"Do you know one thing I like doing in the water?" she asked. "What's that?" I responded, wondering what she could have in mind. "Swimming naked," she responded. "Really?" I said, surprised. "There's nothing like it," Mefus said, with a gleam in her eye," wanna try?" The Price To Pay - Vol. 2.04 - Perspectives by Alys

The sea breeze played with my hair, alternatively blowing strands across my eyes and then away. The heat of the sun on my neck and arms contrasted with the delicious coolness of the sea as I walked barefoot through the shallow waves.

It was early afternoon on the last Sunday of the half-term Whitsun holiday. Mum had insisted on stopping off in Porthcawl at the beautiful, unspoiled Bae Gorffwys*, on the way back from our abbreviated, unfortunate long weekend in Dinbych-Y-Pysgod.

"It's a beautiful afternoon, let's try and get a little more beach time before we head home, we won't be able to get away again for quite a while after today" she had said, easily persuading my Dad and Taran to break up the journey.

I had tried to argue the virtues of getting home as soon as possible, having an inkling of my Mother's hidden agenda but was outvoted. Sure enough as soon as we had pulled up in one of the last places in the busy car park I was dispatched with an unworn bikini and summer dress to change in the loo.

"But why, Mum?" I had futilely protested, "what's wrong with these shorts and t-shirt?"

"Don't argue, Celyn, you know the reasons why," was her curt and final word on the matter.

There were hundreds of people enjoying themselves on the beach and luckily the tide was almost out so there was plenty of space for cricket, football, volleyball, surfing and of course sandcastle building.

I stopped walking, turned and looked back to where we had set up camp on the beach. I could just make out the green and white sun umbrella in the distance but there were too many people in the foreground, milling around, for me to make out my family.

I used my hand to shield my eyes from the early afternoon sun to try and get a glimpse of my Father sitting in the beach chair, under the umbrella. I knew that there would be no chance of seeing my Mother and my sister who I had left sunbathing on their beach towels. I backed into the water a little until it was up to my knees and moved to my left to try and look past a family group that was nearer to me, in the line of sight.

"Look out!" I heard someone shout, before firstly something hit my legs and then someone fell heavily on top of me pushing me under the water.

The shock of the cool water on my body took my breath away and I was speechless for a few seconds as I quickly stood up, the sodden summer dress stuck to my skin and my hair plastered on my face.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, are you OK?" asked a well endowed girl in a brief, black bikini, who had just run me down on the surfboard that was attached to her wrist.

I nodded and then shivered as the sea breeze rapidly cooled my wet clothes.

"I slipped off my board, I'm not very good," the surfer girl apologised," I'm sorry about your dress"

"It's OK, no damage done" I said, smiling," My Mum has plenty more where this came from."

She smiled back, obviously relieved that I wasn't annoyed with her," I guess you should take it off though, you'll get a chill"

"Yes, you're right, " I said, " I'll get back to my family and change, actually you've done me a favour"

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes, I can wear my shorts and t-shirt now," I explained, chuckling at the thought of my Mother's reaction to the failure, yet again, of her grand plan for 'Celyn's girlie experiences'.

A sudden breath of wind reminded me of the clamminess of my dress so I quickly peeled it off over my head.

"Nice bikini," said my beach companion.

"Thanks," I said," but it's my Mum's choice, pink is definitely not my colour."

I half turned to make my way back to my family.

"Would you like a go on the board?" asked the surfer girl.

"Sure, but I'll need to take this back first, " I replied, holding up the piece of sodden cotton, formerly known as today's summer dress.

"Where is your family?" she asked.

I pointed back across the beach in the general direction of the outcrop.

"Over there, can you see where the rocks start spreading onto the beach?" I replied.

"Our place is nearer, you could leave your dress to dry there if you like," she suggested.

"OK, by the way I'm Celyn," I said.

She smiled, "Nice to meet you Celyn, I'm Mefus"

"Nice to meet you, too, Mefus, nice name," I responded, following my new friend as she led the way to a group of beach chairs about fifty metres from the water.

"Thanks, although non Welsh speakers usually laugh when I explain to them what it means in English," she commented.

"Yes, I suppose, being called Strawberries wouldn't work in the West Country," I said.

We reached our destination and Mefus took my wet dress and hung it on the back of one of their beach chairs.

"It should be OK there, " she said, "my parents have gone for a walk into town in search of a cup of tea"

"You didn't want to go?" I asked.

"What and miss running girls over on my board?" she responded, laughing, "come on, lets go and see if you're as useless as me"

We turned and ran back towards the water. As I crashed into the waves, sending spray into the air, I noticed that Mefus hadn't kept up with me. I turned to see her jogging towards me, with one arm trying to restrict the movement of her large breasts and the other holding her surf board.

"I hate having such big boobs," Mefus said to me a few seconds later, as she reached the water, "they've really grown this last year, it's so hard to run now"

"I bet," I responded.

"You're lucky, yours seem the right proportion for your body," she commented, looking at my enhanced chest.

I laughed, "It's not all me, mine are tiny but my Mum likes me to wear padded bikinis on the beach"

"Oh, lucky you," said Mefus, " I wish I could take some of my padding out sometimes"

"Anyway, " I responded, " I read that big boobs are handy for swimming"

"Really, why's that?" Mefus asked.

"Well they float don't they? Well at least that's what my sister told me," I replied, " although she is smaller than you"

"Yes, they do help swimming a bit, but they make balancing on the board tricky, let me show you," she replied.

