Part 10

Laura and Louisa: Two Czech women, both in their 40s, neither of them small.  Laura lumbered around Rendezvous massage in sandal heels and a lace body suit.  Louisa spent an hour pinning a long ponytail onto her head each morning.  They knew each other from somewhere presumably.  I don't know the likelihood of two Eastern European hookers finding each other at the same crappy studio but in Vancouver who really knows.  I liked Laura, she was huge and gentle, sometimes smiling at me for no reason.  Louisa made herself perpetually un-likable by roaming the studio clothed only in a bad attitude.  Laura sat on the couch, shift after shift, never getting a client.  Louisa had some regulars.

I had been arbitrarily diagnosed with ADD a few years before that for the sole reason that I couldn't concentrate at school.  While it seemed like a possible diagnosis, the trouble was really that I had regular trouble at home.  The doctor swiftly handed me a prescription to ritalin and it helped me focus.  Ritalin is so strong a goldfish could make the honour roll on it.  By university I was using it often and like any good prescription drug it made me kind of high.  I lost all appetite and lost weight.  I kept telling Laura and Louisa, because they kept asking me, that it was ritalin.  They talked alot in Czech, looking over at me and randomly blurting out that they liked my outfit or my hair.  I later found out from Chinese Amy, who inexplicably spoke Polish, that the two girls spent their shifts bad mouthing everyone in Czech.  While they may have been complimenting me in English, they were really discussing my addiction to coke or crack or meth or heroin in Czech.  Even after that I felt bad when they accused me of stealing their clients.  I know how it feels to have younger girls waltz into your work place.  But I also know at this point in my life that young girls don't know that much.  The only advantage I had was being 19 while Laura and Louisa had years of expertise behind them. 

I tried ecstasy once, that was the riskiest drug I've ever taken.  I have too many trust issues to go beyond that.  Now when I want a good high I pick up a hideously coloured Superstore cake with balloons on it.