LUXOLO

I get to work and I’m 30 minutes late. I am so fired, grrrr. As soon as I enter the change room all the ladies look at me, others are looking at me with disgust while some with envy, wuhhh my new hairstyle is doing the most mus. I take off my coat and take out my heels from the bag then settle down in one of the vacant chairs.

“I take it your pussy is magnet since the boss is busy asking about you Lux.” She tells me this not looking at me. Okay, I thought that they were admiring my new hairstyle but I was wrong.

“What are you talking about?” I ask her strapping on the heels.

Her: “The boss was here looking for you.”

Me: “So?” They all turn to look at me as if I said something funny.

Zara: “This means that since you’re giving him good he will want to see you everyday before you start your shift,” I laugh. What on earth are these girls on about?

Me: “What are you talking about?”

Luna: “But she must bear in mind that whatever she is having with the boss won’t last, once a new girl is hired she will be old news. The boss will throw her like a used pad,” a loud laugh escapes my mouth.

Me: “Y’all trying to tell me that you slept with the boss? He used y’all and threw y’all like used pads? How heartless could he get? Kanty, why didn’t you ladies continued giving it to him good?” Laughing.

Zara: “Wait. You trying to tell us that you’re not sleeping with the boss?”

Me: “Wasn’t my laugh obvious enough? Anyway, I don’t go around sleeping with anyone, especially a man old enough to be my Father. I know my worth. Do y’all even know your statuses? I am so disappointed in all of you girls honestly,” Zama laughs.

Her: “It’s only a matter of time before you find yourself in his bed,” the others chortle.

Me: “Nah. I think TF not, not unless he drugs me. He won’t do shit to me when I’m sober, yasis kunganyiwa. Phela ikuku lami li selective, duh.” They gasp not believing I said that. My vagina deserves dicks that are good when it comes to marshmallows, that time I only slept with 3 guys in my whole 27 years of existence!

Armani: “I’m sure it no longer grips, and you are a tasteless bitch!” Too much anger detected on this one, let me just ignore her. I wear my coat again then check myself in the mirror if my make-up is still intact, and yes it’s very much intact. I then make my way to Mr Sol’s office. “Huffs,” this man is surely going to fire me. That will be a dream come true for me, at least I will be free from him.

I knock and he shouts for me come in. I make my way in and I find him with some man.

“Greetings to you gentleman,” The man looks at me from head to toe and a smile curves in his ashy lips.

Him: “Ahh and the star of the show finally shows up please take a sit,” I sit down next to the man and cross my legs.

Man: “She is perfect exactly what I’m looking for,” I look at the man who is undressing me with his eyes then Mr Sol who looks really impressed.

Sol: “I told you that you will like her. Lux, I’m sure you are wondering as to why I called you here,” it’s no rocket science duh. I nod.

Him: “Let me get straight to the point. This is Mr Mbethe your client, congratulations you’ve been promoted again,” client? I stare at him blankly words failing to come out.

Me: “My client? What client?” My voice finally came through for me.

Him: “Yes. You my dear are going to take care of his sexual needs,” he grins. I laugh  like a mad person. This can’t be happening! He better be joking because I am so not doing this.

Me: “I’m not interested. You actually thought that I will jump to the opportunity of being a prostitute, after you forced me to agree to be a stripper? What do you take me for?”

Him: “You must bear in mind th…”

Me: “That you make the orders and I must never decline an offer when it’s presented to me on a silver platter,” I chirp in.

Him: “You are smart and I like that about you. Now go and entertain my guest he paid so much money for you.”

Me: “Sorry to disappoint you Sol, but I am not going to do it, he might as well take his money and shove it down his arse!” My legs are shaking… I stand up, I am so angry at Mr Sol. He thinks that I’m going to jump every time he ask me jump without me asking him how high? News flash I ain’t going to jump for him this time around. He might as well kill me.

Him: “Must I play you the video again?”

Me: “Actually you know what, fuck you and your stupid job. Go ahead and kill me you ruthless piece of shit I don’t care!” My tears want to make their presence felt, and they will in just a few seconds there’s no way that I can prevent them from falling.

His facial expression changes, he is angry now and on the other side Mr Mbethe is sitting here with a wide grin plastered on his face, guess he finds the show entertaining. Bloody swine.

Him: “Are you daring me Diamond? Are you fucken daring me?” He is on his feet. My heart is beating out of my chest, and my palms are starting to become sweaty. And yeap my stage name is Diamond, ‘light Diamond’ to be precise because of my skin color. Who gives out such horrible nick names though? Arh, it’s Mr fackhashit himself.

