Ernest Kiyah Yungsi
STREET THERAPY
**********
FIRST
He was gulped glasses of alcohol as quickly as if life depended on how many he could wash down. His head, spinning like an F1 car whose driver had suddenly lost control of the steering wheel… boisterous music banging against his eardrums. Half naked girls, sliding up and down the pole as middle-aged drunkards undressed them shamelessly with hungry lustful gazes… was how the night was supposed to be. And it had all seemed alright then…until things took a different turn.
Cold outdoor air began sweeping away some of the alcohol from his brain when the taxi came to a halt. They were out now, walking towards a dark building, and she was pointing to it, saying, “This is where I live.”
And something rough, was tugging at his heart. He froze…and stopped…stopped walking completely. A scary thought was running through his mind.
Once you enter the building …
He thrust both his hands into the back pockets of his black Jeans. The girl halted too, not squinting, despite the uncomfortable beams of street lights that hit her directly in the eyes.
“What the hell are you doing?” She asked, looking directly at him. Jake returned her gaze, his mind buzzing in a whirlpool of scattered thoughts and alcohol. But he didn’t answer her question.
“Look here,” the girl went on, making a wry face,
“I don’t usually bring anyone here, but there’s something about you …” She stopped; probably waiting for him to ask her what is was about him. Jake didn't stop staring at her. He didn’t speak, either.
“And if you’re having second thoughts, forget them because the money is non-refundable,” she said. Her voice was growing louder. She glared hard at him but he still didn’t speak. Her face twitched angrily.
“What do you think you are…?”
That was as far as she got before the cell phone suddenly started ringing. He pulled the device out of his jeans pocket. His eyes fell on the screen and a frown appeared on his face. The ringing continued. Jake stared at the phone in his hand like it was a plague. The girl scoffed. Jake still glared at the phone. She sighed heavily and poked his chest with her right index finger.
“Are you going to answer that?”
There were several notes of impatience in her voice but Jake continued to eye the phone as if it was a ticking bomb.
“Look here,” she cried; standing at akimbo,
“I have plenty of things to do besides standing here and waiting for you to answer the damn phone. So, either you do it now or switch it off!”
Jake grunted, turned around and walked a few paces away from her.
“Stupid phone,” she scoffed.
He came back three minutes later.
“Sorry about that. It was...”
“I don’t want to know who the hell it was. Let’s just go inside.” With the girl leading, they walked towards a tall, dark building around the corner. She rummaged through her fake black GUCCI handbag,
“Damn! My keys! Must have left them at Amy's.” she cursed silently.
“I guess this means we don’t have to go through with this, huh?” Jake’s voice was a little shaky. Something in it sounded almost like relief. It was almost as if he was expecting her to say yes, we don’t have to go through with this. But she chuckled, instead, as if he had just told her a funny joke.
“No way, I’m going to earn every damn penny of that money, besides, I kind of like you.”
Her sentence was voiced in a whisper and accompanied by a sly suggestive wink. She punched a four-digit code on the main door, followed by a buzzing sound. Almost immediately, a female voice came out of the speaker.
“Kto tam?”
“Marina!” The girl shouted.
The door clicked open, revealing a flight of old cement stairs. Jake tripped on a big old clay pot filled with Chinese cabbage, but regained his balance quickly. The girl giggled drunkenly. On the third floor, there was what looked like a line for hanging clothes, only it held sliced vegetables left out to dry.
The fourth floor was more littered. Shopping bags lay discarded on the floor, overflowing with rubbish. The fifth floor however, was as clean as a pin. Jake wanted to know why.
“We’re the only ones that live on this floor. The other neighbors moved out last week and we always take out our trash every day,” Marina explained proudly, as they reached the door.
The door looked like it was closed but it wasn’t. It was only a few inches open. Marina pushed, it creaked. They entered a small box-like pitch dark living room. She groped for the light switch. Click!
Darkness changed into light. An old green sofa and an even older cracked glass table on which stood a big old television set and a brand new DVD player jumped into focus immediately before Jake noticed a few movie discs scattered around the table and on the DVD player.
He heard voices, coming from a door to the right, and looked at Marina, questioningly.
“That’s my friend, Gallia,” she volunteered.
“She’s in there with her boyfriend.”
