"Take the dress off." The older woman commanded. She was shorter than the other woman but the way she piled her hair on top of her head gave her the boost of a military tower. Somehow she managed to pull off formidable despite her scant stature. Maybe it was the experience worn in the few wrinkles that had stubbornly crinkled despite her ancient remedies.
The vivid green of her silken robe rippled when she placed a finger up to the woman and prodded the tender flesh of her chest with a talon sharp fingernail. “You have no guts. Woman shouldn’t be afraid of anything. Especially the powers she possesses.”
"Wha..."the girl was barely 17. Her blonde hair was wispy and had escaped the decorative comb she had used to pin it back off her smooth, youth plump face. Her own fingernails had been chewed back to the quick. Mei only noticed because the girl was hesitantly plucking at the fabric of her dress while her eyes darted over the faces of the men that were all licking their lips, watching.
The saloon was packed. The piano player was playing a dusty gem. His jaunty tune seemed to provoke the perversion that was unfolding.
The girl undid one button. Her long fingers stroked the jutting collar bone that was suddenly exposed. One of the men applauded. Another one whooped. Mei Lin turned back...the smile on her face spread butter warmth and suddenly a greedy twinkle made merriment in the way she spoke. "You aren't cut out for this." she looked at the girl. A lash heavy wink swept down and undid the guise for just a flicker.
The girl stayed the smile that threatened to twitch through.”I am too. But what’s in it fer me?”
Mei tapped her chin with that pointed fingernail. She was thinking but only of the money she was about to make. "Now we’re talkin’. But men don’t like talkin’. " she turned from the girl, her toe darted out and her slipper caught the handle of a basket that she deftly kicked it up and into two very practiced hands. "Who’d like the pretty girl to shut up and take off her clothes?" The room lit up in raucous gestures and cheers.
A man with a tobacco stained mustache gestured with his hand. "I sure would."
Mei Lin swooped over, the basket held out under his nose. "Then put in the nickel."
He didn’t look too pleased. “A nickel…!?” The girl didn’t say another thing. Mei Lin moved over and undid another button. The cloth began to open like a theater curtain. “You pay! Or you get nothin’.” One by one they began to hold up their nickels.
When she'd collected the rest of the money from any of the men that could afford a gawk, the men lined up and the girl stood on the other side of a door, naked and ready to let them take a gander at her naughtiest bits...
Mei Lin grabbed the door knob and gloated. It seemed like the easiest way a person could earn some cash. She opened the door and the men started marching in single file. Mei Lin used a rug beater to keep them moving. When a man tried to pinch or grab she slapped his hand away but insisted that if they wanted a poke then they’d have to drive another fifty cents into her basket.