Emma swung her Jetta into the short driveway. From the road, the
narrow lot was all driveway and garage. She was impressed, and
intrigued, wondering how the slender, just-past-teenaged blonde and
the thirtysomething Viking were connected. She hated to sound as if
she were fishing for facts from the younger woman, but was dying to
know "Do you live here, um, with your parents?"
"It's Erik's house," Maya replied, not quite innocently.
"You mean besides being yummy and smart, Erik comes with a house like this? If I didn't like you so much I'd have to call you 'Bitch'."
"We are just friends," Maya mumbled, flushing a little. "We met earlier this summer on Wreck Beach."
"Wreck Beach? That's the nude beach that U.B.C. is always trying to shut down."
"You've never been?"
"Umm, med school and the rubber chicken circuit sort of knocked the stuffing out of my figure. I don't tend to take my clothes off around other people," Emma said.
"It's clothing optional. Ask any of the Middle Eastern men that sit on logs ogling tits."
"Umm, is anyone home?"
"Shouldn't be. Do you want to see inside? It's not very big but it feels big because every room has a view that goes on forever."
"I'd love to, but if I come in, could you show me something else? Could you show me what an aura feels like?"
"No problem. I guess I should have expected that. Of course you would want to know what you were marketing to the police. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
* * *
Emma was quietly pleased at the upstairs when she saw that Maya had her own room. "This is a wonderful layout. This open room between the two bedrooms gives privacy to both."
"Well, Erik had it filled with guy gym stuff and computers, but I pushed it all out of the way so we could use it more like a yoga studio. Auras are more like Yoga than pumping iron."
"I used to do Yoga," said Emma. "I suppose every woman my age says that. It's one of those things that go with a certain age and stage. Y'know, like claiming to be a vegetarian, but still indulging occasionally in that great root-crop, chicken." She was babbling, feeling somewhat uncomfortable as she tried not to stare at Maya, who was nonchalantly shucking her clothes. This young girl sure had the clothing optional thing down pat. She suddenly thought, 'Oh, what the hell,' and started slowly unbuttoning her own blouse.
"You don't need to be nude if you are embarrassed,' said Maya. "Panties and bra is good."
"I am a doctor, you know. I am not embarrassed by nudity." In fact, she was getting a bit of a thrill removing the formal, office-style shirt she had put on only this morning. She'd had no idea, getting dressed, that later in the day she would be stripping down with an audience. And in such a decadent-feeling house. She enjoyed the business of each button, and then sliding the shirt from her shoulders. What a difference a day could make in your life.
"So, like, you are one of those new age nude doctors," Maya mocked. "Your male patients must come to you with every sore throat." The woman was too serious to enjoy the mocking, although she did seem to be taking a sensuous pleasure in sliding down the back zipper of her skirt, and wriggling out of it. "If you want to be nude, it's okay. Just sit in a Yoga pose and meditate for a while. Once your mind is quiet, I will walk around you and try to touch you with my aura."
Emma decided to be courageous, and went for the nude option. There was a bit of a mental struggle with the bra and panties, but once they had joined her other clothes on a chair, she suddenly felt free, and couldn't wait to get started.
For a while nothing happened. Then Emma felt it. It was like the lightest of warm breezes against her skin, but it went deeper than the skin. "Oh my. That is quite delicious. So subtle. No wonder you asked me to meditate first." She fell silent so she could concentrate on the feeling again. Speaking had made her lose it. It became an internal struggle. She wanted to talk about it so much, but she did not want to lose the feeling.
"You are feeling mine. That is a good thing," said Maya, "Erik's theory is that every child is born with the ability to feel auras, but loses it by the time they start school. He says that mine is the strongest aura he has ever felt. If that is true then you may be able to feel mine, but you may not be able to feel Erik's."
"Feel his what?" Emma said, coming into the present again. "Umm, never mind. Do I have an aura?"
"I don't feel one, but I may have to get very close. Perhaps even skin close. Do you mind?" Maya knelt behind her and pushed her belly and breasts against Emma's back. She reached around with her arms and smoothed her hands up between Emma’s breasts. Emma started to moan. It was very much a sexual moan.
"It's very weak," Maya whispered into her ear. "Think more horny thoughts. Maybe that will give me more to work with. Playing with yourself may help." She closed her eyes and tried not to concentrate, but just let her mind flow. Emma was rocking gently back against her. There it was. She withdrew her arms slowly, and then gently backed away until their skins weren't touching.
