Lost for Words

Thermophile

"Hot enough for ya?"

David roused himself from his torpor long enough to look at the man sitting beside him. The steam filling the sauna made it difficult it to see. "Well," David said. "I could take a little more."

The man wiped his hand across the thick mat of black hair that covered his barrel chest. "Really? Are you kidding?"

"Barely broken a sweat," David said with a hint of pride. "How about you?"

"Jeez." The man shook his head in disbelief. "How can you take it?"

David laughed. "Guess I just love the heat." He reached out towards the dial set in the wall next to him. "How about it?"

The hairy man blinked the sweat from his eyes. "I'm not sure," he began, but David interrupted him.

"Sure you can. A little bit of steam never hurt anyone." David gave a savage twist to the thermostat. Almost immediately steam hissed from vents in the wooden floor, filling the room with superheated vapour. "There you go."

The temperature climbed. David leaned back and spread his arms wide, as if embracing the heat. The other man in the room groaned and hunched forward. David watched him out of the corner of his; watched his skin flush from red to purple and the seat pool in the folds of his skin. The two men sat in torrid silence. "A bit more?"

"Hell, no!" The barrel-chested man stood up and gathered his towel around his waist. "If it gets any hotter, I'll have a heart attack. You can have this all to yourself." He shuffled out of the steam room.

David waved after him and callout teasingly, "Close the door behind you! You're letting in a draught!"

Ten minutes later, the man returned. He was accompanied by a uniformed attendant. "I mean," the man said to the attendant, "it's not manners to hog the facilities like that."

"No, sir," the attendant replied.

"I pay my membership dues - so I have just as much right to use the sauna as he does," the barrel-chested man continued.

"Yes, sir."

"And it can't be healthy, turning the temperature up that high."

"No, sir." The attendant took a deep breath, summoned all of his officially-granted authority, and opened the door to the steam room. A wave of intense, wet heat rolled out. "Sir?" the attendant called.

There was no reply.

"Sir?" the attendant repeated. He took a couple of steps into the room, then stopped. There was something sticky under his feet - something that slopped against the top of his gym shoes.

"Hey!" David's voice bubbled up from the floor. "Look where you're going, can't you? Get your feet out of me!"