William Vollmann - Whores for Gloria

How much? said Dinah.

Forty, said Jimmy.

And forty for me, reminded Phyllis as she slid her arm around his waist.

Yes, it was a sunny happy day, happy as a whore down on hands and knees to make you laugh in the doorway of a hotel, wiggling her shiny satin ass, and the laces of the whateverirwas dug into her flanks going back and forth like bootstrings, funny as the doggishly ugly faces of fortyish transvestite whores pursing their cheeks and loudly wolf-whisding at men whom they thought might just might want to have their dicks sucked, transvestite whores alone or in pairs or even in threes playfully slapping each other's paunches with fat arms, showing off their hormone tits with winks and calls and looks from side to side to make sure that Laredo and the other undercover bitches weren't rolling down the street in a van or an old junker that tried so hard not to look anything like the standard black-and-white that had busted and would bust every last one of them, over and over, confiscating their money when they caught them in the act.

Is this some three-way scene? said Dinah. You want me to fuck her or you want more hair or what?

I want you both to tell me stories, said Jimmy.

That sounds like a fun date, said Dinah. Even better than the last one. You are so creative. I love men with new ideas.

They went to the Hotel Cheyenne and because it was after visiting hours Jimmy had to give the clerk five dollars and then they went upstairs and Phyllis and Dinah said not a word to each other and Phyllis sat down in her tank top with a single lock of hair curling over her forehead and gazed sadly at the wall and Dinah smiled at him brighdy, putting all of herself into it because she had not yet been paid, and Jimmy said all right now honeypies sit on that bed and take your clothes off and Phyllis undressed and bounced her big tits in her hands with her eyes on Jimmy so trustingly and her penis was hard between her legs and Dinah pulled her dress over her head and sat down watching Jimmy with her fresh stare and her beautifully pouting lower lip. She lay back on the bed and started playing with a roll of toilet paper. Ladies you are BEAUTIFUL, Jimmy declared; ladies you are PERFECT.

Honey you want me to play with myself while I tell you stories? said Phyllis.

If you want to, girl, said Jimmy. That's your decision. Just tell me stories about things that have happened to you.

Phyllis

When Phyllis was little her mother used to paint her sister's nails and Phyllis would be a-cryin' until she painted Phyllis's, too. When she turned twelve she just kept thinking about having a boy make love to her. She did it with her cousin, and it was wonderful even though she didn't know anything about lubrication or anything and she thought I know how I am now and how I will always be. In high school with its callowness and strictures she was just a regular gay boy although she could already swoop her muscular arms in gestures of spectral perfection that attracted respectful whispers as did the special things Phyllis said and the special way Phyllis walked so she was vulnerable because there was a lot of jealousy among the queens, who would push you down the stairs if they could or hurt you in some other secret way; therefore Phyllis became secret, too, hid herself in herself until 1969 when she was sixteen and the sun came up and spread its light in all directions like a bright yellow dress because Phyllis had met Shawna, who was a real transvestite, and Shawna saw the beautiful secret in Phyllis and looked into Phyllis's eyes knowing that she could let it out so that it could shout and dance and make Phyllis happy as Shawna was happy, Phyllis had never realized before that you could be that perfect. Shawna showed her everything, showed her how to dress and how to do it, and Phyllis started taking estrogen and Premarin ®and Provera ®* so that she got the sweet big breasts that men loved to squeeze through her shirt and one night she was ready to come out and so she and Shawna went out with some army men and told them watch this and they went into another room and changed and came back and the army men were drinking champagne and talking about jungles and helicopters, men and helicopters, smoke and flames shooting out of tanks and black smoke rolling over the jungle hills and stinking steam rising and animals crying and when Phyllis and Shawna swept proudly into the room the champagne glasses just fell from the army men's hands and they said is that you? and Phyllis was so proud and happy.

Dinah

The first thing Dinah could remember was riding in the back seat of the car with her sister when her mother drove down to Tijuana to go to the dentist and on the way back Dinah's mother gave them both gum because they'd been good and Dinah and her sister chewed their gum and had such a good time until their fillings popped out.

* i.e.: female hormone supplements. Premarin ®is a brand name for estrogen: Provera ®is a brand name for progesterone.

Phyllis

Phyllis's mother kept saying it's your life; it's your life; just don't mess yourself up. The first time Phyllis went out tricking she wasn't nervous because she thought she was just going along with Shawna to watch and learn. But somehow she ended up being the one to give the driver a blow job. He must have been able to tell that she was inexperienced, because when it was all over he said give me my ten dollars back and started shaking her and hurting her until she went to boohooing and gave him the money back and then he pulled over and let her out.

Dinah

I had this one Kung Fu master that loved to be my slave, laughed Dinah, yawning and stretching her body like a snake, scratching herself, lying naked on the bed with Jimmy's stiletto between her legs. — And he liked for me to tie him up and choke him around the neck, then make him suck my toes and things. And he wrote me out a contract for his life. — Dinah giggled. — And he said I could do whatever I wanted to do to him. I could rent 'im out to my friends an' I could beat 'im, and if he happened to die— huh! — he had my permission. I mean, I had his permission. I had this other date; he looked just like Kenny Rogers. And he would like for me to give 'im golden showers. He liked for me to drink like a sixpack of beer and then after about a good hour then he'd want me to piss all in his mouth and he'd gobble it down just as fast as I could piss it out.

Phyllis

Phyllis consulted Shawna and learned to use her lips less and her tongue more when she gave blowjobs so that her ratings steadily climbed right along with the drivers' penises, and her breasts were lovely but she kept her penis because as she said to Jimmy with a wink she got more attention with a penis. For a year or two she was working in a government office by day and whoring by night, and she was always yawning all day and making mistakes and rushing off excitedly to make money when evening came and she could come alive with lipstick waving to her pal Luna who lay on her side on the hood of Code Six's Lincoln spreading her white-stockinged legs in a scissors kick so that you could look right up her stained skirt and see the outline of her balls, and the other cars around her were like dirty white islands in the darkness, and Phyllis called Luna babe go ahead and bite their nuts off! and Luna laughed and called back I'm gonna pick their pockets too and buy me a heap of meth and groceries! and Phyllis clip-clopped perkily with racing heart to her own corner making music with the sexy click of her high heels and reaching out to cars until a car stopped and she got in saying honey I'm gonna make you so happy (but she always kept one hand on the doorhandle) and then the next day she'd come in to work so sleepy that finally the government said Phyllis dear you have two choices: quit or get fired; so Phyllis pouted and quit and started working out of her hotel room which cost sixty bucks a day but that was no problem because she shared it with three other Transformers who were as smooth and pure as chocolate statues, and in the morning Linda got herself takeout and Fawn and Luna took showers and made themselves up and rolled their deodorant on, and the hotel room was hot and sunny and clean and flowers yawned in the wallpaper and stuck out long delicate tongues of leaves and Linda smiled in her teddy bear T-shirt and Luna watched television very quietly and Phyllis shot up and sat looking out at Eddy Street, at the Vietnamese children running, at the drunks shouting and falling while the sun poured itself into the hot pavement so that everything started to stink. At night Phyllis had some really good times. — Oh, she had such soft smooth arms! She looked really good now; a lot of the men she sucked off never knew she wasn't a woman. Some of them told her she gave the best blow jobs they'd ever had. One time when she went to jail someone who knew said she was a Transformer and they all said no fucking way; she ain't no Transformer; and when she was proven guilty of possession of a penis they said wow; they said that one ain't no Transformer — that one's a Decepticon!