The Great Cleanup - стр. 18
“For our promising acquaintance!”
Anna did not refuse, even though she never drank any alcohol without her family before that time. Her father and mother used to explain to her: “You can only drink with someone you trust. Someone who will not take advantage of you when you don't control yourself. Someone who will help if you suddenly feel unwell…”
Her sizeable future husband elicited such trust in her that Anna actually drank two whole glasses. She felt so easy, so good. They chatted about anything at all: the intricacy of cutting out a double-breasted overcoat, the pleasures of winter fishing. They talked in the café, then in the park next to it. And they kissed. Then she did feel unwell, and he escorted the pale, reeling girl home, carefully holding her by the waist, then by the hips. He handed her over to her parents, stating: “I love your daughter and I am asking for her hand in marriage!” In the morning Anna's mother, handing her an aspirin and a glass of water to help with the hangover, informed her that their response was “we are not against it, but she has to decide everything herself when she's all sobered up”. And decide she did. Yet, at the crowded wedding, holding hands with her Ted “the Bear”, she drank just one glass of champagne. She knew a second glass would be excessive, leading to unpredictable consequences…
So now Anna felt like she has had one glass. Turning away the second, she stood up. The bubbles started popping ticklishly on her skin…
Once she emerged from the third bath, the girls, despite Anna's weak protests, wiped all of her body with some sort of aromatic scrub wipes and placed her down on a soft narrow bed that was covered by a sheet with a picture of a gorilla-like bodybuilder:
“You will need to have a bit of patience. Things got somewhat overgrown while you were stuck there…”
Picking up a small electric device and a pair of tweezers, the mulatto started removing the hair under Anna's arms, on her legs, below her belly. Meanwhile, the redhead proceeded to mask the woman's face:
“It is made of avocado, with passionfruit sprouts and extract of marine iguana placenta. It is excellent at refreshing the skin on your cheeks, gets rid of wrinkles and any swelling under the eyes. I do this on myself every day…”
Completing the mask, the redhead turned to manicure and pedicure. As her body was in the busy hands of others, Anna had nothing to do and felt somewhat lost, nearly falling asleep again. But very soon the girls snapped her back into her senses by forceful massage with all four hands:
“Some more patience, please. But you're sure to lose at least a pound.”
Anna did believe them, as she could feel the pulling, the pinching, the slapping. Well, at first she could. In a few minutes she stopped feeling anything at all. She felt, in part, tuned out: her body seemed to exist on a separate plane, her head remained alone with its lax thoughts…
When the massage was over, the ladies spread some kind of cream over Anna.
“It will be absorbed in fifteen minutes. A great tonic. And while it's absorbing, we'll dress your hair in a new style…”
The redhead pressed some button and the bed turned into a lounge chair, with Anna half-laying, half-sitting in it and her head accessible for hairdressing.