Monochrome period scene of two women — AI video by @winter_witch

**A Sunday Excursion (Animated)** It was unseasonably warm for June. The road out of town was already shimmering with heat when they passed Mrs Kloosterman and her troop of children on their way to Mass. Johanna saw the woman’s lips purse disapprovingly as the tandem sped by. Lotte took her feet from the pedals and laughed, her pigtails flying behind her. She didn’t even look back. Johanna did. They rode on past the last houses and into the open country, where the road narrowed between meadows and the air smelled of warm grass. At last even the church steeple disappeared behind the trees. Only then did Johanna begin to breathe differently. An hour later they stopped, propping their tandem against an oak tree. They were flushed from the heat, their blouses damp between the shoulder blades. Johanna could still feel the bicycle’s motion in her legs, that pleasant trembling after speed. Beside her, Lotte wiped her brow and unfastened the top two buttons of her blouse. There was hardly any breeze at all. Lotte leaned against the trunk and closed her eyes, fumbling for the cigarettes she kept in her shorts. Johanna watched as a small bead of sweat escaped from her hairline and rolled down her cheek. For a moment it rested at the point of her jaw. Lotte opened her eyes. "You’re staring at me,’" she said. Johanna felt herself colour. "I know." "For how long?" "All week." Lotte laughed. She had just shaken a cigarette from the packet when Johanna stepped forward and put two fingers beneath her chin. The cigarette dropped, unlit, into the grass. They kissed slowly at first, almost shyly. Johanna felt the heat of her through two thin blouses, the sudden pressure of thigh against thigh, and desire went through her with such sweetness that it hurt. In the hedgerow behind them an insect had begun its thin, persistent song. But all Johanna could hear was the quick beating of her own heart as the two of them lay down on the ground and kissed once more.

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