been coming here for a long time. The patrons have found out that Rani is a doctor, and now they come to her with all their ailments. They even bring their family down here for Rani to check on. I’m thinking of helping her to set up in a shop near here. She should have a proper surgery. They’ll be queuing out the door to see her.
‘I, on the other hand, seem to have become the girls’ combined confessor, and banker. They come to me with their troubles, because their pimps don’t want to know, whereas, I listen, and I try to help them.’
‘With money.’
‘Not just money. It’s advice a lot of the time, but money is a big problem for them.’
‘How so?’
‘Their pimps take most of it, and the little that is left, just doesn’t go around. They work for three weeks out of four, but it’s the fourth week that does the damage. They still have the same expenses, like rent, but no income, and their pimps certainly don’t help. They will lend them a little to tide them over, but the pimps make sure they get it back with interest. It’s one of the reasons the girls are unable to get out of the business.’
‘Why don’t the girls put money aside to cover themselves for the week they can’t work?’
‘If their pimps find out they have any cash to spare, they accuse the girl of holding out on them. They take the money, usually at the point of a knife.’
‘It doesn’t sound like much of a life. Don’t they want to get out of it?’
‘I’ve found out that life down here is not as simple as that. I’ll introduce you to some of the girls if you like, and they can tell you their life story. For most of them, the alternative will be marriage to a drunken husband, who earns little or nothing, and then give birth to another snotty-nosed child, each year for the next ten years, or, until their husbands can’t stand the sight of them anymore. At which time the husbands come down here to use the girls outside.’
‘So you help by lending them money.’
‘It goes a small way to help break the cycle. To help the girls get ahead.’
‘Do they?’
‘No. Not really. But at least I’m trying. What I’d like to do is have them give me some of their money from their working weeks. I’d put it aside for them, and give it back on their ‘off’ week.’
‘Would they be prepared to trust you with their money?’
‘Possibly not, but it seems like the most logical solution to their problems.’
Robert slowly acclimatised himself to the pub, and began to unwind, allowing the wonderful jazz music to lift his spirits. He could see how Jade found the place so attractive.
The very ugliness of the pub, together with the diversity of its clientele seemed to add an extra layer of meaning to the sublime chords of the music, with its own rawness, just like the drink sold here. Robert decided that this could certainly be a place where he could spend a lot more of his free time.
As Jade made her way toward the toilet, she was joined by Colleen, and Trudy.
Trudy took Jade by the arm. ‘I heard you talking to your boyfriend. Did you really mean what you said?’
‘What part?’
‘When you said you would hold onto our money for us.’
Jade looked at the two girls. Their faces were serious, as though they were desperate for Jade’s assistance.
‘Of course. If you want me to.’
‘How would it work?’ asked Trudy.
Jade hadn’t really thought it through. It had been a quiet conversation, between herself and Robert, with her simply making small talk. It was an idea she had had, but she had never considered developing a clear plan. However, the girls expected some sort of an aim, so, Jade recollected her accountancy training.
‘Well, I suppose that what I’d do, would be to make a ledger with the names of the girls who wanted to contribute in it. Whenever they made a contribution, I would record the sum against their name, and, when they needed the money, they could come to me and take out whatever they needed, up to the amount that they had put into their account.’
‘What if they didn’t need to use it all?’ asked Colleen.
‘Then it would be added on to the amount they have available. They could use it the next time.’
Colleen and Trudy nodded. They could see that Jade was making sense. ‘So you would carry all the money around with you,’ said Lucy. ‘Won’t that be dangerous for you?’
‘Well, actually, I wouldn’t need to carry all that much at all. You see, each girl will only need money one week in the month. So the maximum I’d need to carry would be a quarter of the money given to me, and I could probably use the money that is given to me from the other girls for that. I’d say most of the money could be invested, and you’d be able to earn interest on it, and the interest would be placed against your name in the ledger.’
Trudy and Colleen looked at one another, nodding in agreement. ‘We’ll talk it over with the other girls,’ said Trudy.
‘How soon could you start it?’ asked Colleen.
‘As soon as you want to.’
‘Thanks love,’ said Trudy as they made their way out.
Two days later, the massive bedroom suite was delivered to Jade’s home. Rani and Jade were both at work, and it was left to Lucy Rafter to let the men from the auction house in.
Carefully, they stacked the parts wherever they would fit. The longest lengths were placed along the wall of the hallway, with the shorter pieces on the floor of their small drawing room. The hangings and mattress were wrapped tightly, in a tarpaulin, and formed a large mound that had to be forced through the front door. The bundle then had to be dragged past the piles of wood stacked in the hall, to be placed in the only free space available — on top of the kitchen table. There, it hung over both ends, and left barely enough room for a person to get to the sink and stove.
Rani was the first to arrive home, and nearly had a heart attack when she saw the piles of finely carved timber distributed throughout the house. Squeezing her way past the wood in the hallway, she made it to the sanctuary of her bedroom, where she was determined to wait until Jade came home so that she could give her housemate a piece of her mind.
When Jade did finally arrive home, she was just as surprised as Rani.
‘My goodness!’ she exclaimed. ‘It didn’t look anywhere nearly as big as this when I saw it in the warehouse.’
‘Of course it wouldn’t you idiot!’ exclaimed Rani, ‘a warehouse is enormous, while our house is only tiny. How are you going to possibly fit it into your bedroom?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps I should measure it. Do you have something to measure it with?’
‘Don’t look at me,’ said Rani, ‘The only thing I’ve got to measure with is a twelve inch ruler.’
