25

allowed his eyes to fall from hers. Today was the day for new breasts, first the large and now the small. His eyes paused in their divine descant as he admired Linda’s puffy little nipples. Having drunk his fill at that particular table he continued his exploration down through a flat freckle speckled stomach with its deep navel, and onwards forever south towards the triangular patch of deep black pubic hair that thickened towards the hidden entrance to her vagina. Again he paused at this base camp before setting out onward down her long thin legs until he reached her painted toenails. Withy no more flesh to view his astonished eyes bounced back up like a perverted rubber ball taking in a second glorious view before stopping at the sight of her husband Kev at the end of his red brick drive.

Linda cleared her throat and in a small voice said “I am standing her naked because I want to know I am a slut who does not deserve to wear any clothing. I have no modesty and I want everyone to look at my bare flesh and……”

At this point the astonished Brain was roughly pushed to one side, and Marion, who thankfully had found a baggy dress, grabbed Linda’s hand and dragged into the hall. Kev made a move, but he was too late, Marion slammed the door in his face. The doorbell ding donged maniacally to no effect “Sod off Kevin” shouted Marion through the letter box.

Meanwhile Julie Lewis was caught on the horns of a dilemma. Clearly something important was going down and her journalistic instinct told her to find out what it was and to do that right away. Holding her back was the very human instinct that insisted she put some clothes on first. Not for the first time the journalist won and with only her trusty pen and wire wound notebook to cover her modesty Julie stepped into the hall to find the naked angel sobbing on Marion’s shoulder.

“It’s ok, there, there” said Marion soothingly as if Linda was a two year old who had lost her favourite doll. Marion reached for a coat, “put this on” Julie was so busy scribbling on her pad she never thought that in a brief moment she would have been the only one naked in the hallway.

“No, no” screamed Linda pushing the coat away, “I must never wear clothes again”

“What?” exclaimed Marion over the noise of the ringing doorbell. She turned to her husband, “Go outside and talk to that moron Brian, and find out what this is all about”

“I can’t open the door, he’ll burst in”

“Then go out the back way”

“Ah, yes” he muttered “Excuse me” he said apologetically to the naked woman blocking the entrance to the kitchen. Suddenly Linda was aware of Julie’s presence.

“Who’s she?” she demanded

“Friend of Isla’s”

“Why’s she writing everything down?”

“She’s a journalist”

“What, I’m not having anything in the paper I’m in enough trouble as it is”

Marion couldn’t see how Linda could possibly in any deeper than she was at the moment. She was up to her neck in a riptide that was still on the flood

“It’s OK” said Julie soothingly; “I’m on your side”

“How do I know that” Marion couldn’t blame Linda for being suspicious.

”I’m naked for a start” Julie replied quickly. That stopped Linda like a mouse in the path of a raging bull elephant. “I’m a friend of Isla, I’ve been on protests with her, naked. I wrote the sympathetic articles that appeared in the Mercury”

“So why are you here naked Linda?” asked Marion

“I am a slut and a whore who does not does not deserve to wear clothing. I have exposed my naked body…..”

”Yes yes, I got that bit. But why are you doing this? Is Kev forcing you”

This brought Linda back to tears again. Marion offered her a handkerchief from her pocket.

“Oh I’m forgetting my manners” Marion said as Linda sniffed. “If you won’t get dressed than I must join you” and without further ado Marion shucked her dress. “There, that’s better. Now, let’s sit down and talk this through”

Haltingly with many pauses for sniffs and choking sobs Linda related her story to the sympathetic Marion and Julie who had finally found her recorder and its tiny little solid state notebook took on the daunting task of saving the whole tragedy of Shakespearian proportions for posterity.

Naturally her husband had not been over the moon to find out that his wife went for midnight walks through the locality in her birthday suit. Neither was the manner of his discovery of this little known fact to his liking. So when the world weary police had finished with Linda he had started. Firstly he shredded all her clothes with a wicked knife. This act was founded upon the simple logic that if she walked around naked she didn’t need any clothes. Then as he rubbed his fingers along the knife blade he ordered her to strip. Silently in dumb shock Linda had complied watching numbly as her husband tore each discarded item into little strips before her tear filled eyes.