We spent the next half an hour trying to stand and surf using the board. After quite a few unsuccessful attempts I was pleased that I managed to stay up for the few seconds that were possible in the small waves in Bae Gorffwys. Mefus, despite her protestations to the contrary, was really quite skilled. She said she was looking forward to the family holiday in Newquay, Cornwall, the unofficial surfing capital of the UK for the chance of much better sea conditions.

"Are you a good swimmer?" Mefus asked, after we had returned the surf board to her beach chairs.

"Pretty good," I replied, "why do you fancy a swim?"

"Yes, I would before the tide starts coming in and I have a destination in mind," she replied.

"Where?"

"On the way down from the car park earlier I saw what looked like a piece of driftwood floating maybe three hundred metres off the beach, you fancy having a look at it?" Mefus asked.

"Sure," I said and started making my way back to the water. This time I walked so that Mefus could avoid the embarrassment of having to try to control her bouncing boobs.

We swam leisurely out towards to where Mefus said she had seen the piece of wood. Luckily the direction kept us within the limits of the safety flags. We had been out of our depth for maybe five minutes when Mefus swam a little closer.

"Do you know one thing I like doing in the water?" she asked.

"What's that?" I responded, wondering what she could have in mind.

"Swimming naked," she responded.

"Really?" I said, surprised.

"There's nothing like it," Mefus said, with a gleam in her eye," wanna try?"

"What now?" I asked, a little astonished at the suggestion, "in broad daylight"

"The nearest person is over there," she said, nodding her head at a group of swimmers about two hundred metres away," and they're going in the other way, go on, no-one will see"

"I'm not sure, what if there is someone on the clifftop, with binoculars," I countered.

"If they're using them on us then they're pervs and what will they do, phone the police and say 'Hi I'm a peeping Tom and I saw two girls swimming nude'" Mefus said, doing the imagined phone conversation in such a silly voice that I laughed so much that I almost choked on the sea water I swallowed.

"I'm not sure," I said, after I had recovered to respond.

"OK, up to you," she replied, before quickly taking off her bikini and tying the two parts around her neck.

We carried on swimming for a little longer and I could see how much she was enjoying the feel of the water over her whole body that I decided to follow her risqué example.

"OK, I'll give it a go," I said, before taking my own two piece off and securing it in the same way as Mefus.

"You won't regret it, " said Mefus as she trod water waiting for me to catch her up.

As soon as I started swimming I understand why she had suggested it. It was such a sensuous experience. I wished I had tried it before.

"Do you like it?" Mefus asked after we had been swimming without clothes for a few minutes.

"It's great," I replied, " thanks for the suggestion.

Some ten minutes later we reached our destination. It was a large piece of wood, covered in barnacles and seaweed. It had obviously been in the water a long time.

"It's old," I said, " I wonder what it is"

"Yes, there is some story about this I guess," Mefus responded, "how big do you think"

"Not sure, it's about three times longer than me, say six or seven metres by half a metre?" I suggested as I swam around the object.

"Yes that's what I thought too, how thick do you reckon?" she asked trying to measure it with her hand.

"It's hard to tell," I replied, as I pressed my hand around the rotting timber.

"About 10 cm maybe?" Mefus said.

"Could be," I responded as I swam around looking for any markings.

"Hey," I said, when I came across some faint black lettering, "come and look at this"

Mefus swam towards me and we tried to decipher the information on the piece of wood. I made out an incomplete name.

LI PRINCE ED

"What could that mean?" I pondered aloud.

"Prince Ed, do you think that could be Prince Edward?" Mefus asked.

"Could be, it makes sense, but what about the 'LI'?" I responded.

"No idea," she replied, "do you think we should be making our way back now?"

I looked towards the beach and noticed that there was a trickle of people walking up the boat ramp to the car park.

"We'd better had," I responded.

We swam back, quicker than we had swam out and soon it was time for discretion again and we trod water to put our bikinis on.

"Celyn," said Mefus as I was finishing tying my bikini top on, " I know what that piece wood is, it's very sad, I read about it in the paper"

"What boat is it?" I asked.

"Lots of people were killed, it was in the Swansea Post, there was a memorial about it because it happened just over sixty years ago," Mefus began explaining, " there was a ship, it sunk and there was the lifeboat too that sunk, that's what the LI is, it should be RNLI"

"RNLI, you mean the Royal National Lifeboat Institute?" I asked.

"Yes, that's it, the boat was the RNLI Prince Edward," she explained.

We swam back both deep in our thoughts after realising what we had encountered. I thought of all the people who had lost their lives in the incident that Mefus had described and thought that it put Mefus's concerns about her body shape and my concerns about my changed gender identity into some perspective, at least we were both alive and healthy.

My dress had dried enough to wear and so after taking my bikini off, drying and dressing, while doing the usual beach towel gymnastics, I exchanged contact details with Mefus and made my way back to where my parents and Taran were just completing packing up the beach things.

In the car later, on the way home, after we had all finished our ice-creams, I gave them an edited account of my adventures with Mefus, leaving out the nude bathing of course, and the discovery of the piece of the wrecked lifeboat.

"It's easy to forget how cruel the sea can be sometimes," commented my Father, sombrely.

* 'Bae Gorffwys' - 'Rest Bay', an unspoiled beach at Porthcawl, South Wales, popular with surfers