Marina’s room was directly opposite Gallia’s. She pushed opened her door and switched on the light. The red 25volts bulb did very little to brighten the dingy room. Marina took off her jacket and tossed it on the floor among another pile of clothes scattered around the room. She kicked off her boots, tossing them near the clothes without bothering to use her hands. Then she jumped on the narrow bed and giggled at Jake.
“Take off your jacket!”
Jake obeyed, but before he did that, he removed his cell phone from his pocket and carefully switched it off. He placed it on the small table near the bed.
“Now, come here,” she purred.
Jake remained standing in one spot like a famous statue. Marina noticed his hesitation and ripped off her blouse, revealing a pair of large round breasts that threatened to burst out of her brassiere. Jake gulped and stared, as if hypnotized. His mind commanded his body to move but it froze like a rock.
“What are you waiting for?” She snapped.
Jake tried to take a step forward but his legs felt weak at the knees. He couldn’t even move. His pulse quickened and his eyes opened wide. Still, his feet refused to budge. Marina kicked off her Jeans and lay down on her back, spreading her legs as wide as they could go.
SECOND
The voice had come from the other side of the wall, causing Jake to jump.
“Is that you, Marina?” Cried the voice again.
“Yes, Gallia” Marina answered.
She quickly threw a bed sheet over her nakedness. Seconds later the door burst open. A long legged girl wearing nothing but an oversized basketball jersey walked into the room. She noticed Jake and smiled. Then, without warning, she grabbed his buttocks with her right hand and squeezed firmly.
“Hey, look what we’ve got here,” She cried with a giggle, leaning back to get a better view of Jake's derriere.
“Gallia, don’t bother him,” Marina answered, laughing.
“Oh! What a sweet one. I’ll do this one for free,” she replied, still laughing.
“Jake, don’t mind Gallia, she’s obsessed with black men,” Marina explained.
“Ha ha ha, who isn’t? Unfortunately, I’m stuck with a man who only comes to me to complain about his wife and ask me to do freaky things for him because he’s too scared to ask her,” Gallia said with a laugh.
She pinched Jake’s butt once more, skipped over to the bed and whispered into Marina’s ear. Marina smiled and stood up, still covering herself with the bed sheet. She went to her wardrobe and rummaged quickly through the pockets of a brown jacket. She came back and placed something in Gallia’s hand.
“Thanks sweetie,” Gallia said, still laughing.
“Come on, get out of here. You’re making him nervous,” Marina replied, laughing and pointing at Jake.
Gallia stopped, slapped Jake’s backside, and then went out, still chuckling.
“Sorry about Gallia, but she means well,” Marina apologized.
“It’s okay.” Jake found his voice, though it was shaky.
“Why are you standing there? Come on, sit on the bed.”
Marina resumed her position on the bed and gently patted the space next to her with her palm.
Jake glanced around the room. There wasn’t a single chair in sight. He walked slowly towards the bed and sat down next to the girl. She put her hands on him and started caressing his chest slowly. Jake held his breath and tried hard not to stand up. Marina’s hands were warm and Jake could feel the heat right through his Jacket.
The girl shifted her busy hands into his T-shirt and touched bare flesh. Jake trembled slightly as she rolled his nipples between her thumbs and forefingers, at the same time blowing gently into his left ear. The girl slid her hands down Jake’s stomach slowly, causing the hair to stand at the back of his neck. Then she progressed slowly down to his lower tummy almost touching the top of his pubic hair.
Marina was already moaning and breathing heavily with that expertise and passion that most prostitutes exhibit to turn on their customers. Her hands suddenly slid deeper into his pants.
A warning bell went off in Jake’s head. He jumped away from the girl and stood up. She looked at him, slightly puzzled but more amused than surprised.
THIRD
“What’s wrong with you?” She asked.
“Nothing.” Jake replied.
“So, why are you running away as if I’m using a knife on you?”
“Well I erm… I thought we could…” Jake tried to explain.
“What?” She interrupted, “Don’t tell me you’re one of those men who just wants to hump without even a little foreplay?”
Jake swallowed hard but the lump in his throat won’t go away. When he finally found his voice, he said, “I’ve never done this kind of thing before.”
