Life and Times of a Priestess Ch. 20 Pt. 01

Chapter 20

On The Streets of Dumis

Part 1

Danella learned how to draw off the beer from the pump and serve it to the customers, all of whom were men. Many of them were rough looking men, rougher even than the soldiers she knew so well. These were working men of the working classes and should have been little different from the ordinary soldiers according to the class systems of Vanmar, but unlike the soldiers they were not travelled and had probably never been much further than the next town unless it had been in the occasional search for work during the recessions, which she understood came and went so frequently

. These were working men of Dumis, the capital, and therefore they should, perhaps, in the course of their existence and their work, have rubbed shoulders with many people of differing backgrounds, but it seemed they preferred to congregate here together in this working district of the city in their small terraced houses, living closely with their neighbours. They probably never went further than the nearby factories where they worked, in the normal course of their daily lives, or to the local bar which adorned the junctions of many roads in their section of the city.

On Saturdays they travelled further to the ground of their local 'football' club to stand on the terraces alongside the thousands of their fellow workers using up their precious free afternoon as most of them did, communally, and without any feeling that their lives were being wasted. In some respects they had good lives, she thought, communal and full of the people they were close to, wives, children, workmates, parents and relatives, surrounded by a sense of belonging which reminded her so much of Pirion, The Empire Of The Goddess. And yet again it was also so different. Here they worked 10 hours a day from 7 o'clock in the morning to half past five or 6 o'clock in the evening with either an hour or half an hour for lunch making the weapons, guns and cannon which the military so required in this war.

In Pirion workers in engineering and production could expect to work no more than 4 hours a day normally, hours which would be shortened when the need for work was reduced. The Prancirian workers worked for five full days a week and on the Saturday only 5 hours were expected of them, while the Sunday was set aside as a day of rest. (Prancir : 10 x 5 = 50 + 5 hours saturday = 55 hours per week). (Pirion : 4 hours x 5 days = 20 hours per week).

The production workers of Empire of Pirion were expected to work only on 5 days of the week, leaving the whole weekend free from normal work. Danella thought it strange that with their very differing cultures and practices that the two cultures observed the same weekends, even if the Saturday work would not have seemed like a weekend to Pirionite workers. The Prancirian workers obviously felt Saturday to be an easier day and would celebrate the coming of the weekend in their bars on Friday nights despite the normal early start due the next morning. She did gather that when orders were slow or intermittent, and, assuming that some workers were not being laid off, there might be times when the Saturday start might be delayed and or the Friday cessation would be earlier in the afternoon. But at the moment there was a war on, and although the country was not on a total war footing it was demanding much equipment and weapons, and there was always the danger of renewed arguments with Vanmandria, that unpredictable ally.

Wars for Prancir had indeed, over the years, been a normal occurrence. There might have been gaps of decades between major wars in the continent of Vanmar itself, but there was always some little colonial war or dispute to employ the military and the workers. The war with Pirion could either come to a quick conclusion as the allies crumbled what they regarded as an ancient and decaying empire between them, or it might become an intermittent war of gradual colonial expansion, but there would occasionally be arguments which would lead the allies, friends in Vanmar perhaps, to warfare in distant colonial disputes. Ravelleon, Mireau and Valery had all had this flexible view of the war from an educated Prancirian viewpoint. The wars kept the factories going and workers seemed grateful that the wars kept demand for their products high keeping them in work. Many of them had experienced the slack periods in the past and were grateful that they were not thrown into poverty again.

The Prancirian workers loved their football matches. It provided them with something to focus on and draw their attention away from the hardships of their lives. For many the football was a form of release. The matches provided a form of almost religious release which reminded Danella of the communal ceremonies (in worship) of the Goddess which took place in the Temples of Pirion. Sometimes the emotional aggression of a football match could be seen in the wilder and more verbal sexual efforts in the Temples, but there was no team competition, only a shared release of communal fever.

