Then, quickly, I slammed his buddy in the jaw with a roundhouse right and dived for the exit from the sauna room. “Baby” was still staring at the ceiling, above it all. But his third disciple was moving fast to get to the door before I did. He made it, and I found myself facing another pig-sticker.
I brought my heel down hard on his bare foot as he lunged at me with the knife. It threw him off balance. I jumped sideways and helped him along with a hard kick to the butt. Then I was out the door and running without bothering to stop for my swimsuit or towel.
I knew they’d be right behind me. What I needed was a place to hide. Nor did I have much time to weigh possibilities. As I spotted the door from the sauna room opening over my shoulder, I dived back into the steam room. I went all the way to the back and huddled in the corner.
Almost immediately, a hazy figure sat down close beside me and a voice sounded chummily in my ear.
“Well, hello there. How nice to meet you again.”
“Hi.” I edged away as best I could.
“I see there really was a contrast. You’re not a natural redhead at all."
I felt a nose graze my thigh and crossed my legs primly. “Now cut that out!” I warned him. “I don’t swing that way! ”
“Well, you don’t have to act so bitchy about it,” he said in a hurt tone, picking up his head and leaning back on the bench beside us. “We can’t any of us help being what we are.”
“What you are is your business. What I am is mine. Let’s keep it that way.” I was trying to see through the steam to the door. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel the draft each time it opened. It had opened three times since I’d come inside. I was too far away to make out faces, and I could only hope that the plug-uglies hadn’t tracked me down.
“Well, if you’re going to be that way about it.” he said huffily, starting to get up and move away.
“Wait a minute!” I’d known my voice would be enough to make him sit back down, and it was. There was a reason why I’d wanted to stop him. I’d just spotted two shadows moving back-to-back down the center of the steam room. They were pausing and bending to peer into each face as they passed it. I realized it had to be my two sauna playmates looking for me. “You see those two?” I asked the oddball beside me. “The two standing up? ”
“I can just about make them out.”
“Well, they should be right up your alley. See how they’re propositioning every guy in the place?”
“But why don’t they just go with each other?”
“They’re lovers,” I improvised. “But they’ve had a spat. Now they’re sort of trying to make each other jealous. It’s like a contest to see who can pick up another man first.”
“Then you think if I approached them—?”
“Absolutely! ”
“Well, I don’t know. I have my esthetic standards, you know. I can’t really see them from here. What do they look like?”
“The one on the left is built like an Adonis,” I assured him. “The other one is dark and mustachioed like a Spanish cavalier. He likes to dress up,” I threw in for added incentive.
“Oh! That’s for me! What would be the best way to approach them?”
“Aggressively. Just make a grab. And immediately.” I gave him a shove. They were getting too close for comfort. “Don’t be shy. Grab first and talk later,” I called after him.
“Caramba!”
He must have grabbed. The response confirmed my judgment of my adversary’s Spanish strain. I didn’t dwell on it. As his buddy turned to help him cope with the sudden indignity, I took advantage of the resulting hubbub to bolt past them and out o the steam room.
I shot straight down the long hallway. As I reached the stairway at the end of it, I saw the gay-boy come hurtling out of the steam room. I didn’t wait for my pursuers to follow him out. I took the stairs two at a time and dived through the door at the bottom.
I kept right on diving as I came through it. You see, I’d emerged in the swimming pool. And, as my first look told me, the swimming pool was co-ed. Naked as I was, I would have looked somewhat ostentatious sitting around the edge of the pool. So, as I said, I kept right on diving over the side and into the water.
I carried it off so fast that nobody noticed. When I came up to the surface and looked around, I realized that this was so from the lack of attention anybody was paying to me. I dived down into the depths again and swam the length of the pool.
When I came up, I realized it was riskier here. The water was shallower, and if anybody took a good look, my lack of a suit would be evident. I dived down again and swam for the middle.
I swam underwater with my eyes open. A girl in a bikini swam toward me. Her eyes were open, too. They opened even wider as we passed each. other. A moment later we both rose to the surface. She was staring at me with a startled expression on her face. I stared back as blandly as I could. She shook her head as if to say she must have been seeing things, and then swam away.
It was then that all three of the hoods entered the swimming pool area. I saw them before they could see me and dived again. I came up close to the side of the pool, the same side they were standing on, so that I was temporarily out of their range of vision. That’s when I saw the bathing cap and terrycloth robe one of the women must have parked at the edge of the pool.
I grabbed the cap and put it on, snapping the strap under my chin. Then, as my adversaries turned their attention elsewhere for a moment, I quickly pulled myself over the edge of the pool and donned the robe. With my shoulders bent and my chin stuck under my neck, I fell in behind another woman who was dressed much the same as I. Aping her walk, I followed her to the staircase at the other end of the pool from the one I’d entered by. I followed her up the stairs and found myself in the women’s section of the club.
It would only be a matter of time before someone spotted my deception. Realizing this, I looked around frantically for some place to hide. Standing as I was between the women’s shower and the women’s locker room, it seemed that every place I looked, all I saw was female pulchritude. I felt like an Alpine climber surrounded by mountains of breasts. Then I spotted the entrance to the women’s steam room and once again the darkness of such a place seemed to offer the best possibilities for concealment. I Went inside and found a corner where the steam seemed thickest.
I hadn’t seen the figure sitting there, and I almost sat down in her lap. I didn’t apglogize, though. I was afraid my voice would give me away. It was she who spoke first.
“That you, Samara?” she whispered.
“Uh-uh.” I tried to make the sound as high-pitched and feminine as I could. The unfortunate result was that it came out “uh-huh”-—affirmative instead of negative.
“I thought you’d never get here, sweetie.” Her hand touched the robe just over my knees. “Why are you wearing that, honey?” she asked. “You can’t get the full benefit of the steam if you wear it in here.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Let me help you off with it.” She grasped my shoulders.
“No!” I squeaked. I quickly took the robe off myself.
“Do you have a cold, Samara? You sound so hoarse.”
I shook my head.
“You have to take better care of yourself, baby.” She patted my bare knee and left her hand there. “You’re lucky you have me to take care of you.”
I nodded enthusiastically.
Her hand moved higher. “Oh, Samara, you naughty girl, you’ve been forgetting again. You really must remember to shave your legs at least once a week.” She squeezed my thigh.
I hung my head and sighed an apology .
“You do have a cold?! I can tell by the way you’re breathing. Oh, you poor baby. You just suck that steam right into your lungs now. And when you’ve had enough, do you know what I’m going to do for you, darling?”