looking up , the sky as vertiginous as the lake , feeling that he might fall up as easily as down and drown in the water-clogged air ... drowning in his sweat ... a young woman licked the sweat from his cheek , tickling , her body heavy , hot , and cloying , so that he turned and twisted , but could not escape her oppressive attentions ... ... sweat collecting behind his ears , thick and greasy in his hair ... growing like fat slow pearls in the stubble of his vulgar beard ... chilling on his skin , his clothes a dripping shroud ... the woman was still there , dead now , dead weight on his chest , pinning him to the icy ground ... fog and the creeping cold ... white fingers prying into his eyes , his ears .