The Girl They Sold to the Moon Read Free

he brought out a chain necklace with a tin tag attached to it. He gave it a light toss at her. She caught it deftly.
    â€œWear that at all times,” said Frampton, avoiding eye contact. “Memorize your personal code number. You’ll be asked to repeat it.”
    She slung it around her neck, flipped it up to look at it.
9S555365
. She tucked it inside her top with a trembling hand. “I don’t suppose you might tell me where I’m going. You know, my work assignment?”
    Frampton gagged, and then spit in a cup. He wiped his mouth on his suit sleeve, a sleeve stained multiple times from the same disgusting habit. “Your dossier indicates an entertainment position,” he said. “Probably dancing for the Prairie Dogs…and I’m not supposed to tell you that.”
    Dancing for the Prairie Dogs. Dancing, as in strutting around naked and wobbling my bare-ass body parts for men like you?
Then she thought about what men like Frampton could do to her or want to do to her with such a job
.
But where were the Prairie Dogs?
    â€œYou mean out in the mid-west?” she tried.
    Frampton chuckled. The security guard coughed.
    Frampton cleared his throat. “Prairie Dogs are miners—diggers. That’s what they call them at Tranquility Harbor, anyway.”
    She swallowed hard. “Is that anywhere near Long Island? Or maybe New York?”
    Frampton blinked. “You’re about two hundred and forty thousand miles off, Sunshine.”
    Tilly did some swift mental calculations then stiffened. “You’re not talking about the Moon settlement. Not the Moon!” Now she knew who the Prairie Dogs were--just the type of men who would take advantage of her.
    â€œThat’s the place, Sunshine. You’ll be just one more hamster in the giant Habitrail.”
    Tilly knew she would not be singing in a choir or dancing in a stage play. They were shipping her off to the Moon, to dance for men that never shaved, showered, or spoke a sentence without using a cuss word. She had a girlfriend who’d told her that her mother had said that the miners were all a bunch of thugs. She thought it incredible that they would put a teenage female in harm’s way like that.
Thugs
. If things got out of hand, she vowed to open up the first pressure hatch she found and step outside.
    â€œIt’s not so bad,” said Frampton. “Those hardworking brutes could use a cute little cheerleader like you to brighten their day. I know
I’d
love it.”
    She felt bile rise in her throat. Then she began to make high-pitched wheezing noises. She always did that before she vomited.

Chapter 2
    Tilly stood in a long line of other Sunflower females, kids aged thirteen to nineteen. The long corridor consisted of a series of stations, cubicles enclosed by portable dividers. Further down the corridor, Tilly spied a large silver container that looked like a walk-in refrigerator. She heard animalistic squeals coming from the vicinity of the structure, and after a moment, realized it was the high-pitched cries of girls. She drew a ragged breath. It seemed like her ankles would buckle at any moment. What, by all that was holy and decent, could make kids cry out in fear? Classical music, piped in from ceiling panels, suddenly raised in volume and masked out the cries.
    Tilly began to count the girls behind her. All of them wore street clothes. Most had their heads down; some whispered; a few clasped hands and stared ahead with open mouths. She counted sixty-two girls before the bodies blurred into an indistinct mass. Guards were evenly spaced every twenty girls or so. Counting the one ahead of her, they totaled five. Although they had their crash visors down, they appeared to be all males, judging from their height and body mass. They all held sting wands by their sides.
    â€œThey call the guards, bulls,” said the girl behind her, “in case you were wondering. I’m Dorothy