Sunday, September 9, 2012

Naked Day

I had a day to myself at the big house. Usually when I’m there, Lily is there or someone is about to leave when I’m coming in or I’m about to leave when someone’s coming in. We all have different schedules, so we all come and go at different times. Some of the time, we’re either all there or no one is there, or I’m at my apartment, with or without Lily. This was the first time I was at the big house alone for more than an hour.

It was weird to have so much space to myself. I’m used to living in a tiny apartment, with one or two other people. The big house was like walking through the Grand Canyon when you live in a cave.

One of the best things about the big house is the hot tub. It’s big, it’s on a nice outdoor terrace and the view is amazing. The view from my tiny apartment is other apartments. The view from the terrace is ocean and islands. I’m from Minnesota. We don’t get ocean views. I’ve been in Hong Kong for a year and a half and I’m still impressed by ocean views. Hong Kong is a peninsula and a lot of islands, but you never really see any ocean.

With a house to myself, postcard views and no rain in sight, I put on my bikini and fired up the hot tub. Then it occurred to me that no one else was there and no one was going to be there for a long time. So I took off the bikini and got in the hot tub. It seems kind of stupid to admit this, but I was a little worried about getting naked at first. I knew I had plenty of time alone, but it’s not my house and it just felt strange to be naked in someone else’s home while the owner was away. It’s not like this was in a bathroom. It was outdoors for all the world to see, though you’d have to fly by in a helicopter or be in a boat with a telescope to see me. There are no paparazzi going after me, so I was safe. But it still felt weird.

I stopped worrying about it as soon as I got in the water. It just felt too good. I think if everyone in the world could soak in a hot tub for an hour, there would never be any more wars. It’s hard to hate anyone when you’re that relaxed. Not having the bikini made it even better. It was like soaking in a giant bathtub, only it had the water jets and it was outdoors. I was content to lie there naked all day, but life carries on and you can never do anything good for too long.

When I got out of the hot tub, I wrapped my towel around me and was about to put the bikini back on when I thought better of it. There was truly no need for a bikini at that point. I sat on one of the terrace lounge chairs and let the sun kiss my naked body. This would have been a paparazzi’s wet dream if I were famous. I didn’t have any sunscreen, but I’ve never gotten burned in Hong Kong, and I’ve spent plenty of time out in the sun. I’m Scottish. Ordinarily, I get sunburned turning on a light bulb. I don’t know what it is. Maybe the constant smog or all the clouds, but the sun just isn’t as strong here. It gets warm to hot, it gets oppressively humid, but the sun is never strong enough for a sun burn.

I got up and went into the kitchen for lunch – all completely naked. I was walking around the house naked and didn’t really worry about it. It felt a little dangerous and maybe that made it a little exciting, but I was mostly just going about my day. I just happened to be completely naked.

Then the doorbell rang. Doorbells in Hong Kong aren’t like American doorbells. You don’t get people knocking on your door willy nilly around here. We don’t have door to door salesmen, girl scout cookies or Jehovah’s Witnesses. Your doorbell only rings when you have guests or maybe the building’s maintenance guy comes over. The doorbell in my apartment doesn’t even work, so I haven’t actually heard someone ring in a long time.

I froze when the doorbell rang. I didn’t panic. I didn’t run around like a gibbon or try to cover myself. I just stood there. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and if Lily or Kevin had forgotten their keys, they would probably just call. I didn’t think it was the house’s owner. Even if he came back far too early, he probably had his own keys. I couldn’t really imagine who it could be.

If someone with a key had come in the front door, they wouldn’t be able to see me right away anyway. I’d probably have enough time to go into another room. I could have gone into one of the bathrooms or even my bedroom, but I just stood still and waited. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the front door because it has frosted windows and you can see from outside if someone is inside, as long as they stand close enough. They wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell I was naked, but they would definitely know I was there. And I was not about to answer the door naked.

Eventually, whoever was there went away. I put some clothes on and went to the door, but they were long gone by then. That was enough excitement for me. I kept my clothes on the rest of the day.

2 comments:

  1. Woah, I think you're more open-minded than you realise by writing these blogs. Just hope your close relatives don't read the entry about that goldwater escapade ; )

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  2. No one who knows me personally knows about this blog. I'm keeping it private so I can say whatever I want to say without worrying about how anyone will react.

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