Maragana Girl Ch. 23

"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."

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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.

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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."

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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...your 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."

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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.

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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.

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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: