“You gave me a bit of a shock. I thought you must be Doctor No’s girl friend.”
“Thanks very much.”
“But when you’ve had the operation, what are you going to do then? You can’t got on living alone in a cellar all your life.”
“I thought I’d be a call girl.” She said it as she might have said ‘nurse’ or ‘secretary’.
“Oh, what do you mean by that?” Perhaps she had picked up the expression without understanding it.
“One of those girls who has a beautiful flat and lovely clothes. You know what I mean,” she said impatiently.”People ring them up and come and make love to them and pay them for it. They get a hundred dollars for each time in New York. That’s where I thought I’d start. Of course,” she admitted, “I might have to do it for less to begin with. Until I learned to do it really well. How much do you pay the untrained ones?”
Bond laughed. “I really can’t remember. It’s quite a long time since I had one.”
She sighed. “Yes, I suppose you can have as many women as you want for nothing. I suppose it’s only the ugly men that pay. But that can’t be helped. Any kind of job in the big towns must be dreadful. At least you can earn much more being a call girl. Then I can come back to Jamaica and buy Beau Desert. I’d be rich enough to find a nice husband and have some children. Now that I’ve found these Venus shells I’ve worked out that I might be back in Jamaica by the time I’m thirty. Won’t that be lovely?”
“I like the last part of the plan. But I’m not so sure of the first. Anyway, where did you find out about these call girls? Were they under G in the encyclopedia?”
“Of course not. Don’t be silly. There was a big case about them in New York about two years ago. There was a rich playboy called Jelke. He had a whole string of girls. There was a lot about the case in the Gleaner. They gave all the prices and everything. And anyway, there are thousands of those sort of girls in Kingston, only of course not such good ones. They only get about five shillings and they have no where to go and do it except the bush. My Nanny told me about them. She said I mustn’t grow up like them or I’d be very unhappy. I can see that for only five shillings. But for a hundred dollars…!”
Bond said, “You wouldn’t be able to keep all of that. You’d have to have a sort of manager to get the men, and then you’d have to bribe the police to leave you alone. And you could easily go to prison if something went wrong. I really don’t think you’d like the work. I’ll tell you what, with all you know about animals and insects and so on you could get a wonderful job looking after them in one of the American zoos. Or what about the Jamaica Institute? I’m sure you’d like that better. You’d be just as likely to meet a nice husband. Anyway you mustn’t think of being a call girl any more. You’ve got a beautiful body. You must keep it for the men you love.”
“That’s what people say in books,” she said doubtfully. “The trouble is there aren’t any men to love at Beau Desert.” She said shyly, “You’re the first Englishman I’ve ever talked to. I liked you from the beginning. I don’t mind telling you these things at all. I suppose there are plenty of other people I should like if I could get away.”
“Of course there are. Hundreds. And you’re a wonderful girl. I thought so directly I saw you.”
“Saw my behind, you mean.” The voice was getting drowsy,’ but it was full of pleasure*.
Bond laughed. “Well, it was a wonderful behind. And the other side was wonderful too.” Bond’s body began to stir with the memory of how she had been. He said gruffly, “Now come on, Honey. It’s time to go to sleep. There’ll be plenty of time to talk when we get back to Jamaica.”