Day 18—Night Town I

The workers leaned in and out of doorways. It was early in the evening, so the supper crowd hadn’t even contemplated arriving yet. The entertaining-ladies were still busied making their drawing-rooms as clean and as comfortable as possible. Upstairs, a working girl named Deanna smoothed her hair and secured an extremely sharp pin into the series of twists.

Most of the other girls knew about Deanna, but she didn’t go out of her way to bring up any particular subject matter unless someone asked. She had heard some of the local tribal people use the word “two-spirits” once, but she didn’t think that fit either. Her first day inquiring about work at Miss Marilynn’s, she had been honest about her secret. Miss Marilynn scoffed, chuckling. “They always think they been the first one of those in here. Trust me, there’s a customer for everything.” Deanna smiled. “Thank you so kindly for being understanding. I think we gonna work together great.”

Miss Marilynn’s was a high-class joint. No wham bam thank you Ma’am and trying to get everyone in and out in 20 minutes. She even gave her girls a day off if they wanted it, or two half-days, as long as she still had enough girls working at the time. She never asked twice about “them invert freaks” as long as they followed the same rules all the other girls did. Miss Marilynn knew that many of her johns wanted the other bits that the girls couldn’t offer. Her grandfather used the word “two-spirits,” saying “Them’s people come to us from another tribe, some say. One before any of us. Always be kind.”

“You will always send the johns who are looking for what I have to me, please?”

“Yes, Deanna. Never you worry. I never done got the law down my back for 12 years now, and most of them out here never even heard of this.”