nspired by Honore L’Oeuf’s novels, Alice tried interesting her schoolfriends with sexual adventures and invited a few to her home. Most of them were little girls like Alice, but one or two were boys. Alice and her friends played in the garden, their clothes discarded, just hidden from sight by the undergrowth. They read aloud chapters from the Honore L’Oeuf omnibus and when properly aroused, they played with each other. The boys and girls made very little distinction between whom they chose to play with and indeed the two boys were most interested in each other’s little penises.

“O Tiger‑Lilly!” gasped Alice, removing her tongue from her friend’s bare vagina, “I wish you had a prick!”

“But I do!” said Tiger‑Lilly. “Put your tongue further up and feel it. Then you’ll see.”

Alice did so, and felt Tiger‑Lilly’s clitoris. “It’s very hard,” she said: “but it’s not the same thing.”

“She’s coming!” said Larkspur talking about Rose whom she was stimulating with her finger. “Hear her gasps. Aaaahh! Aaaahh! Aaaahh!”

Alice looked round eagerly to see Rose gasping, the smooth skin of her nearly flat chest pouring sweat as her buttocks trembled with excitement, and then saw Kedi looking at the children playing from a distance away. As usual, she was wearing no clothes and had a frown on her face.

“I think I’ll go and meet her,” said Alice, for, though her friends were interesting enough, she felt that it would be far more satisfying to spend time with Kedi.

“You can’t possibly do that,” said Rose: “She’d tell you off.”

This sounded nonsense to Alice as she knew Kedi so well, so she walked up to Kedi, who indeed did not seem as happy as usual.

“You really oughtn’t encourage your friends like that,” said Kedi firmly. “What do you think their parents will think?”

Alice wondered a little at this, but she was too much in love with Kedi to argue. “I hadn’t thought,” she apologised.

“In Brook this sort of thing is perfectly all right, but here you must be more sensible,” explained Kedi. “In different places there are different rules of behaviour. In some countries, it is children who have sex and the adults must not. In some countries only anal sex is allowed and other forms of sexual intercourse are frowned on. In some countries, people are only allowed to make love with people of the same sex and never with people of other sexes.”

“Why is that?” wondered Alice.

“In every place there may be a good reason,” explained Kedi indulgently, “but mostly it is just custom. Here it is not the custom for children to make love together. It is thought indecent and if your friends tell their parents of what they have been doing their mothers and fathers will be very cross.”

“What is it like in your country?”

“In my country, clothes are disapproved of. They are considered as merely ways of hiding oneself from others. They are thought of as a kind of deceit. It is also believed that they are an unnecessary luxury in a warm country which merely displays a disreputable ostentatiousness. In my country, people are proud of their bodies and are not ashamed of how they change as they get older.”

“Is it like that in Brook?”

“Brook is different. It is not a foreign country and in many ways its attitudes are like those here. It is just that there are enough enlightened people who think that wearing clothes is a choice and that one should choose oneself how much one wears. Brook is not far from here. You should visit it and then you will know what it is like.”

“Why is it called Brook?”

“Because there are many brooks. But there are also many woods and hedges. It is a pleasant place with a lovely climate. Do you want to go?”

“Yes I do!” said Alice positively. “I would very much like to.”

“That’s easily managed. You can visit Blanche and I will visit you there if you like ‑” Just at this moment, somehow or other, they began to make love.

Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how it was they began: all she remembers is, that they were rolling around together on the grass, and Kedi was exercising Alice’s clitoris with her fingers so vigorously that she was helpless with passion: and still Kedi kept gasping encouragement.

The most curious part of the thing was, that Alice’s friends, who had bored of sex‑games, never seemed to notice the two girls together at all, or if they did, they made no sign of it. And Kedi opened her legs and pushed Alice’s fingers deep inside her vagina motioning her to do the same to her as she was to Alice. She cried “Faster! Don’t try to talk!” Not that Alice had any idea of doing that. She felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath in excitement: and still Kedi cried “Faster! Faster!” and nibbled Alice’s clitoris with her teeth. “Have you nearly come?” Alice managed to pant out at last.

“Nearly there!” Kedi repeated. “Faster!” And they continued for some time in silence, with the blood rushing to Alice’s ears and her body aching with passion and exertion.

“Now! Now!” cried Kedi. “Faster! Faster!” And her body shivered so violently, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sprawled on her back on the ground, breathless and giddy.

Kedi propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, “Let’s rest a little now.”

Alice sighed. “I am so hot and thirsty!”

“I know what you’d like!” Kedi said good‑naturedly opening a bottle of water which she proffered to Alice. Alice sipped from it and then Kedi took it from her and splashed water over her face and between her legs. She then handed it back to Alice who did the same thing.

“While you’re refreshing yourself,” said Kedi, “I’ll tell you the arrangements. You will take a train to Brook, and then walk through the woods to Blanche’s house which is just by a river. There you might meet the writer, Honore L’Oeuf, whose books you enjoy so much.”

Alice nodded as she took in the arrangements, which she assumed had been made between Kedi, Blanche and Dinah. Adults were always running your life! she thought.

“Then you might want to look round the forests of Brook and you might meet people and then I’ll meet you and Blanche, and it’s all feasting and fun!”

Alice smiled in gratitude. “I look forward to it,” she said.

“Now run back and play with your friends,” advised Kedi with an indulgent smile. “But impress on them not to tell their parents of what they’ve been up to, or there’ll be all sorts of trouble!”

Alice said she would and left Kedi to wander around the garden. She joined her friends and in next to no time they were all excitedly stimulating each other and the boys were persuaded to stick their little penises up each other’s bottoms.