Chapter 5

Ana began learning her secretarial duties, and finding her way around the office and the software she had to use. There was a lot to learn and her only guidance was some unspecific instructions from the Director such as where she was to sit and what she was expected to produce, but her college training had prepared her well, and she soon felt quite confident in her work.

She felt rather less confidence when she ventured outside the office to walk along the labyrinthine corridors to the canteen or to the toilet, but although often horribly lost at first, she was now more concerned about her embarrassment as she passed the scantily clothed employees. This included Binta whom she met by chance while taking some documents to the centralised photocopying room. As always, she was totally undressed and Ana blushed quite visibly as she approached from the other end of the corridor.

"Fitting in well, I hope?" Binta wondered.

"Yes, thank you," Ana shyly answered. "I'm beginning to remember where everything goes."

"I'm sure you are," mused Binta, dawdling by the fire door running her fingers through her long hair. "Look ... erm ... do you want to come for a swim after work?"

"A swim?"

"Yes, in the Brothel Baths. No one would mind you turning up."

"But I haven't brought a swimming costume with me."

Binta laughed. "You'd look pretty out of place in one of those, I can tell you! This is a brothel, remember. No, Ana, you don't need a swimming costume: just your sweet self. Come on! You haven't got anything else lined up, have you?"

Ana had to admit she hadn't, so immediately after work she eventually located the Brothel's swimming pool, which was closed off to the public and accessible only to employees. As Ana could see before she made her way into the changing area at the pool-side, there was definitely no need for any kind of bathing costume. None of the half dozen or so girls splashing about in the pool were wearing any more clothes than Binta who was floating in the deep end with her hair fanning out around her, looking like an exotic giant water-lily. Ana self-consciously took her clothes off, uncomfortably aware that this was the first time she'd ever bared her slim untanned body in public, and stood nervously by the poolside.

Binta swam towards her, her back and buttocks obscured by a trail of long hair. "Hi there! Come on in. The water's lovely and warm!"

Ana cautiously lowered herself down the steps into the pool, feeling the distinct chill of water progressively lapping up her legs and thighs. Then, with the courage she knew she had to find, she surrendered her whole weight to the water, braving the sting of chlorinated water in her eyes. Her head and hair sank beneath the surface where she saw Binta's naked body glide towards her.

"This pool's one of the few things I'm grateful for here," laughed her friend when Ana's head surfaced. "It's to compensate for the hard work we do, I suppose."

Ana regarded the other prostitutes, some of whom fastidiously swam with their faces and bound-up hair out of the water so as not to smudge the thick make-up or to get chlorine-scented locks. Ana span around and lay on her back, looking up at the evening sunlight streaming through the glass-covered ceiling. Binta was right: this was a very pleasant pool. Perhaps she could come to enjoy working here.

As she righted herself to chat to her floating friend, she was suddenly sprayed by a sudden wave caused by someone diving into the pool rather too nearby. The pale body of the culprit descended to the very bottom of the pool and then propelled itself like a torpedo to the surface.

"Why hello, Binta!" a child's face with very short boyish hair greeted them. Ana was initially unsure whether this intruder was a boy or a girl. The chest was very flat and there were very other few signs of gender, but the girl's nudity couldn't disguise her sexual identity for long. She bobbed around in the water chuckling and giggling with the childishness suggested by her body. "So, Binta, who's your new friend?"

"Ana, the Director's new secretary," announced Binta. "She only started a couple of days ago."

"Oh! Inta's replacement. Shame about her! Hi! My name's Zabba! It's my real name as well! My parents had a strange sense of humour. Glad to meet you. Are you new to Blad?"

"Yes, I am. It's all very different for me."

"I bet! And new to brothels as well, I imagine?"

"The ones where I come from don't offer full-time secretarial work," answered Ana, falsely suggesting that had they done otherwise she'd have taken the opportunity of working at one. "What do you do?"

Zabba laughed, with an indecent lack of restraint. "What do you think? This is a Brothel you know! I suppose I could just be a receptionist or a cook or something, though I don't think they'd let me do jobs like that! And they certainly wouldn't pay as well! No, Ana darling, I'm a prostitute. Like your friend, Binta! What else could I be?"

Ana's cheeks burnt through the film of chlorinated water. She hated to be reminded of the sordid aspects of where she worked. She still found it difficult to reconcile the distasteful nature of the profession with the actual practitioners.

