The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

She had wound up living in the car of a friend who turned out not to be as much of a friend as she hoped.  It was not long before she was in a situation she could not get out of and once again she belonged to someone other than herself.  That was what she thought of as she watched Elaina go.  All of the things she had become that she so deeply wished she hadn’t.  But there wasn’t time, not even for that morose train of thought. 

She had to be getting home, to what she called a home.  The men who owned her were naturally angry and like to keep a tight hold on the reins of the girls they kept.  She had given a specific amount of time that she would be gone and if she went over that she would be punished.  She knew that more than anything else in her entire life.  It was the only thing she really knew to be true. 

She took one last look at the skipping figure of a woman who was more of an acquaintance than a friend and turned in the opposite direction, pulling her sweater tighter around herself.  She had begun to feel very, very cold.

“Meena, where in the hell have you been?  Do you realize how close to being in serious, serious trouble you are?”

“Yes, I know.”

“Then why do you keep doing this?  Why is it that you seem to be so completely obsessed with the idea of royally pissing Victor and his boys off?”

“Ugh.  I don’t know, Kyra.  It isn’t like I start off with that in mind.  I just get caught up.  I get distracted by people and places and things and before I know it I’m very close to being late.”

“I get that, but for Christ’s sake!  It’s like you have a death wish or something.”

“Maybe I do,” she said so quietly she half hoped that Kyra couldn’t hear it.  Either fortunately or unfortunately, Kyra heard every single word she said and she was anything but impressed.  She flopped backwards onto the sh*tty little cot that passed as a bed in the dingy room the two women shared, letting out a disgusted groan and staring up at the ceiling. 

Meena sat heavily on the edge of her own cot, letting out a long, tired breath.  She had expected this.  She had it coming.  Kyra wasn’t the kind of girl to let her head get caught in the clouds and she didn’t have a whole lot of patience for people who did.  If she hadn’t loved Meena so much, hadn’t had such a strong instinct to take care of her, she probably would have hated her.

“Sh*t, you know I hate it when you talk like that.  Why do you do that?”

“Do what?  I’m not hurting anyone.”

“You most definitely are, friend.  You’re hurting yourself.  Every time you play around with this, you’re playing around with fire and someday very soon you’re going to get yourself burned.  I won’t be there to protect you forever, you know?  What if you get yourself into some kind of trouble that I can’t get you out of?”

“Now who’s being morose?” 

Meena said it in a joking tone, hoping to lighten the mood, but Kyra didn’t take the bait.  That meant that what Meena had done this day had really managed to upset her.  It took a lot to get Kyra worked up like this.  She had made a study of having little by way of emotion aside from disdain and irony.

She had also been the first one to take Meena under her wing when the young, disillusioned girl had realized she was actually the property of a modern day brothel with men who would kill her and not give it a second thought.  She had spent the almost ten years after their meeting trying to make Meena understand how to survive in a world like the one the two of them belonged to and a big part of that was teaching her to embody slightly annoyed indifference.  So it was very uncommon for her to show real emotion.  It was something that made Meena feel uncomfortable, unsure of how to behave.

“I’m not, OK?  I’m not being morose.  I’m trying to tell you the way things really work.  That’s all I’ve ever been trying to do, don’t you get it?  Please tell me that you’ve learned by now how dangerous these guys are.  Victor isn’t playing around.  He’s got plans for you, OK?  Plans for both of us that I haven’t told you yet.”

“What?  Why?  I thought you told me everything.”

“Of course I don’t,” she said with exasperation, tossing her pillow at Meena and hitting her square in the face, “I don’t tell anyone everything.  But I should tell you this now, so that you know what’s in store for us.  So that you don’t do anything to hurt your chances at getting out of here.”

Meena felt her body go entirely, eerily still and for a moment she was sure that her heart had stopped beating.  Something about the way she spoke and the words she said was strange and even though she couldn’t think of anything else in the whole world that would make her happier than to get out of the hellhole she was living in now, she was afraid.

Change hadn’t been great to her, seeing as she had wound up trading down every time it happened to her.  Whatever it was Kyra was talking about, what if it was worse than what she already had?  She was pretty sure she couldn’t take that.

“Are you scared?”

Meena didn’t answer, just sat there, seeing Elaina skip away from her all over again, wishing she were back out there on that street and not in this dank room with seventies wallpaper peeling off of the walls around her.

“Meena!  Seriously, now is not the time for this sh*t, OK?  I need you to listen to me.”

“OKk, I’m sorry.  I’m listening.”

“Good.  Now I asked you a question.  Are you scared?  Does what I said scare you?”

“Yes!  OK, is that what you want to hear?  Yes, it scares me.  I don’t understand what you mean.  I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re right, you don’t.”

“Perfect,” Meena said with an impatient sarcasm creeping into her voice, “I’m so glad we’ve established that.  Now do you think you could go ahead and let me in on your little secret?”