As she gazed at him (from eyes which in that moment were the most important things in his life) he was possessed by that particular spirit which overtakes men when their manhood is put to the test. Capable of anything and no clue where to begin. But there she was, resting on her side facing him. She smiled and said, “Sing, Salaam.”

For a moment he froze, then swallowed and started to sing. He botched the first line and panic seized him, but his voice quickly leveled out. Not loud, not soft, but pitched somewhere in between, he sang as she gazed at him and smiled. Then she turned onto her other side and he was singing to her back. The neat buttocks filling the little shorts. For a brief moment he fell silent, at a loss, but she spoke again, “Go on, Salaam,” so on he went, watching as she tugged the sheet up to her waist, the backside vanishing beneath it, but still present, like a promise. He sang, his heart pouring like smoke from his mouth, until he had to break off to take a drink from the glass of water next to him. As he opened his mouth to sing again, he caught the sound of her breathing, calm and even.

Softly, he called her name, then a little louder, but she had drifted away. He got to his feet at the very moment the maid reappeared and beckoned to him. Time to leave.

He followed her back down the same corridors, and this time it seemed that he could hear sounds and voices floating from the doorways as they passed. The maid brought him to the front door, opened it, and asked him to wait for a moment. She produced an envelope from her pocket and held it out. He took it instinctively, without a second thought, and then it struck him. He gaped at her, but she met his surprise with a professional smile and motioned to the door.

Only when he was back home did he pluck up the courage to open it. He closed his front door, peeled back the flap, and gasped audibly at the quantity and denomination of the bills that lay within.

It wasn’t in him to take offense. When the next invitation came, he went. She told him, “The first time I heard your voice it threw me into an extraordinary state of calm, as though nothing in the world mattered. You’re the one, Salaam, I told myself. You’re the cure to my insomnia.

“Anyway, how much do you make at the moment?”