"You can also get a haircut here, a shave, a manicure, all that good stuff. Hey, you don't look like you have to shave, do you? How old are you anyway?" Rose chattered. She paid at the counter and got a key.
The long room down the hall was filled with six bathtubs, semiprivate as they were each in their own lockable stall. Totally private at the moment, since no one else was there. There was a big plaque on the wall that red "No Women Allowed" in bold print, along with a list of common sense rules below.
Prin looked at the sign and then back at Rose, as they stood in the doorway about to enter.
Rose waved the sign away. "Oh, don't worry about that. It doesn't apply to me because I'm not one." She giggled. "They are really talking about prostitutes anyway, which I am, but they don't mean me. Mama Kris is the big game in town, see? And she hands out bribes to make sure rules don't apply, if you know what I mean."
Rose talked too fast for Prin to digest it, and he was halfway to the first steaming hot bath in the row before he stopped and looked at her. "What do you mean, you're not one?"
"You know, a woman. Technically speaking. I mean, I'm a woman, right now, at the moment." Rose said. "You really haven't been around much have you." She teased.
The prince tensed, he could not believe what he was hearing. Maybe Rose could give him answers to everything. "You mean, sometimes you're a woman and sometimes you're a man?"
"Sure, sort of! Now you're getting it." Rose said. "In fact, my name's not really Rose, I mean it is but it's not what my friends call me it's more of a stage name --"
Prin cut Rose off before she could finish her story. "Are you a shapeshifter?" He could tell his voice had gone too serious. Dead serious, scary serious. Because the room filled with a hush that seemed to even block out the bubbling sounds of the water in the baths being heated, and the voices from the lobby.
"What!?" Rose asked. "A whos-it? A shapeshifter?" She laughed, harder this time, a real belly laugh that under different circumstances would be virally contagious. She quieted quickly when she saw Prin's stricken look. "Oh bunny, I'm sorry. I mean, in a strictly literal, physical, version of the word. In a boring old reality sort of way, then no, nothing about me fundamentally changes between male and female. It's more like . . . " She picked up a candle to use as a visual reference, holding it horizontally. "See, if this is woman and this is man." She pointed to each end, then at a spot right in the middle. "This is me! But you know, with the right paint and clothes, I can go wherever I want." She slid her finger up and down the candle. "So I guess in a way I am very much a shapeshifter. That was just a new one for me, that's why I laughed. But I like it. I think I'm going to use that now."
"Oh." Prin tripped on the edge of a towel rack and almost went down, if Rose hadn't reacted quickly to steady him. "Thanks." he continued on to the bath and hung his cloak up on a hook. He started taking off his clothes immediately.
"You didn't shut the door yet." Rose said. "Can I come in? Or do you want me to wait out here?"
"It doesn't matter to me either way." Prin said. He stripped the leggings and night shirt off and started to step into the bath. It was scorching hot.
"Wait! You have to adjust it first." Rose hurried into the stall, shutting the door behind her. She twisted some levers and knobs on the pipes that led into the bath. "Hang on, let me drain a little out and replace it with cold. Kid, you really do need my help. What are you trying to do? Burn your balls off?"
After the water had cooled enough to be tolerable, Prin got into the tub. He could feel tears pressing against the back of his eyes. For a moment he had been so close, now it was back to square one.
"Are you disappointed I'm not a woman?" Rose asked softly. She lathered up a rag with soap and handed it to him.
"No." Prin said. "I'm just frustrated, because I need to find a witch who's also a shapeshifter."
"Really? Huh." Rose said. "Well, I do know a witch. She can shift people's money from their own pockets to hers, does that count?"
Prin took a deep breath of the steam and tried not to laugh. He needed to get over himself. There was no way it was going to be that easy anyway. "No, I think not. Is she a real one?"
"As real as they come, I guess." Rose said. "Can I wash your hair for you?"
"I will have to meet her then!" Prin declared.
"I thought you needed a job? Money? Food? Somewhere to sleep?" Rose massaged some wonderful smelling shampoo into Prin's hair. "You really are a pretty thing, aren't you? Minus a few layers of grime. You know it's important to take care of yourself. We have nothing if not our health and our looks, my mother taught me that. It's the only thing you can take along with you wherever you go. As long as it lasts anyway."
"I was cursed by a witch." Prin said impulsively. "I have to find her and make her take it back. I have it on good authority, from books I've read, that the only one who can remove a curse is the one who places it. But . . . if another witch wants to try, I would let her. Of course. It must be a powerful witch, though, I will tell you that." It was like they were having two different conversations on top of each other, but Prin plowed ahead anyway.
