Candlelight City

by Jessica Tang Von Harper

  “It looks perfect,” said the officer. “Good job!”

  Suzie wanted to put her skirt back on, but she made herself wait. “Do you think it feels authentic?” she asked the officer. “Can you touch me to make sure?”

  Emma’s mouth fell open. The officer regarded Suzie silently for a moment, and Suzie thought he would refuse. But then he reached between her legs and cupped her vagina. Suzie waited while his fingers slid over her, exploring her and searching for any remaining hairs. She realized she was wet, and felt embarrassed.

  “Feels just fine,” the police officer told her with a grin.

  “Great.” Suzie took her skirt back from Emma and put it back on. Dressed again, she struck a pose, with her breasts thrust forward and her hip cocked to the side. “How do I look now?”

  “Better,” said the officer. He winked at her. “You look like you’d make a fortune out here, to be honest. Not many whores on the street look as young and pretty as you do.”

  “Thanks!” said Suzie.

  The officer thought for a moment. “You know, if you want, I could introduce you to someone who might help you with your play. She’s not far from here… I could give you a lift.”

  Suzie was not about to turn down an opportunity to research her role. “Sure… that would be great.” Then she remembered Emma. “Um… Em, do you want to stay with the car?”

  “Out here?” Emma asked. “By myself? Can I come with you instead?”

  Suzie looked at the officer, who shrugged. “Yeah, that’s not a problem,” he said. “I don’t think it will bother Bonita, as long as your friend is quiet and doesn’t attract attention.”

  So Suzie and Emma got into the police car, and the officer started driving down the street. Suzie had never been in a police car before, and thought it was interesting. The radio buzzed with voices, talking in some code only known to police officers.

  They only drove for a couple blocks, until the officer pulled in front of a dark park. At first Suzie didn’t see anyone, but then she noticed a pretty woman wearing a shimmering blue dress sitting on a bench. The woman gazed at the police car uneasily, but then seemed to recognize the officer and smiled.

  The officer rolled down the window, and the woman approached. “Hey, Bonita!” he greeted her.

  “Hola, Charlie,” Bonita said, leaning against the car. “I didn’t expect to see you patrolling this area tonight.”

  “Yeah, this is a special visit,” said the officer. He jerked his head toward Suzie and Emma in the back seat. “I’ve got these two high school kids. The half-naked one is rehearsing to play Jenna in ‘Candlelight City’. You know that play?”

  Bonita’s eyes lit up. “I do! I’ve seen it!”

  Charlie smiled. “I told her you might give her some pointers on what it’s really like to be a prostitute?”

  Bonita grinned and put her hands on her hips. “Charlie! What makes you think I would know anything about being a prostitute?” They laughed. Bonita peeked in the window and smiled at Suzie. “Come on out, girls. You’re lucky, it’s a quiet night tonight. I’ll be glad to help you out.”

  Charlie had to step out of the car and open the door for them, because the back seat of the police car didn’t have door handles. Suzie and Emma stepped out. “I really appreciate any help you can give me,” Suzie told Bonita.

  “I’ll be back in an hour to drive you back to your car, okay?” Charlie said. “Will that be enough time?

  “Yes, that should be fine. Thank you, officer!” Suzie said.

  “No problem,” Charlie smiled. “I look forward to seeing you on the stage. Bye, Bonita!” Charlie stepped back into his car and drove off.

  “Buenas noche, Charlie!” Bonita called, waving. She smiled at Suzie. “I like him, he’s always nice to me.”

  “He was nice to me, too,” Suzie said. “He already gave me some good advice. I was on a corner pretending to be a prostitute, and he could tell right away that I looked wrong.”

  “Really?” Bonita was interested. “What did he say?”

  “Well, he said that I shouldn’t wear underwear. And then he said I should shave off my pubic hair.”

  Bonita giggled. She took hold of the hem of her dress and lifted it to her waist. “Like this?” She wasn’t wearing panties, and her vagina was shaved smooth.

  “Yeah!” Suzie said. “He was right!”

  “He knows a lot about us,” Bonita said, tugging her dress down. “He patrols around this area most nights. Sometimes he takes us in. But he hasn’t taken me in for awhile.”

