The End of the Beginning of the End

Testy Lesbiana finished it, with barely a struggle.

“How much longer do you think you’ll do this, honey?” she asked Rachel one night when the other girls on the row had gone and only the two of them still sat on their dressing row. Testy was mending fishnets, pulling and tugging and then filling in the spaces where the tights had snagged on rhinestones or zippers or hooks and eyes. Rachel was sitting and staring at herself in the mirror, occasionally running her fingers through her hair or picking up a blush brush but mostly just sitting, silent, not getting up to go home yet.

“What?”

“Well…” Testy never looked up from her handiwork, “How much longer? One year? Ten years? Until they throw you out on your perky ass with the garbage?”

“If my ass is still so perky, why would they throw it out?” Rachel mumbled.

“Maybe they won’t. But you know how Honoré is. I just wouldn’t want you to get caught unawares, doll-face. And you know, there’s a whole ‘nother world out there. Lots of things a smart, hot chick like yourself could do to make a living.”

A heavy sigh. “But this is all I’ve ever wanted.”

A shrug. “Maybe that’s because you don’t know of any alternatives.”

“Maybe. Maybe— oh Testy, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how—”

“Don’t start that, now. No moaning. Nobody knows anything, in my experience. And I’ve had a lot of experience, Miss Thing, so you can accept my authority on the subject. Nobody knows what the hell they’re doing when they do it. All those investors on Wall Street just take their best guess. All the producers in Hollywood just do what gets their own rocks off, or what their wives pussy-whip ‘em into. Nobody knows, and especially nobody knows better than you do, right now. Take a chance, darlin’. You can always change your mind. You can even come back.”

“Testy… are you trying to talk me into something?”

Her dresser looked up and smiled.

“Oh yes.”

NEXT POST: FOR WE LIKE SHEEP (Monday 9/21)