The Performance

My characters and their names are entirely fictitious. Any similarity to any real person is unintended and coincidental. Thank you for reading.

*****

Jim, Helen, and I had gone to college together, many years ago it now seemed. Jim and Helen were already a couple when I met them. Like me, Jim and Helen were both history majors. While Helen and I focused on the 20th Century, Jim's primary interest was in ancient history. Apart from our studies, we found that we shared a common interest in going naked. Weather permitting, Jim, Helen, me, and most of my girlfriends of the moment would spend time nude on the shore of the lake near our university. We also found a spa with a pool nearby that was willing to rent it for nude swimming one Saturday night a month. Helen promoted that around the university and we had as many as 50 students, faculty, and staff come to our swims.

Jim and Helen married almost immediately after graduation. We went our separate ways for grad school, but stayed somewhat in touch with a phone call or two a year. Jim and Helen had a daughter while they were both still working on their masters degrees.

I got my masters on the East Coast and then was fortunate enough to get into a doctoral program in England. After that, I spent a few years doing research and some teaching in Germany before returning to North America. I finally landed as an assistant professor at a good university in Vancouver, B.C. that was conveniently close to a great nude beach.

I was reasonably happy in B.C. and was striving diligently to publish more and get tenure. However, Jim called one Sunday morning.

Jim and Helen had both gotten faculty positions at different universities in the Washington, D.C. area. The history department at Helen's school had an opening and was looking for someone with my area of focus. Was I interested? I was.

Thanks, I think, to Helen's influence; I was invited to D.C. to interview for the position on a Thursday and Friday in the spring. I had not actually seen Jim and Helen in years. They invited me to stay with them Saturday night and I'd fly back to Vancouver on Sunday.

The interviews went well. As a thank you to Helen, I took her and Jim to dinner that Friday night. We caught up more than you can do by phone on the more than 20 years which had passed since college. Among other things, they told me that Penelope, or Penny, their daughter, was now 25 and working on her doctorate at Jim's university. We had a great time. After dinner, Jim drove us to their very nice house on a large wooded lot in Northern Virginia.

Saturday morning, Jim and Helen had to do their usual weekend errands. I took the time to do my run and then read until my hosts returned. It was a warm and gorgeous day.

When Jim and Helen got back, I helped them unload the groceries and things from their car. Once the purchases were put away, Jim laid out bread, cheese, and meats and we made sandwiches.

"We thought," Jim said, "that rather than give you the tourist's tour of Washington, we'd just relax and grill out here, if that's ok."

Helen added, "The weather's so nice, we can spend that afternoon out by the pool."

"Staying here is fine with me," I replied. "Unfortunately, I didn't pack a swimsuit."

Helen gave me a mock look of disgust. "Harry, when have you ever known us to wear swimsuits? Our pool is nude only at all times. Are you afraid of us seeing what 26 years have done to your body?"

"I'm sure that the years have not treated me as well as they have you, Fair Lady; but I think that I can still bring myself to strip off."

We cleaned up from lunch. Jim and Helen went to their bedroom to "change" for the pool. I went to the guest room, took off my clothes, and laid them on the bed. Walking naked through Jim and Helen's house did feel a bit like old times.

I went through a sliding glass door out onto the patio surrounding their pool. It was a warm sunny day.

Behind me, Helen said "I brought out some towels, and I'm guessing that you didn't pack sunscreen."

I turned to face Helen. The years had been very kind to her. In college, she had been attractive clothed and gorgeous nude. In her late 40s, she was still gorgeous nude. We spent a minute looking each other over.

"I see from the lack of tanlines that you've kept the faith Harry," Helen said. I explained about the beach within walking distance of my campus. Helen gave me a joking leer. "Nude undergrads. That must be a thrill for an old man like you."

Jim walked onto the patio carrying three frosted mugs of beer. "Hydration is important," he kidded.

We spent the afternoon naked, tanning, talking, swimming some, and sipping beer. It was like old times. I remembered why I liked Jim and Helen so well.

About 5:30 in the evening, Jim said "I guess that I ought to start on dinner."

Helen replied lazily, "Do you really want to cook? We could just order pizza from Zino's. That ok with you Harry?"

