The idea was so terrifying it was almost hilarious. Elara laughed a dry, brittle laugh. "You want me to join a nudist colony?"
Elara sat on a flat rock near the water's edge. The sun warmed her thighs. A breeze played across the back of her neck. She watched a woman with mastectomy scars dive cleanly into the lake, then surface with a shout of joy. She watched a heavyset man walk past, his back a roadmap of old acne scars, carrying a picnic basket.
"Is it that obvious?"
She walked to the lake. There were about twenty people there. A young man with a prosthetic leg was teaching a girl how to skip stones. Two women in their fifties, one thin as a rail and one round as a pumpkin, were floating on their backs, laughing about something. A teenage boy with severe acne sat on a dock, feet dangling in the water, reading a paperback.
She folded everything into a neat square, slung a towel over her shoulder—strictly for sitting, the rules said—and stepped out. Purenudism Nudist Foto Collection. Part 1
It was her therapist, Dr. Varma, who finally used the word "naturism."
She laughed. A real, unguarded laugh that bubbled up from somewhere deep. The idea was so terrifying it was almost hilarious
The sun hit her skin all at once, a total immersion. The air felt different on her bare arms, her bare legs, her stomach. For a terrifying second, she wanted to bolt back to the stall. But then she saw Henry.