"You can look, gentlemen, but you definitely can't touch," Soraya Bintang said to herself, as she checked her reflection in the mirror, in a quiet corner of the boudoir. All around her, the other women of all hues who worked at the club bantered, as they got ready, and she dutifully ignored them. Tonight's show had to go perfectly, otherwise Soraya was going to have to find a different line of work. The competition was definitely fierce out here...
A raven-haired, bronze-skinned and curvy, pretty-faced young Southeast Asian woman stared back at her through somber eyes. Soraya closed her eyes hard, and braced herself for yet another night at Club Du Diable, one of the City of Montreal's most daring night clubs. To survive in this kind of cutthroat work environment, one had to do better than good. One had to be great...
"Miss Indonesia, wake the fuck up, go sleep somewhere else, this isn't your house," came an angry feminine voice, and Soraya's eyes snapped open. She looked at the source of the angry voice, none other than her fellow performer, and occasional nemesis, Patricia Jackson, A.K.A. Miss Noir. The six-foot-tall, curvy Jamaican gal with the stylish Afro and ginormous ass had a lot of animosity towards Soraya and seldom missed an opportunity to express it.
"Looks like someone is meditating," came another voice, and a tall, statuesque and scantily-clad, decidedly beautiful Middle-Eastern woman with raven hair, dark bronze skin and lively brown eyes stepped out of the shadows and stood beside Patricia. The Jamaican gal exchanged dap with the new arrival, and Soraya rolled her eyes, annoyed by this catty behavior.
There was a reason behind Patricia Jackson's hostility. Until Soraya Bintang came along, Patricia Jackson and her Arabian gal pal Nadia Aoun were the only non-White performers at the prestigious and high-priced Club Du Diable, and they were supremely popular with the lily-White clientele, many of whom had a craving for exotic women. Soraya came along, lovely, and decidedly exotic as a newcomer from Indonesia, and stole Patricia and Nadia's fan base...
"Shut up Patricia, and that goes for you too, Nadia," Soraya replied, and with that, she rose from her chair, ignoring the insults which the two jealous bitches hurled her way and headed for the stage. As Soraya made her way to the stage, her demeanor changed. It was quite subtle at first. From the set of her jaw, to her sexy strut, the deliberate way in which she thrust out her chest and moved her hips, it was as though she were a different woman.
"Ladies and gentlemen, mes dames et messieurs, please give it up for Asia Duvet," said the announcer, a chubby, bald-headed and tuxedoed Frenchman named Rupert Couture. He smiled at Soraya while she walked past him, and Asia Duvet glared at him, supremely confident, cool and sexy. Asia Duvet stood on center stage, with the limelight on her, and she knew that every man in the room, and a few of the women, couldn't take their eyes off of her.
"This is for those who've come for me," Asia Duvet said, licking her lips, and just like that, the bikini-clad young woman began her performance. Part stripper show, part burlesque, Asia Duvet knew how to work her body, using a combination of sexiness, attitude and sass to really rev up her audience. Tonight, these men and women, mostly White, the cream of the crop of Montreal society, didn't even know what they were in for.
Tumbling about, Asia Duvet continued to rock their world, until applause erupted way before the end of her performance. While a lot of the other young women performing at Club Du Diable liked to shake their asses like music video vixens on MTV, Asia Duvet went the extra mile to excite the men and women who came to the club. She'd performed with snakes, flaming arrows, and more. The combination of sex and danger was one that most could not resist.
"Bravo, encore!" The applause, screams and shouts were deafening, and Asia Duvet took a bow, and then walked off the stage with a grace and confidence that a queen couldn't have matched. Returning to the boudoir, Asia Duvet vanished, replaced by Soraya Bintang. Taking a cleansing shower, she got ready to leave. Changing into a long-sleeved red and Black T-shirt featuring deceased icon Biggie Smalls, blue jeans and boots, her long dark hair tucked under a Montreal Expos baseball cap, the young woman collected her pay and quietly slipped out of the club.
"Taxi, venez ici," Soraya hollered as she stood on the curb, and sure enough, a Taxi Champlain cab which happened to be driving by swiftly pulled up. The cab driver, a middle-aged Arab man with a thick mustache, which made him vaguely resemble fallen despot Saddam Hussein, smiled pleasantly at her. Get your head out of the paranoid zone, Soraya chastised herself, before returning the cab driver's smile.
"Bonsoir, mademoiselle, where to?" the cabbie asked, and Soraya told him the address, and they swiftly pulled away. Located not far from downtown Montreal, Club Du Diable enjoyed an elite clientele, one which was willing to pay big bucks to be entertained. Some of the female performers earned extra money by meeting with fans on the side, but Soraya had zero interest in doing that. It simply wasn't for her...
Montreal-Nord wasn't too far from downtown Montreal, but it was a world away. Populated mostly by Haitian immigrants, along with a sprinkling of Arabs and Asians, Montreal-Nord was known as the ghetto of Quebec. The kind of place where decent Montreal folks did not care to venture. There was a lot of diversity and culture there, sure, but there was also a lot of crime. Gangs, prostitution, drug trafficking, and more. It was also the place that Soraya Bintang called home.
"Merci beaucoup, Salaam, brother," Soraya said to the cab driver, handing him twenty five dollars before exiting the cab. Standing on Saint-Colette Boulevard, the young woman began the leisurely walk which would take her to her place. Soraya never cared to let cab drivers or any random male acquaintances know where she lived, not since she read about a serial killer who targeted young women while moonlighting as a cab driver. Living in the West has made me too paranoid, Soraya thought, shaking her head at her own fears and neuroses.
Soraya Bintang found herself thinking about her old life back in the City of Palembang, on the Sumatra Island of Indonesia. She remembered how simple life was back then. Well, as simple as life could be anywhere in this hardened world. Soraya came into the world thanks to fairly unique parenting. Indeed, that's part of the reason why Soraya came to Canada in the first place.
Soraya's father, Yusuf Bintang was an Indonesian Muslim craftsman who was doing some work for the Canadian Embassy in the City of Jakarta at the time he met her mother, Elisabeth Buisson, a French Canadian woman who was the niece of John Baker Buisson, then the Canadian Ambassador to Indonesia. The two of them fell in love, and against all odds, they got married and had Soraya and her brother Nasser. Twenty one years later, Soraya decided to leave Indonesia and explore her mother's homeland of Quebec, in distant Canada...
A dual citizen of Canada and Indonesia by birth, thanks to her mother Elisabeth Buisson's diplomatic ties, Soraya Bintang nevertheless felt like a fish out of water in the City of Montreal, Quebec. To the Quebecers, Soraya seemed like an exotic gal, and many of them asked her if she was anything from a Chinese newcomer to a Filipina worker or a Metis woman from the Prairies. Soraya always told them that she was biracial, half Indonesian and half White, and proudly Muslim.