Britt arrived home from her initial discussion with the Vicar at the church Rita attended and found Rita asleep on her bed with Marty, also taking a nap, wrapped in a blanket beside her.
She went out quietly and found Rita's smart phone in the kitchen and returned to position herself with the camera to carefully framed the sleepers and took three exposures.
Britt smiled at the composition and quality of those images when she reviewed them on play-back. Pleased with that success she decided as soon as she returned to work she'd invest in a similar phone to keep in contact with Rita in the event of concerns or emergencies when alone and looking after Marty and to record his development photographically.
She went to her bedroom and began writing out a list of people she'd like to invite to the christening.
Later Britt heard Marty cooing and Rita talking to him softly and she went to them.
"Well here's your bonny baby looking a picture and obviously doing coping well in being almost completely weaned. How was the walk?"
"Fine."
"And?"
"I was on a mission... um, to arrange a surprise for you."
"Oh really; what is it."
"A surprise is a surprise and you'll find out soon."
"That's a disappointment, not a surprise."
"Please allow me to manipulate the situation so that you really do regard it as a complete surprise. Now let's put your mind into another direction. I want you to start telling me of your former professional occupation in detail, in fact in great detail."
"But why?"
"Later I'll reveal why when this little man has been put down for bye-byes. It's a discussion not for his young ears."
"Omigod you..."
"Hush about this till later sweetie."
"Britt, I'll just say this; I absolutely forbid you going in that direction."
"Please don't waste your breathe; you'll already know this is one you won't win. I've never been more determined about anything ever since I left my hometown into whatever lay before me."
"God Britt, I need a stiff brandy."
"Rubbish, think back and remember how you jumped the precipice into your chosen vocation and you'll conclude now that really it was no big deal, that it was just a readjustment of your mind into a new life, albeit a profound change for you."
"You are a smart-arse little devil; you have a mind of steel when you need it and somehow you can manage to brow-beat me of all hardened people."
"Well could that be you've become a softie and still don't know it yet"
"Christ, don't be so relentless. I submit and acknowledge you are the one with the balls."
"Naughty, naughty using that phrase Rita; our little man is listening. Undress him and I'll prepare the basin bath and you can watch, sipping your brandy."
For the next three evenings, Rita talked about 'being driven' into prostitution by unfortunate circumstances and the trials and tribulations she when through in the hope of aiming to drag herself 'from the pits of despair' and the disappointments at failure to find the right opportunities to exit from prostitution and into a new life that had sufficient promise of offering her a secure future with the opportunity to build wealth to fund a comfortable and independent retirement.
"Darling, this is interesting but stop overly emphasising the downsides. Nothing adverse you are saying will change my mind about becoming... um... associated with prostitution."
Rita resumed a little sullenly but soon began to relax and the details flowed.
Britt would stop the narration to probe for greater information, asking such things as why was it necessary to engage a procurer, couldn't Rita have worked harder to build greater wealth in order to leave the so-called profession sooner and what was so difficult about stepping up to exclusively service better paying and more respectable clients and what did it matter what other people thought of any prostitute's chosen career.
Britt also confronted the hapless narrator with questions she choked on when answering, such as how many times had she discovered her clients had a penis that was extremely uncomfortable or actually too big for her, what her attitude been to engaging in groupies or even taking on half of a football team unassisted and what were her attitudes to swallowing or taking it up the butt.
Whenever Rita became distressed, Britt would call for a tea break but would then expect Rita to resume where she'd left off, emphasising there was a need to know.
Rita insisted she always had been a middle-of-the-road prostitute and never engaged in foul and dangerous sexual activity and after a shaky introduction worked only in respectable establishments and eventually cut her ties to become self-employed.
"Ah, we have reached the point that interests me most," Britt had said gleefully.
Finally, when Rita felt she'd divulged everything she was asked, "How do you think I should gain experience and then operate on a great business model."
"There is no recommended way. In this country, the law on prostitution is a mess. A woman or man in most circumstances can operate legally as a prostitute but cannot legally employ or simply manage prostitutes and even a woman employed to change the linen on beds used by prostitutes can by prosecuted for being associated for reward in an illegal activity."
"Wow, it is a mess. It appears that one can only offer their pussy or dick for financial reward when under complete self-management to operate lawfully."
"My understanding is that's by and large the situation."
"By and large?"
"There are a few loopholes because of cloudy areas within the coverage of the law. Britt please understand you would be better off driving a train."
"But that requires education, training and progress through experience that I simply don't have and that's my problem. I've had a reason level of education at a lower level and a miniscule of business experience from working in a coffee shop. I'm in a bog and the only way out I can see for making good money is through prostitution. But to please you I intend to consult to find possible loopholes that I can exploit."
"I said there were few but realistically there are none otherwise we'd know about them."
"That's true but have the searchers resorted to alternative thinking to discover loopholes that until now have remained undiscovered?"
"That sounds like attempting to climb a slippery tree, Miss Egghead."
"Well for the moment it's all I have. Guys reckon I'm a good fuck and at present that's all I have."
Rita sighed and with authority said, "Guys will tell a girl anything they think she'd like to hear with the aim of getting what they want."
"Thanks for that disclosure Rita, but I've long been aware of that."
Later, sitting in front of TV but scarcely aware of the action on screen and what was being said, Britt felt disheartened. She hadn't expected life as a prostitute to be all beer and skittles, whatever that meant. She'd become aware that Rita the narrator had not been deliriously happy throughout her working life earning money on her back... um... or whatever. Rita had been frank relating the downsides and gave examples of some awful experiences but Britt believed she'd not been entirely upfront and avoided relating her worst experiences of being caught up in unfortunate happenings that had occurred away from the action in bed.
Even so, she'd warned, quite graphically, about drunken or drugged clients or mentally afflicted clients who for no apparent reason suddenly began to behave in a threatening manner and there were some who screamed violently and their eyes bulged. And there were the disease scares, revolting humiliation and...
Britt sighed knowing the decision was hers alone.
She decided to look for loopholes but had no idea where to start and who to consult. She settled down for a nap, and drifting off thought she should back off for a few days to try to think everything through with clarity, if that were possible. Her last thought was she should call on Leonie late next afternoon.
* * *
