Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20A | 20B | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25-26 | 27 | 28-29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35-36 | 37 | 38A | 38B | 38C | 38D | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42-43 | 44-45 | 46 | 47 | 48-49A | 49B | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57A | 57B | 58-59| 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68-69

PART II
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS

70A

IT WAS ONLY A couple of hours after Trey had gone to work before a cute little blonde knocked on Marina’s door. She was buoyant, almost bouncing on the balls of her feet, as if she were excited to meet her.

“Hello?” Marina said, confused.

“I’m Alice,” she announced. “One of Trey’s girls.”

Marina blinked, then remembered what Trey had said about being quizzed the day after. Blushing furiously, she mumbled, “Um … we did.”

“I know, but did he make you feel good?”

Marina looked away, knowing that if she said no, Trey would still have no girls making him money. She drew a deep breath and said, “Yes, but … I had to have sweet tea to do it.”

Alice slumped. “I don’t know if that counts or not.”

“It was my idea.”

“Your idea?” she demanded. “He—”

“So you’d go back to him.”

She opened her mouth to say more, but nothing came out. She snapped it shut again. “Oh.” She perked up again. “But now you know so you won’t have to have it anymore!” she said brightly, then pushed her way into the house. Marina, so shocked by her rudeness, could do nothing but stand there gaping while the woman looked around. She clasped her hands to her breast and sighed dreamily. “Oh, isn’t this nice!”

“Uh—”

She whirled and beamed at Marina. “I’m so happy to meet you finally. Normally I wouldn’t give a hoot how Trey feels about any­thing, but he really cares about you, which makes us happy.”

Confused, Marina blurted, “Why?”

She shrugged. “You saved our jobs, and now we don’t have to feel guilty about it. We may be whores, but we aren’t heartless. Trey doesn’t put up with heartless people.”

That was an odd thing to say about anybody. “Why would he care?”

“Heartless people make trouble.” Marina looked down in thought. “And Trey has a big heart.”

“He made that bet,” Marina said quietly, raising her eyes to Alice’s. “He got me in the family way. I had no say in any of this.”

That was when the woman’s smile faded. “Yeah. Um, yeah.”

Marina prepared herself to hear the listing of what Trey had provided for her, but it never came. Alice simply stood there, sagging, with a contrite expression.

“I would never have done that regardless. Not for you, not for anybody.” Now Marina’s wounds began to itch again and she started scratching the skin around the scabs so as not to get blood on her hands. “People who work in a wicked place lose their jobs … why would I care?”

Alice gulped.

“He talks about us to you,” Marina added, “but he doesn’t want me to talk to people who can sort it all out for me. You come here the day after I … well. You knew. He told you. He said you’d be over here to verify it. He said you would know if I lied.”

“Well,” she muttered defensively, “we went on strike because we wanted him to make sure you enjoyed it, not because he’s wrong-headed about women, which he is.”

“How do you know he could?” Marina asked. “Have you been indecent with him?”

“Gracious, no!” she breathed, horrified. “He doesn’t fuck his own girls! Oh, pardon my French.”

Marina’s bottom lip dropped a little. Her reaction was too real to be a lie. She thought. Maybe. “Oh,” was all she could say.

“In our business, men get reputations among the women. Most men don’t care about anything but their own pleasure. Some do. And a few get a reputation of being really good at getting a woman where she wants to be. If you get my drift.”

Marina blushed furiously. “He said he … had that. Reputation.”

“Yes, and I want to tell you something else. Most married women don’t get that from their husbands.”

Marina scowled in thought. “My friend’s mother said it was a good husband’s duty—”

She chortled. “Husbands don’t see it as a duty! They see it as their right to do anything they want to their wives—or not—whether the wives want to or not. Even rape.”

Marina gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth.

Alice nodded wisely. “I heard you came to the speak with your friend. To see if he’s unfaithful. He’s not,” she said earnestly. “They don’t know it, but he hates the men who are stepping out on their wives. He thinks they’re trashy. And he would never marry any woman who comes in. He respects women who charge for sex, but not ones who are looking for it or giving it away.”

Marina’s brow wrinkled. “But … that’s how he makes money, isn’t it?”

“Their green spends the same. You don’t have to like your customers. You just have to act like you do.”

Marina couldn’t imagine serving someone she hated, no matter how much money was involved.

After an awkward silence, Alice cleared her throat. “Well, I, uh … I’ll be on my way. I just wanted to see—” Alice slumped then. “I’m sorry. I … it’s just … Oh, Lawdy, what did we do?”

That was when Marina relented. “I also … needed to know if he’d resent me the next day.” She proceeded to blurt the rest of the story. If Trey could talk to everybody in town, so could she.

Alice listened. When Marina was finished, she said, “You come to me and tell me if he does that or stops making it good for you. We’ll make him regret it.”

With that, she was gone in a whiff of delicate perfume. Marina was still standing there, bemused, when two neighborhood wives turned the corner onto her walk, shopping bags over their arms. “Hi, Marina! Ready to go?”

“Yes,” Marina muttered blankly, then proceeded to take her friends grocery shopping so they didn’t have to walk. The whole time, it was all she could do to keep her questions about their husbands to herself. She may have to go back to Sister Albright to sort it all out.

She tried not to think about it all evening while she was sewing, attempting to figure out how Dot’s dress stayed on. But because she couldn’t concentrate, she made too many mistakes and finally gave up. She was tired. Her back hurt. No, her belly hadn’t grown much at all, but she didn’t know how much it was supposed to have grown by now. Her morning sickness had passed and there were so many other things to worry about that she practically forgot she was pregnant most of the time.

Wicked, corrupt men surrounded her, not least of all the one she slept with.

Being married.

Running her own household, even though she was almost the only one in it.

Freedom.

A car.

Bookkeeping to do.

So many ideas running out her ears she was overwhelmed and didn’t do any of them.

The creeping feeling that she might be … smart. Really, really smart. Lawyer smart. Goodness, what was she supposed to think about that? It was an uncomfortable feeling, but she kept reminding herself that good things could also be uncomfortable.

But that a prostitute had to tell her what a lucky wife she was made her mad, was what it did. The problem was, she didn’t know who or what she was mad at.

70A

If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.

Speakeasy staff.

Donations can be made here, if you so desire.