Maragana Girl
Copyright 2004 by EC
EC's Erotic Art & Fiction - http://www.ecgraphicarts.com/
EC's deviantART collection - http://caligula20171.deviantart.com/ 

(warnings: judicial corporal punishment, forced public nudity, sex between adults, 
references to drug use, references to violence)

Chapter 23 – "Willow"

Kim's homecoming turned out to be every bit as painful as her sister had feared. 
She did not bother to bring up staying at her old room in her parents' house; she 
instinctively knew it would be better to stay at Cindy's apartment. 

Now that her sentence was over, the older issues poisoning Kim's relationship 
with her parents resurfaced, especially the endless deceptions she had inflicted on 
her family throughout her adolescence to spend time with two friends who turned 
out to be totally worthless. The Lees did not feel comfortable lecturing her or 
treating her in a condescending manner, however. Their wayward daughter 
obviously had matured in Upper Danubia. She thought and spoke like a person 
much older than her current age of 20. What most surprised them was how 
determined she was about details of her life; her marriage, her music, and the odd 
idea that she wanted to become a Danubian defense attorney. 

Kim's parents instead treated her with a cold tolerance, none too happy about the 
fact she only planned to stay in the US for two weeks before going back to Upper 
Danubia. Kim's braided hair and foreign appearance bothered them, as did her 
radically changed personality and constant use of Danubian expressions such as 
"the path of my life", "it is a question of honor", "proper protocol", "damaged 
soul", and "the Ancients have guided me". To the elder Lees, their daughter had 
become a complete stranger, and on top of everything else, just plain weird.

----------

Besides her strained and tense get-togethers with her parents, Kim spent much of 
her time trying to readjust to the United States. She was very uneasy during her 
trip and a bit dismayed at the fast pace of life and the over-all appearance of a 
society completely oriented around consumerism and automobiles. The crowded 
smoky streets bothered her, as did the enormous dirty parking lots, ever-present 
fluorescent lighting, the public's constant rushing, and overwhelming amount of 
cheaply-made products in stores and people's houses.

What bothered Kim the most, however, was the constant noise. Noise was 
everywhere, as though the entire nation was afraid of a few minutes of silence. 
Kim, after having been out of the US for two years, winced at the ever-present 
assault on her ears. 

The three interviews went well. Kimberly Lee tried to set the record straight over 
who was the real inspiration for most of her group's music by trying to give as 
much credit to Eloisa as possible. Many US fans of "Socrates' Mistresses" had 
assumed Kim was the band's lead singer, because she was the band's English 
voice. Kim used the interviews to give US viewers a much more accurate idea of 
what her group really was all about.

----------

Cindy accompanied her sister around her hometown as she confronted the ghosts 
of her past. Kim understood that her life in the US was truly over. As Cindy had 
warned the previous year, all of Kim's old friends from high school were 
scattered. The luckier ones had gone out of state to college, but most had drifted 
into obscurity. Two friends from her past, including an ex-boyfriend, were in jail. 
Kim's first week back in the US ended with a painful jailhouse visit to her former 
high school boyfriend, and a visit to the parents of another friend who overdosed 
about two months after she left for Europe. Everyone Kim talked to mentioned 
how great she looked.

Kim's hardest encounter with her past came at the beginning of her second week, 
when she decided to visit to her old high school with Cindy. She talked to a 
couple of her teachers who happened to be giving school classes, and gave much 
needed apologies for some of her behavior. Kim then went around to a spot 
behind the gym where she had spent endless hours with Tiffany and Susan. Cindy 
stood in nervous silence as her sister sat down in her favorite old hang-out spot, 
just staring at the pavement and not saying anything.

As Kim silently sat contemplating her past, a tall, lanky teenager with a rather 
punkish appearance and reeking of cigarette smoke showed up. She jumped to her 
feet and hugged him. It was Joe Walker, Tiffany's younger brother. He heaved a 
sigh of relief.

"Hey, Kimmie, real glad to see ya...The guys said you were back...and fuckin' 
Jones just told me you were here at school...just got out of class...glad I got ya 
while you're still here."

Kim smiled slightly. "You're in summer school?"

"Yeah...fucked up the year again. What else is new?"

Cindy, who never really liked either Joe or his sister, excused herself, claiming 
she had to go to the bathroom. Cindy's departure left Kim alone with her former 
best friend's younger brother. She felt very uncomfortable, but at least one huge 
question in her life was about to be answered, what happened to Tiffany? She 
gathered from Joe's comments that he actually had been looking for her, which 
struck her as rather odd.

Kim decided to give her companion an update on her life with a very abbreviated 
and censored version of her sentence in Upper Danubia. She informed Joe she had 
just been released, and pointed to the tan-line from her collar that still was visible 
around her neck. She didn't mention the fact she had been nude during her entire 
sentence, hoping Joe was ignorant enough about foreign places that he didn't 
know that detail about Upper Danubia. It turned out he didn't know anything 
about Upper Danubia, nor had Tiffany been eager to share any details about her 
disastrous trip to Europe when she returned home.

"Ya know, when she got back, she didn't talk. People said a lot of shit to Tiff 
because of you and Susie...ya know...how she took two friends to Europe and 
came back solo...I don't know...She's pretty fucked right now...has been for two 
years...I think the trip did it."

"When you say Tiff's 'fucked', what do you mean by that? What's she actually 
doing?"

"What ain't she doin', Kimmie? She's doin' just about everything...weed, smack, 
'K', blow, crank...I think now it's mostly crank, 'cause of her boyfriend."

"That's it? Just drugs?"

"That's it, Kimmie. Drugs. That's all she's doin'. Says she ain't no good for 
anything else."

"Where's she getting the money?"

"How do you think she's gettin' it? She's dancin' over at Dirty Grampy's. Strippin' 
and, well...ya know...gettin' paid..."

"Shit. And it's all going for drugs?"

"All of it, Kimmie. Drugs and that fuck, Raymond. That's her boyfriend. She ain't 
got shit for anything else."

"And that's why you were looking for me? To tell me this?"

"Kimmie, I was lookin' for ya...'cause…I don't know… I thought maybe you 
could talk to her...make her feel better…maybe tell her you're not mad or 
something…you know…about Europe."

"Joe, I can't tell her I'm not mad, because I am. I'm fucking furious at her. Do you 
know what it felt like, when I was in that courtroom on trial, and my defense 
attorney told me what Tiff told the police, that the pot she bought was all mine 
and that she didn't know about it? That she lied to ditch me? Do you have any 
idea how that felt? Because of what Tiff told them, they were gonna hit me with a 
20-year sentence, and it was Spokesman Dukov who talked them out of it. No, 
Joe...I'm mad, and Tiff's gonna know it. But...then…I guess I'll try to talk to her, 
and I suppose maybe I can do something for her."

Joe was a bit stunned at Kim's last statement. "20 years? For what?"

"For dealing. The Danubians don't like drugs. You want to piss-off their 
government, the best way to do it is have drugs on you. I had a full pound of pot 
on me, and they thought I was dealing."

Kim decided to have Joe take her to Dirty Grampy's that night, along with Cindy. 
She called Cindy on her cell phone and told her to come back. An hour later the 
two women and Tiffany's brother made their way to the strip bar.

Dirty Grampy's was a juice bar, which allowed Kim, who was 20, and Joe, who 
had just turned 18, to go in. Cindy already was 23, so there was no problem for 
her. Joe was a bit reluctant having Kim see Tiffany at her current job. Kim, 
however, went in with the confidence that she knew exactly what she needed to 
do. She still was furious at Tiffany, but now she also was mulling over ideas with 
the hope of salvaging her life.

They entered as several scruffy middle-aged patrons turned around to see the two 
women's fresh faces. Kim and Cindy obviously were not dancers, nor did either 
seem a likely partner for Joe. The European-style braids made Kim really look out 
of place in Dirty Grampy's. Cindy obviously was out of her environment as well, 
with the clean-cut look of a serious graduate student.

Kim handed Joe two 20-dollar bills.

"Get me some singles."

"Huh?"

"I want singles. That's what you tip the dancers with, isn't it?"

Joe returned with a stack of one-dollar bills. Kim took them and sat at a barstool 
right next to the stage while the other two ordered smoothies and sat at a table a 
little further away. She watched the routine of a rather wasted-looking young 
Asian, who she thought looked eerily like herself. The girl ended her routine 
completely nude. Kim passed the dancer a few dollars to get her to do a sexual 
routine close up, to learn what the dancers actually had to do for their tips. Kim's 
companions were surprised to see her tip a stripper for a dance, but what she did 
next would shock them much more.

It turned out Tiffany was the next performer. Her stage name was "Willow", 
because she was so tall and thin. Kim watched in anger and disgust as Tiffany 
moved about the stage and peeled off her clothes. Once Tiffany had stripped 
down to a loose blouse and G-string, Kim pulled out two dollars and held them 
up. The flash of money drew Tiffany's attention, but as her glance met the face of 
the young woman holding up the cash, the dancer froze in horror.

