The Funhouse

had never smoked grass? Can you imagine? Now he's a regular pothead.”
        That's the only reason you're dating him? Just so you can corrupt him?”
        “No,” Liz said. “It's a hell of a lot of fun to open him up to new things, new experiences. But even if he already knew his way around, he'd be fun to be with. He's clever, witty. And he seems to know something interesting about almost everything. I've never dated a genius before. It's different.”
        “Sounds like maybe this one will last a little longer than the others,” Amy said.
        “No way,” Liz said quickly. “I figure another month, six weeks at the outside. Then bye-bye, Richie. No matter how clever he is, I'll be bored with him by then. Besides, even if I wanted something permanent with someone, which I don't want, but even if for some weird reason I did, I wouldn't want anything permanent with anyone here in this jerkwater town. I don't want anyone holding me back when I'm ready to split for the west.”
        “You're still planning on going”
        “Hell, yes. I'll work in my father's office until the middle of December, build up a nest egg, and then knock off a couple of weeks before Christmas. After the holiday, I'll pack my clothes into my little yellow car, and I'll be off like a shot to the land of sun and opportunity.”
        “ California?”
        “I've decided on Vegas,” Liz said.
        “ Las Vegas?”
        “That's the only Vegas I know.”
        “What will you do there?”
        “Sell it,” Liz said, grinning again.
        “Sell what?”
        “Don't be dopey.”
        “I'm not being dopey.”
        “As dense as a post.”
        “I don't understand. What are you going to sell?”
        “My ass .”
        “Huh?”
        “I'm going to do some heavy hooking.”
        “Hooking?”
        “Jesus! Liz said. “Listen, kid, don't you realize how much money a high-priced call girl can make in Vegas? A six-figure income, that's how much.”
        Amy stared at her in disbelief. “You're trying to make me believe that you're going to Vegas to be a whore?”
        “I'm not trying to make you believe anything,” Liz said. “I'm merely telling you the facts, kid. Besides, I'm not going to be an ordinary whore. Whore is a low-class word. Whores are cheap. I'm going to be a personal escort, an intimate companion to a new gentleman every evening. Intimate companions are quite expensive, you know. And I'm going to be more expensive than most of them.”
        “You aren't serious.”
        “Of course I am. I've got a good personality, a damned nice face, long legs, a cute little butt, almost no waist at all, and these.” She thrust her chest out, and her large, uptilted breasts strained against the thin T-shirt. “If I can learn not to spend every dime I make, and if I can find a few good investments, I'll be worth at least a million by the time I'm twenty-five.”
        “You won't do it.”
        “Yep.”
        “You're putting me on.”
        : “Nope. Listen, I'm a regular nympho. I know that. You know that. Practically everyone knows that. I can't keep my hands off the guys, and I like variety. So if I'm going to be screwing around every day of the week, I might as well get paid for it.”
        Amy stared at her searchingly, and Liz met her eyes, and at last Amy said, “My God, you really mean it.”
        “Why not?”
        “Liz, a prostitute's life isn't pleasant. It isn't fun and games. It's lonely and grim.”
        “Who says?”
        “Well… everyone says.”
        “Everyone is full of shit.”
        “If you go away and do something like this… Liz, it'll be such a… such a tragedy. That's what it'll be. You'll be throwing your whole life away, ruining everything.”
        “You sound like your mother,” Liz said scornfully.
        “I don't, either.”
        “Oh, yes you do,” Liz said. “You sound exactly like her.”
        Amy frowned. “I do?”
        “Smug, moralistic, self-righteous.”
        “I'm just worried about you.”
        “I know what I'm doing,” Liz said. “Listen, when you're a high-priced call girl, you party all the time. What's so lonely and grim about that? It is fun and games. Especially in Vegas, where there's never a dull minute.”
        Amy was stunned. She had never imagined that she would one day have a friend who was a prostitute. For a while they sat in silence, sipping their Cokes