I was feeling lazy and said that it was. Jim grinned. "Helen doesn't really want pizza. She just wants to flash the delivery guy."

Just then, we heard a female voice calling from inside the house, "Mom? Dad? Are you guys by the pool?"

A couple of seconds later, one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen walked out onto the patio. Long light brown hair framed a face that was both beautiful and that had character. You immediately noticed the piercing blue eyes. The tee shirt and jeans the young lady was wearing gave strong evidence of a near perfect body.

The young woman was saying, "I just stopped by for a few minutes. I have to get across the river for my broadcast." The young woman stopped, obviously a bit flustered. "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know that you had company. I didn't see another car."

Helen replied as she stood, "That's ok dear. This is out friend from undergrad, Harry. He flew in Thursday to interview for a position at my school. We invited him to stay with us tonight."

Helen half turned towards where I was lying on my back on a chaise. "Harry, this is our daughter Penny."

Well, I was busted. I didn't have anything to put on. I stood up nude. Penny walked over to me and extended her hand. "How are you?" We shook hands. Penny gave me a very warm smile. "It is good to see you in the flesh. Mom and Dad have talked about you so much over the years."

"And it is a pleasure to meet you," I replied. "Had I known that I'd be meeting my good friends' daughter, I'd have put more on."

Penny gave me that smile again. "Don't worry about it. You look good nude."

Turning to her Mother, Penny said, "I just stopped by to pick up that book we talked about. I thought that I might read a part of it on air tonight."

Penny followed Helen into the house. Jim laughed. "I'm sorry that you were caught off guard. Penny has an apartment in the District. She doesn't usually drop in without calling first. She does a two hour program on the campus station that is, generally, about current events. Although, she takes callers and it can go in any direction."

Helen came back out. She chuckled. "I'm sorry Harry. Still, you, Jim, and I have spent so much time together nude that it is probably appropriate that Penny meet you nude. If she'd had more time, I'm sure that she would have stripped off and joined us."

I wished that Helen hadn't said that last sentence. The idea of going nude with Jim and Helen's beautiful daughter stayed with me for a very long time.

About a month later, I was hired as an assistant professor at Helen's university. I was back in the D.C. area a couple of times before I finally moved. Each time, I stayed with Jim and Helen. Unfortunately, I didn't see Penny again.

I'd largely forgotten how difficult it is to start at a new job. I had teaching assignments for which I had to develop syllabi and reading lists, and research expectations to fulfill. Added to that were the usual difficulties learning a new campus and a new city. Plus, I had to readjust to Eastern Time after living several years on the Pacific coast. My first couples of months in the Washington area are now mainly a blur.

I had been too busy to see much of Jim and Helen during the first couple of months that I lived in Washington. Helen called me on a Wednesday night in October.

"Harry, what are you doing Friday night?" Helen asked.

"Nothing so far as I know," I relied.

"Penny does a lot of performance things. She has a one night, one woman show scheduled at a small theatre on this side of the River Friday night. It is a bit different, but she specifically asked us to bring you. Are you up for it?"

I agreed to go. The performance started relatively late, 9:30 p.m. Jim, Helen, and I met for dinner in Alexandria. I followed Jim and Helen a few miles to the theatre. It was a small, older building. I suspected that it had originally been built as a movie house in the 1920s or 1930s. At some point, it had been converted to stage productions. Jim said that the building was used by a couple of community theatre groups and one small professional company ran a short season there. Penny had gotten use of the theatre through her theatre friends at the university.

There were no programs and no assigned seats. At Helen's insistence, we took seats in the center of the second row from the front. Ordinarily, these would be lousy seats. However, since it was supposed to be a one woman production, I thought we probably didn't need to worry about a panoramic view of the stage. As 9:30 approached, I was surprised that the house was almost full.

Just after 9:30, a young man in a black tee shirt and jeans carried a low table out onto the stage. He set that down and went back into the wings. He was back a moment later carrying a high stool which he placed downstage center. The young man made one final trip onto the stage to place a bottle of water on the table. The house lights were still up.