Kim's dark, angry eyes bore into Tiffany. She waved the cash. 

"Willow, it's a tip. Please show me what you do for tips. I tip very well, but I 
expect value for my money." 

Tiffany went white, but the club DJ and several patrons were looking at her, 
expecting her to put out the usual reward for hard cash. She had no choice. The 
dancer got on her knees and began waving her bottom in Kim's face. Kim slipped 
the money into Tiffany's G-string and then held up two more dollars. Once again 
the cold stare of Kim's dark eyes confronted Tiffany.

"Show me what you got…Willow."

Reluctantly Tiffany peeled off her blouse and flashed her breasts in front of her 
former friend. Kim took a look the dancer's arms, noting the needle-tracks. Kim 
held out yet more dollar bills, touching them to Tiffany's scarred arms. Yet again, 
Kim's cold, hostile stare tore into Tiffany as their eyes met.

The dancer reluctantly pulled down her G-string and slipped it over her feet. Kim 
showed her no mercy. She held up five dollars as the other patrons and the club 
DJ stared intently, wondering why a young woman was shelling out so much just 
to catch a few close up glances of Willow's body. With tears flowing down her 
cheeks, Tiffany spread her legs and waved her bare vagina in Kim's face. Her 
spectator's next comment was sarcasm in its purist form.

"Willow, you are so hot. I wish you could dance like this for me all night."

"Willow" couldn't see how she could be any more humiliated, but she was forced 
to face yet another indignity when the third song of her routine was played. The 
song was a slow piece by "Socrates' Mistresses" from the soundtrack of the 
recently released Gaul movie. As Kim listened to her own voice singing along 
with Eloisa, her lips tightened and her eyes flashed with anger. She held up dollar 
after dollar as she forced Tiffany to completely degrade herself throughout the 
final song. 

Joe sat next to Kim's sister, silently looking into his glass. He was very afraid of 
meeting his sister's gaze or having her realize he was sitting in the audience. 
Cindy stared hard at the young woman on the stage, very curious to watch the 
infamous false friend who had landed Kim into so much trouble in Danube City.

The Danubian song ended and Tiffany, holding 30 of Kim's dollars in her hand, 
sadly collected her clothing and left the dance stage. There were a few whistles, 
sex-whoops, and some half-hearted clapping from the guys in the room.

Kim's moment of revenge had passed. There was no way, none whatsoever, that 
she could have found a better way to completely stun and humiliate Tiffany. 
Kim's idea was to first break her former friend, and then get her to talk. Once 
Tiffany was talking, she could try to figure out what to do next, with the ultimate 
hope to find some way to help her. The dance-floor encounter had its place in that 
plan. Kim could tell Tiffany was indeed broken and had nothing left to hide. Also, 
she now felt completely in control of the relationship.

Tiffany retreated to the dancers' changing room in shock over what had just 
happened. She had not known Kim even had been released, let alone that she was 
back in the US. Tiffany was as amazed seeing her as she would have been seeing 
someone she thought was dead. Finally, the drugs in her body, combined with the 
horrible experience she had just endured on the dance stage, made her sick 
enough to throw up in the bathroom. Once she finished, Tiffany tossed Kim's 
money all over the floor and began crying.

As soon as Tiffany left the stage, Kim got up to join the others at their table. 
Cindy was stunned at her treatment of Tiffany, while Joe was incensed.

"You fuckin' bitch! What the fuck...what'd you do that for!?"

Kim stared at Joe with a cold calmness that somewhat disarmed him.

"Joe, you will not call me a 'bitch' if you want me to do anything for Tiffany. I did 
that for a reason, so that when I talk to her she won't try to bullshit me. And 
besides, what did I actually do? I paid her to do her job, Joe; that's all I did! I just 
paid her to do her fucking job!"

Before Joe had a chance to respond, Kim stopped a waitress and passed her a five-
dollar bill. She told the waitress she wanted to buy a drink for "Willow". She 
passed the waitress some more money for the club's very over-priced smoothies. 
The waitress took off to bring the smoothies and summon her co-worker. Kim 
then turned to her two companions.

"OK, I'm going to try to talk to Tiffany. I need you guys out of here. Go next door 
and get something to eat. I'll catch up as soon as I'm done."

Joe quickly got up, eager to leave before Tiffany had a chance to see him. Kim's 
sister also got up quickly, having no desire to stay in this awful place any longer 
than she needed to.

As Kim's companions vanished through the door, the waitress came back with 
Tiffany and the drinks. Kim handed the waitress another five-dollar bill, mainly to 
make sure the waitress stayed on her side if there were any problems. 

