Chapter 32: Laura Being Sisterly

Laura was disappointed with the conduct of the four brothel girls. We had invited them into our home to celebrate Thanksgiving and they had viewed it as an opportunity to turn tricks. Never captious, Laura didn't blame the girls for taking advantage of the situation. What distressed her was the possibility that the behavior of the girls had raised the suspicions of Sylvia, our next-door neighbor and one of our few respectable friends.

At first Laura accused me of shirking my responsibilities. According to her I had failed to control the girls. But when she saw that I was ignorant as to what had taken place, the girls had set up business right under my nose, Laura held herself culpable.

"It hasn't been too long ago that I would have done the same," she admitted.

"I don't believe that. You wouldn't go into someone's house where you had been invited to spend a holiday and take the first guy you saw into the bedroom for a blowjob."

Laura's look told me that I was being naïve. "You didn't know me back then," was her retort.

We talked about the mistakes we had made in trying to deceive the people we called our friends. Would Sylvia accept us as we really were? Would Lacy gloat and say she knew all along that we had attempted to mislead her about our relationship and Laura's past.

Regardless of what Sylvia knew or didn't know Laura was determined to tell all. I tried to convince her that Sylvia may have seen nothing but I couldn't reason with her. It was dark and cold when she left our back door to talk to Sylvia. When she returned a few minutes later she was cold and shaken. The shock I saw on Laura's face was new to me. I had never seen her lose her composure.

We went to bed and Laura related what she had seen. Laura hadn't stayed long. All she had witnessed was Sylvia bent over the sink with Davie ramming her from behind.

"You're obsessing on the size of Sylvia's tits," I quipped.

"Don't say that," Laura tried to quell me and I knew I had hit a soft spot. It was totally uncharacteristic for her to be squeamish about any topic, especially one pertaining to sexual acts. From the way she was squirming, touching me, rubbing my chest, moving to the other side of the bed and then coming back to me I knew something was awry.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I wanted to explore whatever it was that had her so wrought up. I wasn't going to let up.

"How can I face her? I'll have to tell her what I saw."

"Do you want me there? As a buffer in case you stall out?"

"Would you?"

I had never known Laura to be indecisive or tentative before. She never sidestepped an issue. I knew she wanted to end the charade with Sylvia but for some reason it was too much for her to tackle alone. Having her accept my offer to help was gratifying.

"Do you want to show me what you saw?"

"I didn't see that much but we could improvise," she offered, excitedly hopping out of bed.

Laura drove me to work the next morning so she could use my car for the day and we put off the meeting with Sylvia until we could be together.

I was surprised to see everyone show up for work on time. I guess we were excited about beginning the demolition project.

I spoke to Charles, telling him I was in no condition to handle a power tool. Laura had kept me busy until the wee hours, re-enacting the scene she had briefly witnessed in Sylvia's kitchen.

And judging from the appearance of the others I doubted if they should be entrusted with a tool attached to a cord either.

Charles looked around and agreed with me. Jimmy was alert of course and Eric looked like he had had a good night's rest but the four college guys were dressed in the same clothes from the day before, sheepish grins on their faces. Davie had the appearance of having been strained through a funnel. We stumbled around, stacking items of value in neat piles and carrying debris to the dumpster. Jimmy's sledge hammer and Eric's power saw kept us busy. We were all happy when five o'clock arrived.

Laura was in good spirits when she picked me up. All four girls had phoned to apologize for their behavior. She laughed as she recounted the various reasons given for their conduct. Laura surmised the reason for the calls but it was Kelley who unwittingly betrayed the others. "Please don't ship us away. We like it here Laura," she said, pleadingly.

Also, she had visited the library and made an appointment with Sylvia for that evening. She proudly related how she had fearlessly walked up to Sylvia's desk and requested a meeting, specifying the time.

"Sounds like you won the coin toss and opted to kick off," I observed as we rang Sylvia's doorbell.

"What do you mean?"

"Sylvia got home field advantage. Meeting at our house would give us the edge."

"Oh, I've got the advantage. You're with me," Laura boasted as the back door opened and Sylvia invited us in.

By the time we finished eating and the table had been cleared I was falling asleep in my chair. But Laura's blunt admission got my attention.

