Bar Girl Read Online Free Page A

fear she saw within him. A young boy who had been so afraid of scorpions. So afraid of their sting. She had learned to be quick when dealing with the scorpions. Her mother had condemned her.
    ‘And what if I tell you? What will you do?’
    Although the smug grin spread across his face once more, the uncertainty she heard in his voice was all she needed. She controlled the anger.
    ‘You will tell me everything, Bak. Tell me what it is that men will pay for.’
    He leaned forward across the table. His hand flat on the surface ready to reach out and hit her. She needed a lesson again. He smiled. He wouldn’t ruin her looks. A small slap to startle her then he’d give her a beating she wouldn’t soon forget. He’d leave her face alone but there were other places he could hurt her. The whiskey made him feel confident. Arrogant. He wanted to see her cry.
    ‘You are so much like her,’ he spat. ‘No wonder Papa had to deal with her.’ As soon as she saw the tension in his arm, she struck. Before his muscles had a chance to lift his hand, she moved. The anger was controlled. The speed of the knife a blur in the glow of the single light bulb. She knew exactly what she was doing. She had seen the look in his eyes. She had seen the young boy who was scared of the scorpions.
    Long ago she had learned to deal with their venom. Now it was her with a sting. She didn’t stop looking into his eyes as she brought the knife down. How dare her mother condemn her.
    He screamed out in pain. The voice of a young boy. A scared boy. He stared in disbelief at his hand. The pain raced up his arm. Siswan had brought the knife down so hard and so fast that it went straight through his flesh and imbedded itself in the wood of the table.
    Even as she had struck, his arm had been lifting to hit her. The sharp edge of the knife had ripped back towards the knuckles. Blood flowed dark and hot over the back of his hand.
    He clutched at the handle with his other hand but couldn’t bring himself to pull the blade free. The pain coursed through his body. The blood. So much of it! Siswan looked into his face. Into his eyes. She saw the fear now. Not just a fleeting glance but outright fear. Wide and open. She had no right to condemn her. None.
    ‘Tell me everything, Bak,’ she said, when his sobs had subsided enough for her to be heard. ‘Tell me everything.’
    Three days later Siswan left the village. Bak had told her everything she needed to know. He had been saving her virginity to get the best price. He had told her how he was negotiating with three of the men in the village. One of them was the policeman she and her friends had been so scared of when they had played near his house.
    In a way it had been good to learn. Some of the things he told her had horrified her but the most important piece of information had stuck in her mind. She had listened to everything.
    ‘Women have power, Siswan,’ he had said, through his tears. ‘Men will pay anything for the right woman. Anything.’
    She collected her few small belongings together. Parcelled them in one of the sheets from her bed. It wasn’t a large bundle.
    ‘Where are you going?’ he asked her.
    ‘Away,’ she replied. ‘Away from you. Away from this village.’
    In truth she hadn’t known where she was going. Her need to leave was not brought about from fear or the looks from the other villagers. She didn’t care about them. She didn’t care about anyone anymore. She needed to leave to feel clean.
    ‘But what about Mama and Papa!’ Bak had cried. ‘What about me?’
    She had stopped folding her clothes onto the sheet and looked at him. The bloody bandage on his hand, the frightened look in his eyes, the open- mouthed look of disbelief.
    The memories of what she had done to him, for him and because of him flooded into her mind. The nights she had endured his touch. The times spent in the cane fields. She despised him for what he had become.
    ‘I don’t care what happens to you,