The scene was repeated at 12:00 except this time, the head guard barred the way into the house by standing in front of the door. Kashmira walked right up to him, stopped one pace away, and looked up at him. "In five seconds, I will take two steps forward. You know what my father will do to any guard whose body touches my body inappropriately."
At 1:00, Kashmira escorted her fourth guest to the gate, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and ushered the fifth boy into the house.
At 2:00, Kashmira escorted her fifth guest to the gate and gave him a kiss on the cheek. No other boy with a crush was waiting. She stared at the guard defiantly while fastening the top two buttons of her blouse. Then she entered the house, took some food and water to her bedroom, and locked herself in.
# # # # # # # #
The next morning at 9:00, Kashmira began meeting guests as she had done the previous day. The serenity of the scene was destroyed at 10:42 when El Patrón leapt out of his copter, ran into the house through the garage, and tried to open Kashmira's bedroom door. It was locked. He pounded on the door.
"Who is it," a cheery voice replied.
"Your father," Diego replied. "Open the door."
"I'm entertaining, Father. Now is not a good time for you to come in."
"Open the door!"
"I haven't broken any of your rules. I have not left the compound. Some friends are helping me to pass the time while I am in your jail."
"Open the door!"
"It's my room. I can do what I like in it."
"Open the door or I will break it down!"
"Are you ordering me to open the door so that you can look at my naked body, Father? If so, the entire city will know about that by tomorrow morning. You will be condemned as a pervert. Nobody will show you any respect ever again."
"You are a slut!"
"Yes. Isn't that what you wanted me to become? Go away. I'm entertaining."
Kashmira's day as a slut ended at 2:00. She brought food and water into her bedroom again and barricaded the door. She needn't have gone to the effort.
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Chapter 26
The daily parade of friends entering Kashmira's bedroom and leaving one hour later continued on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week. Her father did not attempt to stop the parade. She stayed in the house on Saturday. On Sunday, August 11, Kashmira went to the front door and announced that she was going to church. The guards denied her exit saying that they had had no instructions on that. "You would stand between me and God?" she asked. While the head guard was trying to contact El Patrón, Kashmira opened the front gate and walked out. Ten minutes later, four guards took up their normal positions outside of the church.
After the service, Kashmira went to her music room and stayed there for the full day. As far as the guards were concerned, she ate nothing the entire day. As far as Kashmira was concerned, she was well fed.
During the day, Kashmira and Mathias finished work on a new song – its dominant mood was one of hope and optimism. Since Mathias had brought lunch, Kashmira announced that she would clean the table and wash the few plates and cutlery that they had used. Mathias showed her how to prepare the sink for washing. Kashmira did the rest on her own. Mathias dried and put the dishes away.
Kashmira didn't particularly want to stay locked inside a church for the rest of the day, but she didn't want Mathias to leave either. As soon as she stepped outside, the guards would be there to escort her home. Mathias suggested that they had another option. He disappeared for about ten minutes but returned to tap three times, then two times on the music room door. Kashmira opened the door to find a woman who slipped quickly into the room pulling a suitcase behind her. "It's me," the woman said in a decidedly masculine voice. Then she lifted the veil of the burqa.
Ten minutes later, two women left the cathedral. Both were clothed in a black burqa. One was tall for a woman; the other was average height. She hadn't been average height until she had slipped into two platform shoes with healthy soles inserted inside. The two women slipped through the crowds at the front of the cathedral without drawing any attention from the guards. On Sundays, lots of people left the church with healthy souls.
They spent the evening wandering the streets of downtown Maasin City. Mathias had Philippian money and Kashmira bought food for the two of them from various stalls along the way. Kashmira chattered away like a tour guide – explaining what they were passing and its history. Of course, it wouldn't do for the taller of the two women to have a masculine voice, so Mathias had to remain quiet. The one sided conversation lasted only until Kashmira suggested that he use his quiet voice to speak to her. This was the voice that came into her earrings and sounded like he was inside her head. After that, they enjoyed what Winnie would have referred to as a chatty first date.
That date almost ended prematurely and angrily when Mathias deliberately hip-checked Kashmira away from his side. He caught her arm and restored her balance before she careened into the path of a passing stranger. Then he released her arm and stepped away from her.
"That was mean. Why did you do that?" Kashmira whispered.
"We were holding hands," Mathias whispered back. He couldn't say how long that hand-to-hand contact had been in place. All he knew was that somehow a pleasantly warm hand had been inside his own hand and the body check had been an instantaneous decision.
"I know," she giggled. "You grabbed my hand. I decided to let you keep it for a while."
"Women of our religion do not ever hold hands in public. Not with males; not even with females," Mathias said.
"It is not pleasing to me that I have to wear this burqa any more."
"Cross your arms in front of you and put your hands inside your sleeves. Other women are doing the same." And that's the way they wandered around the city before returning to the cathedral.
# # # # # # # #
Mathias' first act on entering the music room was to pause the music. Then he helped Kashmira out of her disguise and she did the same for him. While he was stuffing the burqas into the suitcase, she was sitting on the love seat, massaging her right foot.
