Cat House

Lisa and I came to the Ranch two weeks after our high school graduation. We were both eighteen and wild. Best friends since grade school we had talked about doing this since our junior year.

I was impressed with the ranch when I first saw it because there was a stretch limousine parked to the side and a private airstrip out in the pasture. Lisa did not like it. She thought it looked old and run down from the outside. In truth she was right, the Ranch was run down, and all I was trying to do is buoy my sprits by focusing on the positive.

Rosy met us at the door of the Ranch. She was going to be our boss. Not friendly in the least, both Lisa and I were able to agree on Rosy's bad disposition from the start. Adding to her intimidating appearance were Rosy's ugly yellow teeth, caused from her habit of chain smoking two packs a day.

Rosy interviewed us briefly, but did not seem too concerned with the direction of the conversation. A man entering the room with out knocking and whispering something in her ear constantly interrupted her. Rosy was his boss too, so she just gave him her bad attitude and kept on talking to us.

"Why do you girls want to work here?"

"The money," both Lisa and I answered together.

"There's other ways of making money besides working here."

"Not as much money," I said.

"How much do you think you'll make here?"

"Well… I don't know," I stammered taken off guard by this line of questioning. I wanted to say more but the man came into the room again and crouched over next to Rosy whispering some more angry words in her ear. Rosy stuck her cigarette between her lips and wrote something down on a piece of paper. The man took the paper from her and exited the room once more.

"Don't get me wrong," Rosy said blowing out a stream of blue smoke from her nostrils. "You girls are nice. We could use you. But what we can't use, and I personally won't tolerate, is complaining after you come to work here. If you don't understand what this place is like when you walk in that door then you should get your butts straight the fuck back out the door."

"We know what this place is," Lisa said in an even voice.

"I take it you can both prove you're over eighteen?"

"We have drivers licenses."

"We're a little tight for space right now. You all came at a good time because in the winter we don't got no space – we have to turn girls away then. We've got a couple of rooms left, but you won't be able to room together."

"Can we just like… give it a try?" Lisa asked.

"No," Rosy said with attitude. "You can't give us a try, honey. But we will give you a try. We'll know if you can take it or not after about a week. Then in another couple of weeks we'll know if you're going to be troublemakers or not. I won't let troublemakers work for me. They get shown the door mighty fast. Oh you better believe it."

"We can get along with everyone," I said.

"We'll find out," Rosy said. "Come back tomorrow around one in the afternoon. Everyone should be up by then and we'll get you settled into your rooms. I'm gonna start you all off on the night shift. You both have got the right bodies for the night shift."

Lisa and I went back to the roadside park we were camped out in and spent our last night before becoming Cat House Girls. We talked everything over. Lisa was hesitant, but I just wanted to get started and make some money. I wished we could have started that night instead of spending it in the park. I think the wait made us both nervous, but Lisa more than me.

The next morning we ate a fast food breakfast and drove around the county roads surrounding the Ranch until about twelve thirty. Finally neither of us could take the anticipation any longer and so I headed the old clunker we were driving in toward the Ranch.

When we pulled up in front the parking lot looked deserted. Not one car was in sight other than our own and I thought the place must have closed down over night. Lisa and I got out of the car carrying a bag each with a few clothes in them.

We set the bags down by the front door and walked around the outside of the Ranch, taking in the big patch of land surrounding it and the private airstrip. This was really eerie to be here, and to be starting to work here. Some tumble weed blew off the pasture land and past our feet just like I remember seeing it do in the corny old westerns I'd watch on television as a little girl.

I flipped my hair out of my face and looked down at the cheap dime store watch I wore on my left wrist. "Well time to go make some money," I told Lisa in a cheery voice.

"Promise me we'll leave if it doesn't work out?" Lisa asked me.

I took her hand and we shook hands as we always use to do when we were about twelve and playing in her back yard. Then we hugged each other.

The Ranch was a very security conscious place. The layout reminded me of a fort in the old west. We picked up our bags and made our way back to the front, but there was a tall fence electronically locked from the inside that all visitors had to be buzzed into in order to enter.