Tiffany was dressed in her G-string and skimpy top. She looked wasted, but still 
was rather attractive. Her breath smelled of toothpaste and a hint of vomit. This 
was not the first time she had cried and thrown up but still had to face a customer.

The last thing Tiffany wanted to do was to see or sit with Kim. However, the 
drink on the table signaled that her high school friend had purchased 10 minutes 
of her time. Over the last year she had sat with plenty of unsavory people and 
with some of them negotiated an hour in the cheap motel across the street. In this 
place the only real language was money, and Kimberly Lee spoke that language 
quite well.

As soon as Tiffany was seated, Kim's temper rose up in her. Suddenly the 
memory of that moment, in the middle of her trial when Dukov told her "…the 
most important witnesses are missing, your two friends. It is quite unfair you 
should go on trial and they should not." Unfair. For a second her emotions took 
over and she forgot the main reason why she had Tiffany sitting with her. She 
angrily leaned forward, tilted her head to the side, and pointed at her neck. The 
tan-line from her collar had darkened a bit, but still was somewhat visible. Again 
her dark eyes bore into Tiffany.

"OK, Willow. Ask me what this is! Ask me why I have a white stripe around my 
neck! Ask me where I've been and what I've been doing over the last two years! 
Come-on...Willow...ask me! Then I've got some questions for you!"

"I...I know the answer...I don't have to ask you...'cause I know. You were in 
Danube City all this time. They busted you because of me."

Kim calmed down slightly, a bit ashamed of her outburst. She took a deep breath 
and tried to focus. "Tiff, what I want you to understand is that I'm not mad about 
the conviction itself. That would have happened no matter what. What really hurt 
me was what you told the police. And I'm going to tell you how I found out about 
it. It was in the middle of my trial, when I asked my Spokesman what was going 
on, you know, 'cause I didn't understand anything that was happening. And that's 
when he told me…that you two had been released and gone to Prague. Then he 
told me why."

Tiffany sat silent, staring into her smoothie. Kim continued with a question. 

"Tiff, I want to know, for real, whose idea it was for you two to play dumb about 
our stash."

"It was my idea. At first Susan felt bad about doing that to you, but I talked her 
into it. I mean, we were scared, Kim, both of us. We panicked."

"You panicked. And how scared do you think I was, standing there by myself in 
court the next day, naked, up on the prisoner's stand, facing the judge with my 
arms behind my head and four spotlights shining on me? How scared do you think 
I was when Spokesman Dukov told me you two had left and that I was facing 20 
years…20 years, Tiff…for marijuana dealing? How scared do you think I was?"

"I'm sorry Kim. I don't know what else to say. I'm sorry." 

Tiffany reluctantly sipped her smoothie. She looked like she was going to be sick 
again, but she forced herself to talk.

"If I could go back and take your place I would…and maybe I'd be better off. 
Maybe that's what should have happened, and if I'd told the truth, it would've been 
me in that courtroom and you and Susan would have left and come home. 
And…Susan would have come back. It was because of me she didn't. Maybe life 
is punishing me 'cause of what I did. Maybe…"

"OK, that's my other question. What happened to Susan?"

"When we got to Prague, she just wanted to get on a plane and come home, and 
maybe try to get you some help. I…I don't know Kim. I knew you were fucked, 
and I…just…didn't give a shit. So, I hooked up with some local guys, and we 
partied while Susan sat in the hostel by herself. The next day she told me to go 
fuck myself and that she was going home, and we had a big fight. Then 
I…grabbed her plane ticket and told her she wasn't going anywhere unless she 
partied with me one more night, you know, 'cause I didn't want to be alone with 
those guys. So she came with me, and we shot up…and then we all got sick."

"I know about that part. Spokesman Dukov told me about it in his office, after my 
mom sent him Susan's obituary. Hepatitis?"

"Yeah."

The waitress came by, looking at Tiffany and tapping her watch. Before Tiffany 
could say anything, Kim handed the waitress a 20-dollar bill to shut her up.

"Tiff, I gotta talk to you after you get off work. We gotta sit down some place 
quiet and we gotta talk."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Raymond wouldn't let me. As soon as I get off work he's here to pick me up and 
he doesn't let me out of his sight unless I'm here or across the street with a 
customer."

"Yeah, your brother mentioned Raymond. You really did fuck up your life, didn't 
you?" 

Kim shook her head at the thought of Tiffany's abusive boyfriend. Obviously 
Raymond wanted to prevent precisely what was happening right now, the 
possibility that someone could enter Tiffany's life, get her to talk about herself, 
and get her to think about her alternatives. Kim realized it was vital to keep 
Tiffany talking. She decided to purchase some more of Tiffany's time.

