Class Trip (16 page)

I felt like it
was getting late so I turned back home. We got there faster than I
thought. I peeked into the kitchen to see if today would be a good
day for my German Shepherd.

Maria saw us and
laughed. She handed me a metal bowl with a couple of bones in it.

Tata was standing
there talking to her. He was smiling too. He spoke with her in German
when I wasn't around, changing over to Romanian so I couldn't
understand. I didn't mind that so much. I really didn't want to
understand about the going ons in the house.

Wolf chewed for a
while and I asked when lunch would be. “Do we have time to go back
outside again?”

“No, I want you
to stay in the house. You can play with Wolf in the courtyard,”
Tata said. I was surprised. Wolf had never been allowed in the house
before, just the kitchen.

I went out and
Wolf followed me. We went to the courtyard. He spent couple of
minutes running around and sniffing everything. I picked up a tennis
ball and threw it for him. He liked that but he didn't bring the ball
back to me, I had to chase after him to get it back. We played that
for a while and finally got him to bring me the ball back but then it
started to rain. I took him back into the hallway and kneeled down in
front of him as he sat still in front of me. I praised him and told
him I would take the ball out with me tomorrow.

“Would you like
that? Of course you would.” I hugged him. And then he growled. I
looked over my shoulder. A very elegant woman was standing there
watching us.

She slowly walked
closer to us. “Hello. What's your name?” she asked as she bent
down to me.

“I'm Sandra.”

“I like that
name.” She looked sad for a moment but then she grinned. “Who is
your friend?”

“His name is
Wolf.”

“May I pet
him?” She carefully reached out to him.

“I guess so.”
I removed my arms and sat back on my heels.

She pet him a
little and then she looked at me. “You are a very beautiful child.
You, I definitely want to buy.”

I shook my head
no.

“Don't you want
to come and live with me?”

“I'm not for
sale. I stay here.”

She smiled at me
like she was talking to a small child. “But I would be so very good
to you. I would see to it that you had the best of everything. A four
posted bed with a pretty pink comforter and lots of lace and ribbons.
That is something that you would like, isn't it?”

She wasn't giving
up and I didn't know how to get rid of her. I looked past her to the
cafeteria. Tata was standing there watching us. He looked amused.

“Tata?” I
looked at him for help.

“She's right,
Kelly. She isn't for sale.”

The woman stood
up, smiling, “Tatis, you? I never would have guessed. But that is
what she needs, right? It couldn't be any other way. I could have
made lots of money with her. Her English is so good too. You got me
biting my fist, Daniel. I really am.” She looked at me and then she
walked to the stairs up to the girls' room. She glanced back at me
and went up. Her red high heels on the stairs were loud but she
didn't seem to notice, or care.

We had gotten a
new shipment of people at the beginning of the week. Only two girls
had been virgins. They were sold under the hand, whatever that meant,
but they were gone the next day but we still had around thirty
guests.

Tata came forward
to me and laid his arm around me. “I said to play in the
courtyard.”

“It started to
rain and Wolf didn't want to get wet.”

“Wolf?” He
raised an eyebrow.

“I didn't want
to get wet either.”

He smiled again.
“Come on, let's go eat.” He laid his arm around me and pulled me
along with him. He sat me down at my spot and whistled for the dog
who followed him into the kitchen.

Tata came back a
minute later with my plate and without the dog. I got special food
that was milder than what the others ate. The others were coming in.
The girls came in with the woman, Kelly. She joined our table and she
spoke in English.

Kelly was here to
buy some of the girls and maybe a couple of boys, but she was mostly
interested in the girls. She needed new ones.

Kelly looked at
me often. I was unsure so I didn't say anything.

She looked like
she really wanted me.

Tata laid his arm
over the back of my chair. He was trying to make it clear that I was
his.

The woman had
called him Daniel. Why had he told me that his name was Tata? He had
probably just lied to her, telling her a false name, I reasoned with
myself.

“I have my eye
on a couple but they are nothing compared to her. If you ever get
bored with her, call me.”

“A man doesn't
get bored with his wife,” he told her.

At first she
looked hurt then she tilted her head and grinned at him. “Oh yes
they do. That's the basis of my business.” She smiled really big. I
had a feeling that she felt clever. She was a Madame, looking to buy
new girls. How could a woman do that to another woman?

She called Tata,
Daniel throughout the whole meal. I was starting to wonder if he
wasn't lying to me.

She looked at me
and sighed again. “They would come from so far away to be with
her.”

“He said she
wasn't for sale and she isn't. She stays here, so knock it off,
Kelly,” his brother said, the one who had belted me. I was
surprised that he wasn't be putting pressure on to get rid of me and
still turn a bit of profit from me.

“I've heard
that before. Eventually, all the girls leave.” Kelly sounded really
bitter as she spoke.

“I stayed,”
Maria told her, sitting up a bit straighter.

“Yes, but that
isn't the rule, is it. He could have sold you at anytime. Maybe if I
had gotten pregnant like you did.” Kelly raised an eyebrow and
looked at Tata.

All eyes turned
to me to see how I would react to her words.

“What? She's
pregnant? Congratulations, Daniel.” First she looked at me and then
at Daniel. Her congratulations didn't seem to be heart felt. I felt
her hate.

I hung my head
and then I felt his hand on my shoulder.

“That's none of
your business, Kelly. Why are you so interested in her? Ask us about
the ones you want to buy.” Again it was the brother who had beaten
me that came to my rescue.

“She reminds me
of some one I used to know.” Kelly's face was masked in pain for a
split-second. Then was smiling friendly again.

I lay down on my
half of the bed with Carrots in my arms, looking at Tata undress and
climb into bed. “Who is that woman?”

