Chapter 14

"Breakfast!" greeted Ketaba cheerfully, announcing her presence in the bedroom where Ana was sleeping. Ana cautiously opened her eyes and looked at her naked friend towering above carrying a tray adorned with fruit juice, muesli and toast. "I thought you might appreciate some breakfast, Ana!"

Ana smiled shyly. Nobody had ever brought her breakfast in bed before, so she gratefully sat up and put the tray on her lap. She picked up the glass of fruit juice which tasted slightly sour to her sleep-encrusted taste buds, but appreciated the way it brought gradual clarity to her thoughts. She looked up at Ketaba who was hovering nervously over her and smelt distinctly of the freshness of soap and shampoo. She had her long hair tied back in a white towel.

"Thanks very much," Ana said, putting down the fruit juice and picking up the spoon to tackle the muesli. "I had a very refreshing night's sleep."

"And you don't feel at all sick or unwell after the wine?"

Ana frowned, thinking back to the night before. Wasn't she supposed to experience something called a 'hangover' after drinking? She didn't feel at all bad, although she remembered a slight giddiness when she first went to bed. "No, I feel all right."

"I felt slightly ill when I woke up," sighed Ketaba. "I didn't sleep at all well. I was tossing and turning all night. I suppose it serves me right..."

"Oh yes," commented Ana, remembering more about the previous night. She caught a glance at Ketaba's eyes which looked slyly at Ana's chest. She glanced down idly and noticed for the first time that her breasts were on full display. She had become so accustomed to sleeping naked next to Binta, she at first thought nothing of it. Then she recalled Ketaba's late night kiss, and with embarrassment hoisted up the cotton sheet to cover her chest.

Ketaba sighed, in recognition of Ana's discomfort. "I'm sorry about last night," she remarked sadly. "I'm very very sorry! I don't know what came over me! I've never behaved like that before with a woman. It must have been the wine. I must have drunk far more than I should."

Ana smiled reassuringly, but still rearranged herself so she could eat with no risk of the sheet falling down to her lap. "Don't worry, Ketaba. It must have been the wine. It's supposed to make people behave very strangely. You probably just weren't aware of what you were doing."

Ana wasn't convinced however that Ketaba's behaviour wasn't symptomatic of deeper repressed feelings. She'd once been told that the really bad thing about alcohol was that it released people's inhibitions and let them behave in ways that were more honest but also more socially unacceptable.

"I'm not a lesbian, you know. I don't 'fancy' women at all. It was just me getting upset after all that alcohol," Ketaba continued, sitting nervously on the side of the bed. "But don't tell anyone about it, will you? Not even Binta or Zabba. I don't want them to think I'm a dyke like them. I don't want them to try seducing me. And I don't want people to think I'd ever behave illegally."

"I won't tell anyone," Ana said. She felt slightly offended at the suggestion that her lover would attempt to seduce Ketaba just because she might think she was a lesbian too. Binta was surely not the sort. She also realised that keeping news of the incident secret from Binta wasn't going to be that easy. Questions would be bound to be asked about her night at Ketaba's flat, and Binta might already suspect that her colleague had designs on her lover. She had after all been peculiarly unforthcoming about why she was so unenthusiastic about Ana's visit.

"I'd be so grateful if you don't, Ana. I'd be so very embarrassed if anyone knew. I'd feel humiliated. What would people think? I couldn't live for shame!"

"It was nothing, Ketaba. Nothing at all. Don't mention it, and I'll probably just forget it altogether anyway."

Ketaba smiled with an expression of relief. "Yes, you're right. It was nothing! After all, we didn't actually do anything, did we? There was no lovemaking or anything, was there? I'm probably just worrying about nothing at all! It's all in my mind, isn't it? Well, we won't say anything more about it!"

Ana finished her breakfast and waited until Ketaba had left the room with the empty tray before she ventured out of bed and into her clothes. She declined Ketaba's offer of a shower before venturing out and sat in the living room while Ketaba put some clothes on. Ketaba's choice of a track suit and trainers suggested more a woman who enjoyed sports than one who worked in a brothel.