"How much do you charge?"

"What?"

"I want you to myself, for an hour. How much is it? You and the room…how 
much?"

"300 dollars."

"OK, Tiff, I'll hit the ATM. For the next hour, your ass is mine."

----------

Kim felt driven to talk to Tiffany, as though some force were pushing her from 
within. What she was doing made no sense whatsoever, to drop $ 300 that would 
either fuel her friend's drug habit or go to Raymond, but she was desperate to 
have an hour of uninterrupted time with Tiffany.

She called Cindy and explained she would be with Tiffany the next hour. She told 
her sister to take Joe home, and then come back to pick her up. With the cash in 
her hand and the other members of her group dismissed, Kim prepared to cross 
the street with her former best friend.

For the next hour the two women brought each other up to date on their respective 
lives. They both realized something extremely important, that over the last two 
years Kim, while serving her sentence, actually had enjoyed far more freedom 
than Tiffany, who had never been arrested. Kim, the one who had been arrested, 
faced a fulfilling and interesting future, even if it was a future that cut her off 
from her past. 

Tiffany, on the other hand, had spent a horrible two years, first recovering from 
her bout with hepatitis, then facing the ire of both the Lees and the Taylors, then 
drifting and getting high, and finally her somewhat more settled life dancing at 
Dirty Grampy's and servicing the club's customers. Kim's friend, between the 
torment of her chemical dependency and Raymond, led a grueling and horribly 
restricted life. She was in continuous discomfort from the drugs or withdrawal, 
exhausted from her work schedule, and living in constant fear of Raymond's 
paranoia and his tweaking from meth. Kim sat dumbfounded as Tiffany described 
one squalid event in her life after another.

"I don't know… I'm just…such a waste. You know…I did OK in school, better 
than you for sure…could've gone to college, but…look at me. I probably won't 
see my 30th birthday even…I'll probably O.D., or get AIDS, or get stuck long 
before that."

"Tiff, I'm curious, from something you just said. Do you think you'd have been 
better off if you'd gotten sentenced in Danube City?"

"I know that for a fact. I mean…look at you. You're clean. You look good, I 
mean…really good, like you've been at the gym. You got your friends and your 
singing and your Spokesman, I mean you've got a really great life. Kim…I 
mean…just to be clean, to not think about your next hit, I'd go back just for that."

"You'd go back to Upper Danubia?"

"If it'd get me out of this shit life of mine, yeah, I'd go back. I'd give anything to 
exchange my last two years for the ones you had."

The image of Tiffany on trial in the Central Courthouse of Danube City flashed 
through Kim's mind, as did the comment from Dukov. That's it! She realized there 
was one place Tiffany could flee to, one place where she could kick her drug 
habit. If Tiffany were to travel to Danube City and live under the restrictions of a 
convicted criminal, she would be forced to kick her addictions, because drugs 
were completely unavailable in the Danubian capitol. She could escape Raymond, 
and all the other horrible details of her current life.

"Tiff, I have a question for you. Do you want to live to see your 30th birthday? 
Live without drugs? Walk around in a clean place and have some people in your 
life who care about you? Have a real job? Maybe even a family? Is that what you 
want from life?"

Tiffany nodded.

"I can give that to you. It'll be very hard and you'll have a rough transition, but I 
can give you all that, if you really want it. I can give you your 30th birthday, if 
you want it bad enough."

"Kim, how…I'm totally fucked."

"Yes you are, but there's very little in life that can't be fixed. You don't have HIV, 
do you?"

"No, not yet, at any rate."

"Then you can just walk away from all this…just walk away."

"I can't. I tried and I can't."

"Well, I'm leaving for Upper Danubia in four days, and if you come with me, I 
can guarantee to get you off drugs. You won't have any choice. There's no drugs 
in Danube City, so no matter how hard it is for you, you'd be forced to get clean."

"But, I can't go back there. I'd get arrested."

"That's right, you would. You'd be arrested right at the airport, and I'd go with you 
down to the Central Police Station to have you booked and arraigned. After that 
I'd take you to the hospital, where you'd dry out and go through withdrawal. Once 
you're cleaned up, you'd go on trial, get a long sentence, and be restricted to 
Danube City for many years. And things between you and me would be very 
different from what you're used to. I'd hold legal custody over you. I'd be telling 
you what to do, and you'd better damn-well do it. I won't be nice to you, because 
'nice' isn't how you're going to turn your life around. But I can promise you 
something that I hope would make it worthwhile…your 30th birthday, in good 
health, and many more after that."