  “Thanks for helping me,” Suzie said. “I’m Suzie, and this is my friend Emma.”

  “Nice to meet you,” said Bonita. “The thing about this job is sometimes all I’m doing is waiting around for a customer. So I’m glad to have someone to talk to.”

  Suzie chatted with Bonita for a while. Emma seemed nervous and uncomfortable at first, but Bonita was so friendly and interesting that gradually Emma relaxed and joined in the conversation.

  “Having sex for money is different from having sex with your high school boyfriend,” Bonita said. “In a way, it lets you be more free, because you don’t have to worry about what the boy thinks of you. You can act as sexy as you like, because that’s what they expect of you. That’s what they’re paying for. Say you wanted your boyfriend to have sex with you. What would you say?”

  “I don’t have a boyfriend,” Suzie admitted, trying not to think of Brad. “I guess I would say….” She searched for the words. “I don’t know what I would say!”

  “Of course. Because you worry about what he would think of you. But a prostitute can talk as dirty as she wants. I’ll say to a customer, ‘Slide your cock into me.’ Or, ‘I want you to fuck my wet cunt.’ I can say exactly what I mean, and it turns them on to hear me talking like that.” The shock Suzie felt at hearing Bonita’s raunchy words must have shown on her face, because Bonita looked at her and laughed. “I know it seems outrageous to you! But the customers love it.”

  Suzie asked Bonita about her life. She was surprised to discover that Bonita had a real job as well. “I come out here about four nights a week,” Bonita said, grinning slyly. “But during the day, I’m an associate professor at Jefferson University. I teach in the Hispanic studies department.”

  Suzie was stunned. “You’re a college professor? But then…why do you do this if you don’t have to?”

  “I make more money as a prostitute,” said Bonita. “Four times as much. It allows me to live a very comfortable life. And I enjoy the sex. Men have sex with prostitutes in a different way than they do regular women. They’ve paid for you, so they feel free to do whatever they want with you. They’re less restrained. The best sex I’ve had has been sex that I’ve gotten paid for.”

  “Aren’t you scared that someone from the university will see you working out here?”

  “It’s happened before,” Bonita admitted. “I had a student in one of my classes that saw me out here one night.”

  “Did he tell everyone?”

  “No.” Bonita smiled, remembering. “He pretended like he didn’t know I was his professor, and I pretended like he wasn’t my student. He offered to buy a half hour. I went with him into the park, and he stripped me naked and fucked me. Actually, he became a regular. During class, he would treat me like a teacher, and then he’d come by and find me at night, and he’d take me into the park and have sex with me. He always pretended as if the teacher and the prostitute were two different people.” Bonita giggled. “Sometimes, if I gave him a low grade on a quiz or a paper, he would come to the park that night, and have really rough sex with me. It was like he was getting revenge for the bad grade by punishing my naked body. I really enjoyed it. I know it’s mean, but one time he got an A on a quiz, and I changed it to a D instead, just because I wanted him to come by that night and fuck me hard. And he did, he came by and bent me in half and oh, he made me make some noise that night. The next day, I was so sore… I changed his grade back to an A, a
nd I told him I had made a mistake. I think he knew exactly what I was doing.” Bonita giggled again.

  As the three girls stood talking, a man approached and lingered awkwardly a few feet away. He was an older man, with hair that was starting to thin and nervous eyes that darted up and down the street.

  Bonita recognized him. “Oh!” she said. “A customer!” She lowered her voice, leaning close to Suzie and Emma. “Do you see those bushes over there? Go to the left of them, then follow the path that leads to the two trees. From there, you’ll be hidden, but you’ll have a good view of what I do with this customer. You can watch and see how a real prostitute works.”

  Suzie nodded. She slipped over to the bushes and walked into the dark park, with Emma right behind her. They walked about twenty feet into the darkness and found the two trees that Bonita had mentioned. The trees were low and thick, and the two girls were hidden behind a canopy of leaves.

