The old man hobbled on his arthritic knees making slow progress in the beach sand that gave way beneath him and made him sink up to his ankles with each painful step. He carried a small cooler in one hand and one of those cheap old lawn chairs made of aluminum and with plastic straps in the other. He walked towards the brown wire and wood fence that acted as a windbreak and trap for the blowing grains of sand. Quite a pile was drifted up and weighing down the fence, tipping it towards the north. He found his normal position close by the windbreak, but giving him a view of both sides of the little eroded basin where the river drained into the ocean. He set up his chair and put the cooler on the shady side where it would stay cold longer and still be within easy reach. He had a little trouble sinking down into the lawn chair, but once seated, he stretched out his knees and welcomed the relief from the pain. He held off on opening the cooler, waiting to savor that first beer of the day. At his age, and living on a fixed income, anticipation served more than a single purpose.

He was just about to give in to his thirst and temptation when two young girls, perhaps sixteen or so, walked around the wind break and startled him by their presence. They seemed surprised to see him as well, since few people from the Island ever walked out this far from town. The old man had spent the last thirty years out there alone, only going into town once or twice a month to check his mailbox and pick up fresh supplies. In the average year, perhaps as many as thirty people ever came out his way, and so he welcomed the break in his daily routine.

"Where you girls heading, if you don't mind me asking?" He spoke before he really had a chance to think about whether he'd scared them by being there when they hadn't expected to find anyone. The two girls just stared at him and then they giggled together. The taller skinnier girl shoved the shorter brunette towards the old man, But she was able to halt herself before running into him. She turned around and hissed at her friend, asking her to please be good for once.

"We were just seeing if we could maybe wade across the river here to get over to the mainland." The short one told him. When she said that, the three of them looked out at the river as it emptied itself. It wasn't exactly awe inspiring, the current and the back wash, but people had been known to lose their lives attempting just such a crossing. Conventional wisdom on the Island said it should never be attempted with fewer than four people, and then only if they had plenty of safety rope with them, and it was at low tide. The tide was coming in then, and wouldn't crest for two more hours.

"I wouldn't advise it, pretty dangerous thing to do. If you swim out about a quarter mile to the sand bar, you could probably wade across okay and then swim into shore that way. But why would you want to go there anyway?" That part of the mainland was wooded and desolate and there was nothing of civilization for at least twelve miles.

"We just wanted to see if we could do it, and maybe do some topless sun bathing over there." That from the taller girl. You could tell right away that she was the more feisty of the two of them, a natural born leader. The little one looked away from him in embarrassment at her friend's words.

"Well you can do it if you want to, I won't stop you. Thing is though that I'm an old man and I couldn't help you at all if you was to get tipped over and carried away out there. You'd be on your own if you were to try it, and I never heard of two people making a successful crossing before."

The two girls put their heads together in whispered conversation, obviously in disagreement over what they were going to do. The short little girl was wanting to leave, edging off back towards the village. The skinny one was standing her ground and pleading with her friend to not be such a chicken. "Donna, you never want to do the fun things. He's just trying to scare us is all. That water isn't even very deep. I'm sure we can do it easy. Come on?"

"If you're so sure, you go ahead and I'll watch from here. If you make it okay, then maybe I'll do it too." The old man opened his cooler and removed a cold bottle of beer. He twisted off the cap and put it in his front shirt pocket. He had quite a large collection at home and was sure they'd be valuable as collector's items someday. He watched the feisty one head over to the water and tentatively put one of her feet in rather gingerly, in order to check the water's temperature. She hesitated for only a few seconds and then began moving away from the bank. The old man admired her spunk.

"I should have mentioned the leeches, they're pretty fierce this time of year." He stopped talking, and took a big swig on his beer, keeping the bottle raised up in order to keep the sun out of his eyes, and so he could continue to watch the progress the girl was making.

"Karen, he says there are leeches in that water! You better come back here." The old man was surprised, not even knowing that he'd spoken out loud. That was another habit he'd acquired living all alone for so long. He just spoke out loud his thoughts to keep himself company. Karen turned back and looked at Donna and the old man, wondering if they were just making it up about there being leeches. Not willing to risk it being true, she reluctantly returned to the river bank and walked back over to them.