Tiffany said nothing.

"You'd have a lot of your choices in life taken away from you, but maybe that's 
been your problem, too many choices. Yeah, your life will be restricted, but what 
about now? How much freedom do you really have, right now?"

"I don't have any."

"Well, that's my offer. Spokesman Dukov has a lot of pull in the country 'cause he 
got his legislation passed, so I'm sure he can get you in. I'm warning you, though, 
it's gonna be rough."

Tiffany suddenly was very agitated, at the thought that she really did have a 
viable alternative to the life she had at the moment. Her hands shook slightly as 
she played with the hem of her blouse.

"Would they whip my ass…like they did to you?"

"Yes. That's part of their whole justice system, the ass-whippings. How many 
you'd get would be worked out in your sentence."

Oddly enough, the last detail put Tiffany somewhat at ease. She hated herself and 
felt she needed to suffer. At the same time Kim was being up-front about the fact 
she was offering Tiffany a very restricted life. Life in Danube City would be hard, 
but it would be livable. Her current life was not livable. Just since the beginning 
of the year two of her co-workers had overdosed and another had been murdered 
by a customer. Tiffany knew full-well she was living on borrowed time.

"Kim, if I go, can you forgive me for what I did?"

"I want to forgive you, Tiff. That's something I need to work out with myself, just 
like I had to work it out with that cop. I'd find it easier to forgive you if I knew 
you wanted to save yourself, if I knew you wanted to do something else with your 
life besides get high and support a tweaker. It's going to take me a while, but I 
think I can forgive you, if you put some effort from your end to make some 
changes in your life."

"When are you leaving?"

"I'm flying out Friday afternoon to Frankfurt. I'll be back in Danube City about 
noon on Saturday."

"I'm gonna be working Friday. That's my early shift."

"Well, that's perfect, if you want to come with me. I can simply come over here 
on the way to the airport and pick you up."

"But I can't come here with my suitcases, everyone will see."

"Tiff, there's no point in packing anything. You're not gonna need your clothes. 
Whatever pictures or what-not you want just stick in your purse. Now, one more 
question, where's your passport?"

"I think my mom has it."

"Not Raymond?"

"No. My mom took my passport when I got back. If she didn't throw it out she 
still has it."

"Well, then I'll get it and hold on to it. So you're coming?"

Tiffany nodded.

"No, don't nod your head. I want to hear, out of your mouth, what's happening 
Friday."

"On Friday I'm coming to the club and wait for you. You're gonna pick me up and 
take me to Danube City."

"You're not going to wait, Tiffany. You're going to act perfectly normal and do 
your first dance. Once you finish I'll buy you a smoothie and have you sit with 
me. Then, you and I go out the door. I'll take care of everything else. All I need 
from you is to be here at work on Friday and dance one more time, and between 
now and then for you to be careful about what you do with your customers."

Tiffany sat silent for a long time, almost to the minute she and Kim had to vacate 
the room. She had a final question for Kim.

"I…don't get it. Why are you doing this? Why do you even give a shit about what 
happens to me?"

"I do give a shit about what happens to you, Tiffany. What we're doing is very 
important to me. I need to get you on that plane."

Again Kim thought about the many things Vladim Dukov had told her during the 
two years she was a criminal, and her visions from last year's Day of the Dead. 

"I learned something while I was serving my sentence. I think everything in my 
life during those two years happened for a reason. Everything I did or experienced 
in Upper Danubia led to something else. I mean everything. You're part of all that. 
I'm here to pull you out of this mess because that's part of the path of my life, the 
path that has been laid out for me. I can't really explain it. I think once you get 
there and get settled into your daily routine you'll understand a bit better."

Kim squeezed Tiffany's hand and the two women headed back to Dirty Grampy's.

----------

Cindy was sitting alone in the restaurant next to the strip club when Kim left the 
motel. 

Kim watched Tiffany disappear through the door and then waved at her sister to 
come out. Cindy was more than skeptical when she explained her plans about 
Tiffany. Kim was going to take a tweaker to Upper Danubia and expect her to 
turn her life around? Yeah, right. 

Kim, however, seemed oddly calm about the whole affair, which to some extent 
persuaded Cindy that maybe her sister knew something she didn't about either 
Tiffany or Upper Danubia. More than anything else Kim talked like a 
professional, with Tiffany being the first case out of many she would handle 
through Upper Danubia's court system during her life. Her sister's next comment 
made Cindy understand how she saw herself and the extent to which she had 
internalized Danubian values.