"Zabba's actually quite high-grade as well," elaborated Binta, her arms rotating to keep herself afloat. "She's an Alpha."

"Yes! I admit it!" the girl replied proudly. She lowered her arms to let her body sink into the water. "And as you can see, not for the most obvious of reasons. I don't exactly have the classic Alpha grade figure, with my teeny tits and slim thighs. But girls like me who look so much younger than they are and (let's admit it!) look like little boys: we're in great demand. That pushes up my grade a lot. I could never be an Alpha Plus. You need more dedication, stamina and willing than I'll ever have. But I'm quite content to be an Alpha. The pay's good and I'll be able to retire at the age when most people are just starting their working lives."

"However much you earn, I'd much rather be me than you," Binta commented, "Your clients have got the strangest obsessions."

Zabba smiled. "I get my fair share of perverts, I must admit," she agreed, running a hand through her short damp crop of dark brown hair. "My bottom gets ever so sore. You couldn't imagine! But you're only young once."

"And you look like you'll be young forever."

"Well, I am young. One day my looks just won't be marketable any more. But I'm in this trade for the money and I don't have to do nearly as much work as a Gamma or a Beta to earn tons more than they can."

"Well, infinitely more than me," sniffed Binta bitterly.

"I'm sorry, sweetest. I keep forgetting you're not here voluntarily. And if I were only a Beta, I don't think I'd bother either. It'd hardly be worth the effort. But for me: where else could I work at my age to afford a luxury flat in the select Honey suburb and earn far more money than a young girl knows what to do with? You've got to admit that those of us who've got a lot to sell get a lot out of it!"

"If you can put up with all the abuse..."

"Not all of it's abuse, Binta darling. Some clients are actually quite sweet, which even you'd admit if you weren't so dead set against men. But let's be honest: I'd be ready to go through a lot more than this for the lifestyle. The hours are great as well! I go clubbing all night and don't have to worry about getting up like all the other girls working in this city. And I don't believe the occasional sore bum is really such a bad penalty. It's those who work in factories, supermarkets and restaurant kitchens I feel sorry for. They get hardly nothing for what they do. And gain nothing like the respect from their customers that I'm accustomed to."

"Is this what you always wanted to do?" wondered Ana.

"Goodness no! I'll be out of this profession long before my sell-by date. What I do next I really don't know. And I don't really want to think about it. Growing old really depresses me. I hope I never have to get older than my teens!"

Zabba abruptly broke away from Ana and Binta, and swam a length of the baths. The other two followed behind, Ana enjoying the lash of the water against her body as she kept pace. They arrived at the shallow end, where Zabba stood to rub the water out of her eyes and to reveal where she shaved to make her look even younger. Ana crouched down in the water, still too shy to stand and openly display her body.

"What do you think of the Brothel, Ana?" Zabba wondered. "Do you share Binta's negative opinions?" Ana nodded her head. "Well, you're new here, and I'm sure you'll come to take a much more liberal view of it, like your predecessor. Perhaps like her you'll be tempted to earn a bit of extra money. Everyone loses their inhibitions after a while."

"I don't think that's such a good thing," opined Binta. "But even if you weren't a prostitute, Zabba, you'd have a fairly active and varied sex life."

"You want to bet!" the girl laughed. "What could be more fun? Sure. Left to my own devices entirely there are pretty few of my clients, even the regular ones, I'd ever contemplate if I didn't do it for a living. But when you get fully immersed in it, there can't be anything more fulfilling."

"Pah!" Binta disagreed. "It hasn't made me any more enthusiastic!"

"Well, Binta dear, you are an exception! Nobody could accuse you of having a normal attitude towards sex."

"I really don't think that my preference in partners has any bearing over what I think about prostitution in general. It's absolutely abhorrent."

"I can't pretend to understand you, Binta, but you're probably quite right. Many of my clients undoubtedly prefer boys to women. The number of times I've had to pretend to be one myself! I'm sure you'd find that even more disgusting. Perverse even, if you weren't yourself a homosexual. But it's fairly harmless. And I'm sure the provision of my services spares countless real boys attention they probably wouldn't appreciate. I am at least a professional and know exactly what to expect."

"I don't believe that my sexual preferences make me likely to have any more sympathy for men who lust after children. If there's any sexual behaviour the government is quite right to make illegal, it's that..."