"A curse! You don't look like an ogre, you're not bright purple, nor a swan, you seem to have all your . . . necessary equipment still attached." Rose said playfully. "What's the curse? What's wrong with you?"
"I can't tell you." Prin said. "I can never tell you."
"What if we become very good bestest friends, huh? Can you tell me then?" Rose wondered. She put her arms around Prin from behind and kissed his cheek. "I'll tell you a secret if you tell me one. I have loads of secrets, tons. Only some of them aren't mine." She giggled.
"It's too horrible. Just trust me that it's bad and I need to be rid of it." The prince was not bothered by being hugged and kissed on, although he thought Elwin would blow a gasket if he were here. It just didn't do anything to persuade him. Besides, Rose would think he was crazy if he told her the truth, and if somehow she did believe him, well, that could be even worse. What would she do if she knew she was touching a murderer? "If you take me to see the witch, I'll interview for this job you are trying to get me to take.”
“Ah, bunny, I have a confession to make.” Rose said. “First, rinse your hair.” She dunked his head in the water, then swiped the rivulets from his face when he sat back up. “That’s better. Anyway.” She went back around in front of him and sat down on the little stool across from the bathtub. “I’m not a nice person. Since I have you trapped in that bathtub and you can’t easily get away from me, I might as well tell you the whole sordid thing.”
Prin blinked at her. If she had secrets, she clearly wasn’t very good at keeping them. Unless this was all part of the scam. “I don’t see how you can say you’re not a nice person.” He said.
“Oh you would be surprised!” Rose said. “I’m going to put it out on the table. You no doubt already realized that I was trying to entrap you into a life of prostitution.”
“I did?” Prin marveled. Amazing, if true, since he barely knew what it was.
“What you don’t know is that Madam Kris.” Here she lowered her voice. “Is a bitch and a tyrant.” Rose crossed her wrists and held them up to show bondage. “Most, if not all the girls who work for her are basically slaves. She won’t let me go because I owe her money, and she brought me to this godforsaken island against my will. I have been trying to recruit my own replacement, in hopes that she would release me. As you can imagine there is no one here to recruit! I think I have paid my debt a hundred times over, but not by her accounting. Who am I kidding, she’s not going to let me go anyway, even if I did find someone to take my place.”
“Rose –” Prin started.
“No, Prin, you want no part of her, trust me. Also, my name isn’t Rose, actually it’s my middle name and I use it for my working name. Are you my client?” She asked.
“No?” Prin wasn’t sure what they were to each other at this point.
“Then call me Aster.” Aster said. “It’s Aster Rose, on my birth announcement, to be exact.”
“Mine is Callimodeus, on my birth announcement.” Prin said. “I never tell anyone.”
“Oh, that’s really unfortunate. We’ll keep that one to ourselves, bunny.” Aster teased. “Anyhow, I’m sorry for trying to trap you into a terrible working environment, if you can even call it that. And you just a baby bunny and all. Bu-uut if you still want to find a job in the sex trade I can help you find one with a more fair establishment. One thing you should never do to your sisters, give them bad employment advice.”
“Sex trade!?” Prin sat up straighter, the pieces finally clicking into place with a rusty groan of semi comprehension. The most he knew of sex were the vague euphemisms from his books, along with some illustrations of men and women, arms entwined in a wooded glen, or a wildflower overgrown field. In some books there was mention of affection being sold for coin, but he had thought it a fantasy or something that took place in the long ago before times.
“You were asking for work in the red door district, where all the brothels are? So forgive my confusion.” Aster said. “You have stripped me of my customer service face.” She made an exaggerated comical frown. “Don’t make me regret it.” She had mistaken his confusion for outrage at the very notion.
“No, I don’t mean! It’s just –” Prin was flustered, he felt his cheeks getting hot but hopefully they were already red enough from the hot steam to cover his embarrassment. “Is that . . . trading affection for money?”
“That’s one way of putting it, sure.” Aster said. She narrowed her fox-eyes at Prin. “Wa-iit, are you trying to plead innocence in these matters to try and get a free sample? Because it’s been attempted before but I didn’t see it coming from you.” She laughed.
“Sample of what?” Prin asked miserably. There was that word again he was growing to hate.
“Affection, of course.” Aster pursed her lips and blew a kiss in his direction. “I like you kid, but you’ve had enough freebies for one day.”
“No, I’m just stupid.” With this admission, the prince really wanted to leap out of the bath and run all the way back to the beach and bury himself in the sand.
