ՆԻԿՈԼ ՓԱՇԻՆՅԱՆ. ԵՐԿՐԻ ՀԱԿԱՌԱԿ ԿՈՂՄԸ
50. Պաուլան, Բեբան եւ Մարթան
Նավի ուղեւորները բաժանվում էին երկու մասի` մենակներ եւ ոչ մենակներ: Մենակները հասկանալի է` ովքեր էին. այն կանայք եւ տղամարդիկ, ովքեր նավի վրա դե յուրե չունեին ոչ մի ուղեկից: Ասում եմ` դե յուրե, որովհետեւ կային ջահել աղջիկներ եւ երիտասարդներ, որոնք այստեղ էին իրենց տարիքով ծնողների հետ ու չնայած դե ֆակտո ունեին ուղեկից, բայց դե յուրե, եթե կարելի է այսպես արտահայտվել, մենակ էին:
The Other side of the world - Nikol Pashinyan
50. Paola, Pepa and Marta
The passengers on the ship were divided into two sections: those who were married and those who were singles. You could tell who the singles were since these were men and women who had no companions on the ship. By that I mean de jure, because there were young girls and boys who were with their older parents and although de facto they had companions, de jure, if one can use the term, they were alone.
Understandably, this group went on a cruise hoping to find amorous adventures, although even the married ones were those looking for amorous adventures. But being under the careful eye of their spouses, they didn’t have the time for elaborate love pursuits. The tourist office that had organized this cruise had considered the needs of the men and had let them know that there would be prostitutes on the ship. Men were giving each other the telephone numbers for reservations. They were also telling each other to be careful: if married women got a hold of the numbers there would be a big row on the ship.
Pretty soon one woman’s name was circulating among the men: Marta. Those who had taken advantage of the service had unanimously chosen Marta, if, of course she was available at that moment and listed as such. Marta’s name had quickly become a brand name and many men not only wanted to use the service but wanted to be with Marta. More, many men who had not intended to take advantage of the service, had been infected by stories of Marta, and had decided to meet her.
There were contradictory accounts about Marta; she was stiff as wood, said one. No, she did a good job of loving me, countered another. Then they would start to discuss the reasons for successful or unsuccessful séances—was it Marta or her clients? These conversations took place in a laid-back fashion which allowed me to put together their general content. Everyone agreed that Marta was not really a prostitute but an attractive woman: “you can’t be sure of how to express your affection toward her—to visit her often or stop asking for her,” said a thoughtful Argentinean who, however, had opted for the first alternative and had already been with Marta three times.
For ordinary people it was not easy to meet Marta because the whores were overworked and spent the day between serving the clients and resting in their cabins. As far as I could gather, the procedure was this: the client called and would go to a reception room where he would be introduced to 8 or 10 prostitutes. Each one had her own cabin where she lived and received her clients.
I met Marta by accident, before the unusual events about Marta had begun to take place. That day I had woken up very early and come up on deck. It was barely dawn. Leaning against the prow, she was vomiting into the ocean. She had a light jacket on. I ran to the café, but there was no one there. I picked up a bottle of water from the refrigerator and too it to the vomiting woman. She looked up. I don’t know why, but I immediately realized that it was Marta. She really was a special woman, a young girl of almost 20 years old, and one who had suffered. Your heart broke just by looking at her because you could tell that this girl was selling her body, and because I could tell from the very first look at her that she could be a great wife and mother. Maybe this was the result of the PR that was spreading on the ship, but that’s what I thought anyway, as soon as I looked into her eyes.
Before long some alarming news began to be associated with Marta’s name. One of the women passengers had caught her husband with Marta, in the latter’s cabin. Just like that, she had opened the door and entered. It wasn’t clear why the door had not been locked. The woman, naturally, had created a big scandal and the captain had been forced to give the banished husband another cabin. The same thing happened the next day, with another of Marta’s clients. This was beginning to make the men uncomfortable. These couldn’t just be accidents; something was amiss here. Another husband was similarly banished by his wife and moved to another cabin. They also moved Marta to another cell because the location of her cabin was now known to all. Everybody was trying to figure out how these incidents had happened. At the end, the view that spread was that the betrayal was being organized by her friends in the profession, who were jealous of her success. They were saying that the other prostitutes, crazed with jealousy, had decided to persecute anyone who dared ask for her. Even without that, married men realized that it was dangerous to have anything to do with Marta and none of them spoke of her and wouldn’t even think of asking for her. Then, another incident took place. An unmarried man, who had asked for Marta in this pandemonium, had run out of Marta’s cabin in the middle of the night, screaming like a madman. He had explained that when he was with Marta, two witches had come out of the bathroom, yelling and creaming, and with swords and sabers had attacked him. This incident further confirmed the opinion that her prostitute friends wanted to eliminate the competition.
The ship’s pimp was conducting an investigation and, according to rumor had subjected the other prostitutes to torture to find out the ones who had organized the betrayal. But this didn’t yield any results. The young man, on the other hand, was insisting that his attackers were really witches. Myths began to be attached to Marta’s name. The result was that everybody started avoiding her. People were saying that she had no clients, that Marta brings bad luck and that it was best to avoid Marta. And, in general, the enthusiasm the prostitutes had generated in the men had ebbed a little.
After these events, Marta began to appear among people. Only the men recognized her and even those two women who had caught their husbands with her, had not seen her face or didn’t remember it.
Now you could see Marta sitting at the café, or swimming, as if she was an ordinary tourist.
Soon, a new name began to circulate among the men: Paola. The latter wasn’t at all a prostitute, but a successful manager. She was on vacation on the ship and had become the subject of general discussion. She was an attractive, young woman and loved creating a fuss around her. She spent the whole day in the swimming pool by the prow of the ship. I noticed that when she went into the water, a large number of men followed her example, and when she came out of the water and laid down many of the men hurried to take their places near by. Paola had long, black hair, her skin was the color of light chocolate; she was beautiful, really beautiful. The bathing suit she wore, which she changed several times a day, was designed to make her the center of attention. The strange bra that she wore, for instance, barely covered her nipples. The rest, you can imagine. She liked to wear dark glasses, sometimes she smoked cigarettes she had been offered by the men around her, who tried to have the type of cigarettes appropriate to Paola available.
This woman appeared to invite flirtation and many responded to her invitation with pleasure. In this struggle, of course, married men had very little chance because the women on the ship knew that a new seduction had appeared for their husbands. Paola conducted her business near the swimming pool by the prow, and before long a few of the women had established observation posts in the area. Despite that, some of the clever husbands had figured out ways of flirting with Paola, although in this instance the first place was occupied by singles. A few favorites could be seen among the latter group, but it wasn’t altogether clear who among them had reached what level of success and if in fact any had been successful at all. While the men had loved to talk about their visits with Marta, they were silent about their relationship with Paola. It was obvious, though, that the cruise was very interesting for Paola; everything seemed to be under her supervision.
Along with Paola and under her leadership a girl by the name of Pepa was also conducting some business. By contrast to Paola, she was very young, barely 19 years old, and was obvious that for her Paola was a teacher and an ideal. Pepa, of course, attracted the younger contingency and had become the focus of interest for the younger men on the cruise. Yet many of the caballeros gave up, and the only hope Paola and Pepa were left with was a small circle of favorites, although they themselves left the less successful ones out of the struggle being waged for them.
So, after these initial developments and unraveling, the passions that had fired up on the ship finally calmed down a little and the cruise went back to the football mode. But I still needed to find out about the witches who had run out of Marta’s bathroom.
(to be continued)
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