Many Pirionites, male and female, played sports. Indeed, although she had never played it herself a version of football was played by some in Pirion. Matches were participatory, and spectators very few. The Pirionites had more direct experiences to enjoy than to watch others, however skilful, play. Most Pirionites engaged in sexual activities as their main sport, and of course also as their philosophy or religion, but for this it was encouraged that they be physically healthy. Sexual activity was part of the exercise which kept them healthy, but stronger exercise was also seen as desirable. Men and women swam, walked and ran, but football was a sport which appealed to many in their country too. The Pirionite males and females enjoyed the pleasures of the body in the widest sense, which naturally included the pleasures of fitness.

A large part of Pirionites daily lives was taken up by sexual worship. Every day most Pirionites would choose to worship with partners or 'friends' or with Priests and Priestesses. Less often but perhaps at least once a week most would join ceremonies and orgies as part of the regular rituals which enriched life, entertained, and brought them into the harmony of communion with each other.

The Prancirian citizen enjoyed none of this. Instead they married at an early age if confident and attractive enough to find someone. There was something hasty about the way most of the men and women tried to find a wife as soon as possible. Many, she gathered, made bad decisions on selecting the first potential mate. So keen were they to be accepted within the secure confines of marriage that they looked no further before making their decision in their panic to avoid being left alone.

Marriage was essential among these people. Because the men needed a woman to keep the house for them while they worked long hours for their hard employers. The women needed a man to earn the family wage so that they might raise children and live in basic comfort. Without a man a woman was not usually allowed to raise a child on her own and if she did she would exist in poverty unless she had the support of her own parents. Men needed women to raise their children, while they worked to buy and prepare food for the family, to wash his clothing, to keep the house clean and scrubbed so that he might enjoy it in his few hours between work and the public bar.

The man who did not marry was thought to be unusual and there was usually a reason for this. Perhaps he was a man who could not find a place with his fellows - timid by tongue or in football, in war or at work, unable to stand for himself. Perhaps he lacked the competitive streak and the self confidence which was needed to find a woman. Maybe he was too abnormal looking or ugly and failed to find favour with any woman. Maybe his tongue was shy and his brain not quick, unable to please and entertain the women with his humour. Perhaps he did not dress smartly enough when he attended social dances and occasions where it was possible to meet the local unattached women alongside the married ones.

Perhaps he was judged to prefer men by his fellow men, maybe truthfully but quite as likely not. These men were quick to judge and they did not treat such men with respect. The mere suggestion that a man was inclined the other way, if supported by the group leaders of the males, was enough to make him an outcast from the males. The women also were very affected by the judgement of the leading males. If they thought there was something 'wrong' with a man they would avoid him as if he were beneath them. In the more cosmopolitan business and entertainment centres of Dumis these prejudices were not so widespread and many homosexuals were employed as waiters, dancers and actors. But in this traditional working district men and women were expected to conform to the social norms, and those who fell too far outside the ordinary were frowned upon.

On the first day that Danella worked in the bar she noticed a young woman, who seemed barely into adulthood, enter the bar. This was unusual, as only men could be served in the bar. It was a place where men came to get away from their wives and be real men together. Women could work behind the bar as Danella did, their hiring more likely if they would appear pleasing to the men. Instantly Danella became popular with the men because she was attractive. She need only be attentive to them and laugh at their coarse jokes and childish humour to become even more popular with them.

The young lady was petite and slim, her hair long and blonde like the sun. Her milk crystal face was 'like the Goddess'', as the well known Pirionite compliment went. The dress she wore was revealing, as Danella had chosen her own to be, to accentuate the breasts; the corset she wore pushed her breasts up and outward with a firm appearance so enjoyed by the men here. Her smooth upper chest could be seen just as Danella's could. Danella had thought such a dress appropriate for a barmaid, but she wondered who this girl was as she laughed and joked with some of the men.

