It has been over a year since I left the bordello. Quite frankly, I had grown tired of the sex! Imagine that! At the tender age of twenty-seven, I had already felt worn out. I had advanced fast in the ranks, Co running the bordello by the time that I was 25, only four years after I had taken the job as a housekeeper there to finish paying for my college. I remember it like it was yesterday instead of 8 years ago....
"Can I help you young lady?"
I looked at the beautiful brown skinned woman who stood at the door of this HUGE home. "I came about the ad in the paper," I said nervously. The woman eyed me for a minute before she stepped aside to let me in. I followed her into a beautiful room that seemed to resemble an old saloon. "This is beautiful," I said admiring, the plush and velvety red couches, curtains and carpets.
"Thank you," she said in a heavy, yet beautiful accent that I had never heard before. "I take great pride in my home."
She offered me a seat on one of the love seat and sat in a high back chair across from me. "So you want to be the young lady that keeps my house clean, huh?"
"Yes ma'am," I responded solemnly. She remained quiet for a minute. Nervously, I scratched the top of my hand.
"What's your name, young lady?"
"Fairen," I replied.
"Okay, Fairen......Which is more important to you," she began, crossing her right leg over her left. "Sanitation or appearance?"
"Well, " I began clearing my throat. "I would say sanitation, but in a home as lovely as this one, I would say that they are equally important. They should go hand in hand." She sat there across from me, not saying a word. "Look ma'am-"
"Madam Nadia," she quickly corrected me.
"Madam Nadia," I continued, "I really, really need this job. Your ad said three hundred dollars a week. I desperately need it to pay off my schooling. I have a car note to pay and rent. I can't take of it all doing part time work at the Weenie Rack. If you hire me, I WILL take care of your house. You'll be able to eat off the floor. You won't regret hiring me." She eyed me for a while longer before a smile crossed her face.
"Fine," she said. "You start on Monday.....But, the position is a live-in position. If I need something taken care of late at night, I want you here to do it." Then she changed the subject. "you do understand that this an establishment that caters to the needs of men in our community and travelers also. This a bordello and openly so. You do understand that in the evenings, you will be surrounded by many different men, though you aren't to fraternize with them?"
I nodded, mainly relieved that I had gotten the job PLUS a rent free place to stay. I was only too glad to get out of the roach infested hell hole where I was paying $125 every two weeks. By that Monday, I was moved into my new bedroom, right next to the kitchen which was fine with me. Quick access to the snacks when I could sneak past the "guests" as she called them.
For nearly two months I cleaned and went to school, never taking the time out to meet the "girls". I never spoke to them, I did my work and left or went to my room where I felt totally comfortable by myself. I was always pretty much a loner. Growing up in the system, moving from one foster home to another, I was my own best friend, needing no one. One day, the Madam asked me why I chose to be by myself all of the time. I simply told her that I like it better that way.
"It's not good for you child."
"Maybe it isn't....maybe it is", was my remark.
"Are you sassing me child?" she asked in that accent, putting her hands on hips.
"No ma’am," I said. "I'm just letting you know how I feel. Being by myself keeps me out of trouble. I have my future to think of."
She looked at me with those sparkling eyes of hers and smiled at me. "I have big things in store you", she said.
I laughed a little at the comment. what could she possibly have in store for me, I thought to myself. I'm just the housekeeper.
One night, it was really late and I was cramming for an exam. I heard someone in the living room. Madam Nadia had already locked the door and all of the lights were out. I eased my door open and peered around the corner. Sitting at the bar with a glass of water was Angela, a pretty young girl who had been at the house just a little while longer than I. She was whimpering to herself. When she noticed me, she turned away. I eased my way up to her. Normally I would’ve just shut my door and pretended like I hadn't seen a thing, but for some strange reason, I felt like she needed someone to talk to and what the heck! It would be my good deed for the day. "Are you okay?" I asked her.
"Why do you care," she said accusingly. "I'm just a whore to you."
"Whoa lil' mama," I said, looking at her. "You don't know me well enough to assume shit about me. I was just trying to make sure that you were okay. I was doing just fine until I heard you doin' all this whinin' out here. So do you want to talk or what because I can continue my studying and easily say fuck you. The choice is yours." When she didn't say anything, I said, "Fuck you then." I had almost made it to my room when she asked for me to wait. She rose from the barstool, glass in hand, and followed me into my room. We both sat quietly for a few minutes before she finally spoke. She had confessed to me that she had been force upon by one of the customer.
"That probably sounds crazy to you," Angela said. "Sleeping with people is what I do. But this guy...."She continue to tell me about how harsh and rough he was and how she begged him to stop when she couldn't take anymore of the pain. He told me about how he pinned her down and covered her mouth so that she couldn't scream. She started crying all over again.
