleeping, tightly wrapped in warm duvets a cold wind whistled through Marion’s pubic hair and stiffened her nipples to the point of pain Slipping silently through the frosty garden she was close to ecstasy. Marion had halted her nude forays at the end of the summer for fear of the cold and this was her first experience of a sharp winter’s night. Overhead the sky fizzled with stars as she followed her secret path towards the back gate. Here she paused and considered a brisk walk along the lane that led to the street. “No” she thought to herself as her breath steamed in the freezing air, “I’ll just see if the coast is clear, but I won’t go” Carefully so as not to disturb the nearby sleepers she opened the gate a sliver and peeked through. Marion quivered at the thought of her neighbours soundly snoring in their beds whilst she stood naked just outside their windows. If only they knew, safe staid Marion Shaw, never known to wear short skirts or revealing tops, a veritable nun of the community, roamed the streets at night wearing just her sensible shoes. She was pushing her luck; she knew this, and she knew with utter certainty that one day she would be caught. “Go back now” she told herself, but it was no use, the lane was clear and there was nothing between her and the silent street.

Brian Shaw woke with a start. Languidly he stretched out his hand to gain comfort from the warmth of wife but she was not there and the bed was cold. All sleepiness banished his mind began to race, ‘surely she isn’t out tonight’ he thought, ‘not in this weather.’ He climbed out of bed, shivered in the cold and groped for his dressing gown. Very carefully, so as not to warn his wife he parted the curtains a smidgeon, just enough to look out with one eye. There she was a pale glow at the edge of the garden. Brian sighed, and not for the first time wished that Marion would spend some quality time with him in the nude. What drove his wife to wander naked around the garden in the middle of the night was a mystery to him. Not once in their twenty years of marriage had she shown any exhibitionist tendencies. Even now, when it was perfectly obvious to Brian that Marion loved to bare all, she hid herself away under her staid clothes. She was careful he had to admit, and it had been just by chance that he had caught her, one night in September when she had stepped out from under the deep shade of the apple tree near his prize bed of chrysanthemums. Since that time Brain had tried to breach the subject of nudity with his wife, but somehow the opportunity never quite arose. He watched her naked skin glowing in the starlight as it moved towards the back gate. She wouldn’t dare? But she would; the gate creaked open and for the first time he glimpsed her whole, as she looked out in the lane. Even at the age of forty she had a fine figure, he admired her straight back and well rounded backside in the faint glow. A sudden panic gripped him as Marion turned and looked straight him. He held the curtains very still; even now Brian couldn’t let his wife know he had seen her, he just wished she could find it in herself to tell him.

Funnily enough this was exactly what his stark naked wife was contemplating in the freezing garden, when the light in her bedroom snapped on. Swearing quietly to herself she ran in zigzags across the garden for the door. Knowing that silence was more important than speed, Marion closed the kitchen door behind her and slipped into her dressing gown and slippers which she had left conveniently, arms spread wide by on the kitchen table. Picking up the glass of milk she had poured before going out Marion sat down and waited.

Brian gave his wife enough time to get into the house and cover her bare body before he started to go downstairs. He found her in the kitchen drinking a glass of milk. Sadly she wasn’t nude.

“Sorry” said Marion “did I wake you” She tried to sound calm although her heart was pounding.

“No, I just wondered where you were”

“I couldn’t sleep so I came down for a drink.” She finished the milk and said “I’m coming back to bed now”

“Oh right,” said Brian, trying not to look at his wife’s muddy feet.

At the top of the stairs Marion turned to her husband. “I think I’ll just have a quick shower to warm me up”
Fifteen minutes later she slipped into bed, he felt her warm naked body brush against him, her skin so smooth and fragrant. He reached out and gently, as soft as a feather touched his wife’s breast. Her whole body arched in ecstasy and Brian knew he wasn’t going to get much sleep from now on.

Brian woke with the alarm as usual. His mind drifted through the rollercoaster of last night, if that was how Marion was going to respond after a naked walk he decided he would encourage her to do it more often. His wife was already gone, up showered and dressed for the new day. She greeted as if the previous night had just been a mid winters night dream.

“You’re late darling. Hurry up and eat your breakfast.”

Before he knew it he was out of the front door and into the car. As soon a Marion heard her husband’s engine fade in the distance she removed all her clothing and went back to the crossword she had half finished.

That evening Brian lay awake in bed forcing himself to keep his eyes open. He felt like a small boy trying to catch a glimpse of Santa on Christmas Eve. Instead of a jolly man in a red suit sneaking into his room in the middle of the night, he was looking forward to a surreptitious glance of his wife in her birthday suit sneaking out of the room and into the silent frosty garden. In impatient expectation Brain tossed and turned, while his wife slept soundly, never moving from the bed until he was long gone to work on this dim winter morning. Of course if Brian had known what was going to happen he would never have slept at all that during that year’s Christmas Eve.