Panama Ch. 01: The First Stop

The small boat was almost to the long pier now as the boatswain expertly let the craft loop around into the quieter waters of the lee side to tie up facing outward toward the sea. As the men jumped up to the dock they were quickly approached by a group of women. Frenchy and Goat pulled Scotty by the arm until he was safely out of reach. Explaining as they walked that those women were the older whores or the ones who had lost their looks. They tried to get to the men before they had a chance to see the younger girls back in the clubs on Johnson St.

As Scotty looked back he could see several of the women leading his shipmates down into the small boats tied beneath the pier. Behind them across the bay he could see the beautiful old city of Colon, its yellow tan walls coming down to meet the dark blue of the bay. Beyond the adobe like Old Spanish buildings he could see the lush green jungle that climbed the inland mountains. High banks of threatening clouds piled themselves above the mountains as if they might come storming down on the town at any minute.

The boy turned his senses to this side of the bay. The wind was fresh and strong carrying the musical sound of spoken Spanish and the smells of a seafood market. Vendors pushed carts selling crabs and fried fish, their aromas the only advertising they needed as the sailors who had just passed on lunch now discovered that they were indeed hungry. The sky was a little overcast but still more sunshine then cloud. With a new friend and shipmate on either side of him, Scotty headed into the famous red light district of Punta Toro. In his pocket he had more money then he had ever held in his life, two hundred dollars, and his friends held equal amounts. But they only had until midnight to get back to the boat that would take them to the ship. It was already four pm and they hadn't even got to the place yet. Since they had more money then time they decided to splurge and paid the atrocious sum of two dollars for a cab to carry them to the strip of bars only a couple of miles away.

As they walked through the old-fashioned saloon doors of the Seven Seas Bar, they saw a scene that has been greeting the eyes of sailors since waterfronts were invented.

A room full of noisy sailors competing for the attentions of a few very lovely young ladies. The dark haired beauties swirled around the room laughing and joking with the different men as they passed. A bar ran along the left side of the room with a line of tables pushed against the wall on the right. Men sat on chairs with girls on their laps, laughing and seeming to be having the time of their lives. The girls would from time to time take a man by the hand and lead them up the stairs behind the bar to the small rooms above.

Scotty was as new to drinking as he was to world of the waterfront whorehouses, unsure of what to ask for he let his friend Frenchy do the ordering. The club only made six different drinks that were on the menu, after a short discussion it was agreed that they should work their way down the list. They started off with a round of vodka Tom Collins, followed by a round of something called a grasshopper. The drinks were strong and soon he was laughing too loud at things that didn't seem that funny.

The girls would come and sit with the men for a while flirting and letting the men get their hands on the soft parts. The evening was off to a great start and the waiter brought the next drink on the list to Scotty, something called a Zombie. It was a tall glass that contained seven different types of rum, as a testament to how strong it was, somebody had set the damn thing on fire and it burned with a pale blue flame as it sat on the table before the young man. Amid the cheers of his shipmates he blew out the fire and took a long swig of the fiery liquid. It seemed to suck all the air from his lungs and threw the boy into a fit of coughing which seemed to cause an outburst of laughter from the men around him.

Before he could muster up the courage to take another drink, a beautiful young girl interrupted him. She reached for his hand and pulled him to his feet. She led him away from his friends without any resistance from him since she was as pretty as any girl he had ever seen. Amidst cheers on his friend's part, and a chorus of 'good lucks' he gladly followed her. The smile on her face held him as much as her slim hand on his arm as they went behind the bar, where the bartender wanted five dollars before he was allowed to follow the girl up the stairs. The boy was happy to pay and rushed up the stairs to catch her as she was entering a small room with a single bed against the wall.

