Yarns Without Threads 

When Miss Franklyn drew level with us, we just sat there in silence. Bella tried not to laugh and choked. I could hear voices down at the cove as the staff and children took off their clothes and ran into the water. The voices of the younger children were still further off.

Miss Franklyn dived into her tent and I saw the canvas rocking as she moved around inside.

'Just you watch,' said Bella, killing herself.

A minute later Miss Franklyn threw open the tent flaps with a swagger and stepped into the grey light. She was naked. She put her hand across her mouth, suddenly embarrassed, but then she jumped in the air and ran down the meadow towards the cove, weaving between the nettles. At a point where the shadows began, I saw - though the others didn't - how she leapt a clump of thistles. I saw her rising up. I saw her levelling off just where the highest thistle would brush against her bottom. Then, as the prickles touched her, I saw her surge upwards again, without putting a foot on the ground, and then disappear into the darkness where the valley opened on to the beach.

'The Dartington experiment appeals to Miss Franklyn,' Bella said, and she rolled over and over in the grass.

'Let's go,' said Bella, starting down the hill.

'In some countries there are laws,' Trudi went on, raising her voice.

Bella spoke over her shoulder. 'So what? It's different at Dartington.'

'Laws! Laws!'

Trudi threw herself into the grass, away from us, and started to cry.

'She's jealous,' Bella said, skipping down the hill towards the river.

I followed slowly. From the bottom of the slope Trudi was just a splodge of purple a long way above us. We went through a gate and on to a long stretch of grass beside the river, which we called the Marsh. Further down, and shaking in the haze, was Folly Island. It wasn't really an island, only a clump of trees facing the river, with a ditch behind it, but it had a grassy bank from which you could jump into deep water and it was here we often came to bathe. We crossed the ditch on to Folly Island.

'There are children at the pool,' I said.

Between the trees I could see the white bodies of naked children as they leapt into the Dart. They were shining with water and their excited voices carried to where we stood.

'Damn,' said Bella, chewing a grass stem.

'They may stay all morning. They do, often. They may have brought lunch.'

'We'll sit here until they go.'

Bella found a hollow which was damp-smelling, and filled with rushes and ferns. When she lay in this she was below the level of the path. I followed, slowly.

...

Down by the river the sun was shining on the water and sparks of light were flashing over the trees. I heard a grown-up voice calling the children out of the water, and raising my head I saw them climbing the bank and running for their towels. They looked very happy.

Five minutes later they were passing us, behind the trees, making for the Marsh and Foxhole, and it was then that I realized which children they were. How stupid of me not to have guessed! They were shouting and laughing and they looked to be blown along by the wind.

Leading the others was a dark girl whose hair streamed out behind her. Esther, of course. She ran so fast the others could not catch her. She twisted through the trees, making her lead even greater. She seemed to float, missing the trees by some sort of miracle. It looked as if the trees bent away from her, letting her pass. She glanced at the children crashing along behind her and I saw her smile. Then she was gone beyond the wood and on to the Marsh, where her figure became edged with sunlight. The others followed in a clumsy group, shouting, telling her to wait.

...

We looked through the trees towards Folly Pool, where the water was now still, and Bella said, 'Well, let's go!'

We got up from the crushed ferns and crossed slowly to the river. Here the grass bank hung over the cool, bracken-coloured water. Upstream the Dart disappeared into the woods; below us the surface was broken where the river widened and ran over pebbles. We undressed where we stood, without saying anything, leaving our clothes on the grass.

Of course, I'd seen all the girls without their clothes on, because at Dartington no one wore a bathing dress, but now, hidden in the trees, with Bella standing naked beside me, I tried not to look at her. She was a great white slug. For a moment we stood on the edge of the river. My eyes darted to her body and I saw how the tan ended halfway up her thighs. Her belly was pale, like a rumpled sheet, and her breasts lolled this way and that.

'I can swim underwater,' she said, plunging in.

She made a great hole in the river, a wave breaking on either side. She swam away from me, but she wasn't actually under the surface because her bottom kept breaking out, making a splash. In the middle of the river she rose and turned towards me, her hair covering most of her face.

'Did you see?'

'Yes.'

'Come on, then.'

I stepped into the river and swam slowly towards her. She flipped water into my face. 'We'll swim upstream,' I said.

The afternoons were warm, and often Professor Bolski continued my lesson until past five o'clock, forgetting the time, but always, in the end, he gathered our manuscripts together with a flutter of apology. Then, still carrying the sounds in my head, I went out into the garden and down to the lawns and the pool, where Esther always waited, usually alone, carrying our towels. We sat on the grass bank above the pool, not speaking. Here by the woods there were new, different sounds - the chatter of birds, the small noises the trees made, the splash of water falling into the pool.

We undressed on the bank, letting our clothes fall anywhere on the grass. I didn't look at her, but I knew that her skin had a sheen upon it and that the line of her black hair cut sharply across her naked shoulders. I didn't touch her. (I didn't breathe upon her, for that matter, because I was frightened she might vanish, as she had the summer before, and never come back. She was just a shadow thrown by the sun and could disappear as quickly.)

Her body was still slim, like a boy's, with the bones barely covered, with hardly a shadow between her breasts. She went into the pool by the steps, the water breaking and rippling and showing a wobbly reflection of her face as she peered into the depths. She swam away from the side, with small, hurried strokes, the sun flashing in the water. Usually she called me to join her and I went tumbling in, with a great upheaval of the pool, and she fled to the side, where she dashed the water from her eyes, and smiled, and hid her face from the splashes.

We never stayed long in the pool but scrambled out to lie on the bank in the orange light, not touching or speaking, just letting the warm air blow over us until we were dry, and then, quite casually, rising to dress again.