Life & Death In an American Harem. L. M. Ollie

that you’re locked in tight.’

      A young girl lay on her stomach on the last divan in the last recess dressed in a green silk kimono decorated with golden fans. As she began to sit up the kimono opened to reveal her left breast. I looked away, obviously embarrassed. She laughed.

      ‘Yeah, you must be new. I’m Karen and you are?’

      ‘Elizabeth Lambert.’

      Karen reached inside a small bowl and extracted a black olive. ‘Want one?’ she asked. I shook my head. I was most certainly not in the mood for food of any sort let alone a black olive. ‘I’m addicted to them,’ she said with a casual shrug. ‘Tell me, Elizabeth Lambert, how old are you?’

      ‘I just turned sixteen.’

      Karen stared. ‘You’ve got to be fucking joking. Does he know that you’re here?’

      ‘You mean Mister Capritzo? Yes, I’ve met him and yes, he knows that I’m here.’

      ‘Sweet sixteen, never been kissed and a virgin no doubt – yum-yum. This should be interesting. Have you met the dragon lady yet?’

      ‘I’ve met Doctor Colter.’

      ‘No, I mean Madame Tremblay.’

      ‘No, not yet. How many girls are there here?’

      ‘Five and I guess you’re number six. Congratulations. He’s a right bastard you know so you’d better watch yourself because if you don’t behave and do as you’re told he’s more than happy to do you a major injury.’ I swallowed hard which seemed to amuse her. She reached for the bowl again, sorting through the selection for just the right olive before adding a further titbit of information just to alarm me that little bit more. ‘It’s said that his bedroom is soundproof. So what does that tell you?’

      ‘I don’t expect that I will be staying very long,’ I said, although I don’t think I sounded very convincing.

      ‘Oh I see, so you think that he’s going to find you a super-rich sheik and you’ll live and love in luxury in some exotic land dripping with honey. Jesus, only a sixteen year old virgin would believe romantic shit like that. Wake up pumpkins and smell the heady perfume of reality. That door you no doubt came through swings only one way.’

      She stuck her left leg out, dangling it in mid-air. ‘Like my ankle bracelet?’ By this time the kimono’s sash had pretty much parted from itself and I could see all the way to China which was bad enough but I also noticed several slash marks on the inside of her thighs. Marks that looked like they had been made by something like a razorblade. Karen too had no pubic hairs but she did have a slender gold band which circled her ankle.

      ‘It’s got a tracking device fitted in it which means that if I try to escape he’ll hunt me down and then … well, let’s just say that I will end up cursing my mother for ever giving birth to me. If you get fitted with one of these you’ll know without asking what side of that fucking door you’re on.’

      Having delivered that final bombshell she gathered the kimono together, selected another olive then repositioned herself on the divan in much the same manner as I found her.

      I noticed that the divan was littered with Playboy magazines which seemed a little odd to me. Karen had auburn-colored hair, tied at the back into a long ponytail. Her features where sharp and her eyes … like she was an old soul who had seen and experienced too much because there was an awful sadness there and a wariness. Remember I was only sixteen so what did I know about self-harm, self-loathing or despair? I was about to ask her how old she was and how long she had been here but …

      ‘Linda, Susan you have but fifteen minutes more in the pool. After you must shower and change. There are classes in one hour.’

      ‘The dragon lady cometh,’ Karen said in a whisper, her tone if anything off-hand and condescending. ‘She’s a bitch and frustrated as hell because Capritzo doesn’t want to fuck her anymore and who can blame him? She’ll no doubt be looking for you, so go. I don’t want her to know I’m here.’

      6

      It was the same woman trawling a strong accent I couldn’t place and a no-nonsense, efficacious bearing. Actually she reminded me a little of my grade two teacher, Miss Grassey. We used to call her Miss Grass-ass behind her back. I guess that was rude too because she was really a nice lady. Something told me that this thirty-something woman wasn’t.

      ‘You are Elizabeth Lambert?’ she asked as she pulled to a stop directly in front of me. The heavy-looking brocade costume she wore seemed content to carry on before, burdened by its own weight, it fell back and came to rest around her, ankle deep and belted at the waist. She was wearing a traditional Moroccan kaftan although I didn’t know the word then; the first of many new words I would learn, amongst other things.

      ‘Yes ma’am.’

      ‘I am Madame Tremblay. You will call me Madame and I, I will call you from this time forward Lilly for the Lord Capritzo, he does not like Elizabeth for it is harsh upon the tongue. This you understand?’

      ‘Yes Madame.’

      ‘Excellent. Come with me and I will show you to your rooms where you may change into something more comfortable. Tomorrow you will be massaged; you skin inspected and correction made. It is important always that a woman takes care of her skin and the lord Capritzo will have it so.’

      She looked at me sharply. ‘You … you I think have had conversation with the girl called Karen for she is wont to be here at this hour. Do not take heed of her nor make yourself her friend for the lord Capritzo, he has no caring for her so I think it is that he will rid himself of her, and soon. It will for me be no sad news to hear of it.’

      ‘What is this place?’ I asked, hoping for a confirmation of what I already knew, or guessed.

      ‘Here you will be made safe and taken care of until the lord Capritzo has decided what is to become of you.’

      But he had already made up his mind; Doctor Colter knew it, Madame Tremblay knew it and Karen too but it would be over a week before I would meet him again and learn the truth from him. He had me and he would keep me for the next two years.