She stilled her mind and let her core reach out for her. Her heart was thumping, her blood pressure rising, her temperature rising. All she could see was white and then yellow and then a brassy gold. She lost time, but with each pulse of her heart, she sensed more of Emma's aura.
She came back into reality because of a thump and a moan. She opened her eyes, which stopped the gold light, and then she focused them. Emma was no longer sitting high, but was slumped forward with her big behind stuck up in the air. Quite rude-looking, actually. Maya made the mental observation that Emma wasn't a real blonde.
She stood and went to get the woman a bottle of water. Emma didn't move. She could see a slow pulse in her neck, so she just covered her nakedness with a light blanket, put a pillow and the water bottle beside her head and then tiptoed downstairs.
Twenty minutes later, she tiptoed back upstairs to check on Emma. She hadn't moved.
"Don't bother tiptoeing," came a muffled voice. "I can feel you."
"Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not bloody okay," Emma said pushing herself up off the yoga mat. "I just came face to face with the fact that I have just spent ten years of my life going deeper and deeper into debt, so I can have a career that I already detest."
"Well, at least you have a career. Every other girl I worked with in the coffee shop, had, like, a bachelor's degree and were going nowhere fast, and could barely keep up their rent, never mind, like, their student loans."
"Erik generates auras like you do, right? Can he make me feel this good?"
"You'll have to ask him, or try him. I can't say. He always complains that my power swamps his. I felt yours, but I am not sure it was not created by me. It was brassy gold and smelled of warm honey."
Emma glanced out the windows at the sparkles on the sea and sighed. "Take me to Wreck Beach. Look outside. Hot sun and no wind. Take me to Wreck Beach now. Fuck work. I have to think."
"It's a quick walk from your office at U.B.C.. Why don't you have a shower while I pack us some food and beer. Any preferences?"
"Surprise me," Emma said, prancing towards Maya's bathroom while looking down at how swollen her nipples were, and thinking of how horny she felt.
* * *
It was a typical mid-week sunny day at Wreck Beach. The area where the trail came down to the beach was filled with people who had never been there before, or who were too timid to walk further. They were mostly clothed or in bathing suits. Then came the area where logs had been dragged into squares to serve as wind and privacy breaks. That was where the rounders hung out. The dope and beer sales people and the aging hippies with immaculate tans on wrinkled skin.
Maya put her blanket down on the slope facing west to the sea and the afternoon sun. She pulled it up against a drift log that was halfway between the doper and gay colonies. She always chose a place with many couples for security reasons. She often speculated that some of these men paid the women to come here with them so that they can sit surrounded by other nude women. She didn't care. She sort of liked being stared at now that she knew the scene.
Emma settled beside her. She was feeling the walk down the steep trail and did not want to think about the return trip up. She kneeled up and looked carefully at all the faces around them. There was no one that she knew from her professional life, so she lay down and wriggled out of her clothes. With one final move, she pulled off her panties. There, done.
"Hey sweet cheeks, ya want a beer today," said a voice from a body that was blocking the sun. Emma tried to cover up, but it was hopeless and she didn't want to look foolish. She settled for closing her eyes and appearing nonchalant. Like she came here all the time. Like she could get away with that, with her untanned skin and all. For the second time that day she decided, 'Oh, what the hell.' Besides, the man was looking at and talking to Maya.
"Not today, Randy," said Maya, " but set for a spell and tell us the news of the beach."
Emma squinted her eyes against the sun and then remembered her sunglasses and pulled them down from where they were serving as a hair band. The man was young and handsome and well built. Surfer type. Tanned. Tanned all over. She forced herself to look away. Yeah, sure. Nonchalant. The man had seen her staring and pulled his fanny pack strategically around to the front.
"Bunch of us made some good music last night for sunset. Didn't see you there," said Randy standing again. No sales here. Damn, that was fine womanhood. He would have to go away and calm down again before he could continue his rounds.
Emma watched him saunter away, then she turned to Maya. "His boner. You did that to him on purpose, didn't you?"
"Big, eh? Biggest I've ever seen," Maya giggled. "Listen to me. I'm starting to sound Canajun, eh?" She touched Emma. "I got you both. Deny it."
"Oh, you rotter. That was the closest I've been to sex with a man for a year."
"Well, be careful choosing one off this beach. There's a lot of casual sex going on amongst the regulars, so make sure whoever you choose wears a full body condom." They both started giggling, then chuckling, then laughing, and then rolling in laughter that would not stop, especially when they looked at each other.