We buzzed on the little button and announced our presence over the intercom. Then an answering buzz sounded and we pushed open the front gate and walked into our new job and our new life.

Rosy wasn't there to greet us that first day, but some of the older girls were crowded around the big front room. Many of them were older than we were by twenty years or more. We quickly learned we were the youngest workers at the Ranch.

One of the other girls showed us back to the little office we had interviewed with Rosy in the day before, and we were left alone here for a few minutes. I could see Lisa shaking. I wanted to comfort her but thought I should not show that type of emotion now that I had walked inside the walls of the Ranch.

Soon a guy came back into the office with us. He was very friendly and shook both our hands and gave us a nice smile. "I'm Buddy," he introduced himself. "I own the Ranch. Rosy told me we had two new girls starting the night shift."

"I'm Lisa."

"And I'm Logan."

"Nice to meet you girls. Have you been given the grand tour yet?"

"Not yet."

"Well don't worry. I'll get one of the girls to show you around. Also we need to find out what rooms Rosy has assigned to you."

"She told us we wouldn't be able to get a room together."

"Yeah, sometimes she likes to break up the new girls who come in together like you all. We have enough little clicks around this place with out adding some more."

Buddy got a really large girl, well actually a really fat girl, to show us all around the many rooms of the Ranch. All laid out on a single story, the Ranch looked and felt like a cheap roadside motel. The front room was big and grand and fooled you into believing that the Ranch was a fancy place when you initially walked in the front door. There was also a really elegant bar, fully stocked with liquor at the end of the big front room. As we toured through it there were even a couple of old guys sitting and having a beer just like in any other bar.

We walked down the narrow hallways of the Ranch. Doors ran off to each side of the hall. Behind each door was one of the girl's rooms. The girls all shared rooms with a roommate. We learned there were about eighty girls living at the Ranch, though not all of them at the same time.

To one wing of the Ranch was the sauna room. Also down this wing were three big deluxe suites that any of the customers could rent for an exorbitant hourly fee. Then at the end of this wing was the little dinning area for the girls and behind that the girls kitchen.

Some of the girls were friendly and nice, and some of them didn't even seem to notice we were there, and a few were openly hostile for no apparent reason at all. Surprisingly not too many of the girls were really all that attractive as women. They seemed to wear lots of make-up, and few clothes. Many had boob jobs that severely overstated the size of their chests.

We met the cook who was an old woman from another country but she was so old it was hard to tell which country. We met the few men who worked at the Ranch. Three were bouncers who were huge men, and who made me feel safe because I knew they could have won a fight with anybody. Then we met the limo driver who was also a man. He was a big man too, but he was big in flab and not brawn. His stomach hung over his belt and almost touched to his knees.

Then there was a young "Gofer". This guy was a skinny kid who was about the same age as Lisa and me. I had known boys like him in high school. He was introverted and shy and this had made him a little angry and into not such a nice person. He had pimples all over his face and always seemed nervous. I noticed he really tried being friendly to me when we met. I guess he must have thought I was pretty. Some guys thought that about me.

We were assigned our rooms and introduced to our roommates. They seemed nice enough, but it was a little hard to tell. Anyway our roommates weren't really roommates. We had a small bedroom that was ours alone. The roommate part came in because we shared the same bathroom and shower, and I guess that sometimes the girls fought over this.

The room was a little disappointing to me. It was smaller even than my bedroom back home and I had thought nothing could be smaller than that closet sized room had been. There was just a single bed, and a table and one dresser for our clothes. The room did have a little safe on the floor for us to hide away our cash payments within.

We gave them our drivers' licenses to prove we were over eighteen, and then we signed income tax with holding forms because the government got a portion of the money we were to earn. After these preliminaries it was after five o'clock. Our first shift started at six and would last for twelve hours until six the next morning so I ate a small salad the cook made, and Lisa sipped on an iced tea, saying she wasn't feeling like eating yet.