"Don't cry," I said gently stroking her hair as she laid her head on my shoulder. "It'll be okay."
She shook her head at me and said, "He'll be back next week for me. He said that he want's only me from now on." She wrapped her arms around me and sobbed some more.
"Why don't you tell the Madam?" I asked. "I'm sure that she would do something about it."
"I don't want her to think that I can't take care of myself," she answered. For a minute, I just looked at her. For some reason, I felt like I had to help her.
"I'll tell you what," I said. "I'll talk to her for you."
"Why?" she asked, wiping tears from her grey eyes. "I can handle it. After all, it's an easy five hundred dollars. All I have to do is lay there and take it."
For a brief moment I didn't hear past the five hundred dollars. I focused on what she was saying again. We talked for a while and she began to feel a little better. The longer that I talked to her the more I began to like her. For the next week she would come into my room after her "guest" left and we would lay on the bed and chatter like little girls. She was my first real friend and I waited every night for her to creep into my room so that we could talk.
She would tell me about her sexual adventures and a lot of times we would laugh about them. I found out that she always made at least three hundred dollars and the Madam always got twenty percent from all of her girls. She had thirteen girls who were busy almost every night. I was amazed at how much the girls brought in every night. With that kind of money, I could pay off my car and school loan in no time flat. But there was no way that I had the nerve to have sex with a different guy every night! But, the money did put a little something on my mind....
That Sunday night, Madam Nadia had a full house (as usual). Before that "guests" had started arriving, Angela had come into my room. Hey eyes were wide and it was apparent that she was nervous. She had slept with several other men with ease, but now she couldn't stop fidgeting. "Come here and sit down." She sat on the edge of the bed. I got on my knees and began to massage her shoulders and neck. I could feel her muscles start to loosen up as I spoke to her. "It'll be okay, Angie."
"How do you know?" she asked as her head rolled forward.
"Because if he hurts you tonight, I'll kick his ass myself." For a second, she seemed to go still. "You're my friend now," I explained. "I don't have any other friends, so it's only right that I take care of the one that I got."
She then stood and smiled at me. "Thank you," she said hugging me. She gave me a quick but soft kiss on my cheek before leaving my room. I sat there on the bed for a while, wondering what had possessed her to kiss me on the cheek. It felt warm minutes later and I kind of smiled to myself .
At around three thirty that night, I laid on my bed reading when Angela stumbled into my bedroom, trembling horribly. As she came close to me, I saw the blood trickle down her leg. She looked at me with fear in her eyes. I felt the heat rise in me from the anger. As she held herself up on my bed, I stormed out of my room just as he was coming down the stairs. "You just stop where the fuck you are!" I yelled at him.
"Aren't you the laundry girl?" he asked with a sarcastic laugh.
"Fuck you, bitch" was my response as I met him at the bottom step of the staircase. "I know what you did to my friend."
"I tore the pussy up,”he said smiling a little bit. “So what?"
"You like to tear shit up right," I said, looking up at him. "Now I gotta tear YOU up."
"Move out of my way little girl," he said pushing me to the side to walk past me. I then grabbed him by his shoulder and turned him around. I sent a punch his way that would've made Mike Tyson proud. He stumble backwards a little in surprise.
"MADAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Angela from the doorway of my bedroom. I barely heard her as I watched this tall man approach me with venom in his eyes. The only thing that saved me at that point was the fact that he tripped over his own foot. As he fell to floor, I rush over to him, taking the opportunity to kick him as many times as I could. I stomped him with everything in me. When I was convinced that he wouldn't be to quick to get up, I went over to Angela to make sure that she was okay. As I tried to talk to her, her eyes grew big as waffles. Then I heard the sound of a rifle being cocked.
"If you lay a hand on one of my girls, so help me God..."
I turned around to find Madam Nadia standing at the top of the stairs with her gun pointed at the man who was now standing near me with a vase in his hand.
"I will put a hole in you so big that you'll need a glass and curtains to cover it up. Get the hell outta my house!"
The man scrambled out of the front door as Madam Nadia made her way down the stairs and over to us. She looked at me and said, "Let's get her to the hospital.."
Three hours later, a doctor spoke to us. Several of the girls had come with Madam Nadia and I. We all stood around the doctor.
"She's going to have to stay here overnight. She won't be able to do her....normal activities for at least a month. She has torn tissues, her cervix was badly bruised....."
After the long explanation, he let us all pay her a quick visit in spite of the late hour. Once the other girls had left the room, Angela reached her hand out to me. "Stay with me please." I couldn't deny her that. I pulled a chair up close to her bed and held her hand. We both fell asleep.
The next day, she was able to return to return to the Madam's home. She took a shower and then came down to my room. We both lay in the bed like sisters almost. "I don't know what I am going to do," she said to me.
"About what?" I asked, looking over at her.
