Chapter 40

When next Marty opened her eyes, she looked around and found Gloria was again beside her although the transfusion equipment was no longer there. Marty had only a single needle in her left arm feeding glucose, she guessed. Looking at the girl she said softly, "Hi! How are you feeling?"

Instantly Gloria opened her eyes and looked at Marty. With an incredibly warm smile she said softly, "I feel like a truck ran over me!" Then she grinned and added, "Happy?"

At that Marty reached up, turned off the valve controlling the fluid, and then pulled the needle out of her arm. Gloria's eyes opened wide with surprise as the woman sat up on her cot and then swung her legs towards her.

After quickly pulling tubes from Gloria's arms, as well, Marty said brightly, "Okay, turkey! Off your ass and on your feet! We're going to do some running."

"Are you crazy?" Gloria exclaimed. "Have you lost it completely?"

"Of course not," Marty replied. "Looking at you it's easy to see that you need more exercise. Now move it!" When the girl wailed that she had no clothes, Marty conceded that it created a small problem. Getting out of bed, she went to the closet and found her clothes hanging there.

"We're all set," she declared. "Here!" she said, "Wear these."

With that she threw the girl her bikini and slipped on the Levi's and work shirt she had been wearing the night before. She completely ignored the fact that the pants legs of her jeans were stained and stiff with dried blood from the knees down.

When the girl said it was indecent only to be wearing a bikini with a skimpy hospital gown, Marty reminded her that she had been a prostitute.

"But that was for money!" Gloria wailed. "I didn't give it away."

"Pretend you're on the beach," Marty said flatly. "You're wearing the bikini and the hospital gown. Now move it!" Marty was at her side to catch her if she fainted but Gloria only shook her head and got out of bed. After making their way out of the hospital, the two women began to run barefoot in the park across the street.

As they ran — with Gloria protesting every inch of the way — Marty asked the girl about herself. She learned that the girl had been plying her trade when three guys had come up to her, met her price in cash, and led her away — to where seven more men were waiting. The first thing they did was to take all of her money — including the money that the three men had just paid her — and drove to the block where she lived. That was where the rape had begun and it was where Marty, Kelly, and King had found her.

Then Marty learned that there was a hearing scheduled for ten o'clock that morning. Gloria was being brought up on her third prostitution arrest and was facing seven to ten years at the state prison for women. Suddenly Gloria stopped dead in her tracks.

After taking a few more strides Marty stopped and looked back at the woman. "What's your problem?" she demanded.

"What are you doing to me, honkie? I can't run. I don't know how!" Gloria protested.

"It's easy," Marty replied casually. "Just put one foot in front of the other and keep doing it. You were doing fine. Now move your black ass! We have to get back to the hospital."

Gloria just shook her head in amazement and started to run again. Once back at the hospital, Marty made two fast telephone calls, then got on her cot and went back to sleep. With the combination of her blood loss and her exercise, she was asleep almost instantly.

When she awakened, Marty found the two beds were again surrounded by doctors. "What did the second MRI show?" she asked casually.

The doctor just shook his head and said something was very wrong.

"You mean that she is fine. Her internal organs are all exactly the way they should be. And she is again an intact virgin. Right?"

"But how could you possibly know that?" the senior physician demanded.

"Because I made it happen, you idiot!" Marty exclaimed.

Then she flung the covers off her cot, completely ignoring the fact that she was stark naked, and said, "Gloria, move your fat black ass! We're going to be late."

"I do not have a fat ass!" the girl protested, but jumped off her cot, moving doctors out of her way as she did. The women ignored the medical protests and, utterly oblivious to the spectators, dressed in the same clothing they had worn earlier.

After getting into a taxi waiting at the hack stand in front of the hospital, Marty gave the driver the address of the Clifford & Jamison offices. Leaning back in her seat, she took the opportunity to study Gloria closely. Only then did she realize what a stunning beauty the girl could be. Her skin was clear, smooth and the color of chocolate ice cream. Her eyes were a brilliant warm brown while her hair was long, black and wavy.

Gloria did the same thing with Martha. She was utterly stunned at the incredible beauty of this golden girl sitting beside her. Then she said softly, "This has gone far enough, Miss Bradford. You have already saved my life, for which I should be very grateful. I wish I were, but I'm not."

Noting the look of shock in Marty's eyes she explained that, when she was sixteen — the eldest of five children, each by a different father — her mother had ordered her to get pregnant or get out on the street. Her mother had pointed out that Gloria's friends had started getting pregnant at thirteen, and what was taking her so long?

