“According to our latest census, the
world population has now reached five hundred million,” the cheery
voice of the radio announcer proclaimed. “This factoid brought to
you courtesy of Deep Tissue Data, also the sponsor of today's sunny
spells and scattered showers, with a beautiful rainbow to follow, so
you know they always go that extra mile. Now, in more pressing news,
a catfight has broken on public transport between members of Smith’s
and Hubbard’s.”
“BS,” said Alice, ignoring the
radio, although the catfight did sound like a lot of BS, as she
looked at the handful of cards Rachel had just placed between them on
the bed. It was one of the last nights of the Holidays and most of
the women were off working at the big company parties. Alice was
sour about missing all the fun even though, as a virgin who had not
yet “come out of the closet” she wouldn't have been able to go
anyway, and so Rachel was spending the evening with her to distract
her.
“Are you sure you want to do
that?” Rachel gave her a severe look and tucked her hair behind
her ear, totally calm.
“Yea, I'm sure. You've played
entirely too many cards. Now show.”
“Alright, you caught me.” Rachel
flipped over her cards and swept them back into her hand. “Now you
go.”
“I think I will, thank you,” Alice
replied with exaggerated haughtiness. “Three fours.” She cast
down the cards with a toss of her head.
Rachel gave her a quick look. “You're
lying,” she said.
“Argh!” Alice cried in
frustration. “How can you always tell?”
“Years of practice,” Rachel
replied dryly. While Alice was not nearly as bad at cards as she was
at sex, she still had a hard time managing in the cut-throat
environment of hardened brothel veterans absolutely bored stupid.
Well, stupider any way, Rachel though sourly—most of them were
already pretty stupid. But among all the card games, BS held a
special pride of place, not only because it involved more skill to
play than most of the other games, but also because it was considered
an important part of honing professional skills as well. It taught
one how to carry on a conversation, seemingly unconcerned, while
secretly strategizing, how to lie easily and convincingly, and how to
read others through voice and gesture to determine their true
meaning. Being able to hide your feelings while decoding those of
others could provide a huge leg up on the competition.
“So, what's the trick?” asked
Alice as Rachel dropped “four eights,” really two fives, an
executive, and a nine.
“You need to not be so desperate to
be believed.”
“What do you mean?” Alice looked
stung.
“You've learned the physical signs
of lying, which is good. For example, that people usually look away
slightly. But now you're so concerned with concealing them that you
give yourself away by going too far in the other direction. Whenever
you lie, you always look me straight in the face to prove you have
nothing to hide.” It was rare for a mentor to spell things out in
such explicit terms. Usually, girls were expected to learn from
watching and doing, speared on by the humiliation of losing game
after game. But, as usual, Rachel felt no need to beat around the
bush. Not that she was Alice's mentor, of course.
“But how am I supposed to do that?
It's not like I can magically make myself not aware of whether I'm
lying or not.”
“You need to confuse your body's
natural responses, until your behavior is so messed up that it fully
disconnects from them. Start by picking a set of behaviors and
always use them. For example, when making a play, look straight at
me, regardless of what you played or said you played. When this is
easy for you, start mixing it up. One game, look at people every
time, whether you lie or not and the next always look away, even when
you tell the truth. Your opponents won't be able to predict your
reaction and, in time, neither will you. “
“Thank you for explaining, Essem,”
said Alice politely, even as she winced from what was clearly the
onset of a headache. “I hope I find this very useful.”
“You will for sure. This doesn't
just apply to card games. When you're at a party, you can't be too
eager for a guy to choose you. People might think you need the money
badly.” Or have a depraved emotional attachment to him, she thought
angrily to herself. “And that would be very bad, not only for your
image but for that of everyone around you. Always remember that
whatever one person does spills over to affect the brothel as a
whole.” She cringed as she realized she’d just said one of
Elissa’s favorite slogans without realizing it.
“I'll never forget that,” Alice
replied with intense earnestness. Rachel felt an uncomfortable
twinge at the eager look on Alice's face and wondered vaguely why she
was parroting back all these principles of deception and
responsibility to the greater good which she so hated and despised.
Then, it occurred to her that, somewhere inside, she, in fact, wanted
Alice to succeed, if for no other reason than to get her, and all the
other girls, to stop bothering her. Traditional values were fine, as
long as they helped her instead of screwing her over. But she
couldn't help wishing there was a way to help Alice without making
Elissa and her ilk so happy. Making Alice happy was fine. Despite
her irritating tendencies, Rachel was forced to reluctantly admit she
was rather coming to like her.
“There's another side to this,”
she went on. “Just like when playing cards, you can't lie too
hard. As Corpro likes to say 'Any information you choose to
share with prospects is on a strictly need to know basis. Keeping
them guessing will only pump up your mystery factor.' If you try too
hard, guys might see through your front and wonder what you're trying
to hide, maybe even come up with a worse explanation than the true
one. Or, they may find your exaggeratedly distant behavior off
putting, whether they fall for it or not and...”
Rachel was interrupted by the sound of
the door sliding open behind her back and she felt herself bristle at
the accursed lack of privacy in her life. Even if the rooms had
had locks, Rachel strongly suspected that hers would have been
deactivated because she needed to be “monitored” for her “own
good.” Her temper did not improve at all when she turned around
and saw the person in the doorway was Elissa herself. “What do you
want?” she asked sharply. Yes, there could certainly be far worse
things than explaining to Alice how to lie.
“We just received a call asking for
you,” Elissa replied. “You have an appointment tonight so be
ready at seven. Pick up is at seven-fifteen, precisely.” There
was nothing particularly nasty about her tone but Rachel could not
take much comfort from that. She had a job right now and was,
therefore, useful. Elissa's concern was only for the money Rachel
could make, not for Rachel herself.
“Was there anything else I needed to
know?” She asked, keeping her tone neutral with difficulty
“No, that was the whole message.”
Elissa turned on her heel and walked back out.
“Close the door behind you,”
Rachel called after her, but Elissa was already gone, so Alice got up
and quickly scurried over to push the button that slid the panel
closed. There was no question of playing more cards. Rachel was now
in a bad mood because of Elissa and, anyway, she had to start getting
ready soon. She got up and went over to the clothing dispenser to
start looking for an outfit. But, as she placed her hand on the
control panel, it suddenly came to her that something was happening
far worse than being peeved by Elissa, something so bad that she
forgot all about what she was doing. She felt her throat lock up and
her stomach turn. She had just been called out for the evening,
something that had not happened since her return. She was going to
be expected to sleep with someone and, at that thought, her insides
began to heave and she had to put her hand on the wall to support
herself. Her heart raced and she felt her chest go tight around it.
But who could have asked for her? She hadn't actually made a great
show of herself, or even really gone outside that much. In fact, she
hadn't even had any kind of positive interaction with a guy...except
Dave.
©Amanda RR Hamlin 2025