Marina burst out laughing. She laughed so loud and hard that tears streamed down her eyes. Jake looked at her and wished that she would stop but she went on like an automatic machine gun that had been accidentally discharged and would not stop firing till its entire magazine is empty. When she finally stopped laughing, she was completely drained of energy, too weak to speak. She took a deep breath to revive herself.
“Well, I’ve never, in my entire life, seen such a big black virgin.”
That did it! Something snapped inside Jake. He picked up his jacket and stormed out of the room. As he opened the front door and stepped outside, Jake heard the girl’s voice, calling him to come back but he ran down the stairs, two at a time, anxious to get as far away from the house as possible.
When he reached the first floor, he heard footsteps coming from the top of the stairs. He dashed across the road and flanked the first taxi cab that appeared. The taxi driver grinned when he saw Jake.
“Ni xiang qu na r?” (Where do you want to go?) He asked.
Jake told him to drive him to the JD’s bar. The taxi driver drove off.
“Where’re you from?” The driver opened up cheerfully, speaking in Mandarin.
“Cameroon,” Jake answered mechanically.
After living in China for four years Jake was no stranger to the small talk routine of most Chinese cabbies. Their questions were always the same. Sometimes they were asked in the same order too.
“Where is Kamer?” The driver asked, looking puzzled.
“I didn’t say Kamer. I said Ca-me-roon,” he replied patiently, his mind still on the half-naked body of the prostitute. What was she doing now? Then, he suddenly felt guilty for thinking about her. He wasn’t supposed to be doing this, yet…
“Ah,” the driver was talking again. “Cameroon, I know that they have a very good football team.”
Jake smiled, bringing his full attention back to the Chinese man. The taxi driver had plucked the right cord. Jake loved soccer and it made him feel proud when people talked about his country’s soccer team.
“Are you married?” The cabbie asked.
“No.”
“How old are you?” He continued.
“Twenty- nine.”
“You look very young for your age.” He said.
Jake smiled again. He decided to meet the driver halfway.
“How old are you?” He asked.
“Guess.” The driver said.
Jake was about to say that he thought the man was thirty nine years old but he stopped. Experience had taught him that one could never successfully guess the ages of most Chinese people. Some looked older than they really were, while others looked much younger than they appeared to be.
“I can’t really tell. Please just tell me.” Jake pleaded.
“I am 55 years old,” the driver said, laughing.
“You don’t look it,” Jake said.
He was not lying. The cabbie, indeed, looked much younger especially as he was a little man. In fact, Jake would have mistaken him for a man in his late thirties. He told him this and the cabbie looked very pleased.
“My son is five years younger than you and he’s a student in the Dalian Medical University.”
The driver quickly turned the steering wheel to avoid being scratched by another taxi that was coming at top speed from behind. He cursed the other driver’s mother aloud for about half a minute before turning back to Jake.
“What do you do in China?”
“I teach English.”
“Ah, so you’re an English teacher?”
“Yes.”
“How much money do you earn in one month?”
Since Jake expected this question, he simply chuckled and kept quiet.
“Sorry,” the driver glanced quickly at his passenger. “It’s normal for us Chinese to ask these kinds of questions.”
“It’s okay,” Jake replied with a smile. “I just don’t feel like telling you.”
“Do you have a girl friend?” He went on.
“Yes, I did.”
“Is she from Cameroon too?”
“No.”
“Is she a black person, too?”
“No.”
“Is she Chinese?”
“No.”
“What does she look like?”
Jake decided to show the man a photograph. He had a picture of her in his mobile phone. He put his hand in his jacket’s pockets. They were empty! He tried his jeans’ but found nothing in them.
Blood rushed into his veins quickly. He had left his phone at the prostitute’s house! He couldn’t even remember where she lived anymore. He turned to the cabbie and shouted.
“Drive me back to the exact spot where you picked me up!
“But you said…” muttered
“Don’t argue! Drive me there Now!”
The bewildered cabbie rammed on the brakes and the car came to a halt, tires screeching loudly. Then he put the car in reverse, made a quick U-turn in a part of the road that would have earned him a ticket, and drove off, leaving a trail of smoke.