"I don't care what you do Donna, since you're so afraid of everything anyway, but I'm going to sun bathe right here then. Mister, I bet it's been a long time since you saw two pretty girls running around without their tops on. Well, you're in for a treat." She opened her backpack and spread out a blanket right there in the sand, not fifteen feet from his chair and in plain sight. She put her pack on one end of the blanket and took out a pair of sandals to weigh down another end. Donna dropped her pack on still another corner and sat down on the remaining end. Karen reached behind her and unclasped her bathing suit top and shrugged out of it. She turned so that she was facing the old man and struck up a pose with her hands on her hips and one foot thrust in front of the other. The old man took another swallow of beer and casually watched to see what the other girl would do. "Well, Donna, are you going to sit there or are you going to do what we came out here to do?"

Donna looked over at Karen and then looked at the old man. She waited for a moment, like she was trying to decide what to do, then she lowered her eyes to the blanket and did nothing.

"Sorry mister, it looks like you'll have to settle for only me. Donna, you just wait and see if I ever ask you to go places with me again. It's no fun me having to do things by myself all the time. I don't even know why you wanted to come with me." She sat back on the blanket and faced the open water. The old man looked at her back and tried to remember when he'd last seen a woman's naked breasts. It had to be more than forty years ago, he thought, that little girl over in Charleston. He spent a few minutes trying to remember the girl's name. It was at a picnic, he remembered, but he didn't remember why she'd taken her shirt off. Oh yeah, he thought, it was Agnes, and we were at that-anti war rally in the summer of 1966 or 67. He hadn't done anything with Agnes, other than look at her like a thousand other students and protesters in the park. He tried to remember what it had felt like to be young and looking at a half naked girl.

"Forty years. That's how long it's been since I saw half naked girls. That's a long time, forty years." Both the girls turned and looked at him. Karen just laughed at him, but Donna gave him a little smile of understanding.

"How long since you've seen a totally naked girl?" She thought that was a funny thing to say, maybe thinking she'd get a rise out of him or something. Karen wasn't only feisty, she had a little mean streak in her too. The old man didn't mind, why should he? This was a lot more interesting than watching the tide come in. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had so much fun and excitement.

"That would be never, I guess. Nope, I'm sure I'd remember if I'd ever seen a totally naked girl. Of course I had two younger sisters, so probably, if you counted them, it's been about sixty years or so." Donna and Karen both stared at him then, wondering if that old man was pulling their legs. Neither one could imagine someone as old as him never having seen a naked girl or woman. That was impossible almost.

"Are you a priest? Or maybe one of those homos? How could you do that? Are you a virgin?" Karen kept firing off questions, not even stopping long enough for him to get in an answer. Donna looked like she had questions for him too.

"Never been religious, always enjoyed fishing too much to go to church. Don't like boys either. I just never found a woman that would want to get naked with somebody like me. After awhile, why you just give up and quit looking for anyone. I guess that's why I moved way out here, I'd just given up on finding someone." He reached down in the cooler and brought out another cold beer, popping the top and taking a little sip. He could see that Donna was feeling sorry for him, but the other one, she thought he was just making it up.

"So, you're like a seventy year old virgin?"

""Seventy four last May. I'm not ashamed of it either. Of course, when you get older, you regret having missed out on so many things other people take for granted."

"Have you done anything with a girl or woman, ever?" This was from Donna. She'd turned all the way around so that she was facing him. "Like kissing or petting or stuff?"

"I danced with a girl once in a dance hall in Conroy, Texas. I think it was right after the big war. I didn't really know how to dance, but she let me pull her along to the music. If I'd known then it was going to be my only time, I'd have asked her for another dance. I wish now that I had." While he was talking he could see Donna reaching behind her and then he watched as she wiggled out of her top too. He took a good long look at her breasts on display. She was naturally modest and he could appreciate the gift she was offering to him. He smiled encouragingly at her and tried not to make his staring too obvious.