I saw his
shoulders slump a little. “She used to be one of the girls here.
She got sold to a brothel the Madame there liked her best and she
worked her way to the top and now it belongs to her.”

I could tell that
he didn't want to talk about it anymore but I wanted to know more.
“But what would she want me for?”

Tata smirked and
looked at me. “Lots of men would want to enjoy a piece of your
innocence. You have something about you that makes people want to
give you gifts and be with you, especially a certain type of man. But
if she would take you you would have very quickly lost that air about
you and then you that you are would be ruined.”

“But I'm not
innocent anymore?”

“Of course you
are. You just sleep with me. A married girl keeps that innocence and
if you did something that could endanger that I would spank you and
you quickly think differently about it.”

“I think she
hates me now.”

“Are you going
to keep up with this until I tell you the whole story?”

“I am curious,”
I moved in closer to him, “But if you say it is none of my business
then I will understand.”

He lay down under
the covers and wrapped an arm around me. “I'll tell you because I
don't want you to hear it from someone else. When I was fifteen my
father thought it was time that I started in with the family
business. He would go to other countries and kidnap girls, usually
older ones. But he wanted me to sleep with a virgin who was younger
than me first.

“Kelly was in
Vienna with her parents on vacation. He pulled her into his van and
brought her here with some of the usual girls.

“He sat her
down and explained the family business and what her part would be in
it. She was to stay here and I would get to sleep with her whenever I
wanted, usually with cameras rolling. We were each other's first. We
were still young so we played together and ran around here.

“A person can
think that they are in love when they only know one woman or man.
Then it was time for her to sleep with all the men and I had to sleep
with girls who were older than me and keep them under control. I got
in trouble if I didn't listen, and everyone listened to my father.

“Thomas is a
year younger than me. My father told Kelly that she would have to
sleep with him too whenever he wanted. She bulked and said no. My
father beat her just like I beat you for running away. We had all
played together before that but afterwards things were different.
Kelly had assumed that we would get married one day and that she
would be my wife. She assumed that she would stay.

“A year later
Markus was fifteen and he likes to hit when he has sex. He beat on
her a lot. She came to me to get him to stop. I talked to him and he
went to my father and tattled. My father also liked rough sex. His
ear was more open to Markus than to me. I took the beating of a
lifetime for sticking my nose where it didn't belong.

“My father sat
us all down and he asked us if any one of us wanted to marry Kelly.
No one said yes. Everyone looked at me, figuring that I would want
to. I loved her but not enough. I felt really bad about that, but by
that time I was already seventeen and I wanted to sleep with lots of
different women.” He shook his head no. “I was young and I
thought our business was really cool. I know better now. But I had
grown up that way.

“A few years
later I was sick of it and I had a very low opinion of women. My
father had sold Kelly and she had screamed when the men forced her to
get into a limousine with her new owner. A few years after that she
was the big boss and we had to deal with her again. She holds her
head up high when she comes here but her feelings are hurt.”

I was crying now.
I felt so sorry for her.

“Now she comes
back here and sees that I have a wife and you are so young and
innocent and she always tried to be cool and clever. Finding out that
I prefer the opposite must have hurt her too. She was in a no win
situation. She was probably still hoping that I would sow my wild
oats and then settle down with her someday. I don't want to.

“It was you
that I was waiting for. I want to hug you and hold you and be gentle
with you.” He did just that and then he was lost in thought again.

“Her pain is
all my fault but when I see her I get upset. I feel guilt because I
didn't love her and she thinks she still loves me. I wish she would
move on but she doesn't. She plays cool with all the men and keeps
them at bay. She is even in a position to go home to her parents but
she doesn't. I don't understand her.” He shook his head again.

“She can't go
home anymore,” I told him.

“What do you
mean?”

“She feels that
she has changed so much. She isn't the little girl that she once was.
She probably fears that they won't love her anymore. Life has given
her lemons and she is making lemonade, as best as she can.” I
shrugged my shoulders and then looked at him sadly.

“Why would you
say that?”

“It makes sense
to me. That's what I would have done if I were her.”

“But you aren't
her. You are my Sandra and I love you so much. You I knew I wanted to
marry. Since I met you I knew that not all women are the same.”

The doctor was
here again and Tata and I were waiting for him to have time for me.

Tata was holding
my hand and pacing. I had to follow him back and forth. I felt like I
was getting a little dizzy. The courtyard was full of the new girls.
They had never seen Tata before so they weren't afraid of him. There
would be an auction tonight and Kelly would be leaving with the girls
she picked out after breakfast. Things would be quieting down then,
Tata said that they were very close to quitting. He guessed that by
the end of the year they would be gone forever, maybe even sooner. I
would be staying with him and he would show me the world.

The door opened
and the doctor waved us in. Tata looked like he was going to be sick
and I wasn't doing much better. I was shaking and holding onto Tata's
hand for dear life.

The doctor said
something to Tata who let go of my hand and grabbed me under my arms
and lifted me up to the examination table so I was sitting. He pushed
my shoulders back until I was lying down. He was talking and looking
at the doctor as he did all that. I figured that he was answering
questions about my condition.

Tata was looking
at the doctor and lifting my dress up and slipping his fingers in my
underwear.

My hands moved to
stop him. He looked at me and smiled. My eyes flashed over to the
doctor and then back to him. He grinned all the more.

“I'm here
nothing can happen to you.” He removed my underwear and set it to
the side. I moved my knees together as a last ditch effort to avoid
this even though I also wanted to hear the results.

Tata moved so he
was holding my hand tightly. He had a hand on my knee. He was rubbing
a little, probably trying to get me to stop shaking.

The doctor
finally looked at me. He disappeared out of my view and I heard his
chair squeak across the floor towards me.

I felt his hand
on my leg. He was pushing them apart. Tata moved forward and helped
him.