FOURTH
For the second time Jake reached the prostitute’s door. It was wide open. He stepped into the pitch dark living room and headed straight for Marina’s bedroom. The small red light bulb was still shinning, but there was no one in the room. Jake looked around for his phone. It wasn’t on the small table where he had left it earlier. Voices and laughter were coming from the other bedroom. He thought of going in there. Then he changed his mind and sat down on the bed to await the girl’s return.
The bed was so low that it almost touched the floor. This brought some discomfort to Jake’s knees because they seemed to almost touch his chin when he sat down. He decided to lie down on his back instead, so he could stretch his legs. It felt much better except for one problem. The beam from the red bulb landed directly into his eyes, causing him to see hundreds of little grey dots that flew towards his eyes and then disappeared suddenly before appearing again. Jake instinctively closed his eyes to wade off the prickly sting of the beam.
He fell asleep, instead.
When he awoke Marina was lying on her side in the bed, her elbow supporting her body and her big blue eyes staring at Jake with a lot of interest. Jake hastily got up but the girl gently pressed her free hand against his chest and smiled at him.
“You looked so troubled in your sleep. You kept tossing and murmuring strange things.”
“What... What did I say? How long have I been asleep?”
The girl chuckled, visibly enjoying herself.
“Don’t worry about the things you said. You didn’t reveal any secret if that’s what you’re scared of. And I guess you must have been asleep for over half an hour.”
“I’m sorry for sleeping in your bed like that. I just came to get my…”
“Your mobile phone, I suppose?”
She took out the device from the right hip pocket of the dressing gown she was wearing and gave it to him.
“Thank you very much,” Jake said, looking at the floor.
She didn’t say anything. Her face was twisted in a frown, as if her mind was busy with her thoughts. After half a minute she spoke.
“Do you think you’re better than me, Jake?”
Jake looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
Marina raised herself so that she was now kneeling on the bed.
“Do you think because I’m a prostitute, all you can do is run away from me if you don’t want to have sex with me?”
“I never said…”
“You didn’t need to say it,” She interrupted, “Your actions spoke loud enough.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You have to understand that I have never done anything like what I did tonight, since I started working in that bar, but that’s a different story, now I just want you to have this before you go.”
She pulled out a wad of red bank notes from her other hip pocket and pressed them into Jake’s right hand. He stared at the money in utter disbelief. Everything was there, eight hundred Yuan!
“Why’re you doing this?”
“Jake, if you haven’t noticed yet, I don’t think you’re like the other men that usually come around the bar where I work.”
“So? I paid you the money and I’ve been to your house. You have the right to keep it.”
“I know I have every right to keep the money but I don’t need to keep it, Jake.”
“Why?”
“Listen to me, most of the men that go to a bar where there are prostitutes are either looking for or running away from something. When I saw you tonight, the look in your eyes told me that you were running away from something, maybe some emotional storm brewing up in your life making you really upset.”
“So?”
“Gallia came in here, found your phone and started reading your messages before I could even stop her. Then I got curious and read them too.”
Jake’s eyes blazed angrily.
“You’ve got no right to do that! You were invading my privacy!”
“Don’t you think it’s too late for big words now, Jake?”
“If this is your way of making fun of me, please stop it!” Jake cried.
“I’m not making fun of you,” Marina said in a soft voice, “I just think that your reaction is a little more than what I expected. Now, I’m sure that you really have some trouble in your life.”
“My life is none of your business,” Jake retorted angrily.
“I think you are different from many other men, Jake.” Marina’s voice was slightly above a whisper.
“What makes me different, because I didn’t sleep with you?”
“No Jake, not because of that. In fact it shouldn’t, but it pisses me off that you refused to have sex with me. You’re different because when I told you the price, you didn’t even argue, though you don’t look rich to me (giggle). Second, (counting off the tip of her fingers) even when you bought me a drink you didn’t try to grab me like most other men do (God I hate them) and finally now you are ready to walk away without even having what you paid for.”
Marina lit a cigarette, offered one to Jake which he accepted grudgingly. They both smoked in silence for a while. Jake choked on the smoke and coughed slightly, trying hard to stifle it. Marina shot a surprised look at him.
“I don’t know what to say,” Jake said.
“Don’t say anything because I haven’t finished yet,” Marina said between clouds of smoke.