Penny walked onto the stage a few minutes later. She was dressed almost professionally, with moderate heals, a skirt, blouse, and jacket. Her hair had been done. She really looked stunning. She was wearing one of those microphones that bent around her cheek in front of her mouth.

"Good evening," Penny said. "Thank you for coming this evening. We haven't made a big deal about it for obvious reasons, but you're here to watch me take my clothes off. All of them." Penny took off her jacket, folded it, and laid it on the table.

"In part," Penny continued, "this is an experiment. We are not making any pretense that I'm here for artistic purposes or any other purpose than to strip totally nude. We want to gauge your reaction and," Penny gave a quick laugh, "my reaction. We are leaving the houselights up so that I can see you as you see me." Penny turned to the table, picked up the bottle of water, uncapped it, and took a drink.

Turning back to the audience, Penny said "I said that this is an experiment in part. Part of this is about entertainment. Specifically, the anticipation of knowing that you are going to see another human being, live, on stage, totally naked. You are feeling it, aren't you? Some excitement? Come on, be honest. Who here is excited by the idea of seeing me standing here naked? Raise your hands."

I wasn't sure if I should raise my hand. I glanced at Helen and Jim, who both had a hand raised. Helen elbowed me and I put my hand up. Eventually, most of the audience finally raised their hands.

Penny wasn't saying anything, but walked to one side of the stage and the all the way across the stage just looking at the audience as the hands slowly came up. Finally, she went back to center stage. Placing one hand on the stool for balance, she bent a leg up and took off one of her shoes. After placing the shoe on the table, she slowly and gracefully changed sides and took off the other shoe.

Looking back at the audience, Penny continued. "It is good that most of you put your hands up. I'd hate to think that I'm boring you. Actually, this is pretty exciting for me too, and scary. Contrary to what you may think, I haven't done anything like this before. I'm not a dancer in a club. I'm a grad student. Not even in theatre. I'm a grad student in English, a writer really, and I do a bit of radio work on the side."

Penny paused and then continued. "There are several layers to the scary part. Of course, I'm scared that I'm going to trip myself, fall, and look like a klutz. I'm also a little scared that I'm going to be standing here buck naked and you all think that I'm really ugly. More fundamentally, I think I'm scared that I'm going to be rendering myself very vulnerable in front of a group of people who are mainly strangers."

Penny sipped more water. "I said that most of you are strangers, but not everyone. My Mom and Dad are here." Penny pointed to where we were sitting. "They brought an old friend of theirs who recently moved to D.C. I asked them to bring him." Penny made eye contact with me. "There are also a few friends of mine." Penny pointed to a group of twenty-somethings sitting a little further back. "Most of my friends have never seen me naked. Until tonight."

Penny walked slowly around the stage, not talking for a moment. "Now," she went on, "you might wonder what motivates an upper middle class girl who is not a sex worker to take her clothes off in front of a crowded theatre. This had its genesis in one of those conversations students have. I and some friends were talking one night and someone asked the question "what is the one thing you would love to try if you just had the balls?' I thought about for a long time."

Penny gave it another pause. I noticed that she kept slowly moving and turning so that over several minutes you saw her on all sides.

Penny resumed, "I'm no stranger to nudity. We never wore swimsuits in the pool at home, and I've gone to a nude beach here and there. That's different, I think. In those situations, you are nude but being seen is almost incidental. Those aren't, usually, things you do for the purpose of having people see you nude. I was curious how I would handle it if I got naked specifically for the purpose of having other people see me naked."

"I started thinking about that a lot. Maybe I shouldn't admit it, but the idea seemed pretty exciting. I thought about posing for nude pictures, but that is just you and the photographer. I would not physically be there in the same moment and place as the people seeing me."

Penny paused again. A smile came over her face. "Now we start getting to the good part," she said. She started to unbutton her blouse. After she got it partially unbuttoned, she pulled the tail out of her skirt. Then she finished the unbuttoning, folded the blouse, and put it on the table.

Penny was standing in her bra and skirt. "This is a point of commitment, I suppose," she told the audience. "Up to now, I've been dressed like anyone on the street, in an office, or at the mall. While it really isn't any different than a bikini top, you don't see women in public wearing their bras with nothing over them. So, I've taken the first step to indecent exposure."

