Lady B

Hey are you the TV Man? It’s a line I’ve heard hundreds of times. Before I can answer the woman says, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this but I used to run a whore house.” Surprised but eager to hear the rest of her story, I respond what do you mean Maam? Now the story telling is on. Lady B as I will call her says it again, “I used to run a whore house. A little while ago they found one of my girl’s dead in the pink house.” According to Lady B, the dead woman was one of 13 women who worked in the pink house. Being respectable and all, Lady B only charges the girls $10 each time they used a room. She also provides clean underwear and fresh condoms.

During better economic times business was booming. Lady B claims her 13 girls would each take care of 40 clients a day. My guess is that figure is extremely high, but this is her story not mine. If Lady B is taking in $10 per room, per client visit this tax free business is definitely in the black. Most of the girls work here because they have a drug habit to feed she explains. Lady B is from Chicago, but spent time in the Motor City and Battle Creek. Once upon a time she had a job at Kellogg’s making $17 an hour. Her man, the father of some of her babies, worked there too until he quit his job to pursue a more lucrative profession selling drugs. Down for the cause, she starts stealing prescription drugs for her man. There’s a gleam in her eye as she explains how she only got caught because she was set up by the man. She actually seemed to think that she was smarter than the security people at the pharmacy.

Lady B calls herself a Madame. She’s proud of her profession. After all, this is what paid the bills so that she could put one of her daughters through college. Oh! By the way, Lady B has 5 children. The youngest one is a 6 year old girl. When the baby is conceived, Lady B is living in the home of a 76 year old man. The pregnancy comes as a shock. She thinks the old man is shooting blanks. When she tells him that she’s with child he requests a DNA test. It appears he first met Lady B when she was doing more than just managing the pink house. True to this dramatic story line, the test results are positive. The old man is the baby’s daddy. That was six years ago. Today the old man is 81 years old and sick. He lives in a nursing home while the little girl lives with Lady B’s sister. At this point in the story I expect this 51 year old woman to show some motherly instincts and become sad about not having any of her children in her own care. Instead, she tells me that I fit the profile. Profile for what I ask? Well, are you married? Yes. Are you happily married? Yes. That’s when it dawns on me. Lady B is asking if I need some work done. I also start to realize we’re standing across the street from the pink house where her girls work for money. Apparently Lady B still works part time or when the right profile comes along.

I can’t leave the neighborhood without asking if Lady B has a church home. She claims to attend a church all the time. I ask if she would consider giving up her work as a Madame. She says that she plans to quit someday, but apparently this won’t be the day.