“I noticed that after the phone call you received tonight, you became distracted. At that point I thought that you were worried about something. Then I saw a few messages on your phone. Now I see you smoking a cigarette and choking on it. I’m more convinced that you either don’t smoke or you just resumed smoking for some reason. Now what I will say to you is that I think you are trying your best to throw a blanket over some recent dark and unpleasant emotional episode that hurts you like nothing has ever hurt you before. Correct me if I am wrong.”
Marina calmly folded her arms and looked straight at Jake as if waiting for an answer.
“You’re talking nonsense,” Jake retorted.
“Oh, am I now? Remember that nonsense is sense but people get so scared of it that they call it nonsense. Just correct me if I am wrong, Jake.”
“Where did you get all this psychological stuff from, anyway?”
Marina chuckled, looking pleased.
“Are you trying to avoid this discussion, Jake?”
“No, I’m not, but all I want to know is, who are you? I picked you up in a bar, but here you are talking to me like someone who knows every single thought in my head. If I am to tell you anything I deserve to know how a girl like you happens to know so much about people’s behaviors.”
Jake was shouting even though he didn't realize it. Marina cleared her throat and took a long drag at her cigarette. Then she pressed the butt in the ashtray.
“And by that you mean you want to know why a prostitute has a voice, right?” She asked.
“What?”
“Face it Jake, like most men you think that because a girl is using her body to make a living it means that her brain is missing, right?”
“I never thought anything …”
“Well, you’d better not because I’m not like that!”
Jake looked at Marina. The girl bowed her head and spoke in a very quiet tone.
“I studied psychology for two years in the University of Moscow before dropping out.”
“Why did you drop out?”
A cloud floated into the girl’s face, a sad dark cloud; it lingered there just for a few seconds then it was gone, replaced by a strong resolve.
“What I’m going to tell you, I’ve never told anyone else, not even Gallia with whom I have lived for more than two years.”
FIFTH
She looked him straight in the eyes.
"I don't even know why I’m telling you this. Maybe I trust you or maybe I’ve kept it to myself long enough but this doesn't mean you should take it to some newspaper, you hear me?"
Jake nodded quickly. The girl cleared her throat and began speaking.
“When I was in the University of Moscow I fell in love with one of my Professors. He was more than twice my age. But he told me that he loved me too.”
Marina paused and stared around her, as if trying to recall memories. Then she went on.
“He was married and had children who were older than me but he was the first man in my life and I loved him with all my heart. He treated me like a queen and always told me that one day he would divorce his wife and marry me. I told my mother about him.”
“What did your mother say?”
“My mother was very upset. She tried her best to make me stop seeing this man. I didn’t listen to her.”
“Did your mother say why she didn’t want you to see him?”
“Of course, she thought he was too old for me and he was married with children, I was only 18 years old and still a student.”
Jake nodded.
“At that time, all I could think of was Igor, that’s his name. Anything or anybody that tried to come between us appeared repulsive to me. So I began to resent my mother for trying to ruin my happiness.”
Marina shut her eyes tight as if trying to recall some forgotten thoughts.
“One day my mother came to the University and reported the matter to the Dean of our faculty. Igor was called in and warned to leave me alone.”
“What did Igor do?”
“Like most cowards he broke up with me. His excuse was that he really loved me but he also needed his job. I became very bitter because I loved him very much and I felt that it was my mother’s fault. I refused to eat for days and I wouldn’t talk to my mother, either.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” Marina replied,
“But one day my mother came to me very early in the morning and told me the reason why she was so protective of me.”
“What did she say?”
“She informed me that my father was dead, which was not news to me because that’s what she always told me since I was a little girl: that my father had drowned at sea.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My mother told me that morning that my father was dead to her and so were all other men and that’s the reason why she couldn’t stand her daughter being exposed to the manipulative whims of men.”
“What?”
"I learnt that my father wasn't physically dead!"
"So, your father wasn't dead?"
“No, just in my mother’s heart. He had left us when I was just a baby.”
“Oh my goodness!”
“Yeah, the bastard walked out on us.”
Marina took a deep breath and looked at Jake; her eyes suddenly became very sad. Jake stubbed out his cigarette and leaned forward gently, aware that the girl was about to tell him a very sad story.
(To be continued in Issue 1. No. 2)