The 25 Hour World

I haven't been loyal to you like how I've been loyal to my job or brothel. It's been months since I've posted anything and maybe it's because after a while you lose a little piece of yourself in this world of constant waiting, of 2am clients and early morning bloody marys.

I would like to tell you that the last few months have been nothing but roses and romance but this is reality and there's only one true word to describe the past months and that is...strange. There's no real way to paint a picture for you unless I maybe commissioned Dali's zombified corpse to do so...and that thought is pretty strange within itself.

So I'm going to do something I would rarely ever do and brush past those absent months and let them go because the past is the past. I know it must seem strange (there's the key word again) but it's for the better, and yes there's plenty of things that have happened that would make for witty and amusing anecdotes but maybe you just need to chalk it up as my missing years, like how there's that whole section of Jesus' life missing from the Bible.

So I'm going to cut to the chase, this strange world I'm mixed up in that never closes it's doors is only bound to get even stranger.

In the past month my brothel has to say the least not been doing well. There seems to be a real lack of clients and on top of that girls. Somehow this business that many still see as recession proof is just like all the retail outlets and video rental stores. It pains me to see it this way, I have a genuine love for this house and for the people that work here, but it has become increasingly hard to see the positive in what is seemingly on its last breath.

There is a kind of loneliness in the house these days. Barren rooms and quiet halls seem to stretch for miles as you escort the lucky few who still value a tour to see the VIP suites that are much more affordable than their illustrious titles. Not only is there a loneliness in the house but also for the girls. So many come and go so quickly because business is slow that it makes me wonder if I am just too loyal and foolhardy to see that its time to move on.

So tonight I'm sitting in the back of the parlor by the open window, and I'm looking out at the sunset over the hills of Moundhouse and I'm wondering what kind of life I'm missing, what kind of places and towns I should be driving through on a summer road trip, maybe there's a good bar with a house ale to die for I'm missing out on.

I think about all those things, they've been on my mind since the summer began, and I know that there's a lot more life to live than within the brothel walls...but today it's business as usual. I'm going to sit in front of this window until the moon is visible and wait for another lonely person to walk in the door, because when there's someone else there the quiet halls aren't so bad.

This isn't just about the lack of people hanging around these days. There's a lot more going on in these 24 hour worlds, and the sign outside my window jokingly promotes that we're open for 25, my day just got longer it seems. I stare at the sign as girls names flash in red. Girls that I knew, legends to the house, and among the mix is my own, and I wonder if in the 25 hour world there is any glory or fame to having such promotion. Most people think my name is Jennifer because they've never even heard Juniper, or maybe my annunciation is a little off when I introduce myself. There's always something to work on.

I know there's a lot of questions here, and many for me are rhetorical. I even know the answer to some, but its just not the right time to see the answer in print. I was always told in school that its good to ask questions. That that's how we learn. I think it is the questions that we ask ourselves the ones we can only answer, they are the scariest and most important ones of all.

These days I find it harder to sleep and that the constant rotation of pork and chicken meals at the ranch is killing my sense of taste. What's still good is beer, I look forward to my shifts end, because I know there's a beer waiting for me behind some local bar. That's the beauty of this 25 hour world, your vices never have to sleep either.