A/N: This is a new Jekyll & Hyde themed piece. I know, I know -- in Stevenson's original novel there WAS no Lucy, no love/lust interest at all... but it makes better drama this way. ;) This piece is based mostly on the character 'Ivy' in the Fredric March 1932 movie version -- but I called it 'Lucy' because hers is the most well-known of the J/H prostitute characters... And it is somewhat influenced by the musical as well, in which Lucy plays a pivotal role.
A resounding thank-you to Musiquephan, who so kindly volunteered to beta this thing while my usual beta was busy -- 'specially as it's a 'dialect piece' (whew!). Love ya::mwah:
Light and Shadow (Lucy)
I've always been a good girl.
Damn good.
An' not for free either;
they pays through the nose for it
– not like they can't afford it anyhow.
Two silver pennies buys a night of delights
the likes of which most toffs have never seen –
two silver pennies for all the 'good' I've got,
an' no one's complained yet.
I gives them just enough to make 'em think they're
in control, then dance away
leaving 'em crying for more.
'Course, they did pay for it,
so more they'll get – eventually.
An' they never leave with 'unfinished business',
if you know what I mean;
every dark little thought an' twisted fantasy –
those what they can't indulge at home
with the little missus –
we wallow in them for hours, rolling an' rutting
like pigs in the muck of their imaginings –
an' though it's trite, it's right,
for in the end ain't they all swine?
An' it's me what ends up with the bacon.
Two silver pennies may not seem like much in the light of day,
not to the likes of some –
but one silver penny buys enough gin
to make a girl lots of new 'friends',
an' then there's still one to put away.
For a rainy day, like.
Thrift is a virtue.
Thrift ain't a virtue he possesses
(if a bastard like him's got any);
throwin' coins like they was handfuls of ashes
at a beggar's funeral,
buyin' up the whole place,
gin or beer for everyone,
an' summat a bit nicer for me an' him.
Champagne, when the sweetest thing I've tasted
these last three years is a night off
when I had the 'flu so bad I couldn't keep my stomach down –
which ain't so good for business,
as you might imagine.
And then find out he wants me all to himself,
an' he's willing to pay for the privilege;
puts me up in a private hotel
where can't no one put their paws on me but 'im.
Only claws is more like.
But for a taste of somethin' sweet,
I'll swallow down the bitter,
an' if it burns like poison as it fills my throat,
at least I've the comfort of knowin' the evil what besets me.
Evil from without;
at least when he mistakes my ribs for a drum or
shakes me like a terrier on a rat,
it's never a surprise,
not like an unexpected pinch or blow from one of them gentlemen
what pays only what they's asked to, and is countin'
his days profits in his head in the cab home
before his seed dries on my thigh.
When his fist bleeds my eye black
in creeping fingers of green and blue,
it colors my cheeks fairer –
an' if I take my light from his dark,
well, at last I'm not shiverin' alone
in the shadows of a streetcorner like one of them 'unfortuantes'.
I've got someone what takes care of me,
an' if I cringe from his touch unawares or
breathe a sight easier when his fiery eyes ain't on me no more,
well, that's the price I pay for a corner of the world
where people acts as they is instead of
as they'd like others to think 'em.
I'll take his kind of carin' any day,
over the smilin' lies and smooth insincere simpering
of the men what meets me in the night
but turns their faces away if we pass in the market square,
walkin' with their wives and daughters
as if they ain't got hid between their legs the same as me.
Only them what pays for mine do it with coins –
not bands of gold and a country house
with a groom and a coach an' four.
I'll take my bondage over theirs,
with please an' thanks,
an' my version of 'good' over theirs.
I may not be much, but I'm all I got,
an' I do me own poor best an' not hurt no one on purpose.
Leastaways my chains are mine to break –
unlike them, what's held forever 'til death do ye part'.
Even he don't own me,
an' I can fly away whenever I likes…
and death be damned.
--------------------------
AMH
30 May 2005