Carol had already started walking across the parking lot toward the pond. "Oh, don't worry about it, Casper," she said in a more normal, cheerful tone of voice. She suddenly tugged her t-shirt up over her head and dropped it deliberately on the gravel of the parking lot. She called over her shoulder, without slowing down, "It's easier to just skinny dip, don't you think?"

I froze, staring after her. She kept moving, reaching behind her back to unhook her plain white bra. She shrugged it off her shoulders, let it dangle down beside her from one hand, then turned slightly and let it drop to the group, her posture...