Penny paused again. "I said this was exciting, and it is. The anticipation of stripping myself naked for you has me feeling good and there's a bit of adrenaline. I'm thinking that in a few minutes you will all be seeing just me, no covering. You'll see my erect nipples, my bare ass, my labia, maybe my pussy lips. All the things that you are supposed to keep covered. They used to refer to people's genitals as 'private parts." In a few moments, mine won't be private. You might think that there would be a feeling a dread, exposing myself to a room full of strangers along with my friends, my parents, and their friend. Nope. I'm getting more excited as I talk about it. If I stopped now, it would be the worst let down I can imagine."

Penny stopped talking, reached to her side, and undid the hook in the waistband of her skirt. She pulled down a zipper on the side of the skirt and slid the skirt down her very shapely legs. She folded the skirt and laid it on the table.

Penny was now standing in a white bra and panties. Not transparent and not overly sexy. It looked to me like she was breathing a bit faster. She walked left to right across the stage and then back to center. God she looked great.

"We're getting close guys. Only two more pieces of cloth to go. Maybe I shouldn't say this either, but this is getting me worked up. What the hell..."

Penny reached behind her back and undid the bra. Reaching up to each of her shoulders, she pulled the bra out and down. She folded it and placed it on the table. She turned to face the audience with her arms at her sides. She had very beautiful breasts.

Penny just stood for maybe 30 seconds, looking at the audience. "Ok, these are my bare breasts." She reached a hand up and flipped what looked to be a very hard nipple. She smiled broadly. "Like I told you, I'm pretty excited about this."

Penny turned to the table and took another gulp of water. "You're wondering whether this is sexual. Hell yeah it's sexual. I've known enough guys to know that tits, ass, and legs are what they look at to get themselves going. Those are what we girls emphasize to get attention."

Penny stopped again, as if in thought. "One question you probably have is whether I'm enjoying this. Coming in tonight, I wondered a lot about whether I would enjoy this. I guess that we won't know until it is over, but, right now, I'm enjoying the hell out of this."

Penny took another walk across stage. She was still young enough, and her breasts firm enough, that there was very little bounce.

When Penny returned to center stage, she asked "what do you think? Is it time to get the last bit off so that you can all see my bare ass and pussy? I need a response here."

The audience had been surprising quiet. Now, almost in unison, the audience shouted "yes!"

"Ok," Penny responded. She took a deep breath. Then she moved her hands down each of her sides. She put her fingers inside the waistband of her panties and pulled the elastic slightly away from her hips. Bending forward, Penny slid her panties down her legs, off of one foot and then the other. She turned to the table, folded the panties, and set them down. Then she turned back to face the audience, full frontal. After a moment, she spread her legs slightly apart and thrust both arms into the air.

Applause broke out. Penny deserved it. Like her mother sitting next to me, Penny was extremely beautiful naked. I glanced at Jim and Helen. They were holding hands and smiling.

After holding her pose for a time, Penny put her hands down. "God. You have to try this. Standing her naked is the most wonderful feeling. There is no way to describe it adequately."

Penny stood looking at the audience. Finally, she turned, giving us a view of extraordinary buttocks. I was in love.

Penny walked to the stool. Standing beside it, she said, "I decided that I wasn't going to use the stool until I got all of my clothes off." She plopped her butt on the stool with both feet still on the stage floor. "Now, I have to because I can't give you the proper view standing." She pulled her feet up onto the horizontal rods connecting the stool's legs and spread her thighs. She was now "fully exposed." "There would be no point," Penny told the audience, "in taking all of my clothes off if you didn't see my pussy."

Penny ran her finger along her pussy lips. "Oh my!" she said. "I'm wet. Wow! Let's hope that I don't have a big O here onstage. That would get us busted." Penny made a visible effort to slow her breathing down.

Still sitting on the stool spread, Penny asked her audience, "So, what are you thinking? Are you disgusted? Bored? Would you like to be me right now? Would you like to fuck me right now? No, forget that I asked that last one. Who would like to be me right now, up here totally nude? Raise your hands."