Tabitha (4 page)

Late the following day when whatever drug Opal had given me
had worn off, she came back to her room. “It is time for us to talk, Tabitha.
Get out of bed and get dressed.”

She sat in the same chair I had sat in the night before and
addressed me as I, groaning, sat up in the bed.

Well, I cursed her. I cursed Opal with words I’d often heard
Cray use, words foreign to my tongue but suited the burning rage I felt toward
Opal.

Then I saw the man watching from behind her chair twitch his
shoulders. He was a hulking mountain of a beast with a protruding jaw and dull,
piggy eyes. His hair, cut in a ragged line around his collar, was the same dull
brown as his eyes.

He flexed his hands, clenching his fists by his side, and
the muscles on his arms bulged like thick tree limbs. He was a monster. A freak
of nature.

“You will curb your tongue, Tabitha,” Opal said softly.

It was not a request. The menace in those few words made me
wonder how I had so utterly misjudged her the day before.

I saw my clothes, washed, dried, and folded, on the end of
the bed. Remembering the coins I’d stitched into the hem, I covered myself with
the sheet and grabbed at the skirt.

The four half dollars were gone.

“Where are m’ coins? M’ money?” I demanded.

“We will not speak until you have dressed,” Opal answered.

With one eye on the menacing figure standing behind her, I
scooted behind the dressing screen and pulled on my clothes. It was not easy—my
body ached from the rough treatment of the previous night. I flinched when I
bent over to put on my shoes. All the while, I seethed, but my anger was a thin
veneer atop the horror of the night before.

Then I stood before Opal, defiant and smoldering, but
holding my tongue in check—for the moment.

She watched me and was amused. Her amusement only made me
angrier.

“I want m’ money,” I said through gritted teeth. “Ya ain’t
got no right to it. I want t’ leave Fullman. Now.”

She chuckled under her breath. “Yes, I am sure you do.
However, as I mentioned yesterday, I have an agreement with Cray.”

“Ya lied to me,” I hissed.

“Not at all, I assure you,” she smirked. “Cray, in return
for all the supplies he requested, traded what he had to offer. It was an
equitable exchange. It was advantageous for both of us.”

Her gaze studied me in a detached, practiced manner. “You
are thin and have not come into full womanhood yet. We need to fatten you up a
bit.”

“I want m’ money,” I insisted.

Opal sighed. “I want to speak the truth to you, Tabitha, so
there will be no hard feelings between us. When Cray arrived a few days back he
offered you to me in return for a grub stake so he could continue his search
for gold.”

“O-offered me? I-I don’ understand.”

Opal smiled. “It is not the first time a man has traded a
woman for supplies, my dear. What is important now is that you understand
how
things are
and cooperate.”

I still could not fathom Opal’s words. “Are ya sayin’ he
sold
me?” The events of the night before swept over me and so did panic. “But
he . . . he cain’t
sell
me! He don’t
own
me!” I
was sputtering, unsure of how to proceed.

“Ah, my dear. So many things in this life are not as they
seem. Whether he had the ‘right’ to sell you is inconsequential. You are here.
I have already invested in you. And now you will work for me.”

“I—” The horror was just beginning to dawn on me. “Work fer
ya?”

“Why, yes. In addition to the store below us, I also own the
saloon next door. News of your arrival has already made quite a stir. The men
are looking forward . . . to getting to know you better.”

As though I would blithely accept and accommodate her
instructions, she waved her hand and continued. “Working hours are six in the
evening until one in the morning. You may sleep until ten each morning if you
like. I prefer my girls well rested and in good spirits.

“However, you must be present at the table for the morning
meal at 10:30. After we eat together, I will assign chores. If you complete
your chores in a satisfactory manner, you may use the time remaining for your
own pursuits—but you may not,
ever
, leave this building without
permission. Then, promptly at three in the afternoon, you will wash, fix your
hair, and tend to your clothes.”

She examined her hands. “Yes, about the clothes. Amber is
making over a dress for you right now. I want it understood that you will
receive this dress in good condition and you will keep it in good condition.
Every afternoon at 4:30 we will meet again for dinner. If you are not properly
turned out, you will leave the table and repair whatever part of your toilet is
lacking.”

