Andrea Gibson

Naked

I have a dog named Squash. She is 8 pounds of perfect. The other day I was walking her with my friend Emily when all of a sudden I heard the most horrible cry. I looked over and Squash was frantically bouncing around on a cactus patch like a wailing piece of popcorn. It was so horrible. I ran through the cactus patch and grabbed her panicked little body. She was covered in about 20 golf ball sized cactus plants, and had hundred of the sharpest little pokers sticking out all over her little paws and legs. I quickly handed her to Emily and told her to hold her still while I tried to pull the things out, but every time I tried to grab at something it was just way too sharp. So I ripped off my shirt, wrapped it around my hand as a buffer and tried to pull. Still the cactus spikes sawed through the shirt like it was water, so immediately I ripped off my jeans, wrapped the jeans around my hands, and that finally started to work. In the middle of it, the sweetest woman walked up and started to help remove the spikes. When Squash had finally calmed down and most of the sharp things had been taken out, I realized I had in fact taken off all of my clothes, so I said to the woman, “I’m sorry I’m naked.” She said, “Oh that’s ok.” A few minutes later when Squashy was better and we were on the last few little spikes the woman said, “Andrea, you might remember me, I wrote you a fan letter a while back…….”

There are things that can immediately rid you of your modesty. Mostly, love. Because all of my clothes were covered in cactus plants I had to walk a half mile back to the car, and through the streets of my new neighborhood, wearing no clothes. To think, three days ago it would have been almost impossible to convince me to get naked in the privacy of my own house. Today I think I could be a nudist. Squashy is ok. Squashy is ok.