Ring Around Rosie by Emily Pattullo

have happened in just a few days that Ted could hardly
remember what it felt like to have no worries, to take everything so for
granted.
    They turned down the street the nightclub
was on and instantly the hair on their arms stood up. It was darker than the
other streets and dotted with shifty-looking men scurrying up and down it,
popping out of doorways, blinking as their eyes adjusted to the bright flashing
neon lights that promised GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!
    “Right everyone,” said Ted in a low voice.
“We’ve got to appear like we want to go into this place so lots of drunken
shouting and leering, ok?”
    “That should be no problem for you Midge,”
scoffed Plank.
    “Funny,” retorted Midge. “Maybe we should
pretend it’s your stag Ted, then you might get special treatment.”
    “That’s not a bad idea, Midge,” said
Dillon. “You up for that Ted?”
    “Sure, let’s do it.”
    They all took a deep breath and began
laughing and shouting, staggering down the street and hanging off each other.
They arrived outside the door of the club where Dillon did some quick talking
to the bouncer, and they were shown straight in and directed to a booth in
front of a small stage. It was as Ted had expected; dark, seedy, full of barely-dressed
girls, most of them not much older than Rosie. He didn’t even recognise the
music that was playing, it sounded like some Eastern European country’s entry
in Eurovision.
    They were seated on a purple velvet sofa
with dim lighting hanging low above their heads. The stage in front of them was
alive with crawling, slithering, pole-dancing girls, all selling their own
brand of seduction.
    They ordered a drink each and found
themselves closely administered to by four girls. Not that any of them really minded
about this part of the detective work, though Ted couldn’t help envisaging
Rosie doing something similar, and that instinctively made him shy away from
the exhaustive attention.
    Ted excused himself and sought refuge in
the gents. He had to pull himself together or the girls would never trust him
enough to talk. Plank and Midge were having a great time and seemed very at
home, but he saw the same look in Dillon’s eyes that he felt were present in
his own, and knew he was struggling too.
    When Ted got back to the table there were
more drinks, and the girl who had been sitting with him had been replaced by
another. Obviously they had misunderstood his distaste and swapped her for
another girl. Unfortunately this one reminded him even more of Rosie; she still
had innocence in her eyes. Ted took a deep breath and put his arm around her,
he slugged back his beer, forcing the vision of his sister to the back of his
mind to deal with later. He caught eyes with Dillon who seemed to be having the
same grim thoughts about his own sister and was swigging liberally on his beer
too, quickly chasing it with a vodka.
    “So what’s your name?” Ted asked the girl.
    “What do you want it to be?”
    Ted rolled his eyes. “You’re joking,
right?”
    “I am here to give you pleasure,” she
replied. “You can call me what you like.”
    “Well, I’m Ted,” he said. “Where are you
from?” he asked, trying to place her accent.
    “An island in Croatia called Vis.”
    “Your English is very good. Have you been
in the UK for long?”
    “A while, but I talk to many English men
and not so hard to pick up the talk.”
    “A lot of them like to talk do they?” Ted
asked surprised.
    “Yes. Lots of them just want someone to
talk to. Well, in the start.”
    “How old are you?” As the question came out
of his mouth and her eyes flicked away, Ted realised he’d lost her.
    “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business,” he
said hurriedly.
    She shrugged and leaned over, sticking her
tongue in his ear. “You like me to dance for you?”
    Ted looked across at the others, each
enjoying a lap dance of their own. Despite their drunken grins of pleasure it
didn’t encourage him to want one too, and