'Again,' she said, and I arched for another; I felt myself tub-cool and naked to the knees. When she leaned to catch my big toes for handles, her braid plopped in my lap.
'Your hair tickles,' I said.
'Where?'
'Tickles,' I said, and caught the braid with both my hands. I swished it over me, and she tugged it back.
'You stop, Graff.'
'I want to see the back of your neck,' I said.
She was unwinding from my ankles up, and when she got to the hot, sticky places on my calves, she unwound very slowly; they were the most congealed towels.
'Where have you hidden your braid?'
'Never mind,' she said. All the towels were off now.
'Can you see in the dark, Gallen?'
'I can't!'
'If you could,' I said, 'you'd see me--'
'I would,
all right.'
'--all pink and scattered-hairy, like a baby ape.'
'That's nice,' she said. 'Now stop.'
But I was able to reach out and find her head, and slide my hand under her chin, and run the backs of my knuckles across and down her throat to the first knot of her braid, tucked into her blouse.
'I want to see the back of your neck,' I said.
She was putting on the new bandages now; the gauze wound lightly and fast. She bound only my calves, and she didn't hobble my legs together; that was Siggy's sort of work.
'I've a clean towel to cover you,' she said.
'Is it a monstrous towel?'
'Arch,' she said, and she whisked it around me so fast I was fanned by the draught.
'Now give us some light,' I said.
'I'm not supposed to be here, Graff. My aunt thinks I'm turning down beds.'
'I'll just have a look at your neck, Gallen,' I said.
'And you won't grab me, will you?'
'No.'
'Or pull off your towel?'
'Of course not!'
'Once a man did - in the hall, my aunt said. He just pulled it off in front of her.'