"'I'll take the suitcase back to my camp later," he said.
"What's a camp?"
"The place where I sleep and eat when I'm not watching over you."
"I don't understand how you can watch me but I can't see you."
Faced with a question that he didn't want to answer, Mathias chose to distract instead. "I can do that for you," he offered pointing to her right foot.
# # # # # # # #
Mathias was sitting at one end of the love seat, his feet on the floor. Kashmira was sitting sideways on the other end of the love seat, one foot resting on the armrest next to Mathias. The other foot was firmly inside Mathias' two hands. Mathias had been reviewing the plan for the upcoming week while gently rubbing her foot.
"It is not pleasing to me that I have to become a bad person," she complained.
"It's only acting. That person isn't you."
"But everybody in the city will believe that I'm that person."
"It's still acting. Did you enjoy acting like the person Winnie wanted you to be last week?"
"Yes. Because that person was a nice person. She was helping some boys in her school learn English."
"That's all you'll be doing this week. Teaching your guests some English." Mathias slapped the sole of her left foot lightly. "You're done."
Kashmiri pulled her knees towards her chest and pivoted on the love seat so that she was now sitting next to Mathias, her bare feet on the ground. "My feet feel much better. My visitors will know what to pretend to do?"
"Yes, they're ready."
"I still don't like it, but Winnie says I have to if I am to become free of my father."
"Do you talk with Winnie much?"
"Yes, we talk when I'm alone in my bedroom. She keeps me company. She uses her quiet voice too. I don't know how her voice can come through the walls."
> "William invented a way."
"I know. That's what Winnie said too."
"Does Winnie talk about me?"
"No. I ask her about you but she won't say anything." Kashmira raised her left hand and fluttered it in the air in front of Mathias' hand. "Mathias, we're not wearing burqas now."
"Yah. They're in the suitcase." Mathias remained sitting like a statue. Feet on the floor, hands crossed firmly across his belly, brain responding to a hand-holding invitation like a rock statue would.
Kashmira brought her hand back to her lap.
"So what do you and Winnie talk about?"
"Winnie says that it's girl talk. Boys aren't allowed to know. Mathias, you're not dressed like a girl any longer."
Again, Kashmira fluttered her empty hand in the air above Mathias' hand. Mathias didn't notice. He was fixated on what Winnie might be saying to Kashmira when they were alone.
Kashmira lifted herself off the love seat, walked over to the music table, and put a piece of paper in her pocket. "I'll drop this onto El Pervertido's desk on the way out."
"Is that what you supposedly said in confession to him?"
"Yah. Winnie dictated it and I wrote it so it would be in my handwriting."
"Good."
"I'm going now."
Kashmira didn't say anything more on the way out. Mathias noticed that it had become quite chilly in the music room, but he put that down to the lateness of the evening.
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Chapter 27
Kashmira spent Monday August 12 entertaining. This time her guests were adults. El Patrón did not interfere.
On Tuesday, the guard at the gate thought he saw something, but hesitated to report it because it was so outrageous that he felt he wouldn't be believed. When La Señorita walked her 11 a.m. visitor to the gate, he had seen the visitor slip something into her hand. It looked like money. He told the other guards to watch the visitors closely, but did not say why.
On Wednesday, at about 12:55, the guard at the front door heard La Señorita calling for a guard. He drew his gun and ran down the hallway to her bedroom door.
"Señorita. Está bien?" [Are you OK?]
"Si," Kashmira said and opened the door wide enough so that she could poke her head out. The guard could see the hand holding the door open, a bare arm, and above that, a bare shoulder. In the bedroom, the guest was buttoning his shirt.
"Dressing and undressing all the time is becoming tiresome. Escort my friend to the front gate and bring my 1:00 guest to my bedroom." At that point her friend came to the bedroom door, handed Kashmira a bill, and brushed by the guard into the hallway. La Señorita closed the door behind him.
When the guard brought her 2:00 appointment to the door, Kashmira opened the door a little wider this time and the guard saw the same bare upper body parts he had seen before along with an afternoon bonus. A bare foot, a bare ankle, a bare shin, and a bare knee. The guest put a bill into La Señorita's hand as he walked into her bedroom and began undressing.
At this point, the guard on the door informed the head guard what he hadn't believed he had seen, but now knew to be true. La Señorita was taking money for having sex. The head guard informed El Patrón from a distance.
# # # # # # # #
Thursday morning at 8:50, El Patrón burst out of his front door and scanned the street for any male acting suspiciously. He saw none. Out of the corner of his eye, he did see a male figure turn his back to the house and stroll away, his head turned so that El Patrón could see only the back of his hoodie. At 9:05, Kashmira came to the door in her bright red dressing gown and asked the guard why he hadn't brought her first appointment to her bedroom.
"Nadie está aquí, Señorita," the guard replied. [Nobody is here.]
"El Patrón estaba aquí?"[El Patrón was here?]
"Si."
