Desperate Measures

by Stephen Leather

  Monday March 16. Yesterday I went to the Sloane Square flat with Nancy at just before ten o’clock. Three of the girls were already there – Alice, Sandra and Wanda. Alice had £2,300 for Oliver, Sandra had £1,900 and Wanda had £1,700. Nancy had £1,200 and I had £1,100. That was a lot more than my first week and Cat told all the girls that I was doing really well. Alice laughed and said that she had earned more than twice as much as me. I just smiled. Alice is always the best earning girl. Cat said it’s because she is really good at sex and is happy to do anal. Englishmen like anal, she said.

  I haven’t spoken to Alice much. She’s pretty and has long hair but she has a lot of tattoos which I think is a bit scary. Wanda told me that Alice used to work in a pool bar in Bangkok and that she slept with men for money, mainly farangs, which is what we call foreigners. I never slept with men for money in Thailand. I could never do that. I’m not a bad girl. I’m only doing it in London because I want to make a lot of money quickly. This week I earned £3,300. I had seventeen customers. Fourteen came for just one hour and four came for two hours. I never saw the same customer twice. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Nancy and Sandra have lots of customers who keep coming back but my customers never come back to see me.

  Candy and Vicky were late but they had been to buy Thai fruit in Chinatown so Oliver didn’t mind. Candy had £1,500 for Oliver and Vicky had £1,400. In all we girls gave Oliver £11,100. That is what he earns for one week. One week! In Thailand most people don’t earn that much in two years!

  After I gave Oliver his £1,100 share I had £2,200. Oliver said I should give him £1,600 of what I owed him and I said that was okay but I was a bit worried about how little money I had to spend. My rent costs £450 a week, though I did pay two months in advance. I still have a lot of bills to pay, though. London is so expensive. I have to pay council tax every month and then I have to pay for water and electricity and for my cable TV and Netflix. It’s much more expensive than Thailand. I buy a lot of Evian water. Everyone says that it’s okay to drink the tap water in London but I don’t like the taste of it so I buy Evian water instead. Water is so expensive in England. In Thailand water costs a few baht for a bottle but here it costs almost a pound a bottle. Then I have to buy beer and wine and soft drinks for my customers and I am using so much shampoo and shower gel.

  When I first came to London I rented a room in a house near my school in Hampstead. I paid £60 a week. But Oliver says that to work as an agency girl you have to have a nice flat so that the customer feels happy. My flat is really nice. Oliver found it for me. It’s not far from Paddington Station and it’s got one bedroom and a pretty sitting room with a sofa and a television and a kitchen at one end. The bathroom is very clean and there is a really powerful shower. I shower a lot. I shower when I get up, I shower before and after I go with a customer, and I shower before I go to bed.

  I put candles everywhere in the flat when a customer comes around. That was Cat’s idea. She said that customers like candles and she’s right. I suppose it makes them feel romantic. Cat says I should always keep wine and beer and soft drinks in the fridge to give to customers and chocolates, too. I have to pay for it all, of course. It’s like I have to pay for everything. I have to pay for the sexy clothes I wear and for the photographs that they put on the agency’s website and for the flat. I had to pay for the candles, for all the towels that the customers use and for condoms and oil and KY Jelly. Pay, pay, pay. But at least I am getting a lot of money. I just wish I could keep more of it myself.

  After we had paid Oliver, Cat brought out lots of Thai food and Thai whiskey and everyone started eating and drinking and telling stories. Then Oliver bought out a pack of cards and he played with the girls until dawn. Oliver was really lucky, I think he won almost £2,000. Nancy lost the most. I think she lost more than a thousand pounds which is crazy because she had to sleep with ten men to make a thousand pounds. I don’t understand why the girls don’t keep a hold of their money.

  Chapter 11

  Wednesday March 18. Hundreds of people in England have caught the Covid virus now. I don’t understand what is happening. I think more people in England have the virus than in Thailand. Yesterday the Government here said that people should not go to pubs or theatres and that they should work from home if they can. I work from home so that is okay for me. Sometimes I go to see a client in their hotel room but usually they come to see me. I phoned my mum and she said that some people in Thailand have the virus but not many. She told me not to worry but I made her promise to take good care of Ice. I do not want my son to get sick.

