Free Tales from the Town of Widows by James Canon

read, “The aforementioned is unable to sign her name.” Nearly all had been brutally raped at an early age by their own male relatives. Three of them had borne children but left them with their own mothers and fled. All of them had spent their adolescence and adult lives going from town to town, wishing that the next town would be different, but finding out it was just the same.
    Doña Emilia had shown them kindness and respect. Deep inside they were fond of her and admired her success. More than one girl saw herself in the small lady.
     
    T HE ONE - HOUR INDIVIDUAL training sessions started the following day. Six girls in the morning, six in the afternoon, plus two hours of role-playing at night. “The difference between a prostitute and an Emilia’s girl,” she lectured her pupils, “is that a prostitute spreads her legs and lets the man do the work, while an Emilia’s girl does the work from beginning to end.” Each session was focused on a different technique to satisfy a man. One session was on finding the areas of the male body that were especially sensitive to sexual stimulation.The anus, Doña Emilia said, was number one, even though most men denied themselves that pleasure. Another session was on contracting the muscles inside their vaginas, which most of them didn’t even know they had, to squeeze a man’s penis during intercourse. Doña Emilia claimed that when she was younger, she’d mastered this technique to the point where she could bring men to orgasm without moving her body at all. The madam also talked to the girls about the importance of self-confidence: “Only a self-satisfied woman can fully satisfy a man,” she said. And finally, she taught them ten of the most uncommon sexual positions she knew men liked but were too embarrassed to ask for from the mother of their children. These acrobatic challenges she’d given her own names to, like the Gluttonous Cow, the Colombian Roller Coaster and the Cuckoo Clock. Doña Emilia always ended each session with the same advice: “Remember to be respectful to your clients’ wives if you ever see them on the street. After all, it’s thanks to them that we’re in business.”
    A photographer came from Honda to work on La Casa’s portfolio. Each girl had three portraits made: one in casual clothes, one in underwear, and one in nothing, with her hands covering her private parts. For her own pictures, Doña Emilia took the photographer’s suggestion and wore conservative, dark-colored suits.
    With the portfolio under her arm, the madam began her promotional tours. She took a different girl with her every time, visiting neighboring towns like Fresno, which was about sixty miles west of Mariquita through neglected curvy roads, but also others that weren’t very close, like the town of Dorada, a hundred-and-twenty-mile trip to the north. They went from business to business, requesting private interviews with the owners. Once Doña Emilia had the owner’s attention, she was very straightforward: “Do you like women?” After the positive answer, she would whisper, “Then you’ve got to come see my girls,” and promptly unfold La Casa’s portfolio before the astonished man’s eyes. She urged the men to make appointments at once, recorded them in La Casa’s engagement calendar, and handed out herbusiness card with the motto, “When was the last time you were in a house with twelve naked women? Welcome to La Casa de Emilia.”
     
    I N THE TOWNS of Lérida and Líbano, the news of the retrained girls of Doña Emilia’s house was gladly received and rapidly spread among the men. Traveling out of their villages eliminated the risk of being caught by their wives and neighbors.
    In Honda and Dorada the response was also great. So great was it that on weekends the men chartered vans and Jeeps to do round trips to La Casa.
    In the weeks following Doña Emilia’s tours, La Casa experienced a rapid surge in business. Likewise, Doña Emilia experienced a