Summer '69 // Chapter 5

Ari led the way through the rainforest, ducking and moving brush along the trail that would take them below the falls. They emerged from the verdant shade to the brilliant sunshine burning down on the waterfall and the sparkling clear plunge pool. The plunge pool was deep, the softer bedrock bottom hollowing after years of the cascade’s erosive efforts, the higher rock a much harder layer, forming a cap-rock, the fifty-foot waterfall also carving out a hidden cave-space on the backside of the down-pouring stream. From the plunge pool, the stream continued to the south, and the tall cliff that formed a rocky rampart through the jungle made navigation in the region harder. Less likely to run into errant Guatemalan soldiers here.

As soon as sunlight hit Ari’s skin, he let out a celebratory yahoo and dashed across the rocky half-moon beach of reddish stones, kicking off his espadrilles and undoing his shorts. The skin on Rebecca’s arms tightened at the sight—knowing Ari was going to strip naked in front of them. Her husband thought the best way through this awkward situation might be boldness. The goosebumps humped out on her tight skin and her scalp bristled. So did her nipples, tightening to bolts and pressing out the bustier of her light dress. She folded her arms, and just as Ari got to the water’s edge, sure enough, he pogoed on one leg then the other, his faded jeans shorts falling to the dry beach before her naked husband ran straight into the plunge pool, long legs hiking high until he was waist deep. Then he pounced forward, arcing into a dive and disappearing under the water.

It seemed silent in the absence of Ari’s hollering, despite the waterfall’s crashing water. Ari had left her alone with another man.

Oro took Ari’s stunt with good humor, laughing, then applauding. When Ari’s head popped out near the middle of the plunge pool, he hollered a joyous sound again. Ari spotted her on the shore, then made a big deal of showing his gentleman’s manners, holding up a hand in front of his eyes to shield his view of her. He shouted, “Uh-oh, we better give the lady her privacy.”

Oro chuckled and got anxious, turning away but chuckling still. She said to Oro’s back, “We didn’t bring any swim suits.”

“I’ll just swim in my shorts,” Oro said, nerves stiffening his usually sing-song manner of speaking.

“Nonsense,” she said. “You don’t want to sit in wet shorts, driving back home, do you? Talk about uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay,” he said, shy and polite. “I swim all the time in shorts.”

It was probably true, but now she felt a weird sense of guilt, like it was Ari’s implication that sponsored this polite respect for Rebecca’s demureness and that had put the wet blanket on the mood around here. She unbuttoned one of the shoulder straps on her dress, hands moving slowly while she gained the courage to do what she thought she might do—meanwhile her brain scrambled to find reasons to abandon it. No last objections came, and now she undid the next button over. Ari pinched his nose, wading in the pool and watching her, not quite believing she would do what it looked like she would do.

She said, “Ari’s being a goof, you know? Goofing around.” She let the straps fall, the dress slipping to her waist and bunching at her hips. She thumb-pushed the fabric over her hips, Oro watching her only from his periphery. His eyes had widened in disbelief as he tried not to look, but he still kept her in his field of vision.

The last time she’d talked to her mother was only three weeks ago, her mother taking Rebecca’s rare and valuable phone time—only once a month—to lament and cajole Rebecca’s little sister Abby who’d gone to some music festival in Woodstock where, as her mother put it, “she smoked drugs with those hippies with their bare feet,” like the strangest part of the whole hippy free-love thing was that they didn’t wear shoes. So that’s what she was thinking when she stood naked on the beach with Oro, barefoot, Ari in the water, beaming golden sunshine heating her body: talk about hippies and free-love, wow, if Mrs. Goldblum could see her good daughter now, what would she say to Abby about it? The whole world has gone out if its mind!

* * *

Ari couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Dead ahead, twelve o’clock, a beautiful woman he loved to bits, stripped naked as the day she was born, standing on the beach. Now, this was what he expected to see, coming to Millionaro, but what made it so crazy was the friend of theirs standing beside her. And, man, Oro was doing everything he could not to take a peep at her—but Ari could tell that was all Oro was thinking about. There was no way Oro didn’t have a crush on Rebecca. First, she was sky-high beautiful; she was funny and so, so kind, and she was smart and friendly. And those bazoombas! His periscope went up, fast and hard, like it wanted to break the surface and get a look at the pretty naked lady. “Down periscope,” he muttered, hand-shoving his cock downward and marveling that, yeah, he’d gone full-erect at the sight of his wife in this strange and awkward situation. These damn mosquito bites, though! Even in the water's coolness, with his cock skin stretched out, that burning fire returned.

