The girl came close to me lifted my chin and examined my face and then when I thought she was going for my left ear and tried to evade it, a slap came up from the right.  

Woah, that was real. That was painful. I thought to myself.  

“Did you come to your senses? Well, that is a relief. You are such a kid. Haven’t you seen a girl before in your life? Jeez.”  

“Ah, it is not that I was just surprised by what was happening”.  

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. That is also why you kept looking at me with your mouth open for 5 minutes straight until I slapped you to the senses.”  

“Who are you and what are you doing in my room?”  

“Your room? She burst into a peal of laughter.” She laughed so hard that her gut started aching. She tried to calm herself but fell on the sofa behind her where she calmed down a bit.  

“Hey, are you all, right?”  

As soon as I said that I noticed that her eyes got a bit more sparkly for a moment, tears, I thought to myself.  

“Yes, I am fine. I was just surprised by what you said.”  

“But why?”  

“Well, if you have no idea then maybe you got here as a part of a prank, or someone got you here by deceiving. This is a brothel; a place where guys rent girls and women for spending the night with them.”  

“I figured as much though maybe I was wishing to catch some hope.”  

“What kind of hope? There is no hope for the likes of us.”

“You are right, as far as people are concerned, no one pays attention to someone else’s suffering. We only come to know when it befalls us.”  

She was dumbfounded for a moment then continued what she had in mind.  

“So, what do you want to do?”   

“What do you mean?”   

“I mean that, idiot,” she looked towards the bed lying in the room.   

“What that? I do not know what you mean.”   

“Don’t give me that shit,” she said with her voice turning sharper.

“Why are you being angry?”

“Why I am being angry? Do you know how many clients have rented me and nobody cared for what I wanted? All the people saw me as a tool to be used and then discarded just to be plucked out again after some time.”

I thought she developed a way of getting by this mental torture and started performing a script that made her adapt to the environment while leaving her feelings unattended and locked away. My fault was I came here against my will not knowing what the place was that we decided to go. I could not see her as an object from the moment my eyes landed on her down to the last moment.   

I did not know what she expected from me, or what she was trying to say. But I guessed that there had surely been a lot of things closed inside her so instead of replying to her I decided it was best if I lend her an ear. So, I listened to her. I listened to her soul crying for help. I listened to the deep silence within her. I listened to the meaning of her words and not to the words that she spoke with her tongue. I listened to the silence that came after tears started rolling down her eyes, I listened to the quivering of her voice, I listened to how people double her age abused her, how old men and men with wives and children tasted her, I listened how people who might have daughters’ her age berated and thrashed her for not being cooperative or fulfilling their demand, I listened to the sound of punches she threw at me, I listened when everything went silent, I listened to the eternal peace and serenity at that moment, I listened.

“So what now?” I asked her after she had cried and was wiping her tears.

“What you want to have a go at that?”

“No! Never.”

“Then what?”

“I think we might become quite good friends and if anything I might be able to give you an ear once in a while.”

“And what do you get out of it?”

“I suppose company and escape from the mundane life.”

“So you’re bored? And I serve the means to get rid of it?”

“You are taking it in another sense. Yes, I might appear selfish. I don’t reject that. I am not selfless and I also can’t pity you. It’s a thing I am suggesting because you confided in me and trusted me. Besides I never came to recognize you as a stranger from the moment we first met.”

She didn’t respond, and turned silent, her ears turning a shade of red. When I tried approaching them to feel whether they were hot, she suddenly got up, went to the mirror hanging on the wall, and began fidgeting with her hair.

“Ok if you say so. It’s been a long time since I had a friend and someone to talk to of my age.”

“Sounds good.”

“What is your name?”

“Enoch.”

“Quite a strange name.”

“What’s yours?”

“Elliora.”

“I see. Looks like the time is almost complete. I better get going.”

“Yeah, take care. It was nice meeting you.”

I stood up and headed for the door. I stopped for a moment outside and then moved on. If I had to assume based on what little I could make out, she was crying behind that door, but there was nothing I could do at that time. The better way was to let her come to her terms.