Act 4
The naked truthThe first 4 days of the summer vacation in Villa Alina were a downpour, followed by 1 extremely windy day and finally on the 6th day the sun came out and the wind gave way to a fresh southern breeze, perfect to go to the beach.
To get into details of what happened during those first few days would take this story to be a 4 hours- long movie instead of a 4 acts-play. All you need to know is that tempers were very bad, moral was very low and murder-planning and death- wishes’ ratings had rose above the roof.
All that changed with a little bit of sun… Or so you’d think.
-I wouldn’t bother picking up wild flowers Susy.
-I thought a flower arrangement would lift everyone’s spirit.
-Well think again! She only likes roses, so you better get some or make them out of paper and paint them, but get her roses! - Mr. Perkins shouted. – I’m so sorry Susy – he said apologetically – All this is starting to get me. I might need a vacation after this week.
-We all will need one Mr. Perkins. This is the worst vacation ever! Don’t you worry. I’ll get some flowers… ROSES! – She corrected herself as soon as she realised her mistake in Mr. Perkins’ killer’s look.
A while later.
-Do you think this is the best spot Mathew?
-No…this does not look right. The sun is in the wrong angle, the crash of the waves is too loud, the clouds over there will bother her and not to mention that is full of sand wherever you look, and it is not far enough from the house!
Mr. Perkins could not believe what he was hearing. Mathew was being serious, and worst than that: he was right.
Mathew took three steps back still studying the surroundings.
-Now here is the perfect spot! Let’s go Perkins, I’ll help you before you have a nervous breakdown.
And so Mr. Perkins, Mathew and Susy started preparing everything for the family’s day at the beach. Of course it was not an easy task. It had to be something fit for a Countess…
-I’m as nervous as the first day I started working for her. They should be here at any moment Susy, get ready. I don’t want anything going wrong. This has been the worst vacation of my life.
-I’m ready Mr. Perkins, and I have made some cold drinks. Alcohol might help them relax a bit. Oh! look, there they are.
-Oh what a glorious day! Mr. Perkins all this looks wonderful!
-Mother! I can’t believe you made poor Mathew and Mr. Perkins erect this huge tent under this burning sun!-said Lady Marianne.
-Who else? Would you have done it dear? – asked the Countess
-Not me, but our husbands and Geoffrey. That would have given them something to do – Marianne answered.
-Oh dearest sister. Do you truly think so? – Said Lady Caroline looking down at her sister. - Well … maybe my husband and Geoff could have. But your husband, I hear, hasn’t been good at “erecting” things, so I hardly think he could had helped putting this one up either .-
-Oh Caroline! Watch your mouth ……! Don’t be impertinent and stop it. We had enough of this for five days incarcerated in that house. I won’t allow anything to ruin this day. Not today. Now sit down, drink and shut up. – Ordered the Countess.
And so was done. But first:
-What? I was talking about tents! – Caroline said trying to bale herself out of it. The look her mother gave her back, told her she did not succeed.
-Take a sit Marianne and have a drink.
-I can’t. I am worried mother. The girls should be here by now.
-Don’t worry dear. There are no dangers around. They said they would change into their beach-wear and then join us here.
-Mr. Perkins, please put on a record. Opera NORMA, if you brought it, would be perfect for the day. I am already getting tired of listening to these two parrots.
-Of course Ma’am – he said, but really thinking “of course I brought it. That one, AND all the rest of the records”
-But Mother, how long can it take them to change clothes? They had 4 maids to help them.
-Well you know how girls are dear. They want to look good wherever they go, and they have many garments and undergarments to put on and tie up and lace and… - She stopped and looked at Caroline with her drink.
Lady Caroline’s eyes were fixed and opened wide as plates.
-Caroline, are you all right? You shouldn’t have drunk under the sun dear. You know how much it affects you. Are you already a bit tipsy? Well go lie down in the shadow and get better. I don’t want you to spoil our day. – Said the Countess going back to her own drink.
Caroline shook her head but still her eyes were fixed on something.
Marianne turned her head in the direction where her sister was looking and she saw it too.
-Oh no!!! – She exclaimed.
Constance and Lily had arrived. They were in their “beach-wear”, as they called it. But it was not quite what their mothers and grandmother have expected.
-Oooooooooooooooh! Dears! What happened!!! You are almost nude! – Said the Countess running to cover them, while Caroline and Marianne were glued with disbelief to their spots.
-I’ll cover your chest dear, don’t worry!
-Oh Granda! – Said Constance. – We are not nude. This is the last call of fashion for beach-wear. They are called swimsuits. Everyone is using them.
-What? So you are looking like this on purpose? O dear Lord! And what do you mean these are swimsuits? These are not suits at all, these are barely clothes!!!! Your chest is showing, your arms too….. AND YOU ARE BAREFOOTED!!!! Horror!!!
-Granda, always being so dramatic.
-Again with the “dramatic” thing? Are you two going to say or do anything? - The Countess asked her daughters while Lily and Constance lay down on the sand under the sun.
-Girls are you mad? What is this … new style you are referring to? It is indecent, outrageous …scandalous. –finally said Marianne.
-Thank you dear for your lovely depiction.-Said the Countess.
- Caroline are you dead or what’s the matter with you? Your daughter is naked on the sand, milky white and slim, a seagull might mistake her for a clam and steal her away…. Do something!!!!!
Still Lady Caroline was petrified in her chair. The girls giggly at all the commotion they have caused stayed on the sun.
-Come on girls please get under the gazebo, a well educated woman can’t lose the delicate whiteness of the skin … and ALL your skin is showing. – expressed the Countess worried.- This is the worst vacation ever! – She mumbled.
