Slow Down.

She was a middle-aged married woman with two children and it were exactly 742 days since she has gone last to the spa. A loving and devoted mother though she was, Julianne's heart rejoiced as she walked through the marble halls and put on a swimsuit in the changing rooms before entering the long-missed circular chamber with thermal pools... Alone at last!

"Which pool should I enter first?" she wondered, turning her head slowly from side to side like a panoramic camera across the large, spacey room. She twirled around to see the time - the clock was still on the same spot as two years ago. "18:20. Wonderful, I have nearly three whole hours to spend here!" Julianne smiled to herself. Facing the pools again, suddenly two elderly women brushed past her - skin on skin, wet against dry... They were naked. Julianne's once-excited heart skipped a beat as she realized: it's the women-only evening! And just now did her eyes finally see the fully-exposed female bodies everywhere - on the marble benches, in the pools, behind the glass sauna doors... And she panicked again when realizing: "I am the only one dressed!"

Essentially, Julianne did not mind the absence of the testosterone-driven gender - but she did mind the sort-of pressure created by the ever-present nudists. The older women laid with their legs crossed in the water, exposing their genital hair to the ceiling and their breasts almost separated from the chest, pointing up like spaceships. When walking, they wobbled like jelly. The embarrassed youths with firm bodies reminded one of a hunted prey by the speed they ran from pool to pool before crying out in relief the moment they hid into the refuge of a chin-high water bath; in contrast, their elders dived in slowly, almost elegantly.

Even so, Julianne felt diffident and uneasy. Two pregnancies left marks on her body; the belly was not as flat as years back and her still milk-filled breasts drooped down like tree branches with heavy ripe fruit. Her thighs augmented in size despite the marathons around the household, her arms were strong from carrying her children, yet they flapped when she walked and lastly, she was aware of the unattended bush present under the one-piece... Simply put, she felt as lonely and  inappropriate as a seagull in a wheat field. 

She moved forward and dipped her toe into the water. "Warm, actually!" she thought and then slowly plunged herself into it fully. Walking down the five-step marble staircase, Julianne was enjoying the unique sensation of the nylon gradually clinging to her body. Somehow, it reminded her of love-making, the process  of two bodies sticking onto each other... She sat down on the lowest stair, exhaled slowly and, as she got comfortable, she closed her eyes. 

Within moments, Julianne felt relaxed - she let all worries and negativity float away and instead enjoyed the impression of time slowing down. For a moment, she opened her eyes to study the ceiling; it was round, with holes (cut like Christmas pastry dough), filled with star-shaped glass pieces. Red, lime green, yellow, aqua blue - "A colorful sky," Julianne thought to herself before closing her eyes again.

The next time she opened her eyes, she yelped; her thighs had this white transparent... something coming out from them. "What on Earth is that?!" She exclaimed in her mind, panicking. Hesitating at first, she then touched it, trapping a piece of it between her wrinkled fingers, fishing it out of the water and bringing it in front of her eyes. "Aaah, old skin!" she sighed in relief and with both of her hands intensely rubbed off the biological cover that reminded her so much of wet tissue or snake-skin. 

In peripheral vision, she felt somebody was staring at her... Intuitively, she looked in that direction - her eyes met those of an older woman, a living Botero figure. They stared at each other for a while in silence, the swishing light sounds of waves filling the background. Finally, the woman said: "Dear, take off the swimsuit." Julianne frowned: who was this, her mother?

"No, I'd rather not..." She argued. 

"Why?" The woman asked. Julianne now thought her rather nosy.

"Because," she began responding, "I-I'd simply rather not."

"Why, your figure? Not perfect, not sticking together?" the woman began saying. "So what? My body old, looks like caramel in sun. It no nice to see. But here, here only women - and with nothing on, one's soul is free. Going to spa is not only a physical action, but also of the mind - your body intense, your mind intense." Julianne looked at her - what a pushy lady indeed... But still, she continued. "Take off, dear. Nobody stares, feel comfortable." Julianne stared at her for a while, her mind processing what has just been said. Still, her head was shook in sign of refusal and disagreement. The woman turned her eyes towards the ceiling: "Okay, okay, fine. Stay up-tense" and left in a rather insulted fashion for a different pool.

After a while of intense thinking that included cursing the old woman and then criticizing her own prudishness, Julianne turned her head around. Like a radar, her eyes searched for the old woman, spotting her sinking into the 48°C pool as easily as a water-loving reptile. From there, they watched each other for a while, until something in Julianne just snapped. 

"F*ck this all!" she suddenly cried in her mind - and looped the neck string over her head, slid the nylon cloth down her slippery body, stepped out of it in the water and finally placed it onto the tiles behind her. She looked back, in direction of the old woman, who gave her a thumbs-up, smiling. Victoriously, Julianne then faced the ceiling - and beneath the stars, she bathed for another hour til the old cleans-lady gave the call for all to leave.