Ben Soul

by Richard George

the same as whipping women,” Delta said, “but you just look too old. That what you were in for, prostitution?”

  “Yes.” Delta nodded at her.

  “You know anything about keeping books?”

  “I worked for the government once.”

  “I didn’t say ‘cooking books,’ honey. Done any housekeeping?”

  “When I had to.”

  “I can always use a maid,” Delta said, “and general kitchen helper. I’ll find a bed for you for tonight, and introduce you to Hannah Bollix, our housekeeper and cook, in the morning. Need a bath?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll take you to the tub,” Delta said. “Ann, what about you? Need a place to sleep?”

  “I’ll use the cab’s sleeper. I’ve got a seven o’clock unload, and then I’m off for home. Thanks, Delta, for taking in my stray.”

  “I’m sure it will be mutually advantageous,” Delta said. “Find your own way out?”

  “Yes. See you next trip north.” Ann gave Delta a quick kiss and shook Vanna’s hand. “Good luck, Donna,” she said. “I hope you can see your family soon.” Then she walked into the hall and out the front door.

  “Come this way,” Delta said to Vanna as they entered the hall. She pushed a swinging door open. At once the décor changed from modified Victorian to sleek modern. “Please walk softly,” Delta whispered to Vanna. “Most of the girls are sleeping. They’ve had a busy night.” At the end of the corridor Delta turned right, opened a door, and led Vanna into a small and efficient bathroom.

  “Towels on the rack,” she said. “Put the one you use in the hamper by the basin. I’ll get a bed made up for you.”

  Vanna drew a bath, eased herself into it, and luxuriated in the warm comfort until the water began to cool. She soaped herself then, and rinsed, and got out and dried off. She slipped Maw Hawganee’s dress on, since she had nothing else to wear, and went into the hall. Delta Blow emerged from the door opposite, which Vanna could see opened onto a kitchen, and led her to a nearby bedroom.

  “Sleep tight,” Delta said, after turning down the covers for her. “I’ll bring you something better to wear. I’ll hang it in the closet.”

  “Thanks,” Vanna said. She slid under the covers and was asleep before they warmed up.

  The Merry Maid

  Hannah Bollix woke Vanna in midmorning. That was the normal rising time for kitchen help, she told Vanna. “Come to the kitchen in ten minutes,” Hanna said. “It’s time to make the canapés. You’ll put the olives on.”

  Vanna got out of bed. She was pleased to see Delta had left a brassiere and panties that fit her and a plain striped seersucker frock in the closet. The frock had a wide white collar, and looked rather like a uniform. She put the clothes on, and slipped her feet into the huaraches. She made a mental note to get hold of other footgear. Mama Rhea Lee’s feet had been smaller than Vanna’s, and the huaraches were not a good fit.

  Vanna stepped into Hannah’s kitchen and found Hell. Hannah was a small, shriveled, woman with an acid glare and a razor tongue. She showed Vanna how to spread cream cheese on little dry crackers and how to place a stuffed olive slice in the exact center of the cracker. Vanna had little empathy and much antipathy for culinary work. Cooking reminded her of Dickon, and her sense of subservience as his wife. For this time, she knew she could not object too strongly, not until she had accumulated a little capital for going on.

  Hannah was not easily pleased; she was, like many cooks, a perfectionist. Additionally, presentation was paramount with her canapés; they were to grace the parlor where the gentlemen waited for the turn at the house’s services. Hannah felt she had a reputation to maintain. Vanna infuriated her, because Vanna could not seem to grasp how important it was that the olive slices should be exactly centered on the cracker, and that the cream cheese should be of a uniform thickness on the cracker. Hannah despaired of teaching Vanna to cover the entire cracker with cream cheese.

  She set her to work, instead, cutting zucchini and carrots for the evening meal for the staff. Delta fed her ladies one meal a day as part of their compensation from the house. She also covered all work-related medical and dental expenses. She did not provide child support, however. Delta was renowned in her community for her charitable works. Hannah told Vanna these things in short bursts of angry speech. Vanna cut the vegetables poorly, but this angered Hannah less than the olive misplacements had. Hannah performed the duties that required more skill, such as frosting the sugar cookies and cutting out their shapes. When Vanna had finished crucifying the evening’s vegetables, Hannah left her for a moment to consult with Delta Blow.

