The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by Jessica Anya Blau Page A

person in that room who thinks the German can really see auras.”
    “I bet Leon and Lois believe it.”
    “I believe it,” Flip said.
    “Yeah, you’d believe it until she told you that you had a selfish penis and that your selfish penis was carrying  shadows from the auras of many other people, from all the people your penis had encountered.”
    “Whoa,” Flip said, “you mean she could see all the women you’d been with?”
    “But I haven’t been with anyone but Betty!” Allen was angry again.
    “You mean she was your first?” Flip asked.
    “Flip! Dad! I don’t want to hear this!”
    “Why are you acting like your sister?”
    “Dad, please, I really don’t want to know how many people you’ve been with.”
    “But it isn’t that many. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” Allen reached out and gently patted Jamie’s knee.
    “Dad, I just—”
    “I could see being embarrassed if I were someone like Leon. I mean he’s been with hundreds of women, women from all over the world!”
    “Has he ever been with a lady of the night?” Flip asked, and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
    “Oh, yeah.” Allen shook his head and smiled.
    “How does that work?” Flip asked. “Like, do you pay ahead of time? And where do you find someone like that here, in Santa Barbara?”
    “I’m going inside.” Jamie stood and walked toward the house. She couldn’t believe she was actually walking away from Flip Jenkins, walking away from the boy every girl she knew would be happy to lose her virginity to, even Lisa Blair, the most devout member of the Christian Fellowship Club, who told Jamie at the beach one day that she would give up her love of Christ if she could be as lucky as Jamie and have the love of Flip Jenkins. Jamie looked back over  her shoulder and watched her father and Flip together. Flip was nodding, seemingly interested in whatever her dad was saying. The moon lit the top of Flip’s head so that he appeared to be glowing. He smiled and his teeth flashed like lightning in a dark sky. Jamie imagined Lisa Blair, with her thick hair that hung like a groomed horse tail, tossing her Bible and a bikini into the ocean so she could press her naked body against Flip. Jamie changed the channel in her head, put her own naked body in Flip’s arms, and then, just like that, her love was back. She ran into the house before it had time to wane again, before she could let herself imagine Flip in the arms of whoever might be next in line.
    Late that night, after Flip and Allen went skinny-dipping together, after Jamie ate two more bowls of pine-needle soup with hard flat bread in the kitchen while talking to the Chumash and his Mexican girlfriend, after Flip gave Jamie a tender, chaste kiss good night, she went to bed and fell asleep to the melodic sounds of the few remaining people at the party. Sometime later, in the middle of a dream, Betty floated into Jamie’s room. She stood naked beside the bed, peering down at her daughter.
    “Hey Mom,” Jamie said.
    “Scoot in,” Betty said.
    Jamie scooted toward the wall. Betty slipped under the covers.
    “Your dad and I had a fight,” she said.
    “You sleeping with me?” Jamie asked. As a young girl, Jamie had loved to sleep with her parents. From around the age of twelve, however, she had begun to dread the uninvited physical intimacy.

    “Uh-huh.” Betty rolled to her side, pushed her rump out toward her daughter, and yanked the covers over her shoulder. Jamie yanked the covers back and crossed her arms over her chest as if she were cold.
    “Why don’t you sleep in the guest room, or in Renee’s bed?”
    “You know I hate to sleep alone. It’s unnatural. We’re animals, we need to sleep in packs, in litters.” Jamie sighed and shifted closer to the wall. “So how was your aura reading?”
    “Great. My aura is loving and generous, all deep oranges and whites—good energy.” Betty flipped onto her back and pushed her leg out