  “Over there,” Emma whispered, peering around a tree trunk. Suzie followed Emma’s gaze and saw a green metal bench near a lamppost. Bonita had the customer by the hand, and was leading him to the bench. Suzie was surprised that Bonita was headed to such a visible location; the park had lots of dark areas, but that particular bench was in close proximity to the lamppost, and was bathed in the white light from the lamp. Perhaps the park was so empty at that time of night that no one was really there to see them, regardless of how bright the light was.

  Suzie and Emma were too far away to hear Bonita and the man talking. Suzie imagined that Bonita was saying the raunchy things that she had advised Suzie to say. The man was smiling as he stood facing Bonita. Then he reached down and took hold of the bottom of her dress. Swiftly, he pulled the dress up and over Bonita’s head, stripping her naked. He tossed the dress onto the bench, and Bonita stood patiently while he fondled her body, stroking her breasts and sliding his hand over her smooth vagina. He pulled Bonita in close and kissed her, his hands reaching behind and squeezing her ass.

  Suzie was spellbound, watching as Bonita let the man touch her body. Maybe it was true, what Bonita had said… that men treated a prostitute differently than they would treat their wife or girlfriend. It certainly seemed like this man was touching Bonita as if he owned her, free to touch her as much as he wanted, wherever he wanted.

  The man put his hands on Bonita’s shoulders and gently pushed her down onto the bench. He caught her ankles and pulled them apart, spreading her legs wide. Bonita waited, keeping her legs apart, while the man unzipped his pants and pulled his penis free. She reached up to embrace him as he leaned over her, sliding into her. Suzie and Emma watched wide-eyed as the man had sex with Bonita, illuminated in the glow of the lamplight. It was startling to see such an act performed out in the open, where any passerby could see. But Bonita did not seem self-conscious. She seemed to be enjoying every thrust, her eyes closed and her lips stretched into a wide smile.

  Suzie could not have said how long the sex lasted. Bonita and the man changed positions, Bonita dropping to her hands and knees on the sidewalk and letting the man take her from behind. Suzie watched from the darkness, leaning against a tree trunk. Her legs were slightly open, and the cool air going up her skirt reminded her that she had shed her panties earlier. She could also feel that she was getting turned on by what she was seeing, and there was a slickness between her legs. Emma was on the other side of the tree, the park was empty and Suzie felt free of her inhibitions. She inched up the front of her skirt and slid her hand between her legs, marveling at the feel of her own shaved vagina. As she watched the passionate coupling taking place in front of her, she began to finger herself.

  The man finally climaxed, moaning as he pumped his seed into Bonita. Afterwards, Bonita, still naked, knelt in front of him and cleaned off his penis with her tongue. The man had a big smile; he clearly seemed to feel he had spent his money well.

  Once Bonita had licked the man clean, the man put away his penis and zipped up. He didn’t wait for Bonita to get dressed; instead, he passed her a wad of bills and then hurried off. Bonita watched him leave, then smiled toward the trees, beckoning the girls to come out.

  “How was the show?” she teased as Suzie and Emma emerged.

  “It was amazing,” Suzie said. “I… I’ve never seen two people have sex in real life before.”

  “Me, either,” said Emma.

  “There was something so free about it. Unrestrained. The way you and he made love in the middle of the park, under the night sky…” Suzie struggled to find the words to describe it.

  Bonita giggled. She retrieved her dress and slipped it back on. “I guess maybe now you understand a little better why I do this.” She showed them the money. It was a stack of twenties, perhaps three hundred dollars in all. “And this is pretty good too.”

  They went back outside the park and waited for Charlie to come by again to drive the girls to their car. “I’m glad you got to see me in action,” Bonita said as they waited. “Sometimes I get a lot of customers, sometimes I don’t. It seemed like I got one just in time for you to see.”

  “I’m glad, too,” Suzie said. “I feel like I really got a glimpse of what it would be like to be Jenna. Now, I just need to see if I can convey it on the stage.”

  Just then, they noticed a young man with short blonde hair coming up the sidewalk. He seemed to be about twenty years old. The man approached the three girls. “Hey, Bonita,” he said as he walked up. He smiled at Suzie and Emma. “Hi.”