  Then in the evening John called me from the language school. He said the Government is forcing all schools to close from Friday. He said they are not allowed to have any more classes. Actually that is good for me because I don’t really want to go to school, I want to earn money. John said they will try to open again as soon as possible and I told him not to worry. He said they would set up online lessons so that the students can continue their studies. Actually I am very happy not to be studying, I am improving my English by talking to my clients.

  Chapter 12

  Friday March 20. Now the Government has closed all pubs, restaurants, gyms, cinemas, nightclubs and theatres. They said that Covid is still spreading so people should stay at home. I hope people don’t stay at home because if they do then I will have no customers and that will not be good for me. But I hope they do not shut the hotels. If they do that then there will be no tourists and quite a few clients are tourists or people staying in hotels on business.

  I was busy this week. Two customers on Monday, one on Tuesday but he stayed three hours and two customers on Wednesday and three on Thursday. That’s ten hours which means I have earned £1,000 for myself in four days. And the beginning of the week is always quieter. Friday is always the busiest day. That’s what Cat says.

  Most of the customers were okay but they are all starting to look the same. I can’t remember what they look like five minutes after they leave.

  On Tuesday Oliver phoned me to tell me that a customer called Tony had posted a review and that he said I was one of the worst girls he had ever been with, that I didn’t smile and that I wasn’t as pretty as the pictures on my website. I knew Tony was just angry because I insisted that he used a condom and I told that to Oliver. Oliver said that Tony was a good customer and that I should have done more to make him happy and that made me want to cry. What was I supposed to do? Let him make love to me without a condom? What if I got sick? What if I got pregnant? I’m not taking the pill any more now that I am in England. Sometimes I think that Oliver cares more about money than he does about the girls who work for him. Tony is just one customer. How much does he spend with the agency? Three hundred pounds a week? Four hundred? Even if he spent six hundred pounds a week then Oliver would only get two hundred and I give Oliver much more than that. Oliver should be sticking up for me, not telling me that I’ve done something wrong. It’s not fair.

  On Wednesday I did laundry. Lots of laundry. Every time a customer comes I have to use two towels. I spread one on the bed and I put another in the bathroom. I always give clean towels to my customers but Sandra says there is no point, all you have to do is let them dry and you can use them again. I don’t think that’s right. I don’t like using someone else’s towel so I don’t see why my customers should. I hope the laundry doesn’t close because of Covid. I don’t know what I will do if the laundry closes.

  By Monday all the white towels I had bought were dirty so I went out and bought another ten. By Wednesday I had sixteen dirty towels to wash and I had to do them in four loads because the towels are big. There is a washing machine in the flat, one of those that you load from the front. It’s a dryer, too. It took about four hours to wash and dry a load so in all it took sixteen hours to do them all. I felt like a washerwoman by the time I’d finished. My mother still does all her washing by hand. Can you believe that? She uses cold water and washes everything in a big pl
astic bowl behind her house and then hangs them up to dry.

  Kung keeps calling me and asking me for money. It’s like that’s all he cares about now. Before he said he loved me and that he’d leave his wife to be with me and Ice but now all that he talks about is money. At first I just said that I didn’t have it and that he’d have to wait but now I just don’t answer his calls. There’s nothing I can do. I’m earning more money than I ever thought I’d earn but I don’t get to keep any of it. It all goes to Oliver and what’s left I need to buy things for the flat. I know I’m going to get a big electricity bill because I’m using the washing machine so much.

  I hope I get another customer tonight. Then when it’s about two o’clock in the morning I’ll phone Ice and tell him how much I miss him. I love to see him and hear his voice, especially when he laughs. But I get sad when he cries and he says that he misses me. He always asks when I’ll go back to see him, and I don’t know how to answer that.

  Chapter 13

  Monday March 23. Covid is getting worse in England. Now the Government has said that all non-essential shops have to close and people have to stay at home and the police are going to make sure that people don’t leave their houses. The only shops that can stay open are food shops, pharmacies, hardware shops and newsagents. And banks. That means that hotels are having to close so we won’t be able to visit clients in hotels. In fact there won’t be any clients in hotels. The hotels will be empty. And they are closing the churches. I don’t understand. I don’t think the Thai Government would ever try to close the temples. The people would not allow that.

  I went to the pharmacy to see the Indian guy and he said he had sold all his masks and latex gloves. He had some hand sanitiser but it was expensive. When he had first told me I should buy it he was charging 99p but now a bottle costs £5. He said it wasn’t his fault, his supplier had raised his prices. And he said I should buy toilet rolls. I laughed because I thought he was joking but he was serious. He said his supplier had said that there was going to be a shortage. I went to a supermarket and bought twelve rolls of toilet paper, just in case.

  Sandra and Nancy came around to my flat on Sunday evening before we went to take our money to Oliver. They both said my flat was really nice. Sandra said I should buy a big mirror and hang it at the end of the bed. She said that men get really turned on if they can watch themselves and the more turned on they were the quicker they came. Sandra’s boyfriend is an American. He works for a bank in London and he drives a Porsche. I don’t understand how he can be her boyfriend when he knows what job she does. Why would a boyfriend want his girlfriend to sleep with other men? It doesn’t make sense.

  Nancy asked me where I hid my money and I showed her the drawer in the kitchen. I had earned £2,100 during the week and it was in envelopes in the drawer. They both laughed and said that I should be more careful. Sometimes girls were robbed, Nancy said, and I should look for hiding places. Under the carpet or in the wardrobe, somewhere where it would be hard to find. And Sandra said I shouldn’t keep all my money in the same place because that way if I was robbed I could tell the robber one hiding place and he wouldn’t get all my money.

  We shared a taxi to Sloane Square but Nancy and Sandra got out quickly and I had to pay. It was only £7 so I didn’t mind. Candy, Vicky, Alice and Wanda were already there, drinking Thai whiskey and watching a Thai soap opera on TV. Oliver and Cat came late, with a load of food that they’d brought from a Thai restaurant in Fulham. They said the restaurant wasn’t serving customers any more but they did takeaway. All the staff were wearing masks and Oliver and Cat weren’t allowed inside, they had to wait on the pavement.

  I gave Oliver his £700 commission and another £1,000 to pay off what I owe him. That means I only owe him another £3,350 which I guess I will be able to pay off in three weeks. Then I will be able to keep all my money.

  I still haven’t had any customers come back and I don’t understand why. I do try to be nice to them and I try to smile even when I’m tired. Alice gave Oliver £2,400. That means she earned £7,200 last week. That sounded impossible to me. The client pays £150 an hour which means she worked forty hours. I asked Sandra if that meant that Alice had sex with forty men and she laughed. Alice heard her laughing and got a bit angry because she thought we were laughing at her but I explained that I didn’t understand how she could work so hard. Alice glared at me and said it wasn’t any of my business.

  Later, Cat took me to one side and explained that Alice had a lot of regular customers and several paid for her to sleep with them overnight. They paid £1,200 for nine hours, starting at eleven o’clock at night and finishing at eight o’clock in the morning. They paid a cheaper rate per hour but for most of the time the customer was asleep. One of Alice’s regular customers, an American from New York, had booked her for four nights at his hotel. So for four nights she had earned £4,800.

  I was amazed. I wish that I had a customer like that. I don’t understand why Alice is so lucky. She isn’t as pretty as me and she has dark skin and tattoos and she smokes and drinks and swears. I want to find out what she does to get customers who will pay so much money. But now that hotels are closing because of Covid, that won’t happen again for a while.

  I was the worst-earning girl again this week. Nancy gave Oliver £1,100, Candy gave him £1,200, Sandra and Vicky both gave him £1,300. Wanda had £1,400 for him. After we had eaten the food they started to play cards. I watched. Sandra and Nancy kept asking me to join in but I said that I didn’t have enough money. They laughed and said that if I was lucky then it wouldn’t matter how much money I had but I didn’t feel lucky so I just watched them play. Oliver was very lucky and he won a lot of money. They finished playing cards at four o’clock in the morning and I went back with Nancy to her flat. I don’t like sleeping alone any more. I feel so lonely when I am in my apartment.

  Chapter 14

  Thursday March 27. Today Thailand has closed all its airports. No one can fly in and that means Thais and foreigners. I saw the news on Thai TV and at first I didn’t understand what was happening. How can a country close all its airports? And it is not just the airports. People can not walk across the borders from Laos, Burma, Cambodia or Malaysia. It is like the country is shut. It made me feel very lonely because it means I can not fly back to Thailand, even if I wanted to. Now I am trapped here.

  Yesterday almost six hundred people died of Covid in England. Six hundred! I do not understand what is happening. Thailand has the same population as England but in Thailand only fifty people have died since the virus appeared. How can six hundred people die in one day in England? I do not understand. And England is an island so it should be easy to stop the virus getting into the country. Why are so many people dying from Covid in England but not in Thailand? Maybe it is because Thailand is a hot country and the virus does not like heat.

  And now the Prime Minister of England has caught the virus. He says he will still be leader of the Government so maybe it is not too serious. I don’t understand how the Prime Minster can get sick? Wasn’t he careful? The Government hasn’t said anything about closing the airport in London. I don’t understand why they don’t close all the airports because that is the best way of stopping the virus getting into the country.

  I keep a bottle of hand sanitiser by the door and I ask my clients to use it when they arrive. Some do and some don’t. Some of them laugh and tell me that I am silly and that there is no such thing as Covid, but I think they are wrong. I think this Covid is serious. When I go to the shops to buy food and things for work, a lot of people are wearing masks and most shops only allow a few people to go in at the same time. They call that social distancing, which really just means that you keep other people away from you. Of course in my job I can not keep people away from me, that wouldn’t work. So I ask them to use the hand sanitiser and to shower before they get into bed. Nancy said that we should ask our clients to wear masks, but she was only joking.

  Chapter 15


  Friday March 28. This week has been really quiet. It’s not just me, it’s all the girls. Even Alice isn’t busy. Oliver says that I shouldn’t worry, it’s just because people are scared of the Covid. He said he doesn’t understand why so many people in England are dying of Covid. Vietnam is next to China and not one person in Vietnam has died from Covid. Not one. The virus started in China which is why they sometimes call it the Chinese Virus so you would expect countries near to China to have a lot of Covid. But Thailand has only had fifty people die and that was at the start of the year. And no one has died of Covid in Vietnam. Oliver says Vietnam started testing people for Covid in January and they closed the border with China. Then in the middle of March they put anyone who entered the country into a quarantine centre for fourteen days. And anyone who was in contact with someone who had the virus was also put into quarantine. That is probably why Thailand has shut its airports, they want to be like Vietnam and not like England.

  Most nights now I stay with Nancy because otherwise it’s just so boring, lying on my sofa watching television and waiting for the phone to ring. At least if I stay with Nancy we can talk and eat together. She’s quite funny, like a big kid. Actually, she is a kid. She’s only nineteen and she’s been in London for almost a year. She came on a student visa, like me, but her visa was only for six months so now she’s overstaying. That’s not a problem in London because no one checks. If the police catch her working as an escort then she might have a problem, but otherwise no one ever asks to see a passport or a visa. It’s not like Thailand where the immigration police are always catching illegal immigrants from Burma or Vietnam and putting them in prison. Nancy comes from a poor family in Isarn and she says that she sends a lot of money home to her parents but she plays cards a lot and her flat is full of things that she’s bought. Stupid things like Gucci shoes and Louis Vuitton handbags. Some of them are still in their boxes. She says that shopping makes her feel good. I think she’s just a kid who doesn’t know how to take care of her money. The fact that the Government has now closed most shops means she will save money, but she probably won’t see it that way.