The girl was already undressing and while he wanted to enjoy watching her; he started to undress as well. Soon she was naked, and he had never seen a girl as wonderful as she was. Her skin looked like a warm cup of creamy coffee. He couldn't keep his hands off her as she led him to the small basin and began to wash his privates. His hands reached for her breast, not to tease or pinch, or even to excite, but to touch as if to test if they could be real, to wonder how they must feel to her, to touch and feel this beautiful woman was amazing. Her touch was knowing and sure as she dried him with a towel and led him to the bed, where she lay back and let the young man explore her body at his leisure. The boy let his fingers trail over the woman's body, finding the answers to questions that he had wondered about for years.

This was the first time that he had the opportunity to delve into the secrets of the female body. The first time a woman had allowed him this access to her body. The girl seemed to recognize that this was his first time and gave him all the time he needed. Her hand slowly stroking his hard cock, she allowed him to explore with his fingers and hand all the places he could never go before.

Reaching back into his memories he tried to use his one-year of high school Spanish to talk to her. He stumbled through the words to ask her what her name was. She understood him and replied in a rapid gush of words ending with her hand resting on her chest and the name Francesca on her lips.

Francesca, the name rolled off his tongue sounding as sweet as honey as it came from his mouth. It seemed that they had only been there for a few minutes before a buzzer went off on the headboard of the bed. The girl explained to him with broken English and hand signals that he would have to take five dollars down to the bartender if he wanted to stay with her.

Scotty was more sure of the fact that he wanted to stay with her then any other aspect of his life at the moment, so he slipped his pants on and ran down the stairs barefooted and shirtless to give the fat bartender another five dollars. When he returned Francesca was reclining on the bed with a warm smile and a hand that beckoned him to lie beside her.

The boy hurriedly peeled his pants down his legs and stepping out of them slipped into bed beside her.

Francesca was wise in the ways of the world and knew that she would have to take control if they were going to proceed to the next level and actually have sex. She rolled over and straddled the boy gently lowering her body down onto his hardness. She sat tall and straight upon the boy as she began to slowly rock her body as she worked her womanly muscles.

Scotty felt the heat and the softness, the drawing, the squeezing, the pushing deeper and the pulsing power of sex. But equally he saw her face, her eyes so open to his own; he felt that he was looking into her soul. Her breast swayed with her motions dancing a slow sexy dance on her chest as she watched his face from above them. Even the boy could see she was enjoying this as much as he was. That thought, combined with all the other sensations he was having, overloaded his circuits and blew his fuses pushing him over the edge. He was swept helplessly along as the force of his orgasm build up until in a few strokes he shot the last of his boyish virginity deep into her knowing cunt.

She sat still over him as he came to terms with the powerful joy of sexual fulfillment. Her womanly inner parts rippling against his softening cock as she worked her muscles, milking the last of his cum and forever earning a place in his fantasies.

The girl was smiling down on him with all the warmth of a true lover, the young boy, a pleasant break from the older and more demanding men downstairs. She could feel the calluses that grew around her own heart soften as she looked down on the young man's face. So full with the awe and wonder at the discovery of how good life could be, such a perfect mixture of pride and gratefulness.

She lay down beside the boy their bodies touching from shoulder to foot, the overhead fan sending a cooling breeze down over their naked bodies. Her eyes found their reflection in the mirror. In the mirror, their sweat shining a hot red in the fading light of the sunset peeking through the opened window, they looked like lovers. They looked like young sweethearts who should be together for the rest of their lives. In the mirror, she looked as young as he did, but in the real world he was a kid and she was an adult. She hoped that someday she would put all this behind her and find this feeling again. She was reassured that she could still feel it now after so many months.

The blaring sound of the buzzer jerked both of them back to life, such a rude intrusion into a magic moment. She was back to being a whore bought and paid for until the end of the year when she could go back home to live with her family. The money that the club owners had paid her father alone with the money she sent home made the difference in whether her family ate well and had clothes to wear. She knew that she would be received like a hero when she was allowed to go back home to her family. She had been proud to be chosen, but now she was counting the days until this year of her life was over.

