Back to slavery

Chapter 8

Smith’s point of view

My name is Mr. Smith or at least that is what everyone calls me. My real name is not important. I came to this place because we needed more people to finish the railroads, men to work and women to satisfy the men. So, I came to this God-forsaken place to get more people. I hate it here, even though these people are civilized, it is nothing compared to home.

I am late. I am supposed to meet Max in half an hour. He has some new people to show me.

As I am hurrying to meet with him, I glance across the road and my heart stops. I did not realize that I had stopped walking until someone bumped into my back. I turn around to find a man behind me. “Sumimasen” (Sorry) he says and scurries away. Rolling my eyes, I turned back to the girl, but she was no longer there. Not to be discouraged, I jogged across the road avoiding horses to see where she went.

As soon as I cross over, I look one way, then the next. I jogged down the street and as I was passing by an ally, I caught a glimpse of her turning a corner, but before I was able to take a step, I heard my name called out.

“Smith, Smith, there you are. You’re late.” Max walks up to me out of breath. ‘Come on everyone is waiting for you” Smiling, he tries to drag me away but, I don’t budge.

When Max sees that I don’t move, he walks over to see what I am looking at.

“What is it?”

“A girl”

I can’t say no more. I want to follow her, to know her, to possess her. I don’t understand my feelings.

“OK, there are a lot of girls. If you want one, I know where plenty are that would be happy to service you”

Looking at him, I just shook my head. “Come on, we’re already late.”

Shrugging his shoulders, we headed back to the hotel.

“There you are, Mr. Smith, Max’, a big burly man named Jon gets up from the table and greets us at the door and shakes my hand in his big beefy one. ‘We’re just about to start without you guys. Come on, sit down. What will you have?”

“Brandy” Max and I say at the same time.

We all sit down and go to business.

“Well, what do you have for me?” I said after I took a sip of my brandy.

Jon stands up and goes to a door across the room. After a few minutes, he came back. The door opens and out comes 10 men and 10 women.

I stood to inspect them. I go to the men first; I need them to be young and strong. As I am looking at them, they don’t look me in the eye until I get to the last guy. He is trying to intimidate me, and I don’t like it one bit. I punched him hard in the stomach and give him a one-two in the face.

Jon runs up to me and sees all the blood on the floor. “What the hell man, why did you punch him?”

“Just showing him whose boss.”

Laughing, Jon pats me on the back and moves me on to the girls.

As I am looking at the girls, all I can think about is the one that I had seen early that day. I try not to compare the girls in front of me with her, but it was hard. I must know who she is, where she lives. It’s like I’m obsessive about her. Disgusted, I walked away, sat down and drank the rest of my brandy.

“Well, what do you think?” Max asked.

“They’ll do, I guess.”

The next day, as I was leaving my hotel, it was like the fates were on my side. As soon as I stepped outside, there she was. My heart stopped and I could not breathe. Time had just stood still because the woman that I could not stop thinking about was right there in front of me. She shyly looks up at me through her long lashes, just a glimpse, and then she looks down and walks away. That was all.

I ran after her, but I could not do anything but follow her. I stood back so she did not see me and as I started to follow her my heart beat faster as soon as I realized where her destination was. It’s a whorehouse. Could it be my angle that has been haunting my dreams works here? As she gets to the door, she stops with her hand on the knob, and she looks back, but she does not see me, but I can see the sadness in her eyes and longing and that.dose me in. My heart breaks for her and I know that, no matter what, I knew I had to have to have her.

The first thing that I did was to find Max or Jon. I headed back to the hotel that Max and I were staying at.

I head into the lobby and find him in the restaurant eating with Jon.

Walking up to the table, I sat down next to Jon. A server comes up and takes my order.

After he leaves, I turn to Jon and enquire about the whorehouse.

Shaking his head, Jon tries to discourage me.

“If you need a woman, I told you I could……” I glared at Max, cutting him off in mid-sentence.

“Max is right, Mr. Smith; you don’t want Pi’s girls. They are riddled with diseases, some that are very bad.” Shaking his head, he starts to eat.

I turned to him and told him I don’t care about the other girls. There is only one that I want, and you know when I want something or someone, I always get what I want.