When I woke up, the sun was shining on my face while I lay on a hard surface that made my back hurt badly.
I was swaying from side to side and the shaky movements troubled my stomach badly, making me want to vomit. I turned to my lefthand side and vomited my breakfast into a body of water.
It was then that I finally realized that I was in a boat surrounded by women of different ages and features. Their ankles were tied with chains attached to a pole in the middle of the boat. I looked down and saw that my ankles were also tied.
“What are these?” I gasped in horror.
“Are you blind?” A woman asked flippantly beside me. She was middle-aged and dressed in worn-out but neat clothes.
“They’re chains,” she continued. “Or do they look like a string of pearls to you?”
Some of the women laughe
