Last night at Pattaya’s Stiletto A Go-Go the ladyboys painted their faces for the evening rush. I ordered a beer and asked the veteran mama-san about a star employee. The dragon lady said Lil Vee was in Germany and pointed a long fingernail at a svelte teen sheathed in a shimmering silver dress.

“That’s her younger sister. Her name is Ae.”

The mama-san modded and ae swung off the stool with serpentine sleath. She sat on the stool and I breathed the scent of seduction against which I was defenseless.

Ae slithered against me and toyed with coal-black tress.

“I remember you with Vee.”

That was five years ago.

Ae had been 13.

She was 18 now.

I wanted you then and want you now.”

Her lilting tongue preached pleasure to non-believers.

She wore nothing under the shiny skin. Her hardness rode my thigh in time to the Thai pop music. A thick gold necklace swayed across her flat chest. Her cousin Vee had been a goddess. Ae was the universe. She whispered a number in my ear.

I fell from the stars.

Ae read my face. She smiled with the wicked eternity of youth and said, “I have a customer like look through hole.”

“No see no hear. He pay. Watch. You can do?”

“Hell, yes.”

“Her left hand unbuttoned my jeans.”

The Stiletto A Go-Go was very open-minded. Ae turned to a fat man and pointed up. He waddled across the floor and climbed the stairs. The mama-san closed a curtain around us.

“He like look down.”

Obviously Ae had never asked why. The money killed any curiosity. She dropped to her knees. I didn’t look up.

The fat man might have been above us, but I was in heaven below as was everyone in the Last Babylon from time to time.