She patted her crotch and then kissed the hand that did the pattin’. I kept watchin’, waitin’ to see what might happen next. But Gentry touched my leg to get my attention.

“If we don’t land with Mama Priss, what’s left?” said Gentry.

“Well, I’ll get you on with Priss,” I said.

“How old can we be to work there?” said Scarlett.

“If you take care of yourself, you’ve got ’til thirty-five at the brothel.”

“Then what?”

“If you saved enough money, you can move somewhere else, become a proper woman, and start a restaurant, laundry or boardin’ house.”

“And if not?”

“Well, if you ain’t saved your money or got married by then, you’ll be hat-snatchers.”

“What’s that mean?”

“You’ll live in a one-room shack or a tent in a minin’ camp. When a prosperous-lookin’ man walks by, you’ll jump out and snatch his hat. He’ll chase you to your place, and you’ll try to coax him into a poke for whatever he’ll pay. You can make a decent wage, but it’s dangerous, ’cause you’re on your own.”

“And after that?”

“I won’t lie to you, it ain’t no easy life. Even with Mama Priss, you’re gonna have no proper friends, and you won’t be allowed in any of the better places, includin’ most stores. You’ll be shunned by proper women and served by no one. You’ll hope to marry one a’ your regulars or save enough money to open your own brothel.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Well, if you lose your looks, your health, and your money, the last stop is a hog ranch. That’s a roadside buildin’ on a stage coach route or cattle trail in the middle of nowhere that you’ll share with a dozen broke down alcoholic, drugged-out whores. If you wind up there, that’s where you’ll die.”

“Wow!” Gentry said, pretendin’ to be excited. “Sounds great! Won’t Mum and Papa be proud when I introduce them to my friends at the hog ranch!”

I took another look at this gal, Gentry, and liked what I saw.

“You’re fun,” I said.

She flashed a pretty smile, then winked.

“You know it,” she said.

 


 

 

 

8.

 

My next stop was Lick and Casey’s Dance Hall, where I met a feisty one-eyed whore named Mary Burns, and three others, Hester, Emma, and Leah. Unlike Mary, Hester had two eyes, but they were different colors, black and brown. Emma wore a pink ribbon in her hair, and had a distractin’ way of fondlin’ her breasts whenever she spoke. It took me no time at all to realize that while she had ten fingers all together, six of ’em were on one hand. Leah was thin as a rail and had a scar that ran from the corner of her eye to the side of her nose. It appeared to be a knife wound that had been poorly stitched. This was a ragged bunch of whores, whose ages ranged from south of eighteen to north of thirty. Most of their questions centered on the trip.

“We’ll ride on horseback to Springfield,” I said, “and take buckboards the rest of the way.”

The women looked at each other.

Emma said, “We ain’t got horses.”

“You’ll get some,” I said.

“Where?”

“You’ll buy’em.”

“How?”

“With whatever money you’ve got, or by sellin’ your possessions.”

“How much luggage can we take?” Mary said.

“No more than a kit and saddle bags.”

“What about our dresses?”

“If you can fit one in your kit, fine. Otherwise, no.”

“How should we dress for the trip?” Leah said.

“Like men. And you’ll be carryin’ rifles and shotguns, even if you don’t know how to use ’em.”

“Are you insane?” 

“My job is to get you to Dodge City, unless you decide to settle somewhere else along the way. But if you’re in open country, wearin’ women’s clothin’, your chances of gettin’ to Dodge are poor. Between Indians, outlaws, soldiers, cowboys and renegades, you’re pretty much bug meat. There’ll be no perfume or powder in the Ozarks ’cause of bears, or on the Kansas plains, ’cause of Indians. I’ll make you roll around in mud a few times, and rub dirt in your hair a time or two to keep the scent down.”

“My friends went west,” Mary said. “And they didn’t have to do all that. They wore their finest clothes and perfumes the whole way.”

“You should a’ gone with your friends,” I said, “or wait ’til the next bunch goes.