Houston, 2030

by Mike McKay

  “And then, Joe Vo came to see Mom. In the night. I pretended to be asleep, but I was listening. Joe said: I gave you the loans, Madam; how do you intend to pay back? Mom said: I will pay back, but not at once, can I pay little-by-little? And Joe said: it is not what we agreed upon, darling. Little-by-little will not do. The good news, Madam, I am willing to accept your two daughters as a payment.”

  “Daughters as a payment? That's what he said?” Mark asked.

  “Yeah. He told Mom: your Amelia is fourteen already, right? I'll give her a job. She will work for me exactly four years, he said. Then, your second – what's her name, Jasmine? She will be fourteen too. Jasmine goes to me, and Mel – I will let her go. Jasmine will also work for four years, and we are all done! I will erase your loans, no sweat.”

  “Yes, it's a sad story. Did you understand, back then, I mean, what Joe suggested?” In the FBI, they had tons of similar stories, – it was a part of the mandatory training on the organized crime. The Bureau even had a special abbreviation for this: SLIP – ‘Shark Loan Into Prostitution.’

  “Back then – no. I understood later. Joe said: it's a perfect business opportunity for you, Madam. All my girls are… quite inventive, you know? They will teach you daughters all the tricks! And after Amelia and Jasmine are done working for me, you will buy them the dog-tags, and your daughters will turn a reasonable profit. Do we have a deal? Mom began to cry and said: I can't give you my daughters. Can I go work for you myself? And he says: yourself, Madam? Must be a bloody joke! Who will pay for you – more than three hundred? However, as I said, no big hurry. I'll give you two months. The solution I offer is perfect in any respect. And if in two months you find the full sum, – no hard feelings. If you pay back, consider this chat never happened… And he left.”

  “And then?”

  “After that, Mom suddenly started coughing blood. She had bad cough for some time before, but didn't go to doctors. She was saving every dollar. Our neighbor asked one doctor to come and check Mom for-free. The doctor said: lung cancer, likely, from as-best-oz. Mom got as-best-oz while they were breaking those sky-scrapers… The doctor said: not much time left. While Mom was dying, Joe didn't show up. We forgot about him. Mel started going to the Day-Pay. I and my brothers went collecting food scraps from the neighbors. Right after Mom's funerals, Joe came again. He brought good food and a bottle of Moonshine. Like, let's remember your parents, orphans. He was talking to Mel. You, Mel, he said, now the eldest in the family, you are responsible for your mother's loans. I feel sorry for you, but business is business. The loans, you must pay them, as we agreed with your mom. Mel said: no. She said, I'd better die of hunger than go to your place. And Joe said, like, easy going: OK, baby, a ‘no’ is a ‘no.’ You will regret your decision soon enough. And he left. Mel said: good riddance… And so, one week later…” Now, Jasmine was crying full-way, spreading mud from Mark's shirt over her face.

  “One week later, we came home from the 'Fill. Had a lucky day. Mel got hired for two full days, and Bertie got some good scraps. Lucky… Right! They were waiting for us. In our house! Five of them. Dragged us inside and locked the door. Put electric tape over our mouths. Me… with me, they did it only twice. It was painful, and I was bleeding. One of them looked at me and said: leave this worm alone. One more time, – and she kicks the bucket, and do we need this? So they started doing this to Mel. One gets up, another lays down… They called it: ‘Merry-Go-Round.’ It's like the one in the Beaumont Arcade. Means: over and over again, right? Then, their boss told Mel: did you enjoy it, bitch? Tomorrow – do whatever you want. Call the Police, whatever. I don't give a damn. But the day after tomorrow – all four of you will come to see Joe, at ten AM, sharp. Understood? He will explain you the deal. If you don't come, there will be another night like this. Only, this time I will invite very different guys. They haven't taste for no girls, they make love with little boys. Think about your brothers, and decide yourself…”

  “So you went to Joe Vo?”