It became clearer when she approached the end of the bar, where the fat landlord Hugo stood in conversation with a friend and regular. He spoke to her, appearing to chide her. Then raising the bar he beckoned her to enter. As she passed him he laid a hand on her slim rump. She turned and gave him a look of warning as if to say she would not be touched. He laughed and she said something angrily to him and walked along the bar towards Danella, disappearing momentarily to slip the coat she had carried into its place. She returned and continued to approach Danella. The bar was not yet busy. Obviously this was another barmaid. The landlord Hugo had mentioned no particular names, obliging her only to get on with the job without going particularly out of his way to make her feel welcome.

"Hello, you must be Danella? My name is Marie," she said, directly turning on her charm with a full smile, just as she had done for some of the favoured men in the bar, but this was the recognition that they were fellow women behind the bar.

"Pleased to meet you," answered Danella, giving a general Prancirian courtesy. "Do you work here?"

"Yes," said Marie, "sometimes when I need some extra money." The young lady smiled generously and Danella was won over. This young woman seemed to offer friendship and Danella realised all of a sudden that friendship was something she still needed to find in this lonely inner city area. The people here were strange, their rituals difficult for her to understand, as they went unquestioning to their daily tasks, matter of fact, overly practical, surly and having little of the joy of life about them. The young woman's youthful looks attracted her interest. This young lady was in the prime of her beauty. Danella was reminded of young Carol in Shanla, with whom she had shared so much as a kind of mother figure and tender lover, all in one. She was also reminded of the fresh young blonde Lira in Dalos, whose close relationship she had sometimes shared.

The next evening, soon after she had first seen married, Danella was working on the bar. It was a relatively quiet evening. A few regular customers drifted in and out. The landlord was serving with her. He seemed keen to be on duty when she was. When Marie had served with her she made him keep his distance from her by her sharpness despite that she was his employee.

At first Danella wondered at what lay between them. Of what she had seen of Prancirian employers, she would have expected that he would have finished her employment for her rudeness to him which was normally viewed as quite unacceptable in this society, where people held back their plentiful anger for the necessity of their security. Marie seemed unable however to hold back her anger. What was it, she wondered, that the landlord had done to her to deserve this anger? Perhaps Marie did not consider that he paid her enough but that seemed not to Danella to be enough reason for her open displeasure. Marie was friendly to her but not to the landlord. Between customers she came over.

"You are living here, I hear," exclaimed Marie. "Hugo the Landlord told me. Why didn't you tell me the other night?"

Danella could not easily tell whether her words were meant as a reprimand. "I only met you then. You didn't ask." Their meeting had been enough to develop an interest in each other and to realise that they liked each other but little more.

"I used to live here once for a short while, only a few months ago," she declared. "I moved out because of him." She rolled her eyes and grimaced towards Hugo.

"Why, what did he do?" Danella had been curious this evening about her behaviour towards him and also on the previous occasion.

"What did he not do? That might be a better question," declared Marie.

"Oh?" What could she mean.

"Well you saw him the other night didn't you. He thinks he owns me, just because I am working for him. Before, he used to think he could touch me. He did once or twice, seriously."

Danella couldn't be quite sure what she meant. Marie seemed to assume that she would understand what she meant, a delusion of youth no doubt.

"Touching? What's wrong with that. It's a fairly natural thing to do isn't it."

Marie looked annoyed. It surely did not take much to get the girl annoyed. She had said the wrong thing. Prancirian rules again! It was so difficult to say the things a Prancirian would have said because she came from a different place.

"Well I don't think its natural for a fat old man like him to touch me. Not unless I want him to." The look of unbelief faded already. Marie was well disposed towards her. "Why do you say that? I can't believe a beauty like you would want him to touch you."

"I mean what I say. There's no harm in touching, but I can see if he becomes a nuisance you wouldn't want it." Danella could see now that the girl hadn't wanted Hugo to touch her, because in Prancir touching was virtually forbidden except between lovers, and pretty Marie would evidently not consider the hard edged landlord to be suitable. "Surely your anger towards him must be from more than a touching incident."

"Well he doesn't stop. He's on at me all the time when I'm here, to give him a favour. And I tell him to stuff it, unless he's prepared to give me some real money in return."

"I see, and is that why you moved out before? Because he kept touching you and wouldn't pay you properly?"

