As if it was the most obvious and acceptable answer, Stasia began. “Service clients in any way they want. I’m one of luckier girls. Others have to accept beatings and worse disgusting demands from… from sick people. They haven’t treated me so harsh. But tonight, my friend Mona is unwell, and they want I should service the pig who always picks her. She’s an animal who hits and bites, smokes cigarettes to burn. I couldn’t. I run away. I’d rather die than be in same room with crazy woman.”
Sophia revealed her shock before she could stop herself. “A woman?”
“Yes. There are many women who like to be with us. Some are nice, bring presents – earrings and makeup. And they treat us good. Others are worse than men who just have their… their way and leave.”
Sam cut in, “Are these so-called customers Greeks who live here in Rhodes or mainly the tourists?”
“Both. Greeks are more careful. Same ones come often. But tourists know they only be here for little time. They act like… like they can behave any way they want.”
“Where do these men keep you when you’re not brought to the hotels?”
“We go to bars and parties too.”
“But where do you sleep?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I know house is not too big where they keep us in basement, and it is surrounded by weeds and dry grass, like farmland. There are hundreds of olive trees around, that I know. But where it is from city, they never let us see. We travel always in back of van with no windows, and they put curtain at front so we can’t see.”
“Do customers come there?” Sophia wanted to get a good idea of the arrangement so when she reported this to the local authorities; she could give them more details.
“Net… I mean no. There is a fancy place where we spend much time waiting for customers to come. Tonight, it was special at this hotel, because crazy bitch had party where she wants ten of us to come. It is why I can run. They can’t keep us all together, and I find way to es-escape.”
“You were very lucky.” Sam had no doubt that the only reason Stasia had the guts to run was because her previous background of loving care had given her acute motivation that produced an innate cunning many others would never achieve. Fourteen or forty, this ingenuity couldn’t be taught. He’d seen it in his own line of work. The best-trained soldiers could never compete with someone born with the skills of a natural-born fighter.
“Yes, lucky that Sophia find me. If not, they make me go back, and they will beat me and hurt me after they give me to crazy lady. It is why I want to kill myself. I keep swimming. I want to die. But I can’t stop saving myself. I’m no good for nothing. I can’t do anything right.”
When the tears came, they gushed from her all at once. The girl in her grandmother’s pretty pajamas with pink kisses all over the pants and the fuzzy housecoat to match made her look like any regular teenager back home. But the words that had poured from her mouth created such a horrifying picture that Sophia sat stunned.
Not Sam. He moved in and wrapped his big arms around the girl to hug her close. When she struggled, his husky voice calmed her. “No, don’t fret, honey. I’m not here to upset you. I would never hurt you, ever. And no one else will ever get at you again because they’d have to come through me first, and that will never happen. You’re safe now, little girl. Sophia and I will help you.”
“But, my passport. They have it. And my money, they have. Me, I have nothing.” Her voice broke up as she struggled with her English.
Sophia knelt in front of Stasia and held her hands. “You have us, Stasia. Sam is right. You’re not alone any longer.”
While Stasia used the back of her hand to clean the drips from her nose, Sophia used a tissue to wipe at the cascading tears. She’d never felt so sorry for anyone before or so ashamed of the world she lived in that could wrong a precious human being so badly.