The Thing Swallowed (4): 'Madam's House'
[characters continued on from The Thing Swallowed (1) 'Trash Talk']
August 2000.
The digital clock had just beamed an alien blue 1:26AM when Bella was already halfway through her plot for Eruku. She wiggled her toes with delight, the sheets were extra soft in this particular hotel. The bedroom was dark except for the street lamps that sent a light-runway into the large room. Grateful for the streak in the dark, another thought intercepted. She had begun to really like this side of Milan, away from everything.
Bella’s mind was occupied. Busying herself with a strategy for Madam’s return tomorrow morning, her eyebrows folded in knots. She needed to be careful about how she went about holding Eruku in her palm. Bella was determined to continue her game, all she needed to do was to make sure Madam didn’t sniff the piss-scent she left on her guard dog. She glimmered at the thought of confronting Madam, trembling eagerly at the thought of tussling power with her, a stick to nudge her demons forward. Bella ignored them.
Bella was smiling openly to herself when she remembered to return to her body. She had come back just in time to exhale a flourish of moans for the friendly sandy-coloured man from South Africa, he was kneading his way between her thighs. The polite crescendo for Mr. X’s efforts sufficed and he climbed off Bella proud with satisfied grunts. He was a diplomat, in Milan for business quite often and stayed for weeks at a time. Madam’s network was as fascinating as she was.
Bella was zigzagging between brain and body, she shook the thumping thoughts away to finish her job, lifting off the bed with her sex appeal intact biting her bottom lip dramatically, her blonde bob weave-on blocking her sight but for a moment. She was enjoying today’s performance, somehow. Mr. X, she called them all as she wasn’t good with names. He was a soft-looking man, tall, thin, oddly quiet with a narrow chin and flashy orange framed glasses. He was older than Bella by much, maybe two decades she thought, edging through his 40s, agile. His eyes were a neutral grey like his expressions but Bella could tell he was happy, or if he was having a good day. It was their fourth rendezvous this week so he was an easy study. He slipped her a 100 euro note. ‘I paid your Madam already but I wanted you to have something extra. Something just for you to take care of yourself. Okay ?’ His accent blessed the ear, pinging in the room. He had a low measured tone when he spoke, except when it broke with moments of brightness. Perhaps more than just happy today, Mr. X was delighted. Bella matched his neutrality locking eyes with him as she lined the crisp note against the cup of her bra.
Bella didn’t mind servicing Mr. X from South Africa, his conversations were tepid, but enough to pass the time without malaise and his thrusts mundane enough to think through. This week with him kept her on a routine and she liked routines. As she pulled on her skirt, her forehead knots slowly softened, she figured it out.
Bella knew how she would handle Eruku next. ‘I can’t waste this opportunity kai’ she muttered to herself. ‘Come rain or shine’.
2:50AM
Mr. X had sent her home that night with his driver and Bella was delighted by the comfort. She was having a fantastic Thursday night when Maggie accosted her by the front door of their shared home, Madam’s house. The large chestnut door was creaking open when Maggie slipped her hands around Bella’s waist in the dark snuggling into her ear - ‘missed me?’ Bella was instantly annoyed, the kind that melts in the darkness ‘come, you’re liking this lesbian thing too much o’ and they came apart in a flurry of stifled laughter, each leaning on the other for a bit of balance.
Bella had managed to let her guard down for Maggie in a few short weeks, she wasn’t holding the steering wheel for this ride in the slightest and she wasn’t sure if it bothered her or not. She was free falling. Prior to the night she slipped her thumb into Maggie, Bella was comfortable in her slither and stealth, in fact she prided herself on it. She didn’t give a fuck, quite simply, except for the things she gave a fuck about, of course. She snaked her way around men with some ease, playing the game they needed her to play in order to take what she needed to have. It was what made Madam like her in the first place, her callous nature fit the job description. Madam had picked her up through a friend’s recommendation in March bringing her to Italy as her orphaned cousin. Bella had had no time for love for a long time but now, Maggie.
The house was stubbornly quiet. Most of the girls wouldn’t be back till nearly 4am, especially on a Thursday without a routine client for the night. The pair settled on Madam’s tiled kitchen floor with their backs against the big white meat freezer. Bella and Maggie wolfed down a large tub of cheap perfect ice-cream with two swords as spoons. ‘I know what to do about Eruku’, Bella offered into the dim lit kitchen, her eyes not leaving the tub’s rim, she traced the three block colors in her mind, studying the spoon curves and their choices together. Maggie gulped the vanilla slowly before responding, she didn’t want to sound as jealous as she felt ‘so are you going to fuck him this time?’ she tried to make it sound casual, editing out the edge in her tone as the words rolled out. Bella rubbed Maggie’s thigh slowly ‘that’s not what this game is about. Eruku has power and it is not in his penis. That is not where i will go to collect it. I am in his mind, that’s where I need to stay.’ Maggie rolled her eyes feigning exhaustion more peeved by the tub’s wetness Bella managed to rub down her thigh, ‘Okay, okay we have heard, Scholar Bella, so what are you going to do ? how will you get him to give you your passport if you’re not going to fuck him for it ?’ Bella already knew this side of Maggie, kindness and vibrance aside she wasn’t expansive in her thinking Bella often thought. She thought she would mind it but her narrow scope just made Bella want to refine her plans, her questions made her want to look for loopholes, she was grateful for the pushback. ‘Eruku just wants someone who can put him in his place and take his power away from him without hesitation. it’s his …thing’.
Maggie raised an eyebrow in between spoon stabs to the tub, thinking in the silence Bella left, feeling braver than the freezer humming behind them, she spoke. ‘And you think it’s enough to make him give you back your passport ?’ Bella didn’t hesitate. ‘Yes. I do. He’s been neglected by his precious Madam lately. I’m just filling the spot till she comes back but I have to flesh out the details sha.’ The lightbulb finally went off behind Maggie’s eyes, ‘Is it like ..a kink ?’ Bella couldn’t help but chuckle, she wanted to capture Maggie’s sweetness and trap it in a jar, she watched her dark eyes sparkling in the kitchen window across from them. Bella couldn’t help herself. ‘Do you want to come too ?’ ‘To where, Bella ?’ ‘To Dublin. When I get my passport back, I’m going to Dublin. Come, please.’ ‘I don’t know anything about Dublin’, Maggie pulled back hesitant, her hands suddenly shaking. Bella rubbed her wet palm against her dress and reached for Maggie again, holding her tenderly, ‘I can teach you what I know about Dublin. Is that okay with you?’
3:15AM
Maggie nodded in the dark and Bella kissed her silhouette.