The Wild West and Sex Slavery Ch. 07

"Could we just try something close to the truth, Neck? Why don't you say that I am a foreign woman and that I am your guest? We might add that the German government and the Free States Central Confederacy know where I am, and we could make that true by sending messages to Frau Sprengler and Killer."

"I don't know if they'd let you see an auction on those terms, but I guess we kin ask," Neck replied. "You want to go to a sale of foreclosure women goin' to become business and household servants. You might see some naked men there, and I know you like naked men. Sometimes some of the boat buyers show up at some of those auctions on the chance that they might find somethin' they kin use."

Knowing that the 'S' women accused of adultery and other sex crimes went to boats, Lena said, "No, I'd like to see sheriff's sales to the boats. I can get to see who Angela's new co-workers are."

"The sheriff auctions for the boats are in New Orleans, where the boat companies have their offices. Going to an auction there would be fun for you, I'm sure, even though the goddamn Louisiana Free States govment closed all the gentlemen's clubs that used to be on Bourbon Street. But the next auction in New Orleans ain't till the end of the month. More importantly, for reasons I splained when we were out fishin', there will be a bunch of sheriffs an sheriff deputies there who won't want people snoopin' around those sales, especially not some foreign woman they don't know."

"Ok, we don't tell them that I am a foreign woman snooping around. We tell them that I am your new assistant learning more about the market to assist you in finding supplies in Europe. To keep them from being too interested in me, you might add that I'm the lesbian lover of an EU Commissioner."

Lena's strategic disclosure that she knew of Neck's problem with the EU Commissioner that Neck was bribing was not well received. "Fuck you, bitch. Killer must a told you about Greta Zelle."

"I promised Killer not to tell anyone about Zelle and her partner, but all the details are in my house to be found by Herbert in an envelope at home and in another envelope in my desk at work to be found by Frau Sprengler if I do not make it back alright."

Lena naturally said this to give Neck a reason to want her to get back to Germany safely. She held back one card.

"Ok, I'll take you to an auction as my new assistant, and I'll make sure you get out of the auction burdened only by your knowledge of what went on. After that, you have your week alone in Little Rock, an later you are supposed to see some of the boats in Memphis an go home. But have you thought about what you want us to do for the days before we get to New Orleans?"

Lena had given thought to that, "You can take me to some historical sites like Montgomery, Selma and Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Philadelphia, and Oxford, Mississippi." I think we can find some time for exercizes to occupy our time in the evening to work off all that BBQ and fried chicken."

"Evenings sound nice, but why in the hell would you want to go those places where all that shit happened 80 years ago?"

"I think the readers of Kultur Sex and Sport would be interested in what those places are like 80 years after the civil rights movement events even if they do not know much of the history," Lena said, not disclosing that she was hoping to scope out things that were very much of the present. The circuitous route across Alabama and Mississippi would give her numerous opportunities to see what was happening in smaller towns and what the sheriffs and other police were doing in a number of counties that Lena thought were supplying numerous 'S' and 'M' branded female convicts to the New Orleans market.

THE LONG WAY FROM TALLAHASSEE TO NEW ORLEANS

Neck drove the most direct route he could, following Lena's travel plan. He thought the trip was silly, but he was getting laid by a beautiful woman every night, so "what the hell."

In Montgomery, Alabama, under a Confederate battle flag, Lena saw the new Southern Heritage Museum, where the Legacy of Slavery Museum had been until 2030. The museum now had exhibits on how it was black men who had delivered the slaves to the slave traders on the coast of Africa, how many slaves enjoyed their slavery and learned useful skills, how slavery had brought the Bible to many Africans and how Muslims took many slaves in Africa well into the 20th Century.

The museum also had exhibits on how the North had enacted high import tariffs that penalized the South. The museum presented arguments that the South would have ended slavery in a few decades after 1861 anyway without the Northern aggression and replaced it with the modern indentured and penal servitude system now in place in the FASUG. Finally, there were exhibits on how the people of the North were so racist that there had been blacks killed during the 1863 New York anti-draft riots and white race riots in the Land of Lincoln in East St. Louis, Springfield and Chicago in 1917 and the 1920s.