“No you aren’t.” Aster chided. “Don’t ever say something about yourself you wouldn’t want someone else to say about you.” She brought him a towel. “Now, let’s get out of here before they charge me extra. I need to get to work anyway.”
“That’s what you really do for work?” Prin took the towel and stepped carefully out of the tall sided bath, drying himself off as he did.
“Don’t forget your hair, or you’ll catch a cold. Bend down.” Aster said. She took a second towel and ruffled it through his hair. “I wish you had some clean clothes to put on.”
“Do you like it?” The prince wondered. In the books it had seemed degrading, something done as a very last resort and often leading to some kind of gruesome death.
“It’s just like any job, it has it’s moments.” Aster says. “Sometimes there are repeat customers that you are always happy to see because they are funny and sweet and liven up your day. Sometimes there are rich customers who give you jewelry and other nice things just to smile in their direction. The opposite can also be true.” She shrugged. “And sometimes the boss takes all your money and says you owe her more on top, and takes you far away from anyone or anywhere you have ever known so there’s no one to help you escape. And doesn’t care what the customers do to you as long as they pay her extra . . . Well, you don’t need to know all that, bunny. Just suffice it to say there are good establishments and bad establishments and you don’t want to ever work for one of the bad ones.”
Prin straightened back up and began to put his clothes back on layer by layer. “What would happen if you left? Why can’t you just leave?”
“Well, if I tried to quit she would tell me I had to pay her everything I owed her before I could leave, and if I did that, she would say it wasn’t enough and come up with a new inflated number. If I tried to just leave . . . I did try to run away once, when we were back on the main land still, and they caught me and locked me in a closet for three days with no food and nowhere to go to the bathroom.” Her kohl lined eyes shifted back and forth, as though envisioning the cage around her still. “After that I was too weak to fight when they brought me here to this island. Now there is nowhere for me to go to get away. I’m just stuck.”
“I don’t think that’s acceptable.” The prince said. “What they did to you wasn’t right.” He still wasn’t entirely sure he believed every word she was saying. But if it wasn’t true, why say it? And if it was true, it . . . wasn’t something that could just be allowed to continue.
Aster laughed. “I know, I know. You don’t have to tell me.” As they left the building and went back outside, she turned back around and winked at him. “Are you my knight in shining armor? Going to rescue me, or what?” She shook her head at him, smiling.
"You can also get a haircut here, a shave, a manicure, all that good stuff. Hey, you don't look like you have to shave, do you? How old are you anyway?" Rose chattered. She paid at the counter and got a key.
The long room down the hall was filled with six bathtubs, semiprivate as they were each in their own lockable stall. Totally private at the moment, since no one else was there. There was a big plaque on the wall that red "No Women Allowed" in bold print, along with a list of common sense rules below.
Prin looked at the sign and then back at Rose, as they stood in the doorway about to enter.
Rose waved the sign away. "Oh, don't worry about that. It doesn't apply to me because I'm not one." She giggled. "They are really talking about prostitutes anyway, which I am, but they don't mean me. Mama Kris is the big game in town, see? And she hands out bribes to make sure rules don't apply, if you know what I mean."
Rose talked too fast for Prin to digest it, and he was halfway to the first steaming hot bath in the row before he stopped and looked at her. "What do you mean, you're not one?"
"You know, a woman. Technically speaking. I mean, I'm a woman, right now, at the moment." Rose said. "You really haven't been around much have you." She teased.
The prince tensed, he could not believe what he was hearing. Maybe Rose could give him answers to everything. "You mean, sometimes you're a woman and sometimes you're a man?"
"Sure, sort of! Now you're getting it." Rose said. "In fact, my name's not really Rose, I mean it is but it's not what my friends call me it's more of a stage name --"
Prin cut Rose off before she could finish her story. "Are you a shapeshifter?" He could tell his voice had gone too serious. Dead serious, scary serious. Because the room filled with a hush that seemed to even block out the bubbling sounds of the water in the baths being heated, and the voices from the lobby.
"What!?" Rose asked. "A whos-it? A shapeshifter?" She laughed, harder this time, a real belly laugh that under different circumstances would be virally contagious. She quieted quickly when she saw Prin's stricken look. "Oh bunny, I'm sorry. I mean, in a strictly literal, physical, version of the word. In a boring old reality sort of way, then no, nothing about me fundamentally changes between male and female. It's more like . . . " She picked up a candle to use as a visual reference, holding it horizontally. "See, if this is woman and this is man." She pointed to each end, then at a spot right in the middle. "This is me! But you know, with the right paint and clothes, I can go wherever I want." She slid her finger up and down the candle. "So I guess in a way I am very much a shapeshifter. That was just a new one for me, that's why I laughed. But I like it. I think I'm going to use that now."