Marianne again knew that her sister’s stare was more than alcohol and too much sun exposure, so she turned once more in that direction. Finally she screamed - SEAMEN!!!!
-WHAT??? Asked the Countess confused and outraged.
-SAILORS!!!!- Marianne screamed
A group of sailors were walking towards them, attracted like flies to dead meat.
-Caroline!! React right now!
Caroline took her mother’s order as the breath of life and jumped off her chair crying… - Don’t look directly at them!!!
-Why not? - Asked the girls.
-They will get you pregnant! - Their grandmother answered
The sailors understood pretty well the vicious looks on the grown women’s faces and just walked by, not a word said, nor a stolen glance they dared.
Not more than a few seconds after they passed Caroline’s scream shook everyone to the core, again.
-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! The men are also naked!!!
Right after that, a chorus of female “aaaaahh”’s and “ooooh”’s followed. Marianne covered her eyes with her fan and stood still waiting for them to disappear in thin air; Caroline fainted and fell on her chair, her skirt going over her head, Mrs. Van der Hess drop her umbrella and fan screaming “cover yourselves, cover yourselves” a countless number of times, and shaking both arms in the air above her head as if that could make things to happen faster.
-What’s wrong with you? Asked the older man, Sir James Rosedale, Caroline’s husband.
-You are naked! – Answered the still not unconscious women.
-Did you go mad Granda? – Asked Geoffrey. –We are wearing swimsuits!
-You too with that? Those are barely covering you! Everything is showing! And stop pointing at me Geoffrey!!!
-Grandma, don’t be so dramatic!
-I forbid everyone to call me that again! - She said warningly. – Oh! this is the worst vacation ever!
-We are going to some quieter beach, we don’t even want to think about what you will do when we come out of the sea with all our clothes soaking wet and stuck to our bodies. – Said the girls standing up and dusting off the sand from their clothes, ready to leave.
Thanks Goodness the Countess was too distracted by the men outrageousness to hear that. But Lady Marianne did hear them and she said – Oh no ladies! I am going with you! You are going directly to the house to change! Grandma is scandalized by your actions, young ladies!
-But mom/aunt! – Both girls complaint together.
-Grandma is from last century! – Constance added.
-Oh I heard THAT missy! And yes! I AM from last century!!
While all this was happening, Mr. Perkins and Susy run to disentangle Lady Caroline from her own skirt and bring her back to consciousness fanning her and trying to wake her slapping her face, a little bit too strongly at times. Mr. Perkins thought: “These are the best vacations ever!!!!”
Meanwhile the Countess was scolding the men as if they were little kids.
-And get out of my sight until you come back in a real suit, necktie, shiny shoes, spats and all!! – She finished.
The men went apart near the boat they had taken for a little fun and talked among themselves.
-So… I say we tie her up, get her in the boat, leave the boat drift away and hope a shark swallow it whole before she gets to Africa, comes back and hunts us down. How does that sound?
-Great!
-Great!
-Great! We all agree!
As the servants took Lady Caroline to the house for her recovery, Mrs. Van der Hess stayed alone and in peace, with her drink and umbrella as her only companions.
“This must be the worst vacation ever, no doubt” – she thought.
But peace was not to last.
-Oh no! Look at that! – She said aloud to herself. – That dreadful woman. Look at all that make up … and what is she wearing? That’s so ridiculous … ha! ... Wearing that at the beach! But I shouldn’t be surprise, that’s the typical “her”. Oh no! She is coming this way. Maybe if I look the other way she will not recognise me.
-Good morniiiiing! - The strange woman sung from behind the Countess.
-Hello? Good morniiing!! – She tried again, being ignored once more.
Mrs. Van der Hess thought: “How long can I pretend I don’t hear her or that her voice is the sound of the wind blowing through a hollow tree?”
-MOTHER!!!! Didn’t you hear me?
-Oh Mary!! What a lovely surprise my child!!! I didn’t see you… nor heard you! Come sit next to me dear, I have missed you so very much! Oh but you look lovely dear! You look beautiful, right out of a magazine! (“A forensic medicine magazine” she thought) What are you doing here? How did you find us? – She said and then thought: “yes, tell me how the heck you found us”.
-I followed the screams. I figured it would be you and the girls. You’ve always been so dramatic!
Mrs. Van der Hess ignored the comment. Not effortlessly.
Mary started to talk, trying to fill her mother in on everything that has happened since they last saw each other. She was so happy to be conversing with her mother. She was so excited and accelerated, and so joyful; trying to fill a gap of years in a matter of minutes.
Nothing that Mary said made sense to the Countess; not the Jamaican butler, not the pool at the back yard, nor the Greek bodyguard. At first it seemed like a cruel torture of fate that only she had to bear her rambling. At the beginning Mrs. Van der Hess prayed for it to end fast and painlessly.
Then, slowly but truthfully she started to feel the shadow of the certainty that she had missed that daughter of hers. That one, who was different to what she had planned; that one, who defied her on a daily basis; that one, who couldn’t be changed… that one … who…
As Mary talked the Countess smiled and thought: Mary is the one who had been herself no matter what, the one who loves ME and not MY money, the only one who really and honestly wants to be with me… and she is the one I have neglected and left apart for being different, for being herself … and just now I see it. Finally she looked into Mary’s overly made-up eyes and interrupted her saying:
-You know Mary? These have been the most horrible vacations … until now. This, right here, right now is my favourite part.
-Your favourite part of the vacations…mom?
-My favourite part of the last 20 years my child.
And with not more than one smile, the gap was closed.
THE END 
