Chapter 6

I poked around the closet. There were all kinds of clothes of all sizes and styles. They all smelled strongly of fabric softener. There was a box filled to the brim with socks and other “unmentionables”. I felt my heart skip a beat at the thought of actually wearing something not completely worn out and bedraggled. I ultimately decided on a pair of baggy carpenter's pants and a plain black hooded sweatshirt as my outer attire. I took two pairs of socks though because when your feet are cold, your whole body is cold, and I didn't want to take any chances. Still, I felt a gnawing twinge of guilt because I had no intention of returning them, and I hoped that Madame Rook didn't take an inventory.
Pushing the thought to the back of my mind, I stumbled into the bathroom across the hallway and prepared for the first bath I had had in ages. I mean, I managed to stay clean enough between truck stops and gas station bathrooms, but this was different. This was relaxation. I started the water in the deep claw-footed tub, suddenly having the irrepressible urge to laugh or burst into song or something. Instead, I just grinned at myself in the mirror and shook my head at my own idiocy as I peeled off my well-worn rags and holey-shoes.
I hopped into the tub before it was even close to full. As it filled up around me, I saw the dirt from my body already tinting the water and felt its coarseness working its way under me. I looked down at myself, barely recognizing my own body. My ribcage showed in a kind of anorexic chic and I couldn't help but laugh scornfully as I thought of all the girls with body-image issues who would trade places with me.
My body was tingling as the heat of the water seemed to act as a little maternal vampire, sucking the coldness out of a multitude of skin cells. My pores didn't know whether or not it was safe to expand, or if this was all a cruel joke. I was shivering like mad, well after the water completely engulfed me. Eventually though, my body allowed me to enjoy the luxury and relaxed a little.
I lied lounging in the water, suggesting to myself that this entire experience was just a dream. I decided that the facts were no more than fragmented hopes that I had retreated to as I walked aimlessly and tried not to pass out in the gutter. A daydream to keep my thoughts from the gnawing hunger that weakened me and the discomfort of my body, stiff as unforgiving death from the cold. That I was happily lounging in a socialite's bathtub, my ragged, stinking clothes crumpled in a heap beside a fresh looking stack of clean ones, could not have any room in my reality. That I was buzzing enough to swallow the urge to sing “rubber ducky” as I washed my head had no room in my reality. I concluded that I must have dozed off into a pleasant coma at the side of the road where the police would find me and return my sorry ass to Lady Ebony, and I'd become, yet again, a ward of the state.
I lingered until the bathwater began to cool to about room temperature, and I got out I feeling pretty invincible. I sang quietly to myself as I got dressed in a stranger's clothes, some song from my childhood about flowers and sunshine and other such optimistic diminutives. I left my dirty clothes crumpled on the floor, feeling distinct nausea at the thought of touching them now that I had been purified. I left them behind, along with a ring of dirt around the bathtub.
Downstairs, Cage and Madame Rook were conversing quietly. I tried to snag a piece of the conversation before they noticed me but they halted abruptly when the stair I was on creaked. They both turned to watch me descend to the first story.
“Here's the deal,” Cage said.
So there was a deal.
“You don't have to live how you do.” he motioned towards my suitcase, which, to my dismay, was open beside the Madame Rook. She was holding Tanner and stroking him absently as she gazed at me. I looked back at her.
“What's he talking about?” I asked, walking over to her and snatching up Tanner. To my relief, she remained unphased.
“There is... an alternative...” she drawled slowly. Her thick voice caught in her throat with a cough. “That is, if you choose to take it on.”
I grinned, my confidence soaring due to my well-needed bath and clean clothes. I made my way to the arm of the couch and sat there, listening, as they filled my head with things I hadn't dared think about since my last stay with Lady Ebony. Thinking in the back of my mind that this woman could be my meal-ticket, I mulled over every word they had to say. The cost couldn't be that high. Not compared with what I had already gone through. And so, that day, wearing the Madame's clothes and drunk on the prospect of staying warm forever, I agreed to be part of the family.