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Different Faces Another slow night, at the end of the month. No john has called. Everyone's scrambling around for rent. I watch the phone, thinking that if I even take my eyes off of it, I might miss a job. Sure enough, it’s 11:30, and I look away, attempting to read a Poppy Z. Brite book, but I’m soo distracted.
“Bring’-I jump, and in my most contained voice of flirtatious attempts towards naivety, I answer:
‘Heello?’
“Is Scarlet there?,’ asks the lowered, anxiety-ridden voice of some stranger on the other end.
‘Speaking,’ I say in an almost-giggle. I figure I should sound chipper-cheerful, even when I’m not remotely so.
‘Yeah, hey. Are you available tonight?’…And hook. Line. Sinker.(take your imagination from there)
The above excerpt is a statement of some of the typical behaviours we slather on when working a call.
If you think about it, much of a working girl’s persona is theatre degree put to good use. (Well, it beats that corporate marketing job that you didn’t want to put your degree to work to in the first place). The character you adopt, adapt to, for a call takes some thought, some design, and some choreography.
You are the author, costume designer, and make-up artist, rolled into one.
You don’t necessarily have a script, but you have pretty good idea about improv. Or you just always ask ‘really?’ if the john likes to babble on and on about his worldly endeavours. That’s the default response I give if I really can’t find myself interested.
Depending on the situation, I used to act like a fresh faced college girl, trying ‘very hard’ to work her way through school. I dropped 4 digits off of my age, dressed in a little black dress from Banana Republic that my preppy asshole ex-boyfriend from college got for me, hoping that I would ‘clean up my act, and be less Goth.’ (Uh-huh. I wear that dress to calls, even now, in spite).
My working name then was Scarlet. I had to think of something that I could easily remember, and since that is the colour of my hair…
The personality of Scarlet is bright and chipper, giggly, and sincere. She is sweet, laughs at jokes, and easy-going. Her hair is always in a ‘I dream of Jeannie’ pony-tale, and she likes preppy sweaters. Scarlet is getting her degree in Creative Writing-‘That’s why I write my ads so well’ she says, innocently. The john buys that.
Scarlet is not completely unlike me, though. I just decided, that with the designing of her character that I wanted to be like some of the girls I knew in my life; you know, the nice, normal ones that go to Prom, have a steady boyfriend, and like cheesy pop music. The ‘Everyone’s Darling’ ideal. Come to life. In me. But not me.
I haven’t fully killed off Scarlet yet. But I don’t go by that name anymore. No. Lately, I’ve been trying to be the Stevie Nicks of escorting. Kinda spooky. Kinda exotic. Vampy flair. More like myself, I guess.
Who knows? Maybe Scarlet will re-emerge. Ready to be everyone’s darling again. Just not right now.
© Eden deLight, a self-exploring individualist, who loves to read, fuck, and create whacky pieces of art.
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