"Right now I believe the path of my life will be to help people repair their broken 
souls. That is the role of a Spokesperson. I now understand the Ancients are 
testing me, and it's something I foresaw last fall. Tiffany is the first test the 
Ancients have presented me with. She is the first test of my honor and the first 
broken soul I will try to redeem."

"And what if this doesn't work out? What if she doesn't make it?"

"Then I will understand I'm called upon to seek a different path in life."

The next day Kim spent several hours working out the Danubian portion of her 
plan to redeem Tiffany. She talked on the phone with Spokesman Vladim Dukov 
and Officer Vladik Dukov, making arrangements for the details surrounding 
Tiffany's entry into Upper Danubia, her arrest, her detoxification treatment, her 
trial, and her post-sentencing employment. She called her boss at the music store 
to set up a job for her future client. Tiffany would begin her Danubian life in a 
manner very similar to Kim, as a cashier.

Vladim Dukov decided to put Kim formally in charge of what would happen to 
Tiffany and award his protégé legal custody of her wayward friend. That meant 
she had to be officially certified as a Court Apprentice, something that usually did 
not happen until an aspirant studying to be a Spokesperson had completed the 
second year of university classes. However, because Kim was bringing another 
American to Upper Danubia to get her off drugs, the country's Supreme Court 
judges agreed to grant Kim the legal status she needed to handle Tiffany's case. 
Kim would become a provisional Court Apprentice, which gave her authority to 
argue Tiffany's case at her trial and negotiate her sentence. Officially she would 
be known as Apprentice Lee, which was how Tiffany would have to address her 
in public.

Dukov informed Kim that Tiffany faced three charges if she chose to return and 
submit herself to the Danubian justice system. The most serious violation was not 
the five years she would receive for marijuana possession, but 30 years for 
perjury. Tiffany would be sentenced to 20 years for committing direct perjury for 
lying to the arraignment panel about the marijuana during her interrogation 
following her arrest with Kim. She faced a second charge of indirect perjury for 
encouraging Susan to lie to the arraignment panel. Indirect perjury carried an 
additional 10-year sentence. Tiffany was facing a full 35 years of confinement to 
Danube City. Dukov asked how Kim planned to handle the seriousness of the 
charges.

"She'll serve the full 35 years, Spokesman Dukov. I need to keep her under my 
control, because if she's not, she'll relapse." 

"Even after several years?"

"The danger will go down over time, but with as messed up as she is, I'm not 
taking any chances. I'll argue for leniency on some of the conditions of her 
sentence, but the time she has to wear her collar won't be one of them."

----------

Kim's only real concern was retrieving Tiffany's passport. She met up with Joe 
and he took her to his mother's house. As Joe smoked one cigarette after another, 
Kim explained what she had in mind for his sister in terms he could understand. 
Kim compared what was about to happen to Tiffany to a very long rehab session. 
She didn't mention Tiffany's rehab session would last 35 years, but Joe did 
understand that Tiffany was leaving for a long time.

Tiffany's brother became agitated. He got up, unlocked a trunk in his room, and 
came back with a bottle of whiskey. He took a drink out of the bottle and offered 
it to his guest. Kim smiled, but held her hands up and shook her head.

"Joe, I gotta tell you something. You're…kinda fucked yourself. I mean…you're 
just 18, and if you keep this up your gonna be worse than Tiff in a couple of 
years."

"Yeah, Kimmie, I know, I'm fucked. I don't know, I think some of it's from 
watchin' Tiff. Ya know…seeing her like this as a fuckin' tweaker and whore. 
Maybe if I know she's OK, over there in…Danube…or whatever the fuck you call 
that place…"

"Well, for that I need her passport. Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah, I'll get it."

Joe went to his mother's room and rummaged around a bit. Just as Kim was 
beginning to worry that Joe might not find the passport after all, he came back 
into the living room and handed it to her. A huge feeling of relief swept through 
her. She opened up the passport and looked at the stamp Tiffany got when she and 
Susan were expelled the night after their arrest. She put the passport in her pocket.

Joe took another drink from his bottle.

"Ya know, she's been in fuckin' rehab…didn't do shit for her. What makes you 
think this'll work?"

"Do you have any other suggestions?"

"No."

"Then we gotta make this work, don't we? Now, the plan is I'm renting a car on 
Friday, and me and Cindy are heading over to Dirty Grampy's at about 2:00. Our 
flight leaves at 5:00, so we should be OK for time. Cindy's staying in the car, 
while I go in and get Tiff. I'd like you to come as well, to see us off. You can meet 
us at the club and we'll head to the airport together."

