Chapter 4: Breaking Free at Breakfast
Kaitlyn and I sat down to join the others at breakfast, about half of whom were still in some kind of pajamas. Kaitlyn and I were fully dressed. Between staying up late and needing to get fully ready before coming out to be with the family, we were the last to arrive.
“Ah, there you are,” observed Mama Gutierrez.
“Morning, Mom.” Kaitlyn kissed her mother on the cheek.
“Mrs. Gutierrez,” I greeted my prospective mother-in-law.
“Mary, please!” she chided me.
I bowed my head at her, then said, “Good morning, Mary.”
Mary served us, the others having already started. As she was slinging scrambled eggs and toast onto our plates, she said, “You had a nice night out in the corn field.”
It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t a probe. She knew! Kaitlyn blushed scarlet and growled “Mom!” in a low voice. I just quietly said, “Um, yes, Mrs… Mary.”
The silence stretched for a bit until Allison broke it. “C’mon, don’t leave it there! What happened?” Her gaze bouncing between Kaitlyn and their mother, like she was watching a tennis match.
Kaitlyn raised a fist in an “I’m going to thump you little sister” gesture, but Mary short-circuited the coming fight by saying, “Well, your sister and her fiancée lay out under the stars all romantic last night.” She clasped her hands in front of her matronly bust in a sticky sweet lovesick teenager gesture. “Romantic and stark naked!” Then she started cackling gleefully.
“Mo-om!” Kaitlyn said again, much louder this time.
Undeterred, her mother went on, “And oooh the things they got up to after that!”
“I missed this?!” Vicente butted in. “How did I miss this?”
“Oh, it was you that drew my attention to it with that firework you shot off! It lit our young lovers right up!” she pushed out through continuing chortles. “You were looking up at your handiwork, but I was looking out at the fields, and ooh what a sight I got!”
We were the absolute center of attention. Kaitlyn was mortified, so I decided it was up to me to step in and explain. “We… Well, we’re kind of nudists. Part time.” The eyes stayed on us, so I explained further, “It was a nice night, and we were waiting for you all to finish with the bathrooms, so we went out and…” I just flicked my hands in a “You know how it goes” gesture.
Allison jumped in to rescue us. “I’ve been skinny dipping.” That finally dragged all the fascinated eyes off Kaitlyn and I. “Nude sunbathing, too. Last summer, down at Lake Powell,” she continued defiantly, daring anyone to tell her she couldn’t.
Middle child syndrome, I guessed: always looking for attention.
“Your mother and I… Well, we’ve done a bit of that, too,” put in Ramón, reaching out to squeeze his wife’s hand.
Miguel decided it was his turn to confess, so he put in, “We’d usually skin off for a wash in the river after setting up camp on overnight rafting trips when I was in Scouts.”
“Why have I never heard this?” his wife Carmen asked.
“Never came up,” he answered. “I’ve even gotten close to that several times in high summer doing farm work here as a kid. Let’s just say that for some jobs, briefs and boots is about all you want on. Come on down here about mid-August and help us move the drip irrigation around in the secondary fields; you’ll be down to your scanties by about 10am, too!”
“I know where I’ll be mid-August!” piped up Vicente. Carmen blushed.
“What about you, then, Vin?” I challenged him, using the diminutive he preferred. (“Only my mama calls me Vicente!”)
“Um, nothing, really,” he replied, looking down at the remnants of his breakfast, like he’d somehow failed the family.
“Well,” Kaitlyn said, finally regaining the power of speech, “I guess we’re just a family full of closet nudists, then!”
“Apparently so,” her mother answered. “I wonder if we should peek out of the closet a bit? I propose a nudist picnic lunch out in the fields! Anyone who doesn’t want to join in can feed themselves!” She said it with a challenging tone, daring anyone to demur.
“I’m in,” was Allison’s immediate reply.
Kaitlyn wasn’t going to be upstaged by her little sister, so she was next: “We’re already caught. And anyway, I suspect we’re the closest to true nudists of the bunch, so Davie and I should probably lead this party.”
“All right!” enthused Vin, doubtless excited at seeing his beautiful sisters naked. “But do I have to be naked, too?”
Ah, the inconsistency of youthful logic.
“Of course you do, Vicente! No fair peeking without getting peeked at!” his mother scolded.
Ramón seemed game, but didn’t speak up, staying true to his quiet way.
“Well, that just leaves us, Carmen,” observed Miguelito. “How about it?”
“I’m really uncomfortable with this,” she said. “Could I maybe wear a bikini or something? To start, anyway?”
Vin looked ready to spread the reciprocity around, but I jumped in, telling her, “Of course you can. I’m not going to ask anyone to strip off completely their first time. Carmen, I hope you do join us in the buff, but starting with swimwear shows a willingness to join us in the spirit of the thing, so I welcome it.” I turned to Vin and said, “I’m nervous to go against your mother on this, but you can start with swim trunks, okay? But if you just spend the whole time ogling, we’ll have words.” I eyed him seriously. “Got it?”
He nodded his head quickly, looking relieved.
I looked to Mary, and she gave me a nod of accession. I bowed back.
We finished breakfast, then separated into assorted activities until the anticipated picnic lunch.
Kaitlyn and her mother went off to chat. I suspected they were planning the wedding. Maybe they were talking about me? I didn’t know if I wanted Kaitlyn to tell me about it or not.
Meanwhile, Kaitlyn’s father took the guys out for a manly bonding session, covered as teaching me how to shoot.
As we hiked, he observed, “It’s appropriate, you learning to shoot on the 4th of July.”
“Symbolic,” put in Vin, who’d come along with us.
We’d hiked well out from the farm, up into a protected nook of sandstone where we could shoot without any danger to others of ricochets, and where the sound would be somewhat attenuated.
I don’t remember much about the outing, but I do remember that I didn’t much like using the shotgun. On later reflection, I decided that it was because I’m too much of a detail-oriented guy. I liked…no, needed precision. Shotguns just sort of annoyed me, an offense to my nature. It was…I dunno…like writing a love letter in spray paint. I could understand the sporting and practical value of shotguns, but I couldn’t see myself actually wanting one.
I was a lot happier when they brought out the old M1911-A1 military pistol Ramón’s father had passed down to him. Kaitlyn’s grandfather had bought it as Korean War surplus. The design is well over a hundred years old, its name indicating the year the US government first adopted it for the horse cavalry they still kept at the time. They told me the basic design is several years older than that. Yet, they’re still making 1911-pattern pistols today in tremendous numbers, and most of them are modern takes on the old design, not old timey replicas. You see them all the time in movies and TV shows. It’s a truly timeless design. And oh, how they shoot! I didn’t know if I was ever going to get a gun, but if I did, this was much more my speed.
We cleaned up our brass, shot shells, and targets, then left in time to help assemble lunch.