During the drive to Selma, Neck allowed that maybe the museum had left a few things out, and it was not quite a balanced perspective on American history. With a laugh, Neck said, "What, you want us to dwell on bad things from the past like you silly Krauts? Hell, WWII has been over a hundred years, an the most famous Kraut in history is still Hitler, and the second most famous German is who, Arnold Schwarzenegger?"

"Two from Austria, but I guess Germans cannot expect people to make fine distinctions who cannot distinguish between a labor contract and slavery," Lena replied.

They saw the Pettis Bridge and had a big meal with Lena eating mainly collard greens and sweet potatoes. That night in Selma, Lena and Neck had sex again, and Neck again had some George Dickel after he'd shot his last bolt into Lena. He again fell asleep at 9:00, and Lena went back to her room. She did not stay there.

Lena found the County Courthouse and the sheriff's offices. She could not exactly go there and inquire if they were arresting people without cause but found a donut shop that was still open nearby. As she hoped, a few deputies were there on break. Lena said she was a German tourist and wanted to know where the monument to Sheriff Jim Clark was.

"Kind of late, for sight-seeing, ain't it?" one of the deputies said, who was wearing a nametag that said Duke Skutt.

"I am travelling with someone who needs his rest and is not interested much in monuments. I thought I would see some things while he rests."

"Is he your husband?" a deputy asked with a nametag that said, Harvey Daniels.

"No, just taking me on a tour. Separate rooms if you are worried I'm misbehaving, officer."

"I'd be pleased to take you on a tour of some places more interesting than a monument to a guy who beat up some people about 80 years ago. We don't do that shit anymore since the national divorce caused most of the mixers to move North. The blacks who remained in the Free States don't make no trouble for us, and we make no trouble for them." Deputy Daniels said.

"Harve here is kind of exaggerating how nice things are. You speak real good English, but you ain't from around here, are you?" Deputy Skutt asked.

"No, I'm from Germany, where we have a lot of mixers. In fact, if I understand what you mean by 'mixer,' I would say my country is about 25% mixed now," Lena offered.

"There are some ways to do some unmixing," Deputy Daniels offered. "You might want to do that in Germany. Course, I know you tried once, but that was long ago an done all wrong. We're a lot more subtle and careful here now."

Lena deliberately started to speak with a heavier German accent which was difficult for someone who generally spoke English as well as she did. "I know not," Lena said, "how make you dis unmixing."

"Mainly, we encourage the people with darker skins to move north and very strongly discourage white women from having sex with the dark-skinned folks," Deputy Daniels said.

"How do you do that?"

"We make sure that they don't or don't do it for long and make them make babies with white men," Daniels said.

"I think, Harve, that we've shared more than enough with the nice German lady for tonight, and maybe we ought to get back to the station," Deputy Skutt said.

Lena made a mental note that she would have to interview Deputy Daniels sometime when he was not with Deputy Skutt.

The next days fell into something of a routine with Lena seeing historic sites, having sex with Neck as necessary, and getting bits and pieces of information after Neck fell asleep and before he woke up. Lena visited a lot of bars in which she was frequently the only woman there except perhaps a bartender who was an indentured servant or a woman over 50 who was married to the owner.

The guys in the bars stared at her openly but stayed away from her. A beautiful single woman coming into a bar could only be some sort of trap. Proper women would be home with their husbands and children, premarital sex was dangerous, adultery was illegal except on the boats, and the idea of a woman just coming into a bar to have a drink and chat was unheard of.

Of course, Lena was a trap. Although people tried to avoid her, she got lucky and got some information a few times. She did her best to eavesdrop and ask innocent-sounding questions that would elicit information about what was occurring in the FASUG. She did hear one guy say behind her back that Lena was "way better looking than the trailer trash that the sheriff's department was sending out to the boats, although a lot of those girls are real hot too."

