A pickup truck pulled up to the old dock as Angela and Lara stepped out from behind the trees.
The police still had not arrived at the house, making Lara worry if she had left Julia prematurely in haste.
"Do you think Julia will be OK there?" she asked Angela.
"Oh yeah, she'll be alright."
Lara hoped the police would arrive by now, believing they would protect her and return her to her parents.
"Go Lara!" Angela said.
But Lara felt uncertain. She stood watching the house waiting to see some sign of police arriving.
"Miss Woodrow called the police, right?" Lara said to Angela.
"She usually does. Go on! Go."
Lara slowly, reluctantly, crawled into the pickup truck.
"Thank you!" Lara said to Angela. "Look out for Julia for me, OK?
***
Julia remained laid down nude in her newly assigned bed in the house. Dora and Miss Woodrow had left her alone. Her intense crying had settled down but she still drifted in and out of short bursts of softer cries. Her new uniform and underwear had still not been supplied. She stared blankly at the row of beds in the room, thinking about the past few days with Lara as her only source of comfort.
The door to the room opened.
Julia's blank stare had been broken.
"Hello?" A soft voice called out.
Julia pulled her knees up tighter into a ball and remained on her side.
A young woman walked to the foot of the bed, carrying her new clothes.
"Um, Hi. I'm Ellen Meade". I'll just place your clothes on the bed."
Julia didn't respond and didn't move.
"Can I get you anything?" Ellen asked.
Julia remained motionless, moving only her eyeballs as they followed Ellen's movements.
"I know how you feel, they did the same thing to me when I came here."
Ellen stood for a moment, but Julia wouldn't move or say anything.
"Here, I also brought this blanket, I figured you'd want one."
Ellen unfolded the blanket and placed it over Julia, pulling it across her body and folding it away from her head. Julia clutched the corner of the blanket and held it to her face.
Ellen sat down into on the bed with Julia and touched foot from atop the blanket.
"I don't blame you if you're feeling frightened. I cried the entire time and didn't get any sleep the entire first night." Ellen said. "Miss Woodrow can be a real bitch sometimes."
Julia continued to watch Ellen.
"Hy, they'll be serving lunch here about another 30 minutes, if you want I'll bring you something. You don't have to go out there if you don't want to."
"Hi!" Ellen smiled as Julia moved her head down to get a better look at Ellen.
"What's your name?" Ellen asked.
"Julia." She whispered.
"Hi Julia."
Ellen kept squeezing Julia's foot.
***
The pickup truck drove quickly down the dirt road. Lara sat in the back of the cab while her friend Annette and her boyfriend Tim sat up front. Tim kept looking into the rear view mirror at Lara, stunned to see a naked girl in public.
"So what's your name?" Annette asked.
"Lara. I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself." Annette replied.
"Well hi!" Annette said. And this is my boyfriend Tim".
"Hi. And hi Tim."
"So, what happened to you? Where are your clothes?" Annette asked.
"I'm a nudist. It's a long story, but I'm just trying to get to California."
"With no clothes on?" Annette asked.
"Yeah, with no clothes on."
Tim shook his head and kept one hand on the steering wheel while wearing a smile.
"You have any money?" Annette asked?
Lara shook her head, and looked out the side window at the trees passing by.
"No."
"Man, that's wild!" Tim said.
Lara chuckled. "Right?"