  “What else? Our neighbors called the Police in the morning. They came, questioned everybody. Made pictures. Took swabs for analysis… from down there… But then, they said, the DNA tests are canceled. Too expensive. The day after that we went to Joe. Millie, Bertie and myself – Joe even didn't look at us. Told one of his ‘boys’ to bring us straight to the 'Fill and sell to the ‘rag barons.’ He said: whatever they pay, doesn't matter. You know how much they paid for three of us? One thousand dollars… But the ‘barons’ are OK, they don't hold slaves for life. They don't need no adults. After you turn fourteen or fifteen, – that's all, you may go… About me – Joe surely had some other plans. I mean: he wanted me to grow up a bit, before taking into his brothel.”

  “Three of you. And Amelia?”

  “He told her to stay in the brothel. At first, they even didn't let her go home. Then, she got a belly. I mean: got pregnant. Joe laughed and said: OK, baby, shit happens… Sorry, I mean: he said it like this. Joe's ‘boys’ brought Mel to see a doctor. And the doctor pulled the baby out. Mel said: piece-by-piece, yeah! And also cut something inside her, so she can't have kids no more. After that, Joe said: Mel, darling, do you understand now you will be my slave for life? I invested in you so much, you can't pay me back. Not in the life-time, darling. Anyway, after the operation, they allowed Mel to go home in the morning. They called her: ‘already screwed.’ Like: damaged inside, nobody wants her for a wife, and no place to go. Then, a bit later, Joe said: your Jassy must be big already. Go tell the ‘barons’: I need her back. The ‘barons’ can't say nothing against Joe. The plan was that Mel brings me over, and they start teaching me how to be a hooker. But I got lucky!”

  “Lucky?”

  “Yeah! The battery exploded. Remember, you met me, the second time, at the Day-Pay? I was all covered in these little acid burns? I lied my name is Amelia Khan, and I'm fourteen? Mel brought me to Joe. I was, like, all in plasters. He looked at me and said: now you, Jassy, is a bloody one-eyed freak, what a damn waste. I don't give a shit… Sorry, sir, that's what he said. I don't give… that thing, – what you do with the rest of your life. Go back digging at your stinky 'Fill! Get lost, he said. Well, I walked back to the 'Fill, like, dancing! For me, I'd better pick up shit… Sorry, sir, – poo from latrines with no gloves than to be a hooker in Joe's brothel…”

  Wow, what this little girl had to go through, Mark thought. For her, even losing an eye – was called ‘lucky!’ His felt an urge to go to Joe Vo and test the service firearm on this bastard. Perhaps, the thing still could fire?

  “Well, and what happened next?”

  “Next, it became a little easier…”

  Rodrigo ran to them, out of breath. In his left hand he had a banana leaf with four rice balls, and in his right – a Walkie-Talkie. He stuffed the leaf into Jasmine's hands, and reported, panting: “We got a roll-call. Something big: three dead, five mutilated. I'd better run.”

  “Do I need to come with you, Sergeant?” Mark offered to help.

  “Nope, thank you. This is not the FBI's jurisdiction, anyhow. The usual thing, some shit like this happens here every day. We take care of it ourselves. Oh, forgot: my rice ball. Didn't finish it before the radio went crazy…” He picked up the slightly bitten rice ball from the banana leaf and rushed in the direction of the landfill. The Sergeant had high adrenaline level again, Mark thought. With such a stressful job it was too easy to gain weight!

  “Would you like a rice ball, sir?” Jasmine offered. Mark hesitantly took the treat from the leaf. Strange, but the landfill smell had disappeared. Whether it was due to the little breeze at the dam, or because Mark was already so soaked with this stench, and his brain refused to register it. The rice ball was tasty. No wonder, I had not eaten since the bloody morning, Mark thought.

  “You, Jasmine, said – it became easier.”