"There are far too many fatherless black children," she said simply. "I didn't want to add to the number. Well, I got a prescription for birth-control pills, went out on the street and sold my virginity. That happened over three years ago and I've been selling my body ever since."

Then she sat up even straighter on the seat and continued, "Do you know what was going through my mind last night while I was being raped?"

Marty just slowly shook her head.

"Oh, it hurt terribly, but I was exultant! Why? Two reasons: First, my miserable life was at an end. You see, Miss Bradford, what I always really wanted to do, beginning when my mother threw me out, was to commit suicide. But ... but ... but that was a sin I could not bring myself to commit. But those ... those savages were doing it for me.

"The second? Like all macho black men, those idiots were using no protection. What I knew, but they didn't — or didn't care if they did — was that my insides were rotting with every sexually-transmitted disease known to man. Now do you see?"

Marty was utterly appalled but said, "My God! You would be ending your life — something you had wanted to do anyway — but at the same time punishing your attackers from beyond the grave with the diseases that you knew they would get from you. Is that it?"

"Exactly!" Gloria exclaimed. "Do you know what else? Although it hurt so terribly each time one of those beasts took me, I rejoiced when I heard that they wanted to take me three times each. It would increase to a near-certainty the chance of them all being infected."

"But what about school?" Marty asked. "You speak very well and your vocabulary is large. Why did you quit?"

"Because of the environment I lived in, I guess," Gloria replied. "Doing any work in school, let alone getting good grades — God forbid! — was for Oreos. You were trying to be white — you weren't a real Blood!"

The girl was crying now but she still held her head up and said, "But I did like it! I loved school. There was so much to learn!" Then with a harsh laugh she said, "Do you know what I spend all my money on? All the money I make with my filthy cunt? Books! I buy books ... and I read them. Some — the really good ones — I read over and over."

Marty then learned that the girl had, in effect, given herself a Great Books education.

Then Gloria shook her head sadly and asked, "But what now?" Then she began to weep and wailed, "You've ruined my life, Martha Bradford! What am I going to do now? I ... I can't even go back on the street! I could barely bring myself to do it the first time when I was both innocent and ignorant. Now?"

She slowly shook her head and added, "And then there was what you did. Through you, Martha Bradford, God Almighty has forgiven my past sins! He did, didn't He?"

Marty just nodded.

"Well, what now?" Then she smiled weakly and added, "Maybe they'll let me work in the library at Tehachapi. I guess that's the women's prison I'll be sent to."

Marty did not tell the girl about the phone calls she had made. Instead, as the taxi pulled up to the curb at her office building, she gave the driver a bill and hauled Gloria like a rag doll behind her to the elevator and then to her own office. Since it was only a little after eight o'clock, Kelly had not yet arrived.

After ordering Gloria to take a shower and wash her hair in the Leper Colony shower, Marty ran up to the conference room, grabbed some clothes from the closet, and quickly returned to her office. Stripping off her Levi's and shirt, she padded into the shower and joined Gloria. After fixing their hair, the two returned and found Kelly and King in the office. Kelly just watched while shaking her head in amusement as the two women put on identical white sleeveless silk dresses over white lace bikinis.

As she dressed, Gloria realized that she had never touched, let alone worn, a dress as fabulous as the one she was now wearing. Then she caught a shoe box Marty flipped towards her and was amazed to find that the shoes fit. Then she was again hustled off, this time accompanied by King, down to the basement garage. In moments, they were on their way to the courthouse.

Checking the court calendar, Marty was delighted to learn that Gloria's trial was scheduled before Judge John Callaway. She knew Callaway was now a very good friend of the firm's. In fact, Marty had heard, his granddaughter was scheduled to join the school next term.

After escorting Gloria to the defendant's table, Marty introduced herself to the young assistant district attorney who was prosecuting the case. The girl, Jane Carter, looked up in dismay. It was clear to Marty that the girl did not like the idea of trying the case against a Clifford & Jamison lawyer.

Well, Marty thought, Jane is about to get a very pleasant surprise.

At the stroke of the hour, the bailiff called for all to rise and Callaway entered the courtroom. When the case was called, Gloria was asked to rise and Marty stood up beside her. Carter said that Gloria was being charged with common prostitution and was asked how did she plead. As the girl asked the questions she was looking around the courtroom to see if her witnesses were present. No Clifford & Jamison client ever pleaded guilty so she was going to have to try the case.