RELUCTANT PRESS

with Martha's help, my wrists were untied from the steel poles and bound together behind my back.

The other buyers came back into the auction room pushing a small metal barred cage that was mounted on a wheeled platform.

Janet stood in front of me and began to caress my cheek.

"You have been well-trained in the arts of a slave-girl, Cathy," she said. "If you're a good slave-girl, I'm certain that your new Master, the Sultan, will treat you well. Perhaps, in time, if you learn to please him, he will turn you into a complete woman. In any case, it's a good thing that you learned to belly dance for that's the favorite entertainment for the men in the part of the world where you will spend the rest of your life. I understand that once you become part of a harem, you may never leave!"

Janet kissed me lightly on the forehead and the men opened the cage door. I was lifted and placed on my side in the cage. Then the men closed the cage door and locked it with a large padlock.

I began to cry as the men rolled me out of the Auction Room.

"Good bye, Cathy," Lucy called. "You were the best dolly

ever!"

I was rolled into the back of a small van and my cage was covered with a white satin cloth. The van started up and I was driven away from the slave school.

I continued to weep as I thought about the fate that awaited me.

Slave-girl!

Servant to the Sultan's daughters.

A play thing in a Sultan's harem!

What might the Sultan expect of me in the bedroom?

My make up began to run with my flowing tears as the truck carried me away.

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