Scotty got his clothes and put them on all the while wondering what he could say to this woman. How could he tell her how much he owed her, how much she meant to him. How she would always live in his memory. She had been his first one, the one that all the others would be judged against. She had been the perfect woman for the role.

It seemed that they both avoided the other's eyes as they left the small room together. But at the bottom of the stairs Scotty had an ideal and reaching into his pocket he pulled all his cash out and offered the bartender a hundred dollars if he could take Francesca outside of the building and buy her a nice dinner. The bartender told him no.

Scotty was torn between being happy about what had already happened to him or saddened about what might have happened if the girl had been allowed to leave. He found his way back to the table where Goat and Frenchy was sitting. Both of them had a girl on their lap and were talking a mile a minute. Frenchy was in the process of doing his trick with the razor blade. Scotty had seen this already since Frenchy was always willing to stop what ever he was doing to demonstrate his strange and dangerous skill.

It involved taking a double-edged razor blade and holding it vertically between your top and bottom teeth, the sharp edge facing both forward and backwards. He then began to stick his tongue out on the left and then on the right side of the blade. He built up speed until his tongue was a flash of red darting pass the cutting edge so fast that you just knew that at any moment there would be a gusher of blood and poor Frenchy would never speak plainly again. But in the end it never happened and the man took out the blade and flashed his smile around the table. He offered the blade to anyone who might like to try the trick but got no takers.

One of the girls bent down and whispered into Frenchy's ear. They both laughed and then got up and they headed upstairs to try other tricks with his talented tongue. As Scotty watched his friend go up the stairs he saw Francesca coming down with a tall gentleman following behind her. His eyes followed her as she came across the narrow room to pass within a few feet of where he sat. He could see the weariness in her eyes, but as her face turned toward him and she saw him looking at her, that look was replaced with a warm smile. He smiled back and motioned for her to join him at the table with his friends. Scotty proudly introduced Francesca to the shipmates that were still at the table, as he held her chair while she seated herself beside him. He ordered her one of the Tom Collins that he had thought had tasted so good and begin to battle the language barrier that stood between them.

Amazingly it was goat that saved the day, it seemed that he knew just enough Spanish to get by in most situations and this one was no exception. He asked a series of questions and when he translated the answers Scotty left the building for the first time since he arrived. Twenty minutes later he came back in with a huge bag in his arms and a smile that covered his face with happiness. Motioning with his head for the girl to follow him he went up the stairs to the same little room where he had been before. He hurriedly ran back downstairs to pay the bartender ten dollars and then returned to find the girl laying out the food he had gotten.

The two of them now set about like the young people that they were supposed to be. With kisses, smiles, and gentle touches they communicated the thoughts that their language skills were not up to. Sitting cross-legged on the narrow bed they enjoyed the picnic like meal of fried bananas with honey, fried chicken wings, Rice and pork, and for dessert rice pudding. When at last they were both full Scotty handed the girl a gift-wrapped present.

Francesca was completely surprised and moved by the gesture on the boy's part. She had not had a gift from anybody since the year before her father had sold her to the bordello. With a sense of girlish excitement she tore open the small box. Inside was a new pair of silver rimmed sunshades. They were beautiful, and she put them on right away. Through the shades she could barely see the boy in the darkened room. She removed them and forgetting who and where she was, offered a kiss of thanks to the boy. Nobody kisses the whores, not on the mouth; sailors are a mite funny about kissing a girl they think might have just sucked off their friend.

Fortunately Scotty did not know about that sort of thing and he returned the kiss with all his heart. The embrace turned into something more and soon they were removing each other's clothes again.

