Chapter10. Angi talks with her housemates

Angi left Jim’s at the end of her shift. She drove home to Blacksburg where she lived with her mother’s cousin, Linda and Cyd, Linda’s partner. Linda and Cyd were finishing supper when she arrived.

“There’s some tuna casserole in the fridge to nuke up and Cyd made some coleslaw. We’re going out, but you knew that. You got anything lined up?”

‘C-Fred said he might call. We might hang around for a while. But I need to turn in early. I told Willie that I’d work for her in the morning because she ‘s so short right now.”

Willie Johnson was a friend of Linda and Cyd who owned a diner in Blacksburg. She had given Angi a chance when she first came to town and Angi had worked for her full-time for a year. She continued to work for Willie on occasion when Willie was short-handed, appreciating the fact that Willie had been nice enough to give her a chance when she really needed it.

“You know, that woman really likes your work. She’d take you back full time in a wink and you wouldn’t have to work in that dive,” Cyd noted.

“Well, Willie’s a nice person and she’s nice to work for, but I think that I need the bar. I need a job I got entirely on my own and I need to see others with problems. I still think it’s better for me to work at Jim’s. Besides, the tips aren’t great, but they are a lot better than what you get in a diner.”

She went up to her room, took her clothes off, grabbed a towel, and went to the bathroom to shower. Glimpsing herself in the mirror, she reflected to herself that if she had to she could look quite acceptable nude, although she wished some of the evidence of her past, especially the scars and the tattoos weren’t so visible and that there was about fifteen fewer pounds of her.

After drying herself off, she grabbed her robe and went down to the kitchen. She fixed herself supper and was finishing eating when her phone rang. It was Connor Fredricks, jr.

‘Hi, C-Fred. What’s up?”

“Some of us are going to Elmerton, I guess. There’s a new band playing that Cooz wants to hear at Joe’s Hideaway.”

Connor didn’t have a car, but Cooz and some of the others did and Connor would often accompany them to be the sober driver. He was still not twenty-one and couldn’t drink legally, so it worked out well for all of them that way.

Angi preferred not to go to Joe’s Hideaway. She thought the bartenders rude and the waitresses likely sluts, but probably would have gone if she didn’t have to be up so early.

“I don’t think I’ll be up to it,” she answered. “I agreed to work for Willie at six in the morning.”

Changing the subject, she said, “Say, I met your uncle today. He seemed like a nice man, but a little out of place at Jim’s.”

“Which uncle?”

“Donald. He came in and Jean introduced us.”

Connor was a little surprised that Donald would enter a place like Jim’s.

“Donald Mays? My uncle? Why was he there? You got any idea?”

“I don’t know, but it must have had something to do with the new laws, with this N-Day thing. Jean was saying that Donald wanted her to make the waitresses work nude, but Jean told me that she wouldn’t. He said that wasn’t the deal at all.”

“I don’t know, but it sounds like she got him wrong. I know that they’re trying to get the business people in town to be accepting of the nude people so we can be some kind of tourist attraction. Anna sent me an email with some of the details. I think it’s a fucking shame. I think clothing should be optional. Everybody in the Family thinks so. But it really should be a matter of personal freedom and I wonder if some of my relatives don’t want to make it a commercial thing and if it becomes commercial will it really be a free choice for some people? I am beginning to wonder if I will want to walk to work in the nude or not if I think it could be used for their commercial purposes. But Anna says that he and Edna – you probably don’t know her but she’s Donald’s cousin and she and him always seem to be fighting each other to become the boss of the family – they both intend to go naked in a public celebration Thursday. I’ve seen them both. They’re no big deal naked and they sure won’t look so powerful with their clothes off. I guess that Edna’s not so bad for an old woman, but Donald really isn’t much to look at and I think I would think the same way if I were a girl.”

“You’ve seen them both naked?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen the whole family nude, I guess. I think I even remember Uncle Simon skinnydipping back when I was really young. He never was into it that really big and now he doesn’t get out much. He’s maybe the best person in the family, but he’s ninety-something and pretty much stays in his house. Remember, I told you that the Compound is pretty much clothing-optional. That’s why I’ve seen them all nude.”

“I remember you telling me that, but somehow I didn’t think you meant the whole big family. I guess I was figuring just your parents and sister.”

“No, I’ve seen them all and some others too. Some of them aren’t family, at least not yet. Christina, my cousin, brings her boyfriend around and they’re both naked as soon as they get there and they’re both shaved.”

