Trespassers, Pt. 2 of 7.

         The plants all about looked very different, unlike anything they had ever seen before, yet beautiful in form and arrangement.  Peering up, they found the sky to have a hazy orange-yellow color with some more mist about the strange dividing treetops -- leafless green tendrils with secondary curled branches.  Everything was some various hue of green.  There were no flowers or insects and birds in sight, but around the wide trunks of the many odd trees were numerous ferns and horsetails of various sizes.  They also had no idea what kinds of other plants there were: floating, attached, interconnected, whatever.  It was an unusual botanical paradise.  

         "Wonderful!" Sally Breathed.  "It's absolutely beautiful, just like a dream."

         "It's . . . okay," Sheila remarked, more mundanely.

         "Could be better," Hannah also commented, "but it'll do."  

         Susan continued to study the place, not talking unless spoken to.  They soon did notice a couple of large beetles crawling up the scaly bark of a smaller tree in the distance, but there were no solid hummocks here to land their boat.  So, Sally reached in her waterproof purse and lit herself a cigarette.  At eighteen, nearly nineteen, she was the oldest and most developed of the group, but the others stared at her shortly in surprise.

         Susan spoke spontaneously then.  "If Mom or Dad ever caught you doing that, they would -- "  

         "And they won't ever know about it, right?" she interjected.  "Otherwise, I'll have to tell them that you use those rubbery sex toys to please yourself with and skinny dip at night in the pool."  

         The others promptly giggled as she took a deep drag from her cigarette and blew noxious blue-white smoke at her.  When she was finished with that one, she lit up another casually and smoked, as Sheila and Hannah snacked leisurely.  Susan watched her much of the time as she also quickly drank two cans of beer.  When she lit up a third cigarette, Sheila remarked, "Now, I know why you got so winded while pushing the boat before.  You're a chain smoker."  

         Susan knew she had sneaked the beer but said nothing more.  She watched her smoke and cough a couple times before turning away.  The smoke hung in the heavy humid air and dispersed lazily.  After the last breath of smokey air was exhaled out of her nostrils, like some feline dragon, she stretched and let out a loud burp that caused the others, except her sister, to giggle.  

         She turned around quickly again and sharply said, "You're gross, really gross!  I never knew you could act so stupid."  

         Sheila chuckled louder then and finished her soda.  Hannah smiled faintly and hoped there would be no argument.  There wasn't.  Sally largely ignored her and only commented, "I've been waiting a long time to do this.  So, I'll live my life, and you go live yours.  Now, stop bitching like Mom!"  

         Susan turned around again, and Sally changed the subject.  "I don't know about you all, but I came out here this afternoon to also go swimming, and that's just what I'm going to do -- IF you don't mind, Sis."  

         She remained silent, but Hannah expressed more concern.  "We will be home for supper, won't we?"  

         "Of coarse!" she replied in confidence.  "We can't be very far from our usual far-out swimming hole.  Besides, this one looks bigger and better.  You're such a worry wart!"  

         Again, she put her long lovely legs over the side, and stabilizing herself, took a deep breath, and went in the water.  They noticed that she quietly had removed her snickers but kept her large white T-shirt and sexy shorts on.  They wondered if she had even brought a swimsuit along, but Susan never cared much now.  However, all of them did remove their light, now-clammy and sweaty outerwear and prepared to enter the water too.

         In the water and beneath its surface, Sally straightened out her legs and extended her arms and completely relaxed.  Looking up, she watched the dark bottom of the boat rapidly become less distinct as she briefly expelled air out of her nose and let her beautiful young body sink downward.  The water was green tinted but still more clear than that at their usual swimming hole.  As a matter of fact, this was a more remote sanctuary compared to it.  

         Not wanting to use all of her air or more energy to reach bottom, Sally hovered weightless three to four meters from the surface, tucked her T-shirt in her tight shorts to show off her bra-less buxom chest, and swam easily a short distance to the other side of and below the boat.  The cooler water was so very soothing and peaceful.

         Sheila was the first to see her submerged form, her white T-shirt initially, followed by her whole shapely body and more enviable detail.  While Susan was complaining to Hannah about how ostentatious and exuberant her sister always was when she ingested just a little alcohol, Sheila watched her move toward the surface, rising with little effort behind gleaming bubbles of expelled air that partially obscured her faintly smiling face.

         Sally reached the surface winded to draw everyone's attention, but she grasped the side of the boat and commented, "Wow!  That water sure feels good!  I . . . I just have to . . . go down . . . again."  

         "Is it better than our old place?" Sheila asked.

         "Much better!  Even Hannah here would think so, if she would ever . . . get her hair wet.  Hand me my face mask in my bag.  I have to . . . do some better exploring."

         
Continued to Pt. 3