I was working on a project until, exhausted, I had to call it quits at 3:00 a.m. My employer said I could nap on a spare couch in the office for a couple of hours and get back to work, but I prefer my own bed (and eight undisturbed hours), so I straggled home at around 4:00 a.m., which is the same time as the workers in a quite different profession.
I saw a short, attractive blond approaching my lift and held it for her. A tall, attractive blond and a brunette seemed to be following her, but they just stood outside the lift after we got in, so I finally released the button, the doors started to close, and the two girls screamed. I hit the button again, the door opened, and the two girls and a man joined us. ‘What floor?’ I asked, but they said ‘Your floor OK,’ and followed me to my flat. The short blond asked in a Russian accent, ‘Is OK we come in?’ The man, speaking in a middle-class British accent said, ‘We don’t want to bother you, old chap, but would you mind? We know it’s quite late.’
Dubai@Random is afflicted with a morbid, feline curiosity, and just had to hear their story. The Brit pointed at the brunette, ‘It’s Julia’s birthday, she’s my fiancé, and we’re just getting back from celebrating. Julia is a Muslim from Uzbekistan. She works as a secretary by day, and then drives a taxi at night. She has a flat just down the hall, I live in Golden Sands, and I was just dropping Julia off. Right now, her father and son are visiting her, so if you wouldn’t mind, old chap, we’d like a nightcap before we leave and we can’t do that sort of thing in Julia’s flat with her father and son there, so if you’ll just let us come in, you can join us.’
The three women were quite good looking and middle-class Brits are generally harmless, so I let the four in at four a.m. ‘Please, you sit,’ said the short blond, so I sat and she rummaged in my kitchen until she found some glasses and handed them to the Brit. He pulled three bottles out of a plastic bag that had once held a new pair of shoes. One was cheap Russian vodka, one was expensive American whiskey, and the third was a large bottle of cola. The Brit poured the three girls whiskey and cola, and then poured himself a vodka and cola.
The Brit continued, ‘When Julia got here, she’d been promised a job as a secretary to an accountant. A man wearing a tailored suit and looking like a legitimate businessman met her at the airport. She went with him, but he took her passport and told her she had to work as a prostitute until she paid him $5,000.
‘I’ve been in Dubai for 23 years, and I have my regular table where everyone knows I sit every night. On Julia’s first night in Dubai, she came over and sat down beside me and told me her story. I don’t engage the services of prostitutes, so we just talked all night. After that, whenever she wanted a night off, she’d look me up and we’d just talk. This went on for four months. Then, one night she came to my flat, black and blue all over, and crying. She said she hadn’t been earning enough money, so they beat her up rather badly. I told her to sit down and asked her how much she owed to get her passport back. She said, “Three thousand dollars.” I said, “Don’t worry, it will be all right.” She sat there and began crying even harder.
‘I went with her and met her madam, and offered to pay the three thousand, but the madam said, “You must pay five thousand.” I had the book showing how much Julia owed, and how much she’d already paid. I said, “No, she only owes you three thousand.” The madam said, “Now the price is ten thousand,” so we left. There are advantages in having been here 23 years. I called my friend, a chief of police, and he came over to my flat. I gave him some single-malt Scotch, and he said he’d help. We went back to the madam, and she said, “Now it’s fifteen thousand.” At that point, my friend came in and demanded that the madam return Julia’s passport and my money, even though I hadn’t given her any money. She handed me Julia’s passport and five thousand dollars. I gave the five thousand to my friend, telling him, “You can use it as evidence.”
‘Then six police vans pulled up, and they arrested the madam and all her girls, more than a hundred and twenty girls in all. They found $178,000 in cash in the flat. They deported all the girls, but I don’t know what happened to the money. Julia and I went back to my place.
‘My friend came over a few days later and said, “Give me passports, yours and girl’s. And whiskey.” I gave him several glasses of whiskey and handed over the passports. A few days later, he came back and put the passports down on a table in my flat. We didn’t touch the passports while he was there; I just gave him some more whiskey. After he left, we looked and saw that Julia’s passport was stamped with a three-year residence visa. That was four years ago, and Julia and I have been together ever since.’
Disclaimer: When I hear these stories, I report exactly what I’m told. I do not vouch for the stories’ veracity.
