From now on, she decided, she would wear clothes like an accessory, not an armor. Because she had finally, mercifully, learned to inhabit the one thing she could never take off.
When the sun began to dip, she returned to the bench. She picked up her underwear—lacy, impractical, a little tight. She held them for a long moment. Then she put on only her sundress, letting it fall over her head like a whisper. No bra. No pantries. Just cotton against skin.
Zita walked towards the lake. With every step, the self-consciousness sloughed off like a snake's skin. The tickle of grass on her ankles. The sun finding her shoulder blades, a spot a swimsuit usually hid. The whisper of wind across her belly. For the first time in years, she felt the weather on her entire body. It wasn't sexual. It wasn't shameful. It was just true .
Later, she lay on the warm grass, the sun drawing patterns on her closed eyelids. She thought of her closet at home—the padded bras to create a shape, the high-waisted pants to hide a belly, the scarves to cover a neck she thought was too thin. So much fabric. So much hiding.
It started as a dare. A whisper from a friend at a party: "You? You wouldn't last an hour."