"Shall we go for a walk? You're not in a hurry to get anywhere are you? It is Saturday after all."

"No, I'd love to see more of Honey," Ana agreed, leading the way out of Ketaba's flat into the streets beyond. She was still impressed by the general affluence and splendour of the district. It made her own suburb seem very mundane.

"Do you enjoy working at the Brothel?" wondered Ketaba as they strode past the ornate railings of the impressive homes, large cars parked in their wide drives. "Or do you still have reservations about it?"

Ana mused for a moment. "It's not too bad as a job, and I'm getting used to the idea of working with all the prostitutes around," she admitted thinking particularly of how it had made it possible to meet Binta. "I don't like the Director, though. He's fairly objectionable even when he doesn't touch my bottom or make coarse comments about what boyfriends he thinks I've slept with. Everything he says has an obscene second meaning and he smokes an awful lot."

"That must be terrible. I'd hate to have to put up with all that smoke. I don't like the Director either, and I don't think he likes me. When I started working at the Brothel he was always trying to get me to sleep with him, but I just didn't fancy it. The smell of smoke on his clothes! Some of my clients smoke, but somehow it's different when it's a client. You can tell them not to smoke, which you can't do so easily with your boss."

"You enjoy working at the Brothel, don't you?"

"Enjoy isn't quite the right word. It's a job, like yours, and I hope I take a proper professional attitude towards it. I think though that it's rather devalued when people like Binta and Ferhana work there. It shouldn't be used as a prison. But the Brothel treats its staff pretty well: much better than it would do if it were not a government enterprise. Anyway, I wouldn't want to break the law and freelance, like some girls do. You're not so well protected, and there's no pension to look forward to. Although I'm sure I'd earn a lot more if I did. The government wouldn't take its percentage of my earnings!"

"Is that the only thing that's wrong about working freelance? You don't think it'd be better if it were as it used to be, where individual brothels competed against each other? Zabba always says she wished she could set up her own business."

"She would, wouldn't she?" sniffed Ketaba disparagingly, running her fingers idly against the wall of one of the houses. She pointed towards a track running through some grass between tall trees on the other side of the road. "That's where I often go jogging. I usually spend at least an hour each day running. It's an excellent way to stay fit. Though I wouldn't say it was as effective as working." She turned her head towards Ana, and resumed her subject. "If you remember, the reason why the government first institutionalised Brothels all those generations ago was to prevent the spread of venereal disease. It was decided that suppressing prostitution by making it illegal would only make the situation worse. Nowadays, sexually transmitted diseases are almost totally unknown in Alif. We're given regular checkups once a month and it's very rare that a girl has caught something. That's a lot better than many countries, where all visitors returning from holidays there have to be screened for anything they've caught."

"Is that true of Agdal?"

"Strangely, no. But the Agdal government has its own ways of discouraging the spread of disease. And the other thing that institutionalised prostitution has done is stop the exploitation of prostitutes by their pimps. Apparently, working girls hardly saw anything of their earnings when it was under private control. It all went to their pimps who went around covered in jewels and expensive clothes, while the prostitutes had nothing at all. Some of these pimps even beat up their girls if they thought they hadn't made enough money and would push them out to work even when they were feeling ill or had had more clients than they were happy with. It's much better at the Brothel. However bad the Director is, he's not nearly as bad as these pimps used to be. At least that's what the history books say."

"Zabba says that it's now President Marmeluke's government that's the pimp. She says that the government gets it both ways by getting an initial cut from a prostitute's clients and then by taxing her earnings."

"Well, it's undeniably a good way for the government to ensure that prostitutes pay taxes. In countries where it's illegal there must be an awful lot of revenue that never gets collected. It must be better for the country if prostitutes pay taxes just like other workers. It's unfair on those who work legally."

"I suppose that's true," remarked Ana. "But there must be some bad things about the government running Brothels. Isn't it inconsistent for the government to be organising and profiting from something it so often says it disapproves of?"