"Something like that. Although I didn't mean for bar work." Marie kept her distance from Danella, openly reappraising her. Quickly she reached the conclusion of her judgement. "You're not from around here are you?" The statement or question seemed to answer all of Marie's doubt about her. It was alright to be stupid if you did not come from 'around here'. That explained it all.

"No I don't come from Dumis," admitted Danella. Despite her now long residence in the city she was evidently not sufficiently understanding of the Prancirians, or at least these Dumisians, to appear to be one of them.

"Has he tried it on with you yet. I wouldn't have thought he would waste much time with a new looker in his pub." Danella seemed to be forgiven for her evident stupidity.

"I've only been here a few days. He looks at me and I know he likes me. Perhaps that's why I got the job. But he hasn't made any sexual advances to me," said Danella.

Marie laughed. Danella was not entirely sure whether she was the cause of the humour or whether it was ill meant. "Jobs in bars can be difficult to get, but I don't see many people queuing up for this one. Its not exactly in the heart of the city and on the wages Hugo pays its not exactly popular. But I think there probably were one to two girls and blokes after it. I can tell you Hugo selects girls he fancies to work on the bar and if he can get you to live in that's all the better. Be sure Hugo intends to crawl into your bed one of these days. You can be sure he'll make a move soon. He probably fancies you a lot and you're a bit more of a lady than some of us, being older. So he treats you with more respect. He's just sizing you up, trying to get to know you first. Usually when he comes onto them the girls move on, or they move out like me and keep him at arms length. But one of the girls Babette is being screwed by him regularly. She's fat and a bit of a bitch? Have you met her?" Danella nodded. She knew the one.

"She's only a year or two older than me. I reckon she screwed him to get the job. She's not much good for anything else but barwork, and Hugo finds her useful when he doesn't have more attractive girls on the go."

Danella had met Babette two days before, an ordinary girl, friendly enough but without much spark of character she had thought. She had noticed the girl's attentiveness to Hugo. She had seen the way her gaze followed him and how she laughed at his coarse humour. She had never seen such attentiveness in a Prancirian woman before. Even the Pirionites were not so imploring because they didn't need to be. A mere request could bring togetherness so easily.

In Vanmar a person had to fight and scheme to gain the attention of a 'loved one'. She knew and had seen men humiliate themselves in this way to gain the attention of women. Usually their effort was bound to fail and be worthless. But sometimes a long campaign of flattery or the expenditure of much money could bring results. Valery and Alfred's stories of their conquests of mistresses and lovers had proved illuminating. She had seen at first hand among the soldiers and among the more prosperous of Dumis the loneliness and uncertainty in men who had tried and failed in their efforts to gain new lovers for themselves.

She had been witness to similar feelings in women; Jacqueline for example had been married but lonely and limited in sexual expression; the wives of society men in Dumis had directed their interest towards petty things which could be bought in shops rather than towards the lovers they might have known if only they could have appreciated their own attractiveness to the male sex. The women had denied themselves and seemed not to seek out equal contact. They had been taught to assume that men were to be the only movers of sexual companionship. While they were young and unmarried they waited for men to talk to them, to ask them to dance, to offer to take them for walks, to entertain them, to propose marriage. They stayed unmoved as men competed for their favour and seemed to take pleasure in the foolish mistakes of men, while waiting for the man who would serve them with dedication, to pay the attention. They selected only those who they felt were as close to their ideal of perfection as they believed they could attract and hold.

This Babette seemed unusual in that she had offered Hugo every inducement. It had been clear to Danella that they had been lovers, but it did seem that Hugo was less obsessed than she. The landlord had shown little interest, withdrawing from her touch, ignoring half of what she said while enjoying the cut and thrust of his own coarseness. Babette seemed to behave as a Prancirian man would, Hugo as a woman might. Danella could appreciate from the words of Marie that Hugo did not wish to remain tied and close to Babette, perhaps while there were more attractive women in his sights. She had seen Hugo's renewed attempts on Marie. She could see also the way he looked at her.