  “Yeah, a bit easier. When I got all the burns, and the white eye… From the battery, I mean… Our Auntie Kun… Really, she is not my auntie. The �
�barons’ call it so: they are all ‘aunties’ and ‘uncles.’ So our Auntie Kun gave me a tin can, and said: don't you dare coming to Day-Pay again! If I see you here, – you will get smacked. In your head! You're a cripple now, here's your tin, go begging, whatever. The ‘barons,’ they have such a rule. If some kid gets crippled, they don't bring him or her to the Day-Pay no more.” Right, Mark thought. It would spoil them all the cover. For example, three years ago, the woman with three girls. If one of them had an acid burn, Mark would send that freaking ‘Auntie Kun’ to jail – without questions!

  “After that, I went around with the tin for a while,” Jasmine continued her story, “but I could not collect much. I'm not a vet, and have two arms and two legs. Who would ever give?”

  “Say NO to beggars,” Mark recalled the poster in the Salvation Way window.

  “So I went to the Day-Pay by myself. What this stupid Auntie Kun can do to me? She can't even catch me! Well, and I got lucky, almost right away. One nice lady hired me. They wanted to dig some rot-pits. Do you know what these rot-pits are?”

  “Just found out today. The Sergeant told me. It's like a huge pimple in the ground?”

  “Right! It's like a pimple! So they needed somebody: very light and very brave. To walk over the rot-pits and not get sucked in. Back then, I was light – like steer-of-foam.”

  “Styrofoam, Jasmine. And brave?”

  “Brave? Oh, I was shit… I mean, sir: very scared. Sorry. These words, – at the 'Fill, we use them all the time, but I know they are bad! So, yeah, I was very-very-very scared. But didn't show it! They made me a pair of ‘skis.’ Like two boards. If you tuck the skis, you can walk over the rot-pits OK. So I started working for their gang. And then the lady said: Jassy, we all like you, and you work very well; you may stay in our gang peer-ma-neatly. It's a special word. Means: ‘all you want.’ They even made me a fake paper, like, I am already fourteen. They paid OK, so Mel and I managed to pull Millie and Bertie out of that stupid re-circled paper shop.”

  “You mean: from the ‘barons’?”

  “Yeah. By the way, it wasn't difficult. I came to the boys one evening and said: don't sleep. After the master is gone, count to twenty thousand in your head, then get up real quiet, climb over the fence, and I'll be waiting for you outside. We will go home.”

  “Did it work OK?”

  “Not hundred pur-scent OK. On the first night, I was waiting and waiting, and they didn't come. Millie was counting – and fell asleep! But on the second night, I gave him a pin and told him to stick it into his arm every five hundred. And they got out. The ‘barons’ couldn't do nothing. If kids aren't hungry, the ‘barons’ cannot do nothing at all!”

  “Your brothers went back to school.”

  “Yeah! They missed two years, but no probs. Mel came, told the Deputy Headmaster: such and such, our parents are dead, all that stuff. Now, in the morning, Millie and Bertie go to school and after the school – come to help me at the 'Fill. Our gang pays them a little, one quarter of a normal day-pay…”

  “OK. Can you tell me about Nick?”

  “About Nick I can't tell you much. Dad had one more son, before us, but the parents never talked about him… To make it short, Nick showed up in Houston about a year ago. He was still on crutches, back then. Without a leg, do you know?”

  “I know. I was at the crime scene.”

  “Yeah. After he was wounded in Venezuela, they sent him to this boat… a floating hospital. He called it ‘Dumpster,’ so weird. I always thought ‘dumpster’ is like a big box for collecting garbage – long, long time ago? Unbelievable, somebody gave their garbage for-free.”

  Precisely: long, long time ago, Mark thought. Twelve years ago. Back then, they still had some resemblance of the garbage collection service. Once a month, a truck would come to the neighborhood to take away the ‘solid waste.’ By that time, people already stopped throwing their garage away. All was processed and reused – on the spot. Food leftovers – to the compost bin, or for the poor, anything burnable – to a fireplace, metals – to the local blacksmith. More often than not, their communal dumpster was empty. Eventually, the garbage truck stopped coming.

