The loud, raunchy music blared and it was almost deafening in the dimly lit room filled with the stench of alcohol & cigarette smoke. The frequent wolf whistles & constant ogling of sex starved eyes wrecked her nerves. The senseless life at the night club was wearing her down. She longed to run away from this bleak, seedy world where nothing except sex survived!
She detested the giggling of teenaged girls on the balcony of the building where she lived with other sex workers. Those young girls have just been thrown into the profession and they seemed to adjust so well, so soon. She was amazed by how easily they learnt the tricks of the trade...their eyes always inviting, to lure customers. She remembered how she was pushed into this hell at the age of 14. The faceless men who ravished her young body made her shiver now...it was almost 10 years ago. Why did life treat her so mercilessly, she wondered. She was just another simple girl with simple dreams of a happy life! She was now a wingless bird...trapped forever.
That night she looked out her window and admired the full moon in all its glory. Memories of her childhood streamed in...of her grandma narrating lovely stories about the moon during bedtime. The fantastic world weaved by her grandma took her into her world of dreams as she cuddled up in her bed. That was then...now every night was just a senseless orgy. How could her beautiful secure world suddenly collapse was something she could never comprehend. It was now simply beyond her ability to retrace steps and go back to her old world.
Rough hands fondled her, men, with breath reeking of cheap alcohol, grabbed her wildly...she wanted to die that very instant. She tightened herself everytime someone came near...and what followed would simply be a kind of ritual that she had learnt all these years. She had encountered strange men yet never did she feel the urge to know anyone on a personal level. It was just her body that she provided...and that was all. She developed a stoic attitude towards the beastliness that she faced each night. She was able to encounter every untamed beast that pounced upon her night after night. She felt like getting some kind of a delight out of it lately. What has gotten over her, she wondered. She never wanted this before...why the sudden change? Perhaps a bird with broken wings could tell her...