“Shaved?” Angi said, somehow surprised a bit. “I hate shaved men, although I haven’t seen one since I got clean. And I haven’t shaved myself since then, either. I know why some women shave, but why would a man do it?”

“Well, in Justin’s case, I think it’s because Christina makes him and he never stands up to her.”

‘Why would he put up with that? Is he dazzled by your family’s wealth?”

‘I don’t know. Christina’s about the same age I am Justin is too and she and her mother moved back here about ten years ago and her and Justin have been going together ever since even when they weren’t old enough to be going out.”

“You mean they were ten and they started out dating each other?”

“More like eight. Well, I guess there wasn’t a lot of dating then, but she definitely thought he was her boyfriend and made him know it and he has gone along. I don’t know how much he noticed the difference in backgrounds back then but he couldn’t have missed it. Right now I don’t think it would make any difference to him. I think he’s kind of resigned himself to being stuck to her until she decides otherwise, probably even if she somehow became poor which ain’t a going to happen. Somehow she has him so far under her finger.”

Angi wanted to return to the subject of her apprehension. ‘Strange. Anyhow, you’re sure that your uncle won’t get Jean to make me work naked?”

“Ain’t nobody going to make you work naked. You’re too independent. You wouldn’t do it anyway. I’m sure that nobody in my family has any desire for anybody to be made to be naked against their will, but I am not sure that they all understand that not everybody has the freedom that they do. Anyhow, I don’t think they want to force anybody and it might not even be legal, especially in a bar. But in any case can you imagine that Jean would listen to a thing Donald or Edna has to say? She hates us. Most of the businesses in town tolerate us and maybe a couple even like us. Of course, some of us have pieces in some of them or control the mortgages or have other influence. But most of the other business too will work with us in a lot of civic and commercial things, but Jean don’t. I like her spirit in some ways. After all, I don’t get along with us all so well myself. I went to school with her son, Jim, jr. We never got along all that well because I was who I was. As soon as he graduated, he joined the Army. He was so anxious to get out. According to an article in the paper he went to Iraq recently. I do hope he comes back. He’s not a bad guy even if he doesn’t like me. But you don’t want to work nude?”

“You know, I hadn’t thought of the possibility until this afternoon. But the answer is N-O, No. I’ve told you that I did some bad things when I was shooting and when I was on meth and I used my body for business purposes and I don’t want to do that again. I’m not a prude and I’ll probably show it off some, maybe at Yankee Joe’s if they let me, but I want to be in control.”

“I understand you sentiment. It is something I agree with totally. I don’t know about Yankee Joe’s but I know that some in my family have pieces of the place, so I suspect that there’ll be some kind of nakedness there. I even I might even own a piece of it, at least in theory, and I know Uncle Donald has a chunk. I won’t be surprised when I hear that Yankee Joe’s is now ‘clothing optional’ as I imagine they will label it. And I’m sure that Karen the manager would like it that way. She really is a good-looking woman and I hear that she is quite passionate and sexual, although she likes women. Well, if you’re not coming, I’d better call Cooz. Talk to you later.”

The conversation ended. Angi suddenly felt even more exhausted and after putting her dishes into the dishwasher, she went up to bed. She slipped off her robe and looked into the mirror.

“That’s what you’re not going to merchandise, Jean bitch,” she muttered and fell back on the bed. Sleep came right away.

About midnight she woke up. She heard Linda and Cyd coming home. She grabbed her robe and went downstairs. They all chatted for a few minutes sitting around the kitchen table. After a few minutes she got up and gave each of them a hug and returned to her bedroom. She slipped her robe off and actually got between the sheets this time.

Sleep did not come so easily this time. She found herself thinking of who she had been two years ago, an addict who had managed to ruin all of her ties to friends, parents, and siblings, had prostituted herself, and could see no future. She remembered police officers putting the handcuffs on her and slamming her into the back seats of police cars. Those moments came back frequently in her nightmares. Yet somehow, she knew that if she hadn’t been arrested that last time and been forcibly detoxified and if Linda, her mother’s cousin -- the only relative who would still have contact with her -- hadn’t helped her get cleaned up and straightened out and invited her to live with her while she got her life back in order, that she would still be that person, if she was even still living. She had promised Linda that she would stay with her and Cyd for two years. That would be up in a few months, and while she wasn’t feeling in any rush to leave she knew that this arrangement wouldn’t go on forever.

She rubbed her hands down her sides, folded her arms against her naked body, rolled over, and fell asleep.