She looked hard at me. “I do not save back food for girls
who are late or unprepared, and we do not eat again until the following
morning, so have a care. Take your clothing and appearance seriously.”

“I ain’t doin’ any of thet,” I spat at her. “I’m a-leavin’
this god-fersaken place. T’day.”

Opal smiled her amused smile. “Let me introduce you to Big
Jim, Tabitha.”

She crooked her finger at the monster near her elbow. With
more speed than I could believe, he lumbered toward me. I bolted for the door
but he cut me off and spun me around. His hands grasped my neck, and he lifted
me from the floor.

No matter how hard I hit him or raked him with my
fingernails, Big Jim did not loosen his hold around my neck. He held me
straight out in front of himself, his arms fully extended so I could scarcely
reach his face.

Oh, I bloodied his cheeks and his eyes in those first
seconds, indeed I did—but it seemed to make no impression upon him. He simply
stared at me with those little piggy eyes and squeezed. He squeezed hard enough
that soon I could not breathe, could not swallow. I felt the enormous strength
in his thick fingers and I knew he could snap my neck with little effort—but he
was not trying to kill me outright.

He squeezed until I floundered and twitched, my feet
dangling above the floor, until I had no air left. Until I hung limp and
yielding in his hands. Until the room dimmed and sparks of light were all I
could see. Until I was certain I would die.

I think Opal murmured something. I cannot really remember.
Big Jim dropped me to the floor and I lay there, helpless and motionless except
for the bit of air seeping back into my lungs.

Opal bent over me. “That had to have been unpleasant,
Tabitha, and I am certain you would not like to repeat this experience. So have
a care: I do not tolerate insubordination or a poor attitude in any of my
girls. Do you understand?”

Big Jim loomed behind Opal. He twined his hands together
behind her shoulder where I could see them. A silent threat.

“Do you understand, Tabitha?” Opal asked again.

I gritted my teeth and nodded.

~~~

“This place is played out,” Opal announced at breakfast two
months later. “I invested my working capital here because I believed it would
grow, that the miners would put down roots. Sadly, I was mistaken.

“We will be moving to Silver City next week. I do not plan
to stay there long; I’ve set my sights on returning to Kansas City, my home
town, as our permanent destination. When we have earned enough in our next
town, we shall start east.”

I barely listened. An insistent vow played in my head:
I
will kill Cray Bishoff if ever I find him.
It was, in fact, all I thought
of, all that kept me moving through each day . . . and each
night.

“Pass the butter, Red.”

I ignored “Amber,” as she was called. I knew it was not her
real name. All of Opal’s girls were renamed for colors or colored stones. Opal
tried calling me “Ruby” to fit into her naming scheme, but the men all asked
for “Red,” so she relinquished Ruby and called me Red.

I despised the moniker and I despised
her
for
shackling me with it. I particularly hated hearing the men talk about me and
ask for me using that despised name.

“Hey, Red. Pass the butter?”

When I still did not respond to Amber’s request, her elbow
nudged me in the ribs.

My hand snaked out of its own volition. The resounding crack
of my palm on Amber’s face echoed through the kitchen. I do not know why I did
it. I knew I would be punished, but I could not restrain the ever-simmering
rage in my breast.

“Red!” Opal was on me in a trice. She may have been an older
woman, but she was still strong, and she was ruthless. Opal grabbed me by my
hair and yanked me backward. My chair toppled to the floor with me in it. Opal
sat on my chest and held me down.

“Get Big Jim in here,” she hissed.

Amber ran to do Opal’s bidding. The other women, three of
them, eyed each other uneasily. I had been nothing but a vexation to Opal since
the day she had told me how Cray had “sold” me to her—and this would not be the
first punishment Opal ordered Big Jim to dish out.

Big Jim shambled into the room with Amber peering from
behind his bulk. “Yesh, Missh Opal?”

“Take Red upstairs and discipline her, Big Jim. This time, I
do not care how marked up she is—just not her face.”

I swore and struggled violently under Opal’s knees. I wanted
to run, but Big Jim grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. He lifted me so
that my toes were unable to touch the floor. I managed to rake the nails of my
free hand across his face one time before he shook me so hard that my teeth
rattled.

Opal smoothed her skirt. “I want this girl
compliant
,
Big Jim. If she will not bend to my bidding, I will get rid of her.”

She hissed in my direction. “You are more trouble than you
are worth, Red, but let me tell you something. You think life with me is bad?
Here
you receive enough to eat and are treated well enough as long as you are
productive and obedient, but know this: I could sell you today to any of six
men in Fullman and not lose a minute of sleep over it.”

She sat, shook out her napkin, and placed it across her lap
with that air of sophistication she had perfected.

“Take her out of here, Big Jim.”

The man swung me over his shoulder like so many pounds of
potatoes in a sack and hauled me, shrieking and cursing, up the stairs.

I screamed with rage until I screamed in pain.