"Oh." Prin tripped on the edge of a towel rack and almost went down, if Rose hadn't reacted quickly to steady him. "Thanks." he continued on to the bath and hung his cloak up on a hook. He started taking off his clothes immediately.
"You didn't shut the door yet." Rose said. "Can I come in? Or do you want me to wait out here?"
"It doesn't matter to me either way." Prin said. He stripped the leggings and night shirt off and started to step into the bath. It was scorching hot.
"Wait! You have to adjust it first." Rose hurried into the stall, shutting the door behind her. She twisted some levers and knobs on the pipes that led into the bath. "Hang on, let me drain a little out and replace it with cold. Kid, you really do need my help. What are you trying to do? Burn your balls off?"
After the water had cooled enough to be tolerable, Prin got into the tub. He could feel tears pressing against the back of his eyes. For a moment he had been so close, now it was back to square one.
"Are you disappointed I'm not a woman?" Rose asked softly. She lathered up a rag with soap and handed it to him.
"No." Prin said. "I'm just frustrated, because I need to find a witch who's also a shapeshifter."
"Really? Huh." Rose said. "Well, I do know a witch. She can shift people's money from their own pockets to hers, does that count?"
Prin took a deep breath of the steam and tried not to laugh. He needed to get over himself. There was no way it was going to be that easy anyway. "No, I think not. Is she a real one?"
"As real as they come, I guess." Rose said. "Can I wash your hair for you?"
"I will have to meet her then!" Prin declared.
"I thought you needed a job? Money? Food? Somewhere to sleep?" Rose massaged some wonderful smelling shampoo into Prin's hair. "You really are a pretty thing, aren't you? Minus a few layers of grime. You know it's important to take care of yourself. We have nothing if not our health and our looks, my mother taught me that. It's the only thing you can take along with you wherever you go. As long as it lasts anyway."
"I was cursed by a witch." Prin said impulsively. "I have to find her and make her take it back. I have it on good authority, from books I've read, that the only one who can remove a curse is the one who places it. But . . . if another witch wants to try, I would let her. Of course. It must be a powerful witch, though, I will tell you that." It was like they were having two different conversations on top of each other, but Prin plowed ahead anyway.
"A curse! You don't look like an ogre, you're not bright purple, nor a swan, you seem to have all your . . . necessary equipment still attached." Rose said playfully. "What's the curse? What's wrong with you?"
"I can't tell you." Prin said. "I can never tell you."
"What if we become very good bestest friends, huh? Can you tell me then?" Rose wondered. She put her arms around Prin from behind and kissed his cheek. "I'll tell you a secret if you tell me one. I have loads of secrets, tons. Only some of them aren't mine." She giggled.
"It's too horrible. Just trust me that it's bad and I need to be rid of it." The prince was not bothered by being hugged and kissed on, although he thought Elwin would blow a gasket if he were here. It just didn't do anything to persuade him. Besides, Rose would think he was crazy if he told her the truth, and if somehow she did believe him, well, that could be even worse. What would she do if she knew she was touching a murderer? "If you take me to see the witch, I'll interview for this job you are trying to get me to take.”
“Ah, bunny, I have a confession to make.” Rose said. “First, rinse your hair.” She dunked his head in the water, then swiped the rivulets from his face when he sat back up. “That’s better. Anyway.” She went back around in front of him and sat down on the little stool across from the bathtub. “I’m not a nice person. Since I have you trapped in that bathtub and you can’t easily get away from me, I might as well tell you the whole sordid thing.”
Prin blinked at her. If she had secrets, she clearly wasn’t very good at keeping them. Unless this was all part of the scam. “I don’t see how you can say you’re not a nice person.” He said.
“Oh you would be surprised!” Rose said. “I’m going to put it out on the table. You no doubt already realized that I was trying to entrap you into a life of prostitution.”
“I did?” Prin marveled. Amazing, if true, since he barely knew what it was.
“What you don’t know is that Madam Kris.” Here she lowered her voice. “Is a bitch and a tyrant.” Rose crossed her wrists and held them up to show bondage. “Most, if not all the girls who work for her are basically slaves. She won’t let me go because I owe her money, and she brought me to this godforsaken island against my will. I have been trying to recruit my own replacement, in hopes that she would release me. As you can imagine there is no one here to recruit! I think I have paid my debt a hundred times over, but not by her accounting. Who am I kidding, she’s not going to let me go anyway, even if I did find someone to take my place.”
