“Okay, I’ll try.” He took off his bathrobe, had under it boxer’s shorts. “Joan Eunice, when did you take up yoga? Winnie teach you?”
“Oh, no!” said Winifred. “Miss Joan taught me—she’s much farther along the Path than I am.”
(Watch it, Boss!) (No huhu, Lulu.) “One learns many things, Jake—and loses them for lack of time. I used to play chess, yet I haven’t set up a board for fifty years. But for longer than that I could no longer even attempt a Lotus seat…until Eunice gave me this wonderful young body which can do anything.”(Which shell is the pea under, Eunice?) (It’ll be under you if you relax too much; you should have emptied our bladder.) (Never fear, dear. I shan’t go under, must watch Jake.) “Join us, lake. You lead, Winnie; start as soon as Jake is in position.”
Salomon started to sit on the floor, suddenly stopped and got out of his shorts. Joan was delighted, taking it as a sign that he had decided to give in to it all the way. But she did not let her serene expression change nor move her eyes. Winifred was staring at her navel; if she noticed it, she did not show it.
“Inhale,” Winifred said softly. “Om Mani Padme Hum. Hold. Om Mani Padme Hum. Breath out. Om Mani Padme Hum. Hold.”
(Out Mani Padme Hum. Dig that clamdigger, dearie?) (Shut up! You’ll ruin the mood. Om Moni Padme Hum.)
“Om Moni Padme Hum!” said Salomon in a voice that would have graced a cathedral. “Om Moni Padme Hum!”
“Winnie darling” Joan said softly. “Let it fade and wake up wide. We’re going to have to wake Jake.”
The redhead’s eyes fluttered, she whispered one more prayer and waited. “Jake darling,” Joan said softly, “Eunice is calling. Wake just enough to let us help you into bed. Eunice is calling you back. Jake dearest.”
“I hear you, Eunice.”
“How do you feel?”
“Eli? Relaxed. Wonderful. Much rested but ready to sleep. Say, it does work. But it’s just autohypnosis.”
“Did I even hint that it was anything else? Jake, I don’t expect to find God by staring into my belly button. But it does work…and it’s better than forcing your body with drugs. Now let Winnie and me help you into bed.”
“I can manage.”
“Of course you can but I don’t want the relaxation to wear off. Indulge me, Jake, let us baby you. Please.”
He smiled and let them—slid onto the opened bed, let them cover him, smiled again when Joan Eunice gave him a motherly good-night kiss, seemed unsurprised when Winifred followed her mistress’s example—turned on his side and was asleep as the girls left the room.
“Don’t bother,” Joan said as Winifred started to put on her negligee, “It’s my house and no one comes upstairs after dinner unless sent for. Except Hubert and I assume that Jake sent him to bed, knowing that he was to be called on by two tarts in three quarter time and not much else.” She slid an arm around the redhead’s slender waist. “Winnie, much as I like to dress up—isn’t it nice to wear just skin?”
“I like it. Indoors. Not outdoors, I sunburn so badly.”
“What about at night? When I was a boy, ages and ages ago, it got unbearably hot in July and August where we lived—the sidewalks used to burn my bare feet. Houses were bake ovens even at night—no air-conditioning. An electric fan was a luxury most people did not have. Nights when I couldn’t sleep because of heat I used to sneak quiet as a mouse and bare as a frog out the back door, being oh so careful not to let my parents hear, and walk naked in the dark, with grass cool on my feet and the soft night breeze velvet on my skin. Heavenly!”
“It sounds heavenly. But I would be terrified of getting mugged.”
“The word ‘mug’ hadn’t been invented, much less any fear of it. I was a middle-aged man before I became wary of the dark.” They turned into the master bedroom. “Kiss me good-night, Winsome, and go keep your date. Sleep late in the morning; I’m going to.”