Trying to act as naïve as possible, she asked who a woman was, who was in one of the pictures behind the bar. The bartender said she was a woman who had been reported for committing adultery and was now on the Josie Mansfield sex boat. He volunteered that no one knew with whom she had supposedly committed adultery, but a lot of the guys from town were now enjoying her on the boat. He volunteered that the picture of another woman was of a woman named Mayella Violet, who was on the Sultan sex boat because the sheriff didn't go for any mixing if he could stop it.

Lena asked whether people made a fuss about these women being sent to boats. The bartender said that the women might look good in their pictures, but they were "pretty much poor white trash that a lot of people think were naturally going to the boats." The man clammed up when Lena tried to ask more follow-up questions.

A bearded guy at the bar in camo wearing more than the required number of guns looked Lena up, down and sideways before walking off to a table and chatting with three other guys dressed and armed like him. Lena decided that maybe bars were not the best place to conduct research.

In the morning, she went into donut shops and diners. At one diner, Lena got lucky and obtained more information that served to confirm her suspicions. Service was quite slow because a server was trying to handle about 20 tables by herself. The waitress mentioned to Lena that she was sorry she'd taken so long to refill her coffee cup, but she had to cover the whole restaurant by herself that morning because the woman who normally would be working with her had been arrested for adultery the week before.

Lena casually asked whether adultery was a big problem in the county. The waitress replied that she did not think adultery was a big problem, but apparently, the sheriff thought it was a big problem if a white woman was married to a black man. "Many of the folks in mixed marriages went north a decade ago, but a lot of poor folks did not have the money to move, and they thought it would be ok. It was for a while, and some mixed couples even married until a few years ago."

"Is it illegal to have a mixed marriage now?"

"Not officially, officially all that race stuff is over in the Free States. The people who really cared about that racial harmony and equity stuff moved to one of those commie queer countries. But still attractive white women married to black men seem to keep getting arrested for adultery and sent to the sex boats unless they are rich or politically connected. I think the sheriffs don't think they can touch the rich ones. Also, it seems that if you are white, pretty and poor and even are seen with a black man, they charge you with something like theft and send you to the boats. Of course, I don't really know. That's just the way it looks to me."

"Not that it matters, but what was the woman's name who used to work here that was arrested."

"Molly Jackson is her married name, but if you don't mind, I really got to get back to work," the waitress said as she ran off to refill the cup of a man in a brown uniform who was sitting with two other men in brown uniforms and giving the waitress an angry look. The waitress and the three men in uniform had a brief discussion, during which the waitress looked flustered.

A few minutes later, a big man about 55 years old came up to Lena with a nametag that read "Sheriff Connor Tauro." That was not the name Neck had given her as the sheriff for the county she was in, but it was close to the name Neck had given her for another "old-fashioned" sheriff.

"Ma'am," the sheriff said, "I just thought I'd come over here and wish you a good day. It ain't often we get visitors in this part of the state, an some of us just don't know how to act around tourists. Sometimes we say things about things we don't know about just to impress visitors. You wouldn't mind If I ask you what brings you to our little town."

"No, I don't mind," Lena said. "I heard about the Free American States under God and, as we don't have much freedom or God in Germany, I wanted to see things for myself by traveling around a bit in areas off the beaten track. Also, a company I'm working with on importing certain products from Europe to the Free States is supporting me being here to learn about the market."

"You wouldn't mind telling me the name of that company?"

"It's the Wallace Import and Supply Company, Sheriff," Lena answered.

"Why am I not at all surprised," Sheriff Tauro said, "except that the women Neck generally brings to the Free States go straight New Orleans and don't wear much clothing while they are there. You're out here in Northern Mississippi and dressed like a proper Free States woman. A Free States woman your age would be home taking care of a half dozen children.

"Have a nice visit, while it lasts," the sheriff said before walking out of the diner. Another of the men in a brown uniform promptly followed him, but the third guy came up to where Lena was finishing her coffee and said. "You're Lena Fesch?"

"That's right," Lena said slowly a bit stunned at hearing her name.

Bending down and speaking quietly, the man said, "Well, I'm Cyrus Seele, Deputy Sheriff. I think I know what your real business is here. I think I can help you. I will be down in New Orleans for the auction and hope we can talk there."