  “When Nick landed in Galveston, he decided to come and visit his ‘Dad's other family.’ He called us like this: ‘Dad's other family.’ Weird, is it? He and Mel went to the parents' graves. Nick had blisters from his crutches… Well, Mel told him everything. How Mom and Dad died, and about this Joe Vo, and where she works now. Nick then said: wait for one more year. I'm no good now – a cripple on crutches. I will get myself a new leg, and come to help you out of this mess. And then – he left. Back to New York. They gave him a pass for a military train to New York. He often wrote e-mails to us. Mel was always so happy when he wrote…”

  “He came back to Houston three weeks ago, right?”

  “Yeah. I was so impressed, how he learned to walk on his atre-ficial leg. You wouldn't even guess it was atre-ficial. Maybe, only if you look at his bike. He brought a bike from New York, with the special bracket on the pedal… Oh, and he had a plan.”

  “How to get you out of here?”

  “Yeah. Millie, Bertie and me – we could quietly slip away at any time. Joe wouldn't give a damn. But Mel – no, they would start looking for her. Right away! Mel pretended she liked working for Vo. Like, if she got used to be a hooker, enjoyed sleeping with the clients, and all. She was allowed to go home in the morning, but only for few hours. By twelve, maximum one PM, she was supposed to be at her work. Once, she was late, so Joe told her: I will not beat you, baby. Your skin is too precious. Giving you a black eye, he said, is like pulling money out of my pocket and throwing them away. But your sister Jassy – oh, she will pay for you! Dearly. This time, no big deal, – we will send her for a ‘beauty spa.’ ‘With a hot shower,’ he said. But once again you come late, he said, I'll send my ‘boys’ to the 'Fill to give your Jassy a proper ‘nose job.’ Do you know, sir, what it is?”

  “Cut your nose off?” Mark saw this gang's mark, many times – on photographs, and a couple of times – in real. Not a pretty sight.

  “Yep. He said: your Jassy is such a beauty already, the ‘nose job’ will make her only prettier…”

  “What is this ‘beauty spa’ business?”

  “You never heard of the ‘beauty spa,’ sir? They find a latrine, so it's almost full. And they push you through… I mean: through the floor hole. Straight into the sh… Poo! Head first! And as you try to get out, they help you to wash your face. Stand at the hole and pee on you. This is the ‘hot shower’ part.”

  Mark was horrified. He was aware about this punishment too, only under the different names: ‘show someone to the bathroom,’ or even ‘the golden bath.’ “Did they… Did they do this… to you?”

  “No. Thanks God! Mel begged Joe to leave me alone. But she was very scared. About the ‘nose job,’ Joe wasn't joking. Earlier, they did a ‘nose job’ to one privateer. ‘Privateer’ is a special word, means: a legal hooker, with a ‘dog-tag,’ who isn't under any pimp. If Joe doesn't like one of them, he sends his ‘boys’… After the ‘nose job,’ the ‘privateer’ can't be a hooker no more, see? Has to find something else to do for living… And so, Mel was very afraid to disobey, and she came to the brothel even before twelve, every day.”

  “And what Nick came up with?”

  “He had very little money, so he decided he must find some job in Houston. Then, from time to time, he would come to Joe and buy Mel for a full night. As if he was only a customer. Joe, after all, didn't know Mel had a step-brother. They didn't look alike, so Joe would never guess. He planned to do this few times, so Joe would think Nick is a regular customer of Mel, and all that. The hookers often have regular customers, right? They also decided that Mel and Nick will leave the brothel and go to the woods. This happens too, sometimes. Not all the men like to do it in a small room if someone else puffs behind the wall! Then, Nick would buy Mel for the whole week. As a regular customer, it would be OK. And we wou
ld have plenty time to get away from Houston.”

  Heck, this plan might have worked, Mark thought. If they would not meet the Butcher on the very first night! “They were just unlucky, Jasmine. It was the Sheldon Butcher, and not Joe. OK, it's restricted information, and I cannot tell you everything. But I can tell you this much: Joe sent one of his pass girls to the cemetery, for Nick's and Mel's funerals. To check who was actually killed. Consider, if he himself ordered to kill them – would he bother sending someone? You don't sleep at home anymore. Do you think Joe will not leave you alone after Mel's death?”