Saturday Morning N-Day +2 Gordon Mays

Gordon Mays got up early Saturday morning. He gathered some flowers from the garden and drove the short distance to the cemetery where his parents, sister and other family members were buried. This was something he often did, especially on Saturday. Jane saw him leaving through her window. She had accompanied Gordon to the cemetery a few times, but generally avoided the trip. Gordon could go and spend a couple of hours there sometimes, and Jane never could understand why it seemed to take him so long. She knew that he had more people there, including the twin sister he lost when a toddler, but cemeteries just did not seem to carry the same meaning to her that they did for Gordon. She knew that they contained only bodies and their markers, but she thought that Gordon must seem to think that some of the spirits of the departed lingered.

Jane began to attend to her usual Saturday morning routine of checking her business email and, finding nothing requiring instant attention, started cleaning up the kitchen and getting it more into order. After she had been working for about an hour, the phone on her wall rang. Jane answered it.

“Hi, Jane,” a female voice asked, “Is my uncle there?”

Jane did not place the voice and it took her a moment to figure who might be calling Gordon her uncle. The word did get used liberally around the Compound because there were so many uncles and nieces and nephews, but she couldn’t remember anybody using it to refer to Gordon. The caller ID was blocked, but after a couple of seconds she figured that it had to be Christina.

“Uh, Christina, he’s not here. I think he’s still at the cemetery. Do you want me to take a message?”

”No, that’s OK. You dressed right now?”

Although Jane was Christina’s step-grandmother, that relationship had never been apparent in their interactions. Jane was generally infuriated by the young woman she suspected little more than a rich tramp.

“It is none of your business, young lady, and I am hanging up.”

She hung up. She returned to what she was doing for about thirty seconds and then decided that it might be best to call Gordon. He might want to know that Christina might be looking for him.

“What’s up?” he answered.

Jane told him that his niece had just called and warned him that she might be on the way to the cemetery.

“Well, I just left so she’ll miss me. Got any idea what she wants?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t ask for you by name but as ‘my uncle.’”

“That’s probably not a good sign,” he answered. “Maybe I better call her and hold her off. You got her cell number?”

“Just a second.”

She grabbed an old-fashioned personal phone book and located Christina’s number which she gave to Gordon. They disconnected and Gordon gave Christina a call.

When he contacted her he asked why she had called him.

“Well, you know that Edna and my mother and I and the mayor and some others were out the night before last seeing how well the city was adapting to the new situation, don’t you?”

“Yes. That has gotten around.”

“Well, Justin and I want to go back this afternoon. We wondered whether you might want to join us.”

Gordon knew that Justin had had no part in the matter and suspected that he had not even heard of it yet. He also knew that he had never gone anywhere with his niece that family business had not mandated. He wondered what she was up to.

“Where were you thinking of going?”

“Well, we went to Yankee Joe’s last night, so today I think we just want to walk around Central Park to be sure that nobody is getting hassled for being naked. And maybe to Java Juba Lee. I’m still not sure that Laura is in on the program. And just a good walk downtown wouldn’t hurt.”

“I know that you and Justin will be naked. He probably won’t see another day dressed until you go back to school. But I’m not in a mood to do that. The right to public nudity is something I believe in, but do not intend to use that right myself, at least not now. Kind of like abortion, in a way. A lot of people support the right who won’t ever have one.”

That’s OK. We want a mixed group, both naked and dressed. That shows how tolerant we all are. And Justin’s mother will like it better if we have a lawyer handy. She still isn’t believing in this whole thing.”

“Well, I imagine that there are a lot of people who aren’t convinced. But you don’t need a lawyer. Why don’t you get Anna? She’s closer to your age. She’ll stay dressed, but won’t look so out of place with you as I would.”

“I already talked to her. She might. I think she thinks some of her girlfriends might go to the movies instead. But she is becoming a cool kid. But we’re not worried about you looking out place and you shouldn’t be either. Hey, maybe I should see if Uncle Simon wants to be pushed around town today.”

“Leave him alone. Anytime Uncle Simon wants to go, he’ll go. He’s earned his peace. I know you see him every day, but give him some space.”

“Well, I was just speculating, but you are right. Well, we’ll probably be going around two or so, so give me a call if you want to join us. OK? Or maybe I’ll just call you back.”

She disconnected. Gordon pulled into the A&W stand and ordered two hot dogs and a big mug. He sensed some relieve when the car hop came out completely dressed.

Saturday N-Day +2 Angi, Linda, and Cyd

Angi had worked at Jim’s until midnight on Friday night. Jean usually sent her home earlier when business had tapered below a certain leve, but the night had been busier than normal. hen Early in the evening Joan had had her bouncer deny service to two naked men in their forties who had come together. Angi had not recognized either of them and wondered whether Joan had barred them because of their nudity or perhaps some perceived gayness. Had she had time to think more about it, she would have understood the first situation and condemned the second, although she realized that Jim’s was not really in a situation to become a gay bar. But that was the only time that any one had tried to enter Jim’s naked that she knew of since N-Day.

She went home and showered the smoke out of her hair, slipped on a night shirt, and went to sleep. When she got up at nine in the morning she went downstairs. Cyd and Linda were both on their computers communicating with people from somewhere. Cyd was on the front porch wearing only a pair of black cutoffs and smoking a cigarette while doing something on her laptop. Angi knew that Cyd did not smoke often and surmised that something had her concerned.

“What’s happening? This isn’t the usual Saturday activity,” she asked.

“Pretty much we expected,” Linda answered. She handed Angi some printouts.

“Look at these. The early copies of some of the bigger Sunday papers are out. There are a couple of big ads financed by who knows who and they don’t sound very polite, shall we say. This may be the worst. It says it is funded by ‘Citizens for Families.’ It blames our new clothing optional state on ‘godless and foreign agents and their legislative and judicial cohorts and lackeys’ and calls for the removal of all present office holders except for the attorney general who they say should be installed as governor now because she is the only state office holder qualified to hold any public office. They want everybody replaced by people who will respect the constitution and families and oppose public indecency, and who will end any program which gives any state money, including medical or housing assistance, to anybody who engages in non-coital sex or outside of legal heterosexual marriage.”

“Aren’t they just hotheads?” Angi asked.

“Maybe,” Linda answered, “but they have a lot of money and they have the support of some mainstream politicians, at least from the past, it seems. Does the name of Clark Quentin Throneberry mean anything to you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, he is one of the signers. He used to be governor, a Democrat who some people thought was a liberal, who served two terms and retired to making money almost forty years ago. He’s almost ninety now, but I don’t think he has burned all of his bridges. Some of our correspondents have been telling us that he still makes all the right parties and still meets with prominent people. He is quoted as saying that while the decent people slept that outside forces came and took things over. In increments. First liberalized divorce, then abortion rights, then gay rights, and now the right to ‘flaunt what should not be flaunted’ and says that we need to undo all of these things. He was one of the state’s first prominent supporters of choice, so it really seems strange.”

‘Well, if they’re attacking what so many people are doing, don’t they think that they’ll just be making too many enemies to get their stuff done?”

“We can hope so, but remember there’ll be hell to pay if we’re wrong. That’s why we have to mobilize and do it now. Linda and I and all of us have just too much to lose.”

“I understand.”

She went to the kitchen for a bite of breakfast.