Softer Things

Bath Salts by J.D. Coltrane

When she and I bought the old farmhouse with intentions of fixing it up, all of our friends who saw it assumed we would replace the old, footed bathtub. Not so, she told them quickly, haven’t you seen how deep and wide it is?

I thought of her saying that, how often she had pointed it out with a smile, watching her now as she lie in the tub covered in steaming hot water.

The scented candles around the room flickered yielding a dim yellow light. I picked up the jar of mineral bath salts and began to read the label. "Epsom and Dead Sea Salts," I read, "softens water and soothe skin." Dead Sea, I pondered, as in the Dead Sea? "Eucalyptus and spearmint essential oils provide stress-relieving, long-lasting fragrance." All of it smelled good to me, the candles, the water, her perfume lingering by the vanity.

I learned long ago that I don’t have to understand everything. I realized then that bath salts might be beyond me, so I sat the questions in my mind aside.

The music playing in the bedroom drifted around us, her selection playing still, a movement of Chopin’s I couldn’t quite place. I notice her wine glass almost empty, so I found the bottle and filled her glass from where I sat on the floor beside the tub. The flannel robe she’d given me for Christmas blocked the chill although the heat from the tub had warmed the room over time.

She is a beautiful woman and I fully admit to loving any chance to see her naked. The shine of the water in the candle light only served to enhance the look of her body, accentuating her shoulders, breasts, stomach, hips, legs, everything. I reached for the washcloth I had put in a bowl of ice water and moved it to her face. She loved the contrast, the heat of the water on her body, the cold feel of the cloth on her cheeks and forehead.

"It’s from Chopin’s Nocturne, the second movement, I think," she said with her eyes still closed. She knows me too well, I thought, of course, I recognized the music immediately.

"Doesn’t it strike you odd?" she went on, "that there are underwater flashlights and cameras, but no one has ever made an underwater vibrator?" I noticed her eyes were still closed as we both chuckled, thinking of the possibilities.