Borrow Trouble. Mary Monroe

the woman said gently, offering me a sympathetic nod.

      I nodded back.

      “So, Renee, you had a sexual encounter with a man, and then you accepted money for it?” Debra asked, with one eyebrow raised. She tilted her head to the side so that she was looking at me out of the corner of her eye. This gesture of suspicion was universal. My mother, my husband, and even some of the second graders who’d passed through my classroom had given me this look before. “Is that not the case?”

      “Well, yes, that is the case. But I—”

      “That’s prostitution, ma’am. And in this country, it is a very serious charge.” Debra removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes. When she put her glasses back on, she gave me a look that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

      “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.

      “Renee, I’ve heard your account of what happened from the officers. And, for the record, I believe you. However, the man involved tells a decidedly different story.”

      “What did he say?” All of the trembling that I was doing was probably making mincemeat out of my insides.

      “He insists that you propositioned him in the bar, quoted a price, and wouldn’t take no for an answer even after he had rejected you more than once. You accompanied him to a rented room, where you demanded two hundred dollars to perform various sex acts.”

      “That’s a goddamned lie! I went up to him in the club, but I didn’t say anything to him about having sex with him for money! I just wanted to dance…and…have a few drinks.” I didn’t dare tell Debra that I had gone to the club looking for more than a dance and a few drinks.

      “He has three witnesses from the club who will back up his story,” Debra said, her own anger rising.

      “They are all bare-assed liars, too!” I hollered, almost stripping the gears in my throat.

      “I know that this man is lying, but I can’t prove it. Can you?”

      “How would I prove he’s lying?”

      “Then you can’t?”

      I shook my head. I gave Debra a hopeless look, and then I started talking out of the side of my mouth. “What happens if my husband refuses to come down here and pay my fine?” I asked, with my teeth clicking together, my lips quivering.

      “Excuse me?” Debra said, looking at me with her eyes narrowed into such an extreme squint that for a split second it looked like she’d gone to sleep.

      “My husband was really mad when I called my house and told him what had happened. Uh, what I’d done,” I said, my face burning with shame.

      “I would imagine so,” Debra remarked, with a weak sigh.

      “Well”—I shifted in my seat and looked Debra straight in the eyes—he was so mad that he said he wasn’t going to pay my fine. But, I am sure that he will give in…and do it. He’ll probably divorce me later on, though,” I decided. My voice was fading in and out.

      There was a worried look on Debra’s face.

      “If my husband meant what he said, and I can’t pay my fine, what will I do?” I whispered, leaning toward Debra. She looked even more worried. Her shoulders were so wide that when she shrugged, it looked like she had on shoulder pads.

      “You will appear in court tomorrow morning to enter your plea, guilty or not guilty,” Debra explained.

      “But I am not guilty!” I said quickly, almost coming out of my seat. Debra motioned for me to sit back down. “I know I had sex with a man, and he gave me money, but it wasn’t…it wasn’t.” I couldn’t even finish my sentence.

      “No matter what you say, it won’t change anything.” Debra tapped my hand, then squeezed it. Every little gesture that this woman made seemed sincere. It made me feel hopeful.

      “Well, can I plead not guilty and fight this charge? I can explain everything. I was drunk and upset with the woman I came down here with. I thought this man was nice. I’d seen him around, and he seemed like such a nice man. He even paid for my dinner and drinks one evening, before I even knew who he was. Isn’t that something like entrapment? He was setting me up from the get-go!” I hollered, groping for words. I couldn’t tell what Debra was thinking. “In the club that night, he bought me more drinks, and he listened to me bitch and moan about the fight that I’d had with my friend. I was not in that place looking to sell my body. You have got to believe that. It just…it just happened.”

      “You can plead not guilty and take this to trial. But please be aware of the fact that you can still be held in jail until your trial date, for…up to a year.”

      CHAPTER 4

      “A year? What the hell do you mean?” I asked, my lips twisted like a stroke victim’s. “You can’t be serious! Are you telling me that these people can keep me in jail, awaiting trial, for a year? A whole fucking year?” I looked in Debra’s eyes again, blinking so hard, I could barely see her. But I could still see the hopeless look on her face, and that didn’t go over too well with me. Debra gave me a hesitant nod.

      “Well, if they keep me in jail for a year, that would be punishment enough, wouldn’t it? Why would I even need a trial if they keep me in jail for a year? I was told that if I didn’t pay the fine and got convicted, the most time I’d have to spend in jail is three months. I know enough about the law to know that locking me up for a year, until they can sentence me to three months afterwards, makes no sense at all.”

      I looked at the floor. Debra and I remained silent for a full minute before I looked up again, saying the first thing that came to my mind. “The woman that I came down here with, she can be a character witness for me.” Now I was really talking crazy. As big a whore as Inez was, even a weak prosecutor could shoot so many holes in her credibility that she’d probably get thrown in jail, too!

      “Is this the same woman that you had the argument with?” Debra wanted to know.

      I nodded.

      “And if it’s not too personal, may I ask what you fought with her about?”

      My throat was lined with bile, and the rumbling pain in my stomach was almost as bad as labor. “She told me that she’d slept with my husband,” I mumbled.

      “I see. And where is this woman now?”

      “I don’t even know,” I muttered, with a heavy shrug, a scared look on my face. “After I slapped her, she checked into a different hotel. I can’t believe what is happening to me. This was supposed to be the vacation of a lifetime,” I said, with a profound shudder. “Women have vacation flings all the time, and they don’t get arrested for it!” I yelled. “What is wrong with these people down here? Don’t they have enough drug dealers, murderers, and thieves to keep them busy? Why are they making such a big deal out of what I did?” I sobbed.

      Debra squeezed my hand again. “Mrs. Webb, let me remind you, you are not in the United States. These little islands are not as idyllic as the travel ads make them seem. If you stay out of trouble, you can really have a wonderful time down here, and in other locations outside of the States. But down here, the laws vary from one island to another. Now if you’d been arrested in Jamaica or Martinique, you’d probably be back home by now.” Debra shook her head so hard, a lock of hair fell across her eye. “You picked the wrong island. It’s as simple as that,” she told me, pushing her hair back off of her face.

      “Are you here to help me?” The meek tone had returned to my voice.

      “I’m going to try.”

      “Can I borrow the ten thousand dollars from you? I swear to God, I’ll pay you back as soon as I get back to Ohio,” I said, so excited I squeezed Debra’s hand so hard, she pulled it away.

      “I wish things were that simple. I barely make