I don’t fall asleep and instead I sit in the room with Magda – waiting. Neither of us looks at the other, and neither of us speaks. I swallow the cola slowly, holding a sip in my mouth until the liquid goes warm and the bubbles are dead. The room is cold and bare, just six metal chairs and a long oval table, a lone bulb swinging from the centre of the ceiling. The concrete floor is tattooed with boot marks. The girls return. I try not to look at them to save them from shame – my own and theirs, but I am drawn. Some of them dress carefully, with dignity, striving to act as if nothing just happened. Their faces are in the shadows. Some of them are shaking so much they can’t put their legs back into their trousers and the best they can do is hold their clothes against their bodies, like a flimsy shield. No one makes a sound. We are all taken to a room at the back of the bar. There are mattresses on the floor, a jug of water, and a bucket. It’s as black as the well, and the room in the boat.

A tall dark-haired man steps into the room and speaks in a thick accent. ‘Magda here will explain the business end of our arrangement. Once you’ve paid off your debt to me, you’re free to go. Until then, you work for me.’ He leaves.

‘What Bardhok says is true,’ Magda says. ‘I’ll be here for the first few days, show you the ropes. Remember, do as they say. That way it’ll be over quicker.’ She throws a bunch of bras and knickers in the middle of the floor, and tells the girls to find their size and get dressed. They know what is expected of them now, she says, it’s not so hard. The air fills with whimpers, like the puppies Papa tied in a bag before taking them to the river. I wonder if those nightmares will visit me again. Magda looks directly at me and gestures to follow her.

I am brought to a bedroom with a proper bed and told that although I will have to work, I won’t have to do what the other girls will have to. I will have to ‘pleasure’ the men in other ways, she says. ‘I think I can get you out of here. I think the men in suits will want to pay good money to be with you, but in the meantime you too have a debt that has to be paid.’ I nod, already having decided to hand my fate over to this woman. What choice do I have? The alternative is in the other room.

‘Good girl.’

14. Sammy

14

Sammy