Then we dressed for the shift ahead. I took off my clothes, took a quick shower and came out to the grand entrance room in front wearing tight fitting shorts and a halter-top. I didn't put on any underwear. Lisa was even bolder than I and chose to wear a skimpy bikini. I thought she had made a good choice because she really looked hot.

After we got to our station for the evening, seated in big leather chairs within the front entranceway, the waiting began. Some of the girls were talking, or playing cards, or listening to music. Most of the girls were over twenty-one and could go up to the bar and buy drinks. As a result most of the girls were getting pretty well blasted by the end of the first couple of hours of the twelve-hour shift.

Lisa smoked. I hadn't taken up smoking yet so I didn't even have this to do. But I thought I probably should take it up pretty soon. I went over to the bartender and asked about getting a drink. He was very strict and told me that no one under twenty-one was severed at his bar.

The night was starting off slow on customers. I was anxious to get my first customer and get it over with, and make my first real money. Two afternoon "parties" had been taking place when we got there, and after about half an hour the first of these girls led her man out to the front door to say good-bye to him. I inspected this girl closely. What had her and that man just done inside? How did the girl feel now that it was over? I could tell nothing by the expression on her face. She seemed totally neutral to me.

I counted the minutes from the start of our shift at six until the first "line-up" we appeared in. Fifty-eight minutes exactly passed by before the loud buzzer from the security fence outside sounded. The night supervisor, who was named Nancy, called out in a loud and business like voice "Company girls!"

We all got to our feet and stood in a line in front of the door. Thus the "line-up" got its name. There were twenty of us on duty that night. All of us were half-naked. I don't think I am biased when I say that Lisa and I were the two hottest girls in the line-up. We were both eighteen and had tight bodies. Lisa had a better body than I did, and she also had a really nice complexion. My complexion was a little pale.

I felt a shiver of anticipation run up through my body as two men walked in the front door, a third man following up behind them. The first two were what I assume to be Japanese businessmen. They were both about fifty, had on expensive clothes and watches. One man had white hair. The other man had only a fringe of white hair around the side and was going bald. Both spoke with heavy accents.

Starting with the first girl in line we all stepped forward and introduced ourselves with a friendly smile and polite nod of the head to our gentlemen callers. The men were leering at all of us with hungry eyes. The bald guy turned to his friend and said something in Japanese and they both laughed.

"Hi, I'm Logan," I greeted them. You have probably already figured out that Logan isn't my real name. But it is the name I worked under and for the purpose of this story that's the name I'll use. The same was true for the fictitious name of Lisa, as my friend who was standing two places down further in line from me stepped forward and gave her name.

I could see Lisa visibly cringe as the bald head came over and tapped her on the shoulder with a smile.

"Lisa, why don't you show the gentleman back to your room," Nancy, our night supervisor said in her best business voice.

The white haired man walked passed me and looked into my eyes. I tried smiling at him. He just looked at me with a cold stare like I was a new car he was contemplating on buying. When he passed me and went to the girl on my left I couldn't help but feel a wave of relief wash over me. No, I wouldn't make any money on this one, but at that moment money was the last thing on my mind.

I looked to the back of the room and was able to catch Lisa's eye before the bald head led her down the hall. I wish I had never seen her face then. I had never seen my friend give me that sort of a look before. My heart skipped a beat as the bald head led her away, his hand already resting familiarly on her bikini bottom.

I set back down in the big armchair I had taken for my own that night. I think I was in a state of near shock. What in the hell had we gotten ourselves into? More appropriately what had I gotten us into? I had been the one who kept pushing us to come here and kept the idea alive for the past two years. I had been the one that had seen the dream through into reality. Now was this a dream or a nightmare?

I sat and stared into space for a long while. Then I noticed the third man that had arrived with the two Japanese businessmen. He was not Japanese, but just a typical working class looking American. He had purchased a beer from the bar and was talking with a few of the girls as if he knew them, as if he had been here before.

He saw me watching him and walked over to me. "I don't believe I've seen you around here before," he said.

