Chapter Seventeen
Placements & Payments
I’m not sure why we’re running, but it’s like herd mentality. The ten of us rush into the entertainment room and watch the digital ticker above the bar. It’s blank, just like it was last night. I wouldn’t even have noticed the thing had I not been sitting at these stools with Katy.
A moment later, there’s a beeping sound, and the board glows with a red light. The color fades, and three names scroll across.
1. Raquel 2. Mercy 3. Georgia Raquel bursts into a dance and whoops loudly. The rest of the girls glare, but none so much as Mercy. Raquel turns on Mercy and points a finger directly between her eyes. “Better watch your back. I’m creeping up, chica.”
Mercy grabs her finger, and Raquel yelps with pain. The girls pull and shove against each another until Madam Karina enters the room. Then everyone falls silent. She holds in her right hand a stack of pink envelopes. In her left are three violets.
The girls line up, Mercy at the front.
Madam Karina whispers words to each girl and hands each her envelope. Mercy, Raquel, and Georgia—the girl with blue toenail polish—each get a violet as well. I’m last to receive an envelope. Before Madam Karina hands it to me, she takes me by the shoulders.
“I’m proud of you, Domino,” she says into my ear. “I just knew you’d be great.”
Her words sink into my belly like chicken and dumplings. When she leans back, there’s a smile on her face that swallows me whole. She’s proud of me. She thinks I’m great. Try as I might, I can’t build walls fast enough to keep Madam Karina out. What’s more, I don’t want to. When she releases me, my rational mind returns quickly enough. I’m no different to her than the other girls, I remind myself. Why would I be?
A memory of my mother slinks in. Soft hands, softer words, guiding me down the basement stairs in our house. I can’t take my eyes off her, my mother. She’s so charming, so convincing.
Wilson jerks the memory away, and I’m thankful.
The girls have slinked into separate corners of the room to open the pink envelopes. After Madam Karina leaves, I do the same. Inside mine, I find two sheets of paper. The first includes but a few lines.
Personal Placements Sunday, July 22
Daily Placement: 9th out of 10
Accrued Placement: 9th out of 10
Daily Coins Earned: 1
Total Coins Earned: 1
A grin touches my lips. I wasn’t in last place. And I earned a bronze coin. It must have been from Katy. But then again, maybe it was from someone different. She wasn’t the only guest I talked to last night.
Around the room, girls are celebrating or groaning. As for me, my mind explodes with possibility. If I can earn a bronze coin after one night, armed with clumsiness and a stack of napkins, what could I do with a can of spray paint? Maybe I could captivate two guests at once. Maybe an entire room.
I look at the second sheet of paper.
Personal Earnings Week of July 16
Carnation Total Earnings – $934.77
Total Customers – 17
Coins Earned – 1
Percent of Earnings – 5.88% (1/17th) Initial Earnings – $54.99
Minus Carnation Household Fee – 90%
Total Earnings – $5.49
*Less Supplies – $10.00
*Sheets, pillow
Total Weekly Earnings – ($4.51) Total Accrued Earnings – ($4.51)
My head spins and I silently mouth the numbers over and over again. I hardly understand half of it, but in the end, this is what I come up with.
The customers who came in this week spent a total of $934.77 to see the Carnation girls, and I’m assuming, to have drinks. There were seventeen customers in total, and because I got only one coin, I earned 1/17th of that amount. Then, because Carnations apparently retain only 10 percent of their earnings, I get to keep a whopping $5.49. That’s not what has my blood boiling though. It’s the cost of the sheets and pillow Madam Karina was so thrilled I took.
She charged me for them.
I didn’t even know they cost anything, and yet there’s the fee.
I melt into the floor, overwhelmed with the realization that I have less money now than I did when I got here. My stomach twists and my teeth grind and I’m about to start screaming for answers when Mercy yells that Angie is here.
The girls scramble out once again.
Something else is happening.