This time was different, this time Scotty knew what to do and had a general ideal how to go about it. He took the top position and she rose up to meet him as he entered her. He sunk into her until he was fully encased by her loving body, all the while he was kissing her and she him. This was so much more then sex, this was the first time that Scotty had made love, and it had been far too long since Francesca had given of herself so fully to a man. They were in no hurry and they enjoyed the slow pace, taking the time to fully explore this wonderful thing they shared between them. Her arms reached up and around her lover and pulled him deeper into her. He moved up on her body to force his cock to make contact with her clit on each stroke. The slow dance soon carried them to the end of their journey and they came together in a glorious climax that left both of them breathless and sated.

They lay beside each other, not speaking a word, there was no need for words between them now. Her eyes found the mirror once more, she saw two lovers lying next to each other, happy and content. She snuggled closer trying to soak up this feeling while she could.

They lay that way, each feeling the other's heartbeats until the buzzer rung. Scotty rolled off the bed and pulled his clothes back on, he took all his money and laid it on the table. Looking at the girl who had giving him so much to remember, he picked up a single five dollar bill. Using his hands he told her to lie back down and he walked out the door leaving the pile of cash where he had put it on the table. As he walked down the stairs he paid the bartender the five.

He had to hurry if he was going to make the boat before it left; he started to jog alone the roadside heading toward the pier. He was surprised when a taxi stopped to pick him up, even more surprised when he saw the second cook sitting in the back seat of the big car. He slid in beside the little man who was dressed much like a banker.

"So, how was night for young dining room orderly, you have fun, no?"

"Yes, I mean yes sir, I had a great time. I met the most wonderful girl" Scotty was about to go into detail but the older man waved him silent.

"Me also" he told the boy, and sat back into the seat in such a way that it seemed he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Maybe he's right, Scotty thought, maybe this was too good to share. Maybe this is the kind of memory that you keep to yourself because telling the story to others would cheapen it. There was a part of her that would always be a part of him now, and he would not let the memory be soiled. Thanks to her he was now and forever more a man.

Back at the cathouse Francesca watched the clock tick down the minutes that the young man had paid for. She had spent the time alone after he had left; she had counted the money and was amazed to find one hundred and twenty dollars. Her father was lucky to earn two hundred dollars in a year. It would truly be a blessing for her family. The buzzer went off. She opened the door and walked down the stairs to be a whore. But there was hope now. And she knew that the scars would heal, she had not lost her ability to love.

She was going to be OK.

Scotty and the second cook arrived at the pier just as a the crew were climbing aboard the boat for the trip back to their home, their ship. The boy felt a sense of belonging now that he hadn't felt earlier in the day. A lot had changed. The sea was calm and the men were also it seemed, the wind and the sea provided most of the sounds on the way back out toward the ship. A big silver moon showed them the way so clearly that they didn't turn on the spotlight. One of the sailors was rude enough or drunk enough to ask the cook if he thought that he had the clap again. Scotty was sure the little man would have an angry reply, but was surprised when he answered calmly.

"Maybe so, maybe that is right and I do get the clap from this woman. Maybe I get shot from needle." Everybody thought that the man was finished but then they heard him say. " She maybe give me sickness of body but she take away sickness of soul." He seemed to relax and a smile played at the corners of his mouth.

Scotty Jackson, dining room orderly on board the Cosmos Trader, agreed one hundred percent with the cook's words. He shut his eyes and let the boat carry him home across the silver sea. Tomorrow they would go through the canal and then the whole of the Pacific Ocean would be waiting for them with Hawaii being the next port of call. Scotty felt that he had found his home and his profession. He loved the way one chapter would end and another begin with each new port. A part of him thought of Francesca and it brought a moment of sadness, but when you thought about it, whoring wasn't any worst then going into snake infested woods to wrestle a chain saw all day. In so many ways she was doing an important job, a job that didn't get the appreciation it deserved. She had certainly earned his respect and admiration for the way she had handled him.

The boy drew up his legs and rested his chin on his knees as the boat sailed through the magical silver sea. His thoughts seeing the small erect nipples of Francesca and the look of caring that he saw in her eyes as she looked down at him. He found himself thinking that overall life is very good.