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I closed the book, got out of ht, and stretched out on un to bother ain I closedbut Greta, eyes half-lidded, body bare, e away There are several good Yoga techniques for blanking the mind, and I tried all of theh the variousthem in turn, and I was not particularly astonished to find that there was one particular roup which stubbornly refused to relax, an island of unrelieved tension in a sea of tranquility
Until finally the doorknob turned and the door eased soundlessly open and she entered my room I could not see her in the darkness but I kneas her The smell of her filled the room
I didn’t move She padded softly across the room and stood for some silent moments by the side of the bed
"Evan? Are you asleep?"
I did not say anything
"I couldn’t sleep, Evan I tried, but I just couldn’t Are you asleep, Evan? I think I knoay to wake you-"
She lifted the bed sheet, drew it down Her hand, soft, cool, trailed down over hted "You’re not asleep at all, are you? You were only pretending!"
And she rolled her fine Aryan body on top of me
I touched her and kissed her She panted and squirht of the cold shower I had taken earlier; I ht as well have tried to put out a forest fire with a cup of water She’s a Nazi, an inner voice cried, albeit weakly Politics er voice retorted And that particular dialogue ended, and another wordless dialogue took over
She had switched on the bedside la back with olden hair hung down free, fra ly over the keyboard to play the "Horst Wessel Lied," now raced just as trippingly over me
"It’s asleep now," she said
"I’m not asleep"
"Not you It"
"Oh"
"It hen I ca?"
"Not at this rate"
"Good You know, I expected it the minute I saw you That’s why I was so excited"
"Expected what?"
"That you were Jewish"
"What?"
"Oh, don’t worry," she said She giggled "I won’t tell anyone, Evan Because then I would have to tell Papa how it is that I know, and he would be very angry He would whip me Here, and here, and-"
"Yes, I know I’m not Jewish"
"But of course you are"
"No, I’ers moved – "this is the proof, is it not? Jews are fixed this way and Germans are not A rabbi does it, no? I alondered what he did with it afterward"
"In America," I said, "that particular – uh – operation is performed on almost everyone In the hospital By a doctor"
"You are joking withthe truth?"
"Yes"
"And this is done to everyone in America?"
"Almost everyone, nowadays"
"By a doctor?"
"Yes"
"Do they have to use a Jewish doctor?"
"Any doctor can do it Greta-"
"And you’re really not Jewish?"
"Really Greta-"
"Oh"
"Is souess not But I was certain that you were a Jew I thought so fro, and then when you told ht it was like Ivan and that you were a Russian Jew Why are you laughing?"
"I’m sorry"