#childlikevoice

It was the same at school. Everyone used to bully me. Apparently, even the nerds had a ‘bird of the feather’ but not me, the nerds even bullied me.

One day, I just had enough. I went into my mom’s room and packed some of her clothes into my tiny case. I really liked a dress that she never wore. It was red and had black feathers attached to the neckline. Red is my favourite color!

We lived in a real awful part of town. There was a house just a few blocks away from me. I used to go there every day after school and watch strange men walk in and out. Sometimes I would sneak around the back. There was only one window, but you could see clearly into it. I would watch the girls do real dirty and bad things to some of these strange men. I couldn’t really tell if they liked it or not. Most of them looked like they were in pain. One man used to go there a lot and one of the girls would put a strange black mask on him, you could still see his mouth though. His teeth would often clatter and he would be making really strange sounds. For some reason, I used to love watching this man. I wanted to be the girl doing it to him.

Anyway, after I had packed my stuff, I walked the few blocks to the house and knocked on the door. A lady opened it. She wore a dress like the one that I had put in my case. But I could see her body underneath it.

“What do you want kid?”

She was really pretty and I couldn’t answer her because my mouth wouldn’t open, even though I tried to open it.

“What are you doing with that case?”

“Well?”

The lady looked really mad, like my mom always did. But then she started to smile.

“What’s that?” she said as she laughed. She leant forward and tugged on a bit of the dress I had packed. It was sticking out of my case.

“It’s mine!” I didn’t want her to steal it from me!

“Hey, hey calm down sugah’, why don’t you just come inside?”

She said her name was Ruby. I really liked her. She said that she would let me stay if I did jobs for her. So that’s what I would do. I would arrange and organize her outfits in order of color. Each day I would wake her up in her small room full of leather and ashtrays, I would pick her outfit and help her put it on and then I would do her makeup. As a reward, sometimes she would let me try on her clothes and I would usually do my own make-up as well. I would stare into the mirror and see my porcelain doll features and long to be the girl I’ve always dreamt of being.

Ruby said that I was a ‘natural’ and that one day I could take her place as the owner of the house, but only if I learnt one crucial lesson.

“Dario, honey it’s time you put yourself to better use. One of the girls has got stupidly pregnant and we need someone to take her place.”

Oh my god! I can’t describe the feeling! I was so happy she asked me to do it. I wanted to real bad. The strange man would totally be mine, I couldn’t wait.

“She has a client, who likes petite girls. How tall are you honey?” She grabbed me gently by the shoulders and put me against the wall. She told me to stay there as she rummaged through a small black bag. She pulled out a tape measure and measured my height.

“Perfect! He’ll like that. Now sit down at the dressing table. I’ll put some make-up on you that he likes and we’ll see if you suit it.”

Once again I was in front of the mirror, staring at the girl looking back at me. She started to smile, her red lips shining so brightly that it blinded me.

“Wow, you look really good! Hmm we need to give you a name...”

“Daria.”

“Daria? Simple enough I guess. Ok, Daria, I’ll tell you what to do. He’s due in about ten minutes.”

Those ten minutes went by so slowly, reminding me of a time when I was younger. I was sitting on a train, staring out of the window. The trees were never ending but each of them were so scary looking, but that was the thing, I couldn’t stop looking at them. I just really wanted them to go away, for the train to go faster but it didn’t. Ruby was talking to me, or rather at me, I just wasn’t listening. I just wanted to meet the strange man.

“What’s the man’s name?” I asked curiously.

“Haven’t you been listening? His name is Nathan.” She began to laugh and shake her head. I was upset she was laughing at me, but I didn’t let her know that I was.

The front doorbell buzzed, ringing through our ears. My heart began beating faster and faster.

Ruby got up and left the room, and I quickly started putting more blusher on my cheeks until I shone like a doll.

Seconds later, Ruby came back into the room and the strange man appeared behind her smiling at me.

He wore an expensive looking suit. I was guessing Chanel, but I don’t think it was. I hadn’t read a copy of Vogue for months and it was hard to tell the difference between fashion designers these days anyway. He had the most beautiful blue eyes, like an ocean I could drown in forever.

“Nathan, this is Daria, she’ll be taking over from Crystal. Don’t worry she’s very experienced. Daria, if you want to take Nathan to the room on the left.”

I stood up not taking my eyes off him. I went over and grabbed him by his belt, making him laugh for a second and led him to the room on the left.

He walked over to the bed and took off his jacket and laid it neatly on a small chair at the foot of it.

He reached into his trouser pocket and took out a cigarette, taking it to his lips he said:

“So, Dario. You’ve been living here for months now haven’t you?”

I almost fainted. How did he know my name?

He lit the cigarette and took a long drag letting the smoke encircle him and get into my lungs. I began coughing.

“Ha, don’t worry we know all about you. You are special. We’ve been watching for a long time haven’t we my Queen?”

From the corner of the room, the shadows began to move. They began moving like ink bleeding down the white walls until they rested on the floor. What the hell was I seeing? Then, they formed into a mound of black until it began to rise and rise and rise until they formed into a woman!

She stood behind Nathan, who beckoned me to come forward and then he patted his knee for me to sit on it. So I did, I felt like I was little, sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall. What presents would I get for Christmas?