“This is how you will stay, bitch” he had screamed “unless you want a divorce, and then you will never see my son again” The threat sliced through Linda like the knife in his hand and she fell to the floor begging, pleading with her husband. She’d do anything she told him, but please don’t cut her off from her child. He’d lifted her up by her hair, and literally spat the words in her face “Just remember you’re an unfit mother, no judge in the land would allow you to come within a mile of my son” He’d left her then to shout obscenities at the press pack gathered outside the door. It was after an hour of sobbing that she finally ventured out of the bedroom. Despite the many hours she had spent naked alone, or in the company of Marion she now felt very nervous and very conscious of her nudity. She found Kevin pacing the kitchen. Linda ventured a timid smile, “Fix my dinner slut” he shouted at her. “Bring it to me when it is ready” he told her as he pushed roughly past her. She winced as the table edge dug into her bare buttocks.
He had forced her to stand naked in the corner while he eat, ordering her to fetch drinks and extra food. She had obeyed humbly, waiting for the mood to subside. But it didn’t, her husband paced the room like a caged animal, occasionally stopping so scream in her face, spittle splashing her eyes and mixing with her tears. She wanted to run but feared his anger would grow.

“What do you want from me Kevin?” she pleaded falling to her knees pawing at his legs. He kicked roughly in the chest. Linda lay there on the carpet sobbing while he ranted on and on. She was an unfit mother no less than a whore, and that was how he was going to treat her. From now on, she would live naked. Should they have visitors she would stay naked and wait on them, fulfilling their every desire. She would clean the house, cook the meals wash his clothes in the nude. “You should be grateful to me cow” he screamed “I’m saving you from the work involved in washing by keeping you bare arsed” Of course she was free to leave anytime she wanted, but without her clothes. At the end of this tirade Kevin sent his wife stitchless to the kitchen to wait his further bidding.

At half past five her husband kicked open the kitchen door. Linda stood quivering like a leaf in a downpour. He was red in the face and stood stock still fists clenched.

“Do you know what I have just watched. Well do you bitch” Linda shook her head wearily. “The local news; and do you know whose picture they showed” She swallowed hard and nodded slowly

“Some naked whore walking along our street, and you know what, she looked just like the harlot in front of me.”
Linda clasped her hand to her forehead “I’m sorry Kevin, I’m so sorry, I never thought”

He cut her off “Do you think they all saw, the neighbours I mean. Do you think all of them know what you look like with no clothes on?”

She didn’t know what to say, “I’m so sorry”

“Sorry” he screamed his voice almost unrecognisable, “not as sorry as you will be” He grabbed her roughly by the hand and dragged her towards the front door.

“No Kevin, please” she pleaded.

“Just in case any of the neighbours missed the news let us show them what they missed” he growled through gritted teeth as he pushed her into the street.

Linda was in a blind panic now as she stood on her front path exposed for all to see. She leaded forward, head down, one hand covering her breasts and the other clasped tightly over her vagina. “Don’t act all coy you brazen hussy, you were letting it all hang out last night” He dropped his voice and in a menacing tone told her hold her arms by her side.

“Now let’s go and visit Brain and Marion” he told her with a smile, “let them see you for what you really are. Kevin held open the gate and Linda stepped out, her bare feet very conscious of the cold pavement. The windows of the houses stared down on her. Was anyone there, looking out at her? She dared not look to see. Thankfully there was the street was as bare as she was for the short journey to her friend and neighbour’s door.

“Ring the bell bitch, and when they open let them have a good look before you tell the type of woman you really are”

Linda stood in front of the green door shaking in fear and shock, hoping with all her heart that it would be Marion who answered.

Kevin’s rage had receded by the time Brian found him sitting in his front garden idly dead heading his roses.

“Hi mate” Kevin looked up at Brian, his face expressionless.

“Why did she do it Brian?” he asked without preamble “What is the point of walking around the streets o the nude”

Brian scratched his head “Dunno” Even though ne had done so himself, he wasn’t exactly sure why he allowed Marion to drag him off through that warm summer’s night.

