the capitalist harlot

The uniformed Chinese guards bowed as she passed.  They had been told she was a naked capitalist harlot, beautiful but wanton, degenerate and dangerously seductive.  She arrived naked and they were under orders that she was to stay that way.  However during her two week incarceration she had won their respect through her courtesy, quiet study habits, and what could only be called modesty.  So too the other prisoners.  As well as her volunteering to help with laundry, putting bedsheets out on the clotheslines and taking them down and folding the linens.  It was a less depressing place with her around.  They were sad to see her go.

She had sent her things ahead, for some reason preferring to walk to her freedom without bookbag or laptop, just her bare naked self.  She seemed oblivious to the chill Gobi wind blasting through the barred passageway, past her cold-stiffened nipples, fluffing her lush pubic hair.  Her hard bare feet proceeded in a stately manner along the smooth concrete floor.  Bare as she was, she clothed everywhere she went with grace, dignity, humanity.  The guards thought: If only all capitalists could be like her . . . !

She got into the back seat of the PRC jeep with a slight nod from the poker-faced driver.  Eighty kilometers later she was transferred to a limo with diplomatic plates.  She got into the back seat with Dr. Judith Margolin, a psychologist attached to the American Embassy.  They were headed to the consulate in Harbin.  They spoke easily; they had been communicating through Tami’s secret link.  Dr. Margolin, being the casual type, wore a blazer over a turtleneck sweater, jeans, and moccasins with socks.  The fully clothed 35-year-old and the clothesless 20-year-old talked about American things, though Tami smiled when Dr. Margolin remarked that Tami had picked up a slight Chinese accent.