she went quickly down the steps and ben saw everything with his lover 's eye : the bright tartan of her skirt , the bounce of her red hair against the back of her sweater , her milky complexion , a small healing cut across the back of one calf , and ( for some reason this last caused another wave of feeling to sweep him so powerfully he had to grope for the railing again ; the feeling was huge , inarticulate , mercifully brief ; perhaps a sexual pre-signal , meaningless to his body , where the endocrine glands still slept almost without dreaming , yet as bright as summer heat-lightning ) a bright golden ankle-bracelet she wore just above her right loafer , winking back the sun in brilliant little flashes .