Me: “Yah and what the fuck are you going to do? Spill blood, huh? Your greed for money really blinded you old fool,” he sneers, and in no time he is standing before me his fat hand on my neck strangling me, I’m unable to breathe he really wants to kill me. My eyes bulge out, and I try removing his hand from my neck but I’m failing. He loosens his grip, and drops me on the floor laughing. I rub my neck, I’m shaking with fear.

Him: “You better get up from that floor, and fix yourself then sit down. The problem with you Diamond is that you talk a lot, you have no filter,” he sits back down. “That’s how you deal with girls who think they have balls. You better thank your lucky stars that I didn’t kill you.”

Mr Mbethe: “True. That’s how respect in instilled,” he nods in agreement. Shit. I get up from the floor, and sit back down rubbing my neck. I don’t even bother wiping my tears, this is what he wants right?

Him: “Wipe your tears you look unattractive. Now, go and make Mbethe happy you better make sure that he ejaculate inside you,” I chuckle through my tears. I ain’t going to do it.

Me: “No.” He laughs.

Him: “You are still defying me?” He bangs the table! “William go and lock her in the freezer room she must freeze to death. No one defy me and gets away with it, she must be taught a lesson!” He roars

William is a big scary man, he looks abnormal. My instincts kick in as soon as I see him coming toward me. I pick up the chair that I was sitting on and hit William with it and it breaks in his arm. He screams in pain as he falls down I think I hit him a little bit to hard, but I was protecting myself. I’m not giving in that easily, I will die fighting if it needs to.

Mr Sol: “Get up you piece of shit. Grab her and take her to the cold room, just do what I’m fucking paying you to do!” He roars.  I take the pen that is on top of the table and charge to William before he could even get up from the floor, the ghetto in me have been woken up. I put my right knee on his neck and point the pen in his left eye.

Me: “You dare move an inch Sol I will take out his eye, I’m not joking!” My words are muffled by my tears, but they hear me. Mr Sol looks at me speechless he doesn’t know what to say. He is taken aback by what I’m doing, he was not expecting this kind of event. “Cat got your tongue tied now Mr Sol?” I ask him looking him straight in his eyes.

Him: “It doesn’t have to get to that Diamond, we can find a way to work this out,” I laugh.

Me: “Find a way to work this out?” Nodding. “The only way is for me to continue being a stripper and you to find Mr Mbethe another girl to satisfy his sexual needs or you can give him his money back, the choice is yours Sol.”

Mr Mbethe: “You can keep the money Mr Sol. One day this girl will come in very handy for me, she is feisty and I like it. I need girls like her in my clique thank you for the lovely free show.” He stands up shaking hands with Mr Sol and exit his office. I remove my knee from William’s neck and stand up, I fix myself. Mr Sol sits back down and looks at me with a grin in his ugly face. Mxm. I shake my head looking at him, waiting for my punishment.

Him: “You can go back to work, go and make me money. In fact take a night off.”

Me: “Take a night off? Why? Are you going to pay me tonight’s money?”

Him: “Because you need it after the little stunt you pulled

and yes I will pay you. You may be excused now.” 

Me: “Thank you.” I get up from my chair. What is he planning? He can’t let me go this easy. How do I get out from all of this? A job that I thought was genuine turned out to be a job full of danger, and hungry for power & money.

Him: “Leave,” hissing. I smile and exit his office… I head straight to the toilet, and cry my eyeballs out. Shit hurts, and very stressful. I need to find a way to leave this place I have too before I lose myself. I rinse my face then go to the change room and I find Mapula sitting down wiping her tears, as soon as she sees me she quickly fixes herself.

“You back already?” she asks faking a smile.

Me: “Yes I am. Now, why are you crying?”

Her: “It’s nothing I can’t fix, I…I’ll find a way to fix this Lux.”

Me: “What is it? You can talk to me I won’t judge you.”

Her: “Well I recently find out that I’m HIV positive.”

Me: “Well that’s not a death sentence as long as you take your meds and eat healthy food you will do just fine. Did your partner also get tested? She burst out with tears. I kneel next to her and comfort her.

Her: “You don’t know do you?” I shake my head.

Me: “Know what?”

Her: “I am his sex slave and sometimes I sleep with his business associates for fun.”

Me: “What? Whose sex slave? Why did you allow yourself to sleep with those men?”

Her: “I need money Diamond. My mother is very sick, she has cancer and it’s on it’s last stage. I’m the boss’s sex slave,” I shoot my eyes open, and gasp.

Me: “You do know that there is a possibility that she might not make it since the cancer has spread out through her body? So, you sleep with Sol in exchange for money?” She nods. Wawu.

Me: “So you better be prepared for anything, you will have to be strong. You gotta be strong for your mother and be strong to yourself, you need to pray hard pray like you’ve never prayed before. Ask God to give you strength, plead with him to ease your mother’s pain. As for Sol, we will find a way to deal with him,” just then her phone rings.

