Read Awake Unto Me for Free Online

a…” Kerry said, flushing and looking at her boots.
    “You almost said, ‘I’m not a girl,’ didn’t you?”
    “No.”
    “Yes. You did and I’m here to tell you, Kerry O’Shea, that you are indeed a girl.” Sally’s tone was light and mocking, but she didn’t sound as cruel as she was apt to be.
    “It’s time to start acting like a girl. You’ll never make a good whore if you don’t have at least some wiles.”
    “I ain’t never going to be a whore,” Kerry said, emphatically. The thought of lying with a man repelled her.
    “You can’t go on crimping with Jack forever. They’ll know. You can’t hide it.”
    “Yes, I can. The sailors are stupid and they get stupider when they get drunk.”
    “You’re wrong. But let’s not fight. I didn’t call you over to fight.” Sally kept smiling at Kerry and kicking her foot lazily up and down.
    Kerry looked at her quizzically. Sally never did the littlest thing without thinking hard about what would be to her benefit. She leaned forward suddenly and kissed Kerry on the mouth.
    “What you do that for?” Kerry demanded. She very nearly wiped her mouth but stopped her hand in time. Her lips tingled.
    “Just ’cause. I knew you’d like it.” She stared at Kerry and stroked her cheek with surprising gentleness. “You did like it, didn’t you?”
    Kerry nodded, afraid to say it out loud. She had, in fact, liked it very much, which thrilled her and scared her in equal measure.
    “Be a dear and go downstairs and get me a glass of beer. Get one for yourself. There’s some money on the dresser.”
    When Kerry returned with the beer, Sally said, “Lock the door.” Kerry swallowed and did as she was told, knowing a locked door meant private business—the kind of business the whores did with the customers. She knew the mechanics of men and women and knew the girls sometimes were private with each other. She knew about their alliances and feuds, their pouting or complaining. It was all background noise.
    Kerry didn’t know what Sally had in mind, but she wanted very much to find out. She thought it might have to do with that closed-door business. She awakened in the night sometimes with her body on fire and her breath coming in gasps as she listened to the cries of passion through the walls. She knew the cries were fake because she heard the girls snicker about their acting abilities when no one was listening, but nevertheless she had discovered her own remedy for the feelings that wrapped around her body with each woman’s moan. Sally’s kiss had started a feeling in her very much like the ones that sometimes woke her up in the middle of the night.
    Sally patted the side of the bed next to her and Kerry slowly sat down and swung her legs up, handing one of the glasses to Sally. They clinked glasses and Kerry took a giant gulp. She had had sips of beer before and didn’t like the taste, but she knew somehow this was part of whatever Sally had planned and didn’t want to balk at any of it lest Sally refuse to go on—and she really wanted Sally to go on.
    “You’re fifteen now, ain’t you?” Sally asked. Her eyelids were lowered and she had a funny little smile on her face.
    Kerry nodded.
    “You like girls, I bet. Don’t you?” She grinned when Kerry didn’t say anything. “You used to only like boys. I always saw you with that ratty little guy—what’s his name? Teddy?”
    “Teddy’s not—” Kerry started to protest, her ire up at the slight.
    “Shush. I told you, girl. I didn’t bring you in here to fight. I’m just sayin’.”
    Kerry fought to keep her temper. It was true she wasn’t spending time with Teddy. He’d gotten a bellhop job at the Palace so he wasn’t around much. When Kerry wasn’t helping Jack, she would wander over to the Cobweb Palace and saunter through the dark, gazing at the pictures of girls like they had when they were children. Like the cobwebs, the pictures had multiplied over the years. Kerry would stare