“You can come home with me,” he offered. “We don’t have much room, but I know my uncle wouldn’t mind.”
“Thanks. I should clean up first, though. I stink. That’s the downside of sweating in free fall, the sweat just covers you.” Then she looked down at her bloodstained hand as if noticing it for the first time.
“Like on a humid day,” Omesh said.
“Huh?”
“When it gets real humid, the air is already so full of moisture that your sweat can’t evaporate. So it just stays there on your skin. Makes you feel like one of those rainforest frogs people like to lick.”
“I guess,” Rabia said, with an air of “don’t contradict the crazy person.” She had put her hand back out of sight.
“We have water in our kitchen. You can clean up there while I do the dishes.”
The sloping lane that ran up to the cur
