“Listen, do you know anyone named Luuk? Does what Kerstan does? Maybe you’ve paid for some company from his house?” I asked.
He looked at me sternly for a moment, like he didn’t like to be reminded that he paid for prostitutes, before he sighed loudly and nodded.
“So where do I go to find him?” I asked excitedly.
“Why would you want to?”
“What’s your name?” I asked impatiently.
“Joris.”
“Okay Joris, so this Luuk guy? He’s holding one of my friends hostage. I know, I know; how can a whore be a hostage, right? She doesn’t want to be there and I’m going to get her back, so if you could be a super awesome guy and just tell me how I get there, I won’t have to keep yelling out that you paid me for sex once upon a time.”
His eyes widened at that prospect and he lowered his voice telling me which way I would have to go to get to Luuk’s place.
“Thanks Joris! Stop by Kerstan’s sometime and ask for me!” I replied cheerfully as I walked down the street I had started on.
I gave a glance over my shoulder and saw him walking away shaking his head. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, kinda cute actually, so I wouldn’t mind giving him a go again. He would be my last great conquest before I ran away with Betje and Minnie.
I hadn’t exactly thought about how I’d do that last part, but I wasn’t going to stay in Amsterdam any longer than I fucking had to. Debts cleared or not, we were going to leave.
After about an hour of walking, I stopped to eat in a charming bakery almost on the edge of the downtown area. I was hungry, thirsty, and my legs hurt. I didn’t have much money left after this little feast, but I figured a cab shouldn’t cost me too much because I should be close to where Luuk kept himself and his girls.
I finished my coffee cake and my coffee fifteen minutes after I got to the bakery. With as much as I would’ve loved to just sit there and blend in with the normal folk, I knew that there just wasn’t time for it. The longer I wanted to sit there and pretend to be something I wasn’t, the longer Minnie had to be stuck in that place being subjected to God knows what.
After I threw my trash in the receptacles, I walked over to the counter and asked the young girl behind the glass if she wouldn’t mind too terribly calling a cab for me, to which she nodded and bounced away from view.
Twenty minutes later, the cab pulled up outside. I wanted to reach into the front seat and grab the man by his shirt collar and shake him for taking so long, but instead I hopped into the backseat. After I got comfortable, I told him which way I needed to go. When he asked for an address, I shook my head and told him to just go the way I was telling him.
Ten euro later, he pulled up in front of a large gated property and I got out. I wrapped my arms around myself as I made my way up the driveway toward the front door.
When I reached the large wooden front doors, I raised a fist to knock when I heard my name. My real name.
“Amity Crane!” a man called out.
I immediately looked around and saw that I was by myself where I stood with no one in sight, so I did what any normal person would do; I looked up.
And there he sat with that beautiful smile. Those deep dimples that set whenever he grinned the way he was grinning now shown even from where he sat.
On a window sill, on the third floor, with an arm draped casually over his leg, and a smile on his face.
That was the last thing I remembered before the world went black and I collapsed into a heap on the gravel.
Ten
Minikin
There was a sudden commotion in the house and I wasn’t sure why. I had been rustled out of my sleep over it because of the girls running back and forth in the hallways whispering excitedly to each other.
It took me a moment to clear the grogginess from my mind as I pushed myself up to a seated position. I yawned before I swung my legs over the side of the cot and got to my feet. I stretched my arms over my head and leaned back a little, cracking any bones that had tightened while I was sleeping before I made my way to the door.
Ilse greeted me with big eyes and a huge smile.
“You’re going to be so happy! Follow me! Quickly,” she exclaimed as she grabbed me by the arm and yanked me into the hallway.
“What’s going on?” I asked impatiently as I let her drag me down the hallway, past the main staircase, and into the main dining room.
“Look!” she whispered as she pushed the other girls out of the way and let me see into the slit between the doors.