"What did you bring for a picnic?" asked Emma when she could finally speak again. She waved to a now flaccid Randy as he circled back with his knapsack of beer and cider.
"Picnic of champions. Leftover sushi, leftover spinach pizza, and a bottle of Prosecco. I put the Prosecco into some designer water bottles so we don't get, like, a stern talking to by the cops."
"There's cops, I mean police, down here?" asked Emma.
"Duh, illegal beer sales, any drug you want, and someone attacking women on the trails. The constables probably bribe the sergeant for the duty. All they do is walk around all day looking at the titties and pussies of university girls." Maya motioned to some empty beer cans leaning against the next log. "Some old Asian guys walk along and pick the empties up, but if the cans and bottles are still there when the cops walk by, they will use them as an excuse to come over and ask us if we have any alcohol."
"But I may know them. I have to leave," said Emma suddenly looking all around and feeling panicky.
"Calm down. Relax and enjoy this sun. You'll get plenty of warning. They walk around in uniform, hoping that will make people think there aren't any undercover cops on the beach."
"There are undercover police too?"
"Naturally. Two that take turns. I'll point them out to you if I see one. Now eat. Here, have some designer water," she said, passing the camouflaged Prosecco.
The picnic and the designer water had made them sleepy so they lay out and snoozed and let the northern sun kiss their skins. Eventually Maya rolled onto her side to face Emma's pudgy body. "Do you mind if I caress you with my aura? I've wanted to try this on someone for a week, but I don't dare try it on men."
"Mmmm, actually I have been feeling you since I took my clothes off. The sun has been kissing and warming my skin from the outside, and you have been kissing and warming my skin from the inside. I'm in heaven."
Maya raised her hand and let it hover an inch above Emma's arm. Then she unfocused her eyes and released her concentration and moved her hand slowly down the outline of Emma's arm. "How did that feel?"
"Very warm on the skin. No, not just the skin. Warm to the bone. Very different from the warm breeze I usually feel flowing through me."
"Do you think my hand concentrates it?"
"Yes, now stop talking and do it some more," whispered Emma. "Ohh, what did you just do? Oh!"
"I matched my aura's color to yours. Brassy gold, with honey overtones." Maya giggled at being reminded of the wine tour she had been taken on through the Castle of Love near Calistoga. "With hints of cassis and strawberry and a chocolate vanilla finish."
"Well, my mind just filled with a brassy light and yes, a smell of honey, but not from my eyes or nose."
"Then shush and enjoy," said Maya and started moving her hand over the rest of Emma's body south of the head. When she came to the pubic mound she hovered a while.
"Don't be naughty," whispered Emma between gasps. God, she hadn't had this exciting a day in longer than she could remember.
"Do you have a growth in your womb?" Maya asked out of the blue, knowing that if this woman had been celibate she could not be pregnant.
"Ovarian cists," replied Emma, and came crashing back to Earth. She felt as if she were in mourning for the sensations of the past few hours - there was nothing like a gynecological question for a buzz kill. She pushed herself onto one elbow, opened her eyes and stared at Maya. "Was that just a fortune teller's guess? How did you know?"
"The color turned to gray, and the smell of, of, I guess fish." Emma wrinkled her nose , and tried not to feel embarassed at the description. But then she realized that had not been Maya's intent. She was just trying to be factual.
"You do realize that I can't allow myself to believe you. I would be a traitor to my profession." Emma looked southwest out toward Vancouver Island in silence. When she spoke again, she changed subjects to the typical thing Canadians talk about, the weather. "That is a big cloud moving over the sun. Let's go before I get chilly."
"Not just yet," complained Maya, "this is the time I come here for. Everyone stands up to dress. I like to walk between them and see if I can sense any auras. Sit a while and think. I won't be long."
"Why not my head?" Emma asked, "With your hand, you never go near to my head."
Maya was standing up and anxious to be walking around. "Like, because this is all experimental with Erik and I. I have no idea what my hand would have done to your head. I didn't want to have to carry you up the trail." She waved and then went to walk by a lovely young couple who were just standing up. She went as close as she could without being obvious. Neither had auras but the man felt hers, with splendidly swollen results. It would give them something to rush home for. If he could get his cargo shorts done up, that is.
* * * * *
* * * * *
MAYA'S AURA - the Awakening by Skye Smith