Chapter 5: Tea Dance

Lokoum & Luxury

It was two weeks later that Gerry was invited to the Trade Ministry in order to finalise the discussions on his proposed report. Gerry had spent considerable effort compiling his thoughts on the future of trade between Kushtia and the European Union and he was looking forward to getting back to London.

Kashim Kushnar, the Trade Minister, received Gerry in the small lounge area attached to Kushnar's office at the Ministry. Kushnar was sprawled comfortably on a pile of well stuffed cushions. Beside him knelt a girl, veiled with an almost transparent black cloth that was hung at its hem with gold wire and jewels and wearing a golden costume that left her belly bare. She was holding a tray of lokoum. Kashim gestured to the tray. "Please," he said. "Take some and join me. It is most excellent. Turkish, of course. And when they are part of the EU cheaper for us perhaps?"

Gerry selected a piece, letting the sticky sweet dissolve in his mouth. "Perhaps," he said, sitting down on the cushions. He had learned from the Ambassador never to agree, never to disagree, in these discussions. Another girl appeared to serve them tea. This one wore - what was it Tracey had called them? — 'manuses', although these looked more practical than decorative to Gerry. As she turned to leave Gerry saw that the backs of her thighs and calves were criss-crossed with bright red wheals presumably from a beating for some infringement of Kushnar's regime.

Kashim smiled as he lifted his tea and gestured to Gerry to join him. "This lounge is my sanctuary. It is too easy to spend all your time working. The important thing is to balance your work with your pleasure. I try to encourage my staff to do the same."

"Does that include your new intern?" Gerry hadn't intended to raise the subject of the Ambassador's daughter and he suddenly realised that what he had said may have sounded impertinent.

"Ah, Tracey," Kashim said with a grin, ignoring any irony in Gerry's question. "She needs little encouragement from me in the matter of pleasure. I found she was not so useful on the Ministry payroll but I was able to find a position for her in my household. See..." He leant forward and muttered a few words in the ear of the kneeling girl. She leapt to her feet bowed briefly to Gerry, peering at him with wide, dark brown, eyes over her veil, and then to Kashim before she disappeared. Kashim took another piece of lokoum, savouring it slowly. "Watch," he said.

Almost as soon as he said it, three girls, dressed in the same golden costumes and with the same jewel- trimmed veils, appeared. Tracey, the girl in the middle, led the three of them in a spirited, acrobatic and erotic dance with moves that focused on emphasising the legs, the buttocks, and the breasts. At one point Tracey stepped across the floor, pushing her hips forward so that the great golden properta that hung from the centre of her belt on a chain slapped against her crotch.

"Tracey has a very original talent in this area. It is not traditional Kushtian dancing but, ahhh," Kashim paused as Tracey bent backwards over a low table while one of the others shuffled forward, her crotch almost skimming Tracey's nose, "but it does have a rhythmical charm of its own."

Gerry could see what he meant. Tracey's dancing was more Rn'B than World Music for certain. Although, he had to confess, he wasn't complaining, either.

"She also has introduced me to one of your western erotic TV channels."

Gerry raised his eyebrows but Kashim went on without allowing him to comment.

"MTV, it is called. So many girls! Such, alluring costumes. Such - ah," Tracey executed another move that left Gerry wondering if her bones were actually connected in all the usual places, "energetic displays. Rhiannon, Beyoncee, Shakira. All of them, remarkable. Remarkable."