I’m not an idiot. I’ll work here every night, finish, and get paid right away.’ See, it’s because I grew up on the street that I at least knew how to look out for myself.” I ask about the other girls. “They were locked up. Never let out. They ate only once a day. Whatever man took them there said to them, ‘It’s not so bad, you’re gonna be able to work, but you also have to pay.’ Whoever brings you there asks for his cut from the owner of the dive, and that, of course, is taken out of your pay. They sell you. But that never happened to me. Only to the others, because they’re stupid.”