~~~

For a time, I gave Opal nothing to complain about. Her
threat to sell me to one of the disgusting men of Fullman’s tent city had
frightened me more than she knew.

We moved to Silver City and, after four months there, Opal
hired two men and their mule-pulled wagons to cart all of us and our things to
Santa Fe. When we had gone far enough east to have skirted the nearby mountain
range, we turned north and followed, roughly, the muddy river our drivers
called the Rio Grande. The trip took three weeks and was hard on all of us,
body, mind, and temper.

Most of the journey it was easier to walk than to ride in
the wagons. Our bones were stiff and bruised from the wagon’s continual
jolting. As I walked, I stared out onto the desert with its distant craggy
mountains, red-rock bluffs, dangerous crevasses, and endless vistas. I was
again terrified of being abandoned, left alone in the wasteland—and for good
reason: The men Opal hired were as disreputable and untrustworthy as one might
imagine.

Opal, to her credit, was no fool. She used both a carrot and
a stick to keep the drivers in line—the carrot being one of us girls each
night, the stick being Big Jim. Oh, the drivers were right to be as afraid of
Big Jim as we girls were: At a word from Opal, he would have killed the drivers
and never batted an eye.

In that respect, we girls were grateful for Big Jim’s
protection. Without him we feared the two drivers would have killed Opal—and
taken us. I harbored no illusions that we would have survived long in their
“care.”

After the long, difficult trek, we arrived in Santa Fe. It
was a strange town, bustling with three diverse populations, Indian,
Spanish/Mexican, and white American.

Opal regarded the straggling adobe buildings and narrow,
dirty streets with distaste. We all wrinkled our noses over the odors of meats
cooking with unfamiliar spices. Opal hurried us into a boarding house where we
bathed after so many days travel and washed our clothes.

We were exhausted, but Opal was up and about early in the
morning. She arranged for the owner of the boarding house to pack enough food
to feed us for the day. Then she hurried us again, this time to the train depot.
We boarded the train, and she had Big Jim guard us while she dealt with the two
drivers. Sullen-faced, they took her money, climbed aboard their wagons, and
drove away.

After the jarring passage from Silver City to Santa Fe by
wagon or foot, the train was a delight. Oh, the railcars were still filthy and
hot, but riding by train was far easier than walking or riding in a wagon. And
faster. We arrived in Kansas City in three days’ time. This leg of our journey
ended in the bustle and stench of Kansas City’s stock yards.

To Opal, however, Kansas City represented opportunity. Once
we were away from the trains and cattle, we found ourselves in a much more
gentrified town. Opal again installed us in a boarding house and left Big Jim
in the hall outside of our rooms.

I thought of climbing out a window and running away, but we
were on the second floor and the ground sloped steeply away from the house. It
would have been a dangerous drop. I was too scared of what the fall to the
ground might do to me—and the other girls watched me closely anyway. They would
not allow me to do anything that would put
them
in jeopardy without
alerting Big Jim.

Apparently Opal was a good business woman: She had saved
much of the money she made from the women and alcohol she served in Fullman and
Silver City. Within a week of arriving in Kansas City, she located and
purchased a house. We girls worked hard under her direction to ready the house
and, within a second week, we were set up for business again.