# # # # # # # #
The rest of Kashmira's Thursday appointments also failed to arrive. It wasn't from lack of trying. At 9:55 and 10:55, El Patrón burst out of his house anxious to catch sight of his daughter's customers waiting on the street. (Since all of the house's windows that faced the street were covered with bulletproof metal shutters, it was impossible for him to scan the street from the comfort of his home.) Both times that he ran out to the street, a male figure quickly turned away. It was a different male each time. He was dressed differently, but definitely a man, not a boy from Kashmira's class.
Both times Kashmira appeared a few minutes later, fully dressed. She looked at the guard who shrugged. "You will bring my guest to my bedroom if he doesn't chase them away?" she asked.
"If you order me to, I will have to. You give your father much anger, Señorita."
"I order you."
At 11:30, acting on instructions from El Patrón, the head guard brought all of his available guards to the front yard. "Watch for any man who shows interest in the house. Follow him. Be subtle. Find out who the man is and where he lives."
The guards did their best, but each man they followed was very quick to find a hiding spot as soon as he turned a corner and was briefly out of sight. Most men would do that if they saw a guard running after him waving a gun in his hand. Following these men by being subtle wasn't going to work. The head guard gave El Patrón that verdict Thursday evening. [Narrator: Philippian criminals have a different interpretation of the word "subtle" than we do. They weren't shooting; therefore they were subtle.]
# # # # # # # #
The guards were scanning the street in force Friday morning. Many of the men who walked down the street on their way to work paused and looked intently at the house. A guard approached each curious looker, waving his gun. All the men lost interest in the house and fled. Some disappeared into the market, others were caught. Each captive proclaimed his innocence. "I was only looking at the house. There's no harm in that."
The guards didn't have time to question the men further. They had to guard the house because more men were walking by and looking intently at the house. It wasn't until after an hour of chasing staring men that one of the guards asked his suspect the important question.
"Why were you looking at the house?"
"Because of the red cloth hanging in the upstairs window."
That guard rushed back to the house and looked. Then he pulled the head guard from his position guarding El Patrón's door to a vantage place on the far side of the street. He pointed to the upstairs window. La Señorita's bright red dressing gown was hanging outside a wide open window.
In the Philippines, prostitutes use red clothing to indicate that they are available for business. The guards had to leave the dressing gown in place as they were not allowed in the house. El Patrón was out of town. A lucky coincidence, no doubt.
# # # # # # # #
Saturday, Winnie was talking to Kashmira in her quiet voice, reassuring her that her father couldn't break into her bedroom. After all, hadn't he ensured that the bedroom would be one of the safest rooms in the house? Wasn't that why there were no windows? Wasn't that why she had a very expensive heavy door with a very safe lock? Kashmira didn't think to ask Winnie how she knew about that. She did know that her father would be angrier at her than he had ever been before.
It was Winnie who had told Kashmira that her father had charged up the stairs to the upstairs bedroom that morning and had ripped down the dressing gown. Afterwards he had thrown it on the front lawn, poured peanut oil over it, and burned it.
It was Winnie who told her that more and more people, men as well as women, were now strolling slowly by the house, peering at it. Many pointed at the smoldering remains of the red dressing gown. The word that El Patrón's daughter had hung out her business card in the middle of the window had spread.
"So the city knows now that I am a prostitute."
"You aren't a prostitute. You're a virgin. You know you are. I explained that to you."
"But they believe that I'm a prostitute."
"Yes. We had to make them beli
eve that. I explained to you why we had to do that."
"I know."
"Does that bother you? Having strangers think nasty things about you?"
"Being a prostitute is a very bad thing. Why isn't Mathias talking with me?"
"Mathias is watching El Pervertido. I told you that he tried to change sides on us. Remember?"
"Yes. How did you know he would do that?"
"It's not important. I just knew. This time, he won't try again."
"He's a very bad man. He'll try."
"William found a way to stop him."
...
"Today is the worst day you'll have, Kashmira. Tomorrow, you will go to church like you always do. Your father won't stop you because he will want to hear what you confess to El Pervertido. He will set you free soon. His business won't survive if people are laughing at him behind his back."
"Yes. That's what you said before. Why doesn't Mathias like me, Winnie?"
"I don't know anything about that, Kashmira. If I brought a priest from another church to you so that you could confess properly, would that make you feel better?"
"Tell me why Mathias doesn't like me, Winnie. Is it because I had to kiss Paco on the mouth and let him touch me?"
"I don't talk with Mathias very often. I don't know if he likes you or not."
"You knew that El Pervertido would lie; why wouldn't you know if Mathias liked me or not?"
"I just... About that priest?"
"No. I can't confess to a complete stranger. You promised to be my friend."
"I am your friend."
"I know that Mathias doesn't like me, but I don't know why. Tell me why."
"I can't talk about this, Kashmira."
"You were only pretending to be my friend. I've been an idiota again."
# # # # # # # #
Early Monday morning, August 19, a delivery van drove slowly down a narrow lane and entered the garage of a certain crime boss. El Patrón was waiting for the van. A guard opened the sliding door of the van and El Pervertido stepped out gingerly.