WISH YOU WERE THERE!
Jantallian
Holiday Snapshot 4
Emerging from the restaurant, the fair man looked hopefully across the road. "Maybe we should try in there – it's an impressive looking building, a library maybe - just the kind of place a man of the Reverend's reputation would frequent."
Before his companion could stop him, he strode decisively across the rutted highway and entered the lobby of the building. The dark man sighed, then grinned rather wickedly and strolled after him. Inside the place was barer and much more shabby than the exterior suggested. There was nothing but a desk with a man sitting behind it, some ceiling-high shelves which were stacked with what appeared to be folded, white towels and a battered bench along one wall. There was a big set of fancy double doors immediately opposite the main entrance and, in one corner, another, less prepossessing single door across which hung a battered curtain. The whole place had a dank atmosphere, as if it had been raining that strange, warm rain inside. It wasn't quite what the first man had expected, but he was willing to investigate anyway.
"You can't go in there, cowboy!" But there was no stopping him. The tall man pushed determinedly through the double doors and disappeared in a cloud of very hot steam. His shorter companion gave another long-suffering sigh and tossed two dollars onto the counter. The attendant grabbed the money and threw him a towel. The dark man threw it straight back, his hand bunching meaningfully into a fist as he did so. The attendant found a clean towel and handed it over in a reasonably civilised manner. They both waited expectantly.
After a few moments, the double doors opened again and the blonde reappeared. He was suspended between two massive attendants who were clad only in what looked like Indian loin-clothes. He was gasping for air, mainly from the steam, but possibly because, despite the fact that he himself was well over six foot, the two men were holding him off the ground by his arms. They dropped him in front of his friend.
When he could speak again, the tall man choked out: "Jess – it's full of –"
"It's a Turkish bath!" his companion informed him patiently. "You take your clothes off." He brandished the towel under the other man's nose, then, obviously deciding that further education on the subject of Turkish baths was going to be wasted, he slung off his gun-belt and held it out. "Take this. And sit there." He pushed the bemused blonde on to the bench running along the wall. "Y' can look after m' clothes as well in a minute." He disappeared through the battered curtain.
"But Jess –!"
The protest came too late again. Not long after this, the waiting man received a pile of miraculously neatly folded clothes – got to be a first for Jess, he thought – as the dark one, now clad only in a towel round his waist, made for the double doors.
"Jess!"
"Yeah, what now?"
"It's a bath."
"Yeah. I know that."
"Hat?"
"Oh, yeah." The black hat spun across the room and its owner disappeared in a cloud of steam. The cowboy and the attendant eyed each other with mutual suspicion. The attendant clearly thought that this heavily muscled specimen might make another attempt to gate-crash the baths without paying. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since he was still clad in the woollen long-johns, he had felt quite enough of the jungle-like humidity and seen quite enough of the assorted broiling bodies within to make him thankful that he was outside in the relative cool. He couldn't imagine what on earth Jess thought he was going to do … but told himself that it would be worth it if they found the one they were seeking. On the other hand, Jess's capacity for getting into trouble made him very uneasy … maybe he should be ready to go to the rescue ….
Suddenly – predictably perhaps – from beyond the doors a total stranger's voice was raised in panic: "It's not you! You can't be here! No-o-o!"
The gargantuan footfalls of the huge attendants echoed loudly, even though muffled by the thick atmosphere and some fairly solid doors. There was a rumbling growl which might have included the words "Gerroffome!" and which certainly portended a Harper going into fighting mode. This was rapidly followed by two heavy thuds and the sound of a body hitting a hard floor. Then a quick staccato burst of knuckles on solid flesh, a couple of explosive grunts and the rasp of fabric being torn. The doors shook. Steam billowed out round the edges with a mighty hiss and several voices were raised in slightly stupefied consternation. Finally, silence fell.
The doors opened again and the younger man strolled out, rubbing the sweat from his forehead with one arm. His hair, wet and curling tightly, was plastered to his head and the ripped towel was somewhat more precariously hitched on his slim hips. Steam swathed him round, obscuring his expression, but he could easily have been smirking.
If he was, it did not last long. "Come on," he ordered, "let's get goin'!"
The blonde baulked at this. "Jess, I am not running round San Francisco with you wearing nothing but a towel!"
"You wanna get closer acquainted with them again?" From behind the double doors there was a sound consistent with a couple of very angry bull-elephants about to charge.
The dark man grabbed his hat and slapped it on his head. "Don't hang about, Slim! Leg it!" He barged past the attendant, flung up the window behind the desk and jumped into an alley. "An' don't drop m' boots!"
#
SS - JH
#
A while later, Jess was sitting on the edge of the fancy bath, attempting to wash the mud off his feet.
"Could you recognise anyone in all that steam?" Slim asked curiously.
"Someone recognised me!" Jess told him grimly. "But I maybe won't recognise him next time I see him!"
"How do you know that?"
" 'Cos I rearranged his features some!"
"Starting a fight was hardly likely to help us get the Reverend out, if he was in there."
Jess heaved another patient sigh. "Slim, if he was in there, he wouldn't've come willingly anyway."
"Why not?"
"You don't wanna know!" Jess told him firmly once more.
Slim stored this away mentally as yet another mystery of the Barbary Coast. "Still wish he'd been in there," he said disconsolately.