Free Mattress Actress by Annika Cleeve

her wages on alcohol, when she did show up for a shift that is. Even when she was working, her hatred for the job was so evident that clients rarely chose her. What little money she had managed to save usually went towards new clothes that were out of fashion ten minutes after she bought them.
    I, on the other hand, was better than an ATM, as far as my family were concerned. My mother wrote to me continually about how she had been ripped off financially, and how the phone was going to get cut off. I felt sorry for her, and sent money occasionally. She said it was a loan but I never saw the money again. My brothers, being teenagers, were constantly short of money and I couldn’t do enough for them. Perhaps I was making up for lost time, but whatever the reason, I was happy to spoil them. Don’t get me wrong, I still found a few dollars for my extravagances. Like most girls in this industry, my motto was ‘No bills, no work’.
    We now had keys to a fully furnished unit, complete with towels, toilet paper, plates, cutlery and cooking utensils. It seemed too good to be true!
    Rozario returned an hour after handing over the keys to say the plumbing and electricity hadn’t been hooked up in his new flat yet. He asked to stay with us until the next day. It was his house, so what could we do? We slept in one room and allowed him to use the second bedroom.
    That night, as Tracy and I were sleeping he walked into our bedroom pretending to hold a video camera like you would when playing charades. ‘We’re going to make a movie,’ he said. ‘Here are your lines.’ He handed us a script he had written.
    ‘Rozario, we’re trying to sleep, we’ll talk in the morning,’ I said.
    He went nuts and began screaming at us. ‘If you don’t read this script I’m going to beat the shit out of both of you.’
    We knew he was serious and quickly realised he was completely insane. We had been set up. I began reading the script. Tracy refused and he threw a teapot at her.
    The following morning he got up and couldn’t remember any of it. We asked him if he would be leaving that day.
    ‘Yes, I’m moving out today,’ he said. ‘Thanks for letting me stay, I hope I wasn’t too much of a bother.’ We left the apartment to do our day shift and when we returned we noticed that the lights were on. Rozario was still there.
    ‘What are you doing here?’ I asked.
    ‘The plumbers say my restaurant is going to take another two weeks to finish,’ he said casually. ‘I’m going to stay here.’
    ‘Can we please have our money back and we’ll find somewhere else to stay, until your restaurant is completed?’
    ‘No, you can’t have your money back, and fuck off for asking. You girls are stupid bitches. Don’t you know what I was playing at? Welcome to city life, you dumb whores.’
    We left the house. We had lost all of our money, and we only had the clothes on our backs and the day’s work clothes in our handbags.
    We stayed at the brothel over the weekend. Tony let us open the doors and take one hundred per cent of whatever we made. Tracy was unreliable but I had become good friends with Tony. I could have easily had a crush on him, but it was probably just a daddy complex. I was unfamiliar with older men genuinely being nice and generous and not expecting anything in return.
    Monday evening I decided to try to talk to Rozario, but Tracy wasn’t interested in coming. Unless it came in a glass with ice or in a long amber bottle, I’d learnt, Tracy wouldn’t be interested.
    As I let myself into the apartment with my key, I could hear a noise in Rozario’s room, but decided it would be best to go straight to my old room, get my gear and get the hell out of there. My plan went OK for all of five minutes. As I was packing, Rozario jumped me from behind, his elbow right under my chin, his hand ripping at my ear. With his other hand, he grabbed my key off the side table. At that moment I found my lungs. I screamed long and hard and