"Sure Kimmie, I'd like that."

----------

The final two days in the US Kim spent with Cindy. As much as she wanted to 
make up with her parents, that was not to be, at least not during this trip. Kim's 
parents were deeply bothered by the enormous changes in their daughter. In spite 
of everything their two daughters had told them about Upper Danubia, they had 
not fully realized how much Kim was committed to her life in that country until 
they saw her in person.

Cindy, now her parents' favorite after so many years of doting on Kim, tried to 
explain the significance of Kim's transformation. She sadly commented: "If you 
just would've gone to her de-collaring ceremony you would have understood 
what's going on with her. You didn't, after I begged you to go. That's why you 
don't get it. Now, she's getting married in October, and I'm going. What I want is 
all three of us to go."

The Lees finally agreed to attend Kim's wedding. Hugely relieved, Cindy began 
making plans for the October trip. It would be in October, not July, when Kim and 
her parents finally would begin the long, difficult process of rebuilding their 
relationship.

----------

Kim rented a car the morning she and Tiffany were scheduled to leave. As 
planned, Kim went in and watched her future client perform her final dance. 
While up on stage Tiffany's eyes scanned the audience, looking for her future 
Spokeswoman. Finally the dancer's eyes met Kim's and they exchanged nods. 
Once Tiffany was off the stage, Kim ordered two smoothies and asked for 
"Willow" to join her. Tiffany came out, wearing her usual G-string and skimpy 
top. Kim quickly stood up and the two women went to the door. Tiffany pulled a 
mini-skirt out of her purse and stepped into it. The top was not appropriate for 
traveling, but Kim planned to pull a T-shirt out of her suitcase for her companion 
to change into at the airport.

Joe was standing outside, smoking a cigarette and wearing a very forlorn 
expression. Tiffany took the cigarette from her brother's hand, took a very deep 
drag, and nervously nodded.

"OK. Let's get out of here before someone sees me and calls Ray."

Tiffany jumped in the back seat, with Joe beside her. Kim swung into the front 
seat and with that Cindy sped off. 

The trip to the airport was uneventful. Kim, Tiffany, and Joe stood in line to 
check-in while Cindy parked. There was a brief question concerning the stamp in 
Tiffany's passport forbidding her to travel to Upper Danubia, but Kim countered 
with a fax from Dukov's office that over-rode the prohibition. Kim produced a 
second fax that granted her provisional custody of her companion, which struck 
the airline employees as odd, given both women were US citizens. All the time 
Tiffany was looking fearfully at the door, terrified Raymond might show up. 
However, in the end there was no real reason to hold up the travelers and finally 
they were issued their tickets.

At the security entrance Cindy and Kim hugged each other good-bye, but their 
farewell was not painful, given Cindy's plans to see Kim get married in October. 
Tiffany's goodbye to Joe was much more traumatic. She was leaving, probably 
forever. It was very unlikely her brother would ever see her again. She was crying 
quite vigorously, her emotions unstable because of her addictions. However she 
did say one important coherent thing to Joe.

"Please, Joe, please get off the booze. That's how I got started, and I don't…want 
what's happened to me to happen to you."

"Yeah, Tiff. If you get cleaned up, I guess I'll have to also."

Kim tapped her companion on the arm and pointed at the security scanners. 
"Come on, Tiffany. We gotta get moving."

Once they were in the waiting area for the first part of their flight, Tiffany became 
agitated again and began fidgeting. Kim worried about her client panicking and 
bolting right up until the time they were seated on the plane and the door finally 
closed. However, once the plane had taken off, Kim looked over at Tiffany. She 
was asleep, and did not stir until Kim shook her awake to change planes in 
Frankfurt.

----------

That night, once Joe was dropped off and Kim's rented car safely returned, Cindy 
turned on the local news before going to bed. The top story was the emergency 
closure of the international terminal of the city's airport due to a security breach. It 
turned out that a subject by the name of Raymond Stark had been arrested after 
storming through the passenger screening area with a loaded gun. Prior to the 
airport incident local police reported that he had rampaged through a juice bar 
called Dirty Grampy's, causing extensive damage and injuring two bouncers. The 
reporters interviewed a dancer, who speculated:

"Well, you know…his girlfriend took off with a couple of Chinese girls this 
afternoon, or, you know…maybe they were Japanese…and we haven't seen her 
since. Ray…you know…he's got this real mean temper…and …you know…with 
Willow gone, he just started bustin' stuff up...and then he…you know…busted 
Mike upside the head with a table leg…and…"

The police refused to comment, pending an investigation.