  “Hi, Paulo,” Bonita said.

  “Just wondering if you were busy…” Paulo said. He seemed more relaxed than the previous customer.

  “I’m not busy,” Bonita said. But then she smiled mischievously. “But maybe you’d like to try someone new for a change?”

  “New?” Paulo asked.

  Bonita nodded toward Suzie. “We have a new girl. She’s half-price, but she’s pretty, isn’t she?”

  Suzie blinked, and it took her a moment before she realized what Bonita was saying. “What?” she stammered.

  But Paulo was already looking her up and down, and grinning. “She is pretty. Yeah, I guess I could try someone new.”

  Suzie felt her heart beating, and she leaned towards Bonita. “I’m not sure I can do this!” she whispered desperately.

  “You can!” Bonita reassured her. “Don’t be nervous. Just remember what I said. Let go of yourself, and focus on his pleasure. Everything else just comes naturally. I promise you you’ll be fine.”

  “One fifty, right?” Paulo asked.

  “Right!” Bonita said quickly. Suzie looked at Paulo. He wasn’t bad looking, and Bonita seemed to think he was an okay guy. It quickly occurred to Suzie that she might not have another opportunity like this one. Just an hour before, her best idea had been to lurk on a dark street corner terrified of every car that drove by. Now, a friendly prostitute was arranging a situation where she could really experience what it would be like to live that lifestyle. How could she turn that down?

  “One fifty,” she confirmed. She held out her hand. “Come on. My name… my name is Jenna.” Paulo took her hand, and she turned to lead him into the park. She caught a quick glimpse of Emma’s astonished face, and then she was in the park, among the trees. Suzie could see the bench ahead of her, glowing in the light of the fluorescent lamp.

  They arrived at the bench. Suzie was surprised how bright the glow was when she stood there. It seemed like she and Paulo were very visible. But she told herself the spot must be fairly safe, if it was Bonita’s regular place to take her clients.

  Suzie turned to look at Paulo, and he was smiling at her. “You really are very pretty,” he told her. “I’m not sure why you’re such a good deal. You could charge more if you wanted.” He sat down on the bench.

  “I’ve just started doing this,” Suzie said. “I guess I don’t know the market yet.” For a moment, she stood there, uncertain what to do. When she had watched Bonita, the customer had stripped off Bonita’s dress for her. Suzie had expected Pa
ulo to take care of stripping her in the same way. But Paulo was sitting and watching her expectantly.

  Reluctantly, Suzie pinched the lower edge of her top in her fingers. It was hard to shake the feeling that she was doing something wrong, and even though no one was around, she felt like she was surrounded by staring gawkers. She slowly lifted her top, allowing Paulo to see her breasts. She pulled the top over her head and dropped it next to the bench. Next, she felt around the back of her skirt for her zipper. With shaking hands, she pulled the zipper down, and let her skirt drop onto her feet. Feeling horribly exposed, Suzie stepped out of the skirt, leaving it on the ground. She stood in front of Paulo, completely nude, watching him as he traced her naked flesh with his gaze. The air was cool on her bare skin, but her face grew hot when she noticed Paulo was examining her smooth vagina. It certainly looked lewdly displayed when it was shaved in that way. But she didn’t try to cover herself.

  Paulo met her eyes. “Are you going to sit down?” he asked. Suzie nodded. She glanced around the park again, and seeing no one, gently lowered herself onto the bench. The metal of the bench was cold against her bare ass. She glanced nervously at Paulo, feeling self-conscious.

  He smiled at her and reached out to touch her leg. Suzie stiffened, and his hand retreated. “Is something wrong?” he asked, concerned.

  Suzie felt so strange, sitting naked in the middle of a public park. She had thought she could just drop into character, and pretend to be Jenna, but the situation was way too overwhelming for her. “I need to tell you a secret,” she whispered.

  “A secret?” Paulo started to lightly trace her leg with his finger.

  “Yeah.” Suzie bit her lip. “The truth is… I’m not really a prostitute.”

  “You’re not?” He looked confused.

  “This isn’t really my job. Actually… I don’t even have a job! I’m still in high school… I graduate in the spring.”