“Rose –” Prin started.
“No, Prin, you want no part of her, trust me. Also, my name isn’t Rose, actually it’s my middle name and I use it for my working name. Are you my client?” She asked.
“No?” Prin wasn’t sure what they were to each other at this point.
“Then call me Aster.” Aster said. “It’s Aster Rose, on my birth announcement, to be exact.”
“Mine is Callimodeus, on my birth announcement.” Prin said. “I never tell anyone.”
“Oh, that’s really unfortunate. We’ll keep that one to ourselves, bunny.” Aster teased. “Anyhow, I’m sorry for trying to trap you into a terrible working environment, if you can even call it that. And you just a baby bunny and all. Bu-uut if you still want to find a job in the sex trade I can help you find one with a more fair establishment. One thing you should never do to your sisters, give them bad employment advice.”
“Sex trade!?” Prin sat up straighter, the pieces finally clicking into place with a rusty groan of semi comprehension. The most he knew of sex were the vague euphemisms from his books, along with some illustrations of men and women, arms entwined in a wooded glen, or a wildflower overgrown field. In some books there was mention of affection being sold for coin, but he had thought it a fantasy or something that took place in the long ago before times.
“You were asking for work in the red door district, where all the brothels are? So forgive my confusion.” Aster said. “You have stripped me of my customer service face.” She made an exaggerated comical frown. “Don’t make me regret it.” She had mistaken his confusion for outrage at the very notion.
“No, I don’t mean! It’s just –” Prin was flustered, he felt his cheeks getting hot but hopefully they were already red enough from the hot steam to cover his embarrassment. “Is that . . . trading affection for money?”
“That’s one way of putting it, sure.” Aster said. She narrowed her fox-eyes at Prin. “Wa-iit, are you trying to plead innocence in these matters to try and get a free sample? Because it’s been attempted before but I didn’t see it coming from you.” She laughed.
“Sample of what?” Prin asked miserably. There was that word again he was growing to hate.
“Affection, of course.” Aster pursed her lips and blew a kiss in his direction. “I like you kid, but you’ve had enough freebies for one day.”
“No, I’m just stupid.” With this admission, the prince really wanted to leap out of the bath and run all the way back to the beach and bury himself in the sand.
“No you aren’t.” Aster chided. “Don’t ever say something about yourself you wouldn’t want someone else to say about you.” She brought him a towel. “Now, let’s get out of here before they charge me extra. I need to get to work anyway.”
“That’s what you really do for work?” Prin took the towel and stepped carefully out of the tall sided bath, drying himself off as he did.
“Don’t forget your hair, or you’ll catch a cold. Bend down.” Aster said. She took a second towel and ruffled it through his hair. “I wish you had some clean clothes to put on.”
“Do you like it?” The prince wondered. In the books it had seemed degrading, something done as a very last resort and often leading to some kind of gruesome death.
“It’s just like any job, it has it’s moments.” Aster says. “Sometimes there are repeat customers that you are always happy to see because they are funny and sweet and liven up your day. Sometimes there are rich customers who give you jewelry and other nice things just to smile in their direction. The opposite can also be true.” She shrugged. “And sometimes the boss takes all your money and says you owe her more on top, and takes you far away from anyone or anywhere you have ever known so there’s no one to help you escape. And doesn’t care what the customers do to you as long as they pay her extra . . . Well, you don’t need to know all that, bunny. Just suffice it to say there are good establishments and bad establishments and you don’t want to ever work for one of the bad ones.”
Prin straightened back up and began to put his clothes back on layer by layer. “What would happen if you left? Why can’t you just leave?”
“Well, if I tried to quit she would tell me I had to pay her everything I owed her before I could leave, and if I did that, she would say it wasn’t enough and come up with a new inflated number. If I tried to just leave . . . I did try to run away once, when we were back on the main land still, and they caught me and locked me in a closet for three days with no food and nowhere to go to the bathroom.” Her kohl lined eyes shifted back and forth, as though envisioning the cage around her still. “After that I was too weak to fight when they brought me here to this island. Now there is nowhere for me to go to get away. I’m just stuck.”
“I don’t think that’s acceptable.” The prince said. “What they did to you wasn’t right.” He still wasn’t entirely sure he believed every word she was saying. But if it wasn’t true, why say it? And if it was true, it . . . wasn’t something that could just be allowed to continue.
Aster laughed. “I know, I know. You don’t have to tell me.” As they left the building and went back outside, she turned back around and winked at him. “Are you my knight in shining armor? Going to rescue me, or what?” She shook her head at him, smiling.