“I feel so betrayed, all these months she’s being doing this and I didn’t know. People must think I’m a mug”

“Oh come on Kevin” cajoled Brian “once you are asleep how are you expected to find out” That set them both thinking. How often did their respective wives take the midnight air in their birthday suits?
”What I’d like to know, Brian continued “is what the hell Dick Standing was doing staring out of his window at three o’clock in the morning , camera in hand”

Kevin paused; he looked at his hand which contained geranium seed that he plucked from the plants growing on the verge. It was as fine as dust. With one finger he pushed them into one of the folds of his palm, one of his lifelines. He sighed, a sudden exhalation that spread the seeds into the welcoming earth

“Good point Brian, perhaps we should have a word” Brian was inclined to agree, was Dick peering through the cracks in the curtains with his telephoto lens, what sort of pictures were squirreled away on his hard drive. He was a certain as the fate of a Christmas turkey that there were many, many picture of his daughter in the nude saved on Dick’s computer. But as they were freely available all over the internet he could hardly complain

“Later Kev, let’s sort this out first”

“There’s nothing to sort out Brian, the bitch got what was coming to her. What they doing in there anyway”

“Having powwow”

“They can chat all they like, she’s got to take her punishment”

“Don’t you think you’re being a trifle harsh Kev”

“Easy for you to say, what if it was you whose wife was running around the streets in the buff. What would you do?”

“I said nothing to her” Brian winced, he’d let the secret he had held for so long slip. It didn’t go unnoticed, Kevin looked at him, a deep piercing look that turned to understanding and sympathy.

“Oh yeah Isla” Brian hadn’t realised he’d been holding his breath. He sighed, able to breathe again “Yes, that wasn’t easy I can tell you”
“But did you feel betrayed, that’s the worst thing for me. Linda betrayed me. Why? Why would she do a thing like that?”

Brian knew why, the feeling of the air all over your skin, the thrill of the dare, the certain knowledge of the shame that capture would bring, the extremes of the fear of being seen and recognised and the elation of safe return. Oh yes he had felt all that, so knew well Linda’s reasons.

“No idea mate” he told Kevin


“We need to sort your husband out” said Marion in a very business like way. Linda had just admitted to Julie that she was the Naked Angel. Julie was so pleased that she had finally got the woman she had hunted for so long that she ignored he glaring holes in Linda’s story. One thing was sure as rain on a bank holiday, Marion was not going to point them out.

“We have him by the balls” Julie told the clearly puzzled Linda

“How? It’s me that was walking the streets in the nude”

“True” Marion told her, “but in forcing you to knock on the door and say the things you did he has revealed himself as cruel, and most certainly not fit to be a father.”

”Oh no, he’s a good father, it really is all my fault” Linda broke into tears again.

“Look Linda” Julie began “this how we have to play it if we are going to get Kevin to back down”

“Oh I see” she said with a sniff fumbling for a handkerchief in the pockets of the clothes she wasn’t wearing. Marion went and found her a box of tissues. Privately she was quite pleased that Linda had been caught as she was now off the hook. There would be no suspicion of her being the Naked Angel, and she could carry on with her midnight airings for if somebody caught a fleeting glimpse of a bare body on a clear starry night, well they would think it was Linda. Marion had no sympathy, if Linda had been careless enough to be caught that was her problem. When you took a midnight stroll in the buff you took a risk and lived with the consequences if you were seen.

“You look all out Linda, why don’t have a quick shower and I’ll find something for you to put on. Then we’ll get Kevin in”

“Okay…… but I’m not too sure about getting dressed. That may be a red rag to a bull.”

“That’s fine by me” said Marion who had plans for Kevin. Julie, however, gulped and floundered like a fish on the deck of a rusty trawler. “It’s okay” Marion said kindly, “you don’t need to be here”

The woman in Julie agreed, nothing looked better to her in that moment than the clothes hanging on the back of the door. The journalist in her was not so sure, being naked was a small price to pay for being in on the kill. Once again the acid smell of the newsprint won..
“That’s fine, I’ll stay and keep you company”

“What’s happening “ asked Brian who had just reappeared through the back door.

“Kevin has behaved abominably towards Linda, he plans on keeping her nude” his bare naked wife explained primly.

“Well he is more than just a trifle annoyed” Brian replied “And with some reason”

Marion placed her hands firmly on her ample hips. “Oh and there’s something wrong with walking around as our maker intended”
Julie Lewis couldn’t help but think that, although Marion might have a point, it didn’t necessarily extend to her present state of exposure. At least she was in the majority, an advantage that increased with the return of a refreshed Linda. Brian thought she looked much better now, the lank hair was still wet but had a body to it, her face had lost some of the care lines and her bare body glowed in the subdued light in the kitchen.

“I’m ready now” she said “please bring in my husband”