"Why I am sure that would be delightful, Deputy Seele," Lena replied before Deputy Seele walked out of the diner, and Lena went to see if Neck had woken up. That Deputy Seele knew her name was thought-provoking, as well as his offer to help.

In Oxford, Mississippi, Lena and Neck were having lunch in a very crowded coffee shop when Lena asked Neck about when the Free States passed laws against birth control. Neck said he did not know exactly, but he was pretty sure it was soon after the national divorce. A college professor sitting nearby overheard and corrected Neck saying that many of the states that became part of the Free States had already outlawed birth control before the national divorce.

Lena said that to her outlawing birth control seemed crazy. The professor said that birth control was made a crime in the old United States in 1872, that a lot of states had laws banning birth control 90 years ago, and Canada in 1892 passed a law enforced with a two-year prison term for anyone convicted of providing information or how to prevent conception or cause an abortion. The professor went on, "The Free States have simply returned to the tried and true morality of our ancestors. It's the Social Democratic States and socialist Europe counties that are hanging on to perversions despite the modern recognition of the importance of chastity. The Laws of our new confederacy, like the old Mann Act, were restored to their original form to protect public morality. The laws of the individual Free States were restored to to what they were before all the hippie socialist perversions of the last decades of the last century and those laws now protect children and outlaw depravity. We did not outlaw enjoying sex but we outlawed the perversion of having sex just for fun." Another person nearby chimed in, "That's right, let God decide how many children you have."

Neck smiled as Lena became a bit flustered because what she thought was old and barbaric was thought to be modern and moral in the Free American States under God.

The next day Neck and she would go to New Orleans for the big auction. Over the days since Lena had gotten to the FASUG, Lena had heard a lot of bits and pieces and rumors about bad things happening in the FASUG. She had nothing, though, that she thought had enough confirmation and specificity for her to write a story with clear accusations of wrongdoing. She needed to get someone who knew what was going on to give her specific facts that she could confirm.

Lena was optimistic that she could get what she needed. Talking to Neck on the drive to New Orleans, she learned that 37 women would be on auction. "There's a lot of built up supply and demand. The August auction was real small 'cause of the heat, and the September and October auctions had to be cancelled due to hurricane warnings and a hurricane that actually hit Mobile," Neck said.

"Then where did you sell the woman you got in September and Leanna van Cleft that you got in October?" Lena asked.

"I probably did not do as well as I would have done with Billy the Babe with more bidders, but I had to cut a deal with the Moulin Rouge. I did not really have a choice with 8 inches of rain coming down on New Orleans over a few days.

"I knew that I would have to do somethin' special with Gretta Zelle, also known as Leanna van Cleft, to avoid getting' into deep trouble with EU Commissioner Val Ikeia. Fortunately, it turned out turned out' that Gretta is bi-sexual rather than strictly lesbian. Least that's what we got er to say. Anyway, we set up Gretta on the Flyin' Dutchman sex boat in a big suite where she is caterin' to both male and female customers. Particularly as we don't know how many years Gretta will be on the boat, the Flyin' Dutchman didn't have to pay much for her. Also, the Wallace Import and Supply Company had to pay a bundle to help with the renovations on the Flyin' Dutchman that hadn't been set up to accommodate a Dutch Queen with a sugar momma in Strasbourg. Profits, then, for October were pretty much zippo."

"The sex slave business can be cruel," Lena said. "Maybe you can make some of your loss up with the New Orleans auction?"

"Nah, my consultin' work doesn't pay a fraction of what I get for selling European women in the Free States. I mainly do it for yucks.

"But this should be quite an auction. Learned last night that there'll be 37 women in penal servitude for sale, and the auction will be all day. Seems they even got a few fancy social climber women for sale who committed adultery or at least were convicted of havin' done so. Just imagine 74 boobs for squeezin', 37 pussies to test, dozens of forced orgasms; big money, I kin hardly wait. The boats got a lot of empty spaces for women, so both supply and demand is pumped. Sure you don't want to be the star auction item in the biggest auction yet?"

"Yes, quite sure," Lena said as she looked forward to New Orleans with a mixture of curiosity, excitement and dread."