"Sylvia, I've... well, we've been deceiving you and... I... well, we want to set things straight. I didn't accidentally sit on a cigarette and burn a hole in my butt. A man did it to me intentionally when I refused to let him stick his prick in my ass."

Shock struck Sylvia but only for a moment. "I'm so sorry, Laura. That must have been a traumatic time for you. But I have something I need to tell you too."

"Wait, there's nothing you could say that would rival what I'm about to tell you. The man that did that to me was paying me for sex. I'm a whore. I've been one since I was eighteen. That's what I've been hiding from you."

"She's not!" I butted in. "She was but she's not now. She's out of the business."

Neither of my companions was paying attention to me. Sylvia's mouth was open and her eyes shut. She shook her head in disbelief, opened her eyes without changing her expression. Laura watched, waiting for a reaction. It didn't come.

It was a standoff. The two women remained silent, Sylvia looking down at the table, Laura watching, expressionless.

"She's not a whore," I repeated, wanting to stir some response from Sylvia. She looked at me, languorously, her eyes glazed and her lips quivering.

"I know she isn't." Sylvia looked adoringly at Laura as if she wanted to believe her own instincts and me.

"Those things I told you about my job," Laura continued. "When I told you I traveled, that was true. I traveled to be with clients but not as an accountant. The clients were men I accompanied for a weekend or sometimes longer. I serviced them and they paid me well. I do the books for the brothel where I worked but I'm not an accountant."

Silence followed Laura's speech. She watched Sylvia who was staring into space.

Minutes passed. I became anxious. "The girls called to say they are sorry for how they carried on yesterday." Neither Laura nor Sylvia seemed to hear me.

"I never met anyone like you before," Sylvia broke the spell.

"A whore? Is that that you mean? Go on, you can say it, 'I've never met a whore before.' Well, you met five of us yesterday," Laura said, menacingly. I held my breath, glad that Laura hadn't revealed Nadine's past.

"That isn't what I meant to say," Sylvia answered, speaking clearly and evenly. "I've never met anyone like you before. You didn't have to tell me about your friends or yourself. I'll admit I was curious about their coarse demeanor but I never dreamed they were prostitutes. If you were concerned that I would hear something and think the worst about you, you are wrong. Please Laura, give me some credit. I would have said they were wrong. I never suspected."

The two women were staring at one another, teary eyed. Laura rose and Sylvia joined her. They embraced.

I sat and watched and listened as they went on, Sylvia scolding Laura for making the admission about her past, telling her it had not been necessary and Laura thanking her for being a good friend.

"My life's an open book now," Laura boasted as the two women took their seats again. "I'll never try to hide my past again. If there is anything you want to know, please ask. Guys always wanted to know how I first went astray. They seemed fascinated with how a girl can decide to sell her body. Randy knows. He has heard it all and if you ever want to hear it, well, like I say, from now on my life's an open book."

"Sometime," Sylvia choked on the word; her head dipped again, her eyes downcast. "I have something to tell you too."

"First," Laura interrupted, "there's more. I have one more confession to make."

"No wait," Sylvia was suddenly animated, wanting to be first to disclose her own secret. She briefly looked my way but it was as if I was not there. "Last night, last night I did something that... Davie was here and we..."

"That's exactly what I wanted to tell you. I saw," Laura interrupted, making Sylvia's jaw become slack and her eyes look like they would pop out of her head.

"You saw? You were here?" Sylvia's voice crackled with a combination of fear and disbelief.

"I didn't mean to. I came over to talk, to explain about the girls and I was going to tell you about my past. I didn't stay long, only long enough to see that you were busy." With this Laura broke up. She winked at me. Her mood changed from morose to wicked merriment. Her confessions had done wonders; it was as if a giant load had been lifted from her shoulders.

Laura no longer needed me there but I wanted to stick around. Poor Sylvia, now I needed to be there for her.

"I don't know what came over me," Sylvia started and then stopped, too embarrassed to continue.

"You don't need to explain to us," I tried to console her.

"No, not to us," Laura said before she collapsed in a fit of laughter.

I took Sylvia by the hand and led her to the other side of the kitchen. "Don't pay any attention to her. Deceiving you was hard on her. She's relieved that she has told you and you took it so well," I whispered in Sylvia's ear and noticed it was crimson, like her cheeks. She was shaking and I had to support her.