"This is my first night."

"Oh my goodness you must be a bundle of nerves!"

"Yeah. I guess I am a little."

"Some girls run away screaming after just one night in this place. Other girls make the best of it and go away after a few years and are millionaires."

"I want to be like one of those girls."

He laughed. "I'm Sam. I'm the cab driver of the two Jap's. I bring clients out here a lot. Sometimes Buddy and Rosy give me a little commission."

"Are those two Japanese men all right kind of guys?"

"I don't know. Never seen'em before tonight."

"One of them picked my friend in the line-up. It'll be her first time. I'm sort of worried for her."

He set down in the chair opposite mine. I watched him stare into me and through me. He was sizing me up. I realized I was for sale as I sat out there.

"I'd like to have a party with you, Logan. Can I ask what your rates are?"

I told him. They were high due to my age and tight body.

"Kind of steep," he said with a little brush of his hand across his brow. "I can't afford to go all the way with you Logan, all though god knows I wish I could. How about we just go back to your room and I'll try number four on the house menu?"

The house menu was a list of various sexual things the girls would do with the customers. Number four wasn't too bad, and he seemed nice enough. This might be a good break in customer for me.

I smiled at him, got up from my chair and held out my hands to help him up with me. I tried to put a lot of happy energy into my movements as I took him by the hand and led him back to the hallway leading to my room. I got Nancy's attention with my eyes before we went down the hallway, and she went over to the computer in the office and signed me up for my first customer.

I opened the door of that tiny room they had assigned me, using a key to bring the lock. Not use to the feel of the room or its layout yet I fumbled in the dark for the overhead light switch. When the lights were on I led Sam over to the bed and we both took a seat on top.

I smiled at Sam and he smiled at me. I guessed then that he must have had parties with lots of the girls out here when he'd bring his fares out in his cab. He paid me. This wasn't a lot of money, but it was only number four on the house menu.

"Wait here for me. I have to go give this money to the front desk. Then we've got the next half hour to relax and have fun," I said and got up and left him for about two minutes.

I handed Nancy the money at the front desk. She gave me a reassuring nod. "Sam's a real nice guy. He's a regular of ours. He isn't a big tipper but I've never heard any of the girls complain about him."

I walked back down the hall to my room. My heart started to beat fast. This was only a number four I kept telling myself. I knew what that was and how to do it. Yet I had never done it before. Never with any of the boys in high school or the two serious boyfriends I'd briefly had. Oh god, what have I gotten myself into I thought again for the thousandth time that night.

I opened the door to my room and walked back over to Sam, putting the friendly smile back on my face. Sam was in his forties. He was probably older than my dad was, and. this felt strange.

"Hey, can I get you something?"

"Another beer would sure be nice."

"Oh sorry. I can't bring you anything from the bar because I'm not twenty-one yet."

"Not a problem," Sam said patting the spot next to him on the bed. "Sit on down here and tell me about yourself, Logan. How old are you anyway, honey?"

"I turned eighteen in March."

"My son is twenty. It's a tough age to be. I'm glad I'm starting to turn gray and get a tummy on me," he had an honest laugh when he said this. Then he looked around my room. "You haven't put up any posters yet. You don't even have a stereo in here."

"I just moved in two hours ago."

Again he laughed. He was starting to put me at ease and I was really grateful for this. I really liked Sam. He was probably the first person at the Ranch I had liked.

"I don't want to mess up your new room, Logan," he said almost as if he was a little embarrassed. "Do you have any towels in your restroom?"

"I don't know," I said hopping up off the bed. "I'll go check." I came back to the bed with two big white cotton towels. "Are these okay?" I asked presenting them to him.

"That's great," he said taking them from me and starting to unfold them. He got up and placed one neatly down on the bed where he was sitting. Taking his seat back next to me on the bed he placed the other towel across his lap.

He looked back up at me for a long moment and had a smile on his face. "You're a nice girl, Logan. I hope this all works out for you. If it does I'd like to become one of your regular visitors."