CHAPTER 2

‘Hey little lady, I’ve got a proposition for you’ a redheaded outrageous looking lady spoke up to the little lost girl. Her dressing splashed with almost all the colours of the rainbow, especially the brighter ones and the thick gold jewelry she had about her psychedelic make-up told her straightaway she was a whore.
She remained silent not knowing exactly what to expect from a woman her status.

‘Come on sweetie, you know you want to. Who doesn’t want to earn $600 a day…on a normal day’ she pushed on as she took out a stack of cash from her brassiere under her red tank top and fanned it across her face. The breeze that ensued traveled up against Selina’s pretty but smudged face and unclean thoughts of her potential mingled in the mind.

She so wanted to escape this destitution that left her with no alternative than to beg. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to stay in that orphanage they took her after her mothers funeral or maybe she did but whatever it was, after she ran away from there into unfamiliar territories of this neighbourhood she was like a dog without its leash, lost. She never did go far, always clinging on, afraid and alone to this 1 welcoming spot and now she had an option but was it an easy decision? Was there any other way to go?

Silently she gave a minute accepting nod and followed the lady. She held her hand tightly as if she might flee but she didn’t and in fact Selina felt comforted. It was how her own mother used to hold her hand when she was still in the world. This whore took on the much-needed motherly role that had been lacking, the only thing she ever really needed. She vowed to obey everything her newly adopted mother asked. The lady sensed this affection and she played her cards.
‘You can call me mom’ she said and Selina leaned against her arm closer and smiled at her shared empathy towards their relationship.

‘Zac, you’re off beat. AGAIN’ Ike yelled from under the prerecorded background music as he turned it down.
‘Oh sorry, I was just thinking about Fanny’ Zac mumbled looking forlorn, a look of nostalgia on his face.
‘Who’s Fanny?’ Ike asked curiously. He honestly never heard of her and from the look Zac had on, he could swear it was either a girl he had fancied whom he couldn’t have or a past lover he regretted losing.
‘An ex. Well we just broke up yesterday’ Zac exclaimed as he gave a loud whack on his drums, scaring Taylor out of his daydreaming at the keyboards.
‘Oh Fanny’ Zac acted melodramatic as he uttered the name of his lost sweetheart.
‘Don’t worry, you’ll get back together. Just like Grace and I did’ Ike comforted as he turned away signaling his part of the conversation was over and went back to his guitar fiddling.
Taylor over heard the conversation. He felt like such a loser. His brothers had dozens of girlfriends before but he couldn’t seem to find a single one right for him, the girl who holds the key to his half complete heart. He looked at his brothers and tried to analyse them, wondering why it was so easy for them to ease their loneliness and not him. No girl had made his heart beat that fast yet. He thought the worst. Could he be gay?

‘This is the group. This is Selina, ladies’ Madame Priscilla informed the group of lazing ladies. They were all over the place and so were their limbs as they sat without modesty or knowing the concept of appropriateness. Tabooed areas were openly exposed as they waved their fans in their faces and rubbed their sweaty necks and arms. The place was a boiling room, the only refuge to frying up being the slow moving ceiling fans that provided little ease.

‘I’m going to show Selina around’ the head mistress said and shoved her along to the back room
‘We have escort services too, and I think you can start with that. Not all men ask for the little extra at the end…if you catch my drift’ Madame Priscilla winked and sat herself down as soon as she went into this bizarre looking lounge room with red sofas and purple paint on the walls. It was extremely small and box-like reminding Selina of the days she had to seek shelter under the cardboard boxes when it rained. There was only room for a sofa and a glass table accompanying a shiny tin ashtray.

‘This is our lounge room, come sit’
Selina sat down obediently.
‘I’ll put your name down for escort only…..for the time being’ she said and stroked Selina’s long unkempt hair which reached down to her butt.
‘Ugh, we’re got to get you cleaned up first. Let mommy bathe you OK?
Selina nodded, her silence never ceasing.