Rebecca spoke to Oro, Oro turned aside and watching out above Ari’s head at the trees on the far side of the pool or something, doing everything he could not to get caught looking. Poor guy probably worried Rebecca would think he was a creep or a masher or something. He had to commend Oro’s polite resolve not to offend Rebecca’s honor. Ari eyeballed his wife’s curves with no shame at all, his gaze manhandling her like some European Lothario. He couldn’t hear what they said, but the sight of Rebecca standing unabashed with handsome Oro was driving him wild. He almost wanted to tell her to give the guy a look and put him out of his misery. And what would that be like, letting another man get a look at all the private things that belonged to Rebecca and Ari? Pretty exciting, actually. It aroused him to think of Oro looking at Rebecca without a stitch. Why?—well, he figured (he was a great figurer), he knew what it was like to get a look at Rebecca Goldblum of NYU’s Kappa Kappa Theta without a stitch on. Even after all these years, Rebecca now with his last name, it spiked his heart rate. And he liked Oro. He’d like to nudge Oro later and ask him, “So, what’d you think of that?” They could share a laugh and snicker like schoolboys at the treasure they’d snuck and would hold close in their memories. Yeah, except he wasn’t a schoolboy and when the sun went down, he got to slip into bed with this sexy angel. His sneaky glances at his wife weren’t sneaky anymore, they were loud and proud and celebratory.

Now Rebecca left Oro alone, padding down the rocky beach, her breasts swaying a moment until she folded her arms across them. She looked pensive and timid, and he knew she was wondering if Oro was watching her walk away, watching that perfect ass of hers. But Oro wasn’t. Oro was also pensive, wondering what he would do next, standing there like a guy who just remembered there was a test today and he hadn’t studied at all.

As Rebecca dipped her toes in the water, liking the temperature and stepping in to her ankles, behind her, Oro unbuttoned his denim shorts. That was good. Be comfortable, Oro, we’re all friends. And it was kind of hot, two guys and a girl, enjoying the weather, enjoying nature, all of them together on a perfect day. Later they’d play the transistor, and maybe Rebecca would do a naked Hully Gully on the beach and really give them a show this time.

Rebecca dipped into the water, going to a breast stroke, heading his way. She scowled and said, “What’s so funny?”

He shrugged, having no inclination to get into the whole naked Hully Gully thing, knowing she wouldn’t think it was anywhere near as funny as he did.

On the shore still, Oro decided he would do it, lowering his unbuttoned shorts and squatting at the same time, standing, turning, hiding his nakedness. Rebecca still paddled toward him. Oro turned and lay his shorts out on a rock, and Ari caught a sweeping movement in the shade under Oro’s crouched body—something dangling in the dark of Oro’s undercarriage. In the brief ensuing moment, Ari wondered if it was Oro’s belt he’d seen dragging on the beach between his legs, then remembered Oro didn’t wear a belt, then saw Oro stand in profile. The sun bathed his front side, lighting his black skin up in gold, showing off the masculine edges of his ribs and chest and the muscles of his midsection. Oro’s large hands moved to cup his genitals, but Ari saw them uncovered for a half second. Oro had an enormous penis, a heavy, jet-black and wrinkled dangler that hung down mid-thigh. Oro scooped up his generous bounty and held it against his leg as he turned and hustled to the water’s edge. The thing had been half-hard, Ari was sure of it. The idea that Oro got hard being so close to naked Rebecca got his heart galloping and changed all the chemicals in his brain. A switch flipped and all the fun in his mind came to a roiling, lusty boil.

Rebecca reached him now, paddling to turn in place, missing the quick fraction-second where Oro once more revealed that enormous penis as he dove into the water.

Rebecca scooped her wet hair back from her face, squeezed her nose, blinking away the water, watching Oro break the surface. She said to Ari, “Did he take his shorts off?”

“Boy, did he,” Ari said.

Rebecca looked over. “What does that mean?”

He kind of wanted Rebecca to find out what that meant. Kind of wanted Rebecca to get a look and then tell him later what she thought. He shrugged. “Yeah, he took them off.”

“Oh good,” she said. “I told him I wanted him to, but I thought he might chicken out.”

Man, Rebecca telling you she wanted you to take your shorts off? No wonder Oro popped a half one.

“It looked like a moral struggle, but yeah, he stripped naked.”

“Good,” Rebecca said again, watching Oro swim their way.

“Good?”

She shot him an offended look. “You invited him swimming, and you know we go naked. I don’t want him to feel bad or like he’s wrecking our fun.”

“No,” Ari muttered as Oro swam closer. “I think he’s quite the exciting addition.”