  Delta returned with Hannah. “Donna,” she said, “I’ve other duties for you this afternoon. The rooms where the ladies entertain their gentleman callers need refreshing. I’ll show you how to do the first one, and then you can complete the others. Please come with me.”

  Vanna gladly escaped the kitchen. She was feeling quite peckish. She had learned early on that Hannah disapproved of the help’s eating even the most mistake-laden canapé. Raw zucchini and raw carrots did not look like food to Vanna. Hungry as she was, being around food only heightened her need.

  “When do we eat?” she asked Delta as she followed her up a narrow flight of stairs just outside the kitchen.

  “Later, when the ladies get here,” Delta said. “Doesn’t do a woman’s figure much good to eat too heavy, unless she’s going to be doing field work.” Delta’s ample figure, wrapped now in a flowing yellow muumuu fringed with a bright orange trim, glided down the upstairs corridor to its far end. She opened one of the two doors in the end wall. It let into a closet with a sink, mops hanging on a rack, toilet-cleaning implements, and a cart stocked with toilet paper rolls and plastic bags for lining small wastebaskets. Next to it a little red wagon held a vacuum and mop bucket.

  “Each one of my ladies is a jewel,” Delta said with a grandiloquent flourish of her heavy arm. Vanna noticed that each finger of Delta’s hand sported a ring set with a gaudy stone. She wondered if Delta was talking about her work staff, or her hand. “There’s Amethyst, Diamond, Emerald, Jade, Onyx, Opal, Pearl, Peridot, Ruby, Sapphire, Turquoise. I name each of them as I hire them.”

  She rolled the cart into the corridor. Delta rolled the wagon out as well. “Each lady’s room has a carpet in the bedchamber. The floor in each bathroom is tile. You will vacuum the carpet and mop the tile.” Delta closed the door, and opened the other alongside it. Satin bed sheets and pillowcases filled the shelves. Each was a different color.

  “Each lady has her own color of bed linens,” Delta explained. “These lavender ones are for Amethyst, for example. The white set is for Diamond, the bright green for Emerald, the dark green for Jade, and so on.” Delta opened a door on the side of the cart. She took a set of sheets and pillowcases in each color and stacked them in the cart. She closed the door.

  “Now, honey, push the cart with one hand and drag the wagon with the other. The rooms are never locked, so always knock before you go in. We don’t get much afternoon trade, but it happens sometimes. You don’t want to disturb the working women. It just isn’t done.”

  When they reached the stair head, Delta knocked on the door marked Amethyst. She got no answer, so she entered. “I suggest you start in the bathroom,” Delta told Vanna. “First empty the wastebasket. It’s usually full of used condoms, so use rubber gloves. There are some gloves on the cart.” Delta put a pair on, picked up the plastic sack, tied a twist in the top of it, and dropped it into a heavy canvas bag attached to one end of the cart. “Then clean the basin, shower, and toilet,” Delta continued. She showed Vanna how to use the various brushes and cleaners for each bathroom appliance.

  “In the bedchamber,” she went on, “first strip the bed. Then empty the wastebaskets, gather any glasses or bottles, and put them on the cart. I’ll warn you now, don’t think about drinking anything in any of the bo
ttles. Frequently the fluid is not alcohol.” Vanna nodded. She didn’t care for alcohol, and doubted she’d like any other fluids even that well.

  “After you wipe off the dresser and the nightstands, make the bed,” Delta went on. “If you’re not sure what color bed clothes to use, just match the ones on the cart to the ones on the bed. Store the dirty linens in the other side of the cart. There’s a canvas bag to hold them. When you’re done, turn down the bed at one corner, so it looks inviting, turn out the lights, and close the door. Then go to the next room across the hall.” Delta swiftly stripped and made the bed in Amethyst’s room. Vanna hoped she understood the proper folding to use on the corners.

  “Now,” Delta said as they crossed the hall to Turquoise’s room, “I’ll watch, and you do this room.” Delta stood back, and Vanna began in the bathroom, cleaned it, and then cleaned the bedchamber. She almost put Sapphire’s sheets on Turquoise’s bed. Her sense of color was poor in the corridor’s dim light. Delta helped her distinguish the two colors, and Vanna finished the room.

  “You should do all right on your own,” Delta said. “When you’re through, take the trash bag and the laundry bag down the back stairs—that’s the staircase we came up—and leave them on the back porch. The service will take them from there.