Two days had passed. Chongx, chained to a platform, had been fed, watered, and hosed clean several times.

Door opened and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen entered.

"Chong'," she breathed. "You don't know how long I've waited to meet you."

"Who...you?" said Chongx, stumbling over his words and his voice rising on the last word.

"Does it matter, loverboy?"

"Can...get me free?" It seemed like his voice wasn't working in the presence of this dame.

"Oh, no! I just wanted to come in to meet you again. But I do have some good news."

"Wassdat? Meet me agin?"

"Yes...you see...." The door opened again and the man came in, this time wearing a purple zoot suit. Renata followed.

"Have you told him yet?" Slim Thing asked (for it was he in zoot suits).

"No. You came in too early, fool."

"I told you so," said Renata. Slim Thing looked chagrined and slightly fearful.

"But since we are all here, I'll make it a grand announcement. But, are they treating you alright, Chong'?"

"I'm fed baby food by a chump with a spoon and a rod. I have to pee and poop all over myself and I'm hosed off for a cleanup. I have to put up with Slim Thing's choice of clothes. I seem to be in a sub-basement in Chicago. But otherwise t'ings are just hunky-dory," Chongx said bitterly.

"Good. That's just the way I ordered it."

In amazement Chongx asked, "YOU ordered it? Takin' the girl, droppin' me with dope, all of it?"

"Yes. I disliked losing those people no matter, but no matter. Their families are being taken care of; I don't bind the mouth of the kine who tread the grain. But that's not why I flew in. It was because of you. You see -- no, you don't, it's been too long -- my name is Chinga and I'm your twin sister."

At this Chongx felt the world fall out from under. Chinga! She'd last been seen in the jungles of West Africa with his mother, both of them sobbing because Chongx was leaving, using the rest of the money raised by selling their "services" to passers-by.

"Yes, indeed. I'm your loving sister, flesh of the same mother as you are." Renata smirked.

His tough-guy bravado shaken, he asked, his voice in the higher registers, "Wha...what are you going to do to me?"

"Why, feed you and clean up after you and even loosen the chains enough so you can move around the room, use the bathroom. Even medical care. If you are good, of course. It's actually a rather nice, though spartan, suite down here in the sub-sub-basement. And I know you'll be good."

"I'll escape first chance I git!" Slim Thing and Renata seemed to be ready to explode with laughter. "What're you two laughing at?"

"Tell 'im!" said Renata, chortling.

"Yes, do!" said Slim Thing.

"All right." Chinga turned back to her sibling, then addressed Renata. "Better get the doc in first."

Renata,giggling, opened the door and a gentleman entered. You knew at once that he was a physician, and a good one.

Chinga continued, "There we were, me and mom, sold into whoring by our own blood." Chongx squirmed, started say something, didn't. "Mom died of shame soon after you left and I was, shall we say, a trifle miffed by your actions. I swore that you would die. Flaying alive crossed my mind, as did a million more ways over the next years. Oh, I read of your adventures. Yes, I followed your career, from being fired for eating too many of the bananas you were supposed to be inventorying to your last caper with those two from Old Blighty. I researched your entire life right up to this moment, and dear Renata has been a great help these last few years -- thank you, love! And my revenge will soon be complete. Only a couple more days, and we can afford to let you up and around -- gotta get those muscles working again!"

The others in the room waited expectantly for some denouement or other.

"You may have noticed your voice has been cracking recently. My research, and it's been quite thorough!, tells me it isn't because of whisky and cigars. By the look on your face I can reassure you -- it's not cancer.

No, you're reverting! The surgery you had in West Africa, dear sister, wasn't very good by today's standards. You genes are taking over again. Haven't you noticed your nipples are sore? Ah, I see you have! Yes, you're going through puberty again, dear sister! But it'll only take two or three more days and you will be the woman you were intended to be. And I've made sure you have the best of care during this trying time of your life."

Chonga -- her real name -- fainted from this news from her twin sister.

She came to again, aware of the four in the room. A man's voice said, "She's okay now" and the doctor moved away from the patient changed to the platform.

"Wha...what...what's going to happen to me...when it's over?" asked Chonga.

Chinga repied, "Why, I'll see you get a job, of course! Big sister will take care of you. You'll be working for me and I think you'll rise in the ranks pretty quickly. Of course, we have to make it look good so you'll have to start at the bottom."

Chonga: Bottom? Delivering the mail or something to the offices? Stock clerk?

Chinga: Oh my, no! It's not that kind of business! You'll start on your back or on your knees, like all the other girls in my stable! Dear, dear sister, I run high-class establishments which are known as 'brothels.' Renata started that way, and now she's one of my more trusted executives. And so will you. And for now we must leave you to think about the changes going on in your body and what your future holds. But we'll be visiting you now and then. Toodle-o!

And the four left.

Chonga, still dazed from the news, started to sob.


(But what, you ask, of Hector Ballsworthy? of Penelope Rutledge? These loose ends will be tied up soon!)



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