Her: “It’s my sister let me answer it,” I nod. I have to find a way to destroy Sol he acts like he is a mini God. He acts like he owns all the girls here, they are all eating at the palm’s of his hand. Thinking about it makes my blood boil. Wait, what am I saying? How will I take out Sol or make his life miserable? I’m such a joke, but one way or the other he must pay, he has ruined so many Innocent’s lives. He shall suffer the consequences, I just need something to push me to the edge or maybe hire a hitman to kill him once I have money. I chuckle, what a stupid plan. I need something to make me unleash the inner beast (not an animal) in me, yes  you heard that right. Apparently I carry a lot of anger inside me, pshhh that’s bull right? I mean I’m the sweetest soul ever. I am brought back to earth by Mapula’s sharp cry, she drops the phone on the floor and sink down.

Her: “Sh… She is gone. My mother is gone Diamond and now I have no one,” her cry brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart sore, I comfort her, sitting next to her on the floor. I can’t imagine what she is going through? I’ve never lost a loved one that I cared deeply for, but I’m sure the pain of losing a mother cuts deep than any other pain it breaks you into pieces you somehow feel incomplete without her. Damn. I pray to God to keep my mother safe for me I don’t know what I would do if she died, I’d prolly kill myself too. I stand  up and go and  get her a glass of water and accompany her to Sol office, she needs to take a leave.

★»★«

SOL

“William you failed just one simple thing. To take Diamond to the cold room and lock her there for few hours just to scare her,” pressing the stress ball with pressure.

Him: “Everything happened so quickly, I couldn’t even react on time sorry I disappointed you.”

Him: “I saw everything. That girl moves like a snake, she is slick like that I mean who would’ve thought that she can hit a grown man like you with a chair? Did you see how fast her instincts kicks in? She react immediately,” he nods…

Me: “Now. I want you to find me information about her, anything you can get your hands on about her. And it seems like Mbethe will be an obstacle, I will have to take him out he want to come for my possession. After tonight I will do anything to keep Diamond around even if it means making her my P.A.”

Him: “She really did impress you I saw it in your eyes.”

Me: “You have no idea. She is what we want, clever & fast and her taking shooting lessons won’t be hard. She is a fast learner,” he nods. A knock comes through at the door.

“Come on in,” yelling. The door open and Diamond steps in with Mapula. Mapula’s eyes are swollen it looks like she’s been crying. “Take a seat,” I gesture for them to take a seat.

“Sorry to bother you sir, but unfortunately I came bearing bad news.”

Me: “I’m listening,” sitting down.

Her: “A call came in for Mapul informing her that her mother is no more, may her soul rest in peace.”

Me: “And you’re telling me this because?”

Her: “Because I want you to release her so that she may go home and prepare her mother’s funeral.”

Me: “Doesn’t she have any family members that can prepare the funeral? She will make us short stuffed,” she snorts.

Her: “Nonsense. Do you have a mother?”

Me: “Yes, and where are you going with this?”

Her: “Won’t you close down the club for those few days or ask someone to stand in for you just so you can go home?”

Me: “I would. My mother comes first she is the most important puzzle in my life,” I swear I saw a faint smile forming on her lips, hold on, I think she is onto something, but what could it be? At least my mom doesn’t stay here in SA.

Her: “Now, how is she different? Why can’t she go home, and prepare a funeral for her mother? Her mother was the only thing she has making sense to her life,” I sigh. “I know you’re heartless, but for once just have a heart, pretend as if you care,” what she is saying is right I can’t be selfish.

Me: “She can take a month paid leave,” I see Mapula widening her eyes, Mapula is a very beautiful and humble girl. She never defyed me, she always did what I ask her to do sometimes I ask her to entertain my dog and she does it without complaining. Then it hit me. Now that her mother is gone she will switch up on me I don’t have anything to hold her with, she is going to be free. No, that can’t happen I will have to find a leverage on her maybe I can take advantage of her poor background, perfect.

Diamond: “Good and her leave starts now. Thank you for having a heart, may we be excused?”

Me: “Yes you may, and Mapula I will help you with arranging the funeral, if you short on anything do not hesitate to call me,” she smiles and nods.

Diamond: “I hope you are doing this from the goodness of your heart not because you want leverage on her,” I swallow my saliva its as if like she is reading my mind.

Me: “Not at all. This comes from the goodness of my heart.”

Her: “Very well then. You will have to let the stuff know,” they both stand up and exit my office. I turn to look at William and I see him shaking his head

“Boss I will have to be fast with the information, she seems like she knows a lot, and noisy too,” William tells me this taking his IPad on top of the table.

Me: “You read my mind. I want the information by Thursday.”

Him: “Yes boss,” I pace up & down and chuckle. Diamond is too clever. Who exactly are you diamond?