The woman from The East....

He headed towards the river and dived into the water, which was surprisingly warm but had cold pockets in it and he tried to stay in one such. He dived underneath and came up spouting water like a whale..

He stood on the sandy bottom, the water up to his neck and looked up to see the stars and the sky glorying in their presence.

A cloud reached out and grappled with the moon for possession of the night.

In that brief instant as he looked shorewards he saw her, her frame highlighted in the dim light of a lamp, leaning on the window frame, Her sarong was half held towards her and she was looking out to the river.
He knew she was looking at him and he wondered whether he had been seen.

Then she took away her sarong and lay it down and picked a clean white towel and gently patted her face and watched him as he watched her.

Her long dark hair hid most of her, but she moved it until it carrassed her back and began to braid it. All the time she was watching him and smiling.

Then suddenly, every flicker of current was a caress, every touch ot the breeze a caress , every thread of weed a caress -- fingers of courtesans, crafty with centuries of learning...




She was perhaps twenty four, but in sun-rain lands of Eastern India looked eighteen and virginal.

The darkness of her skin had a milk sheen to it and her eyes were jewels shiny garnets they resembled and her hands petals of the fire orchid and her feel lithe and her ankles slim,

Her child -woman body was satin and held within it the happiness of a hummingbird. She was a child of of the sun and daughter of the rain. Her nose was slender and fine and the nostrils delicate, one of them pierced.

She was all satin, liquid satin. Firm where it should be firm. Soft where it should be soft. Strong where it should be strong. And weak where it should it weak.

Her hair raven. Long, silky, A Gossamer net to cover her.

He smiled at her. He tried to hide his embarrasment and be like her, free and happy and not the sanctimonious prick he usually was.

"I pray that I shall be worthy to make thee happy and make thee soft-sleep. and I beg thee to teach me all the things that thy man should know to make thee 'close to the fountains of the gods'.

He said to her as he came close to her and lost himself in her embrace........