Trailer Park Noir

all the tissues into her purse. “I don’t even have enough money for gas to Corning, I have nothing once I pay all my bills, and there’s no one I can go to for help, and I… I… “ She sniffled and shed a few more tears. Suddenly, she shook her head sharply. She stood and said, “Maybe I should go.”

“No, wait. Maybe we can work something out. Maybe a package deal.”

“What do you mean?”

“How about doing all of it for twelve hundred dollars?”

“All of it?”

“The nudie photos, the explicit photos, the video, the whole thing. You do that, and I’ll pay you twelve hundred dollars.”

She stood there and thought about it for a long time. Slowly, Heather lowered herself back onto the couch.

“Your boyfriend will never know the difference,” Regent said.

“What are they for?”

“I’m sorry?”

“The pictures and videos – what are they for, what do you do with them?”

“They go on my websites.”

Her eyes widened a little. “For how long?”

“What do you mean?”

“How long do you leave the pictures and videos on your website?”

He shrugged. “As long as the sites are up. You have a problem with that?”

“Well… what if he sees me?”

Another shrug. “Some men, they really get off on it. It turns them on, seeing their girlfriends or wives on a website, knowing other people are looking at them. Some men love it.”

“I don’t think Nate would.”

“Does he join paysites?”

“What do you mean?”

“He would have to pay to see you. Does he pay to join websites?”

She released a small sigh of relief. “No, he doesn’t.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

She stood and thought some more. “You get a lot of people coming to your site?”

“In the millions. I have a few different sites. They’re all very successful.”

“I see. Well.” For a moment, she looked like she was about to turn and leave. Then she put the purse on the couch. Her voice trembled as she said, “Okay, the whole thing for twelve hundred.”

“Wonderful,” he said, “just wonderful.” He stood and went to the end table by the couch and picked up the cordless phone on its base. “I’m going to have to call a friend over to help. I’m going to need a hand.” He punched in the number, waited a moment. “Hey, it’s Steve. You got some time? I’ve got a session set up, and I need a hand.” He listened a moment, then said, “Great, see you in a few.” He turned the phone off and put it back on its base. “He’ll be here in awhile. He lives just north of Redding. In the meantime, why don’t we get some pictures. C’mon in the studio.”

Heather followed him down the hall to a bedroom with a king-size bed on one side, and lights for the photo shoots on the other. He turned a couple of the lights on, then went to a small desk behind the lights. “I need you to sign a couple forms before we do anything. How old are you, Heather?”

“Twenty.”

He took a couple sheets of paper from a desk drawer, put them on the desk, and handed her a pen. “Just sign here,” he said, pointing to a line at the bottom of the page. She signed it, and he pulled the first page aside. “And here.”

As she signed the second sheet, she said, “What are these for?”

“One swears you’re of age, and the other is so you won’t sue me when your pictures and videos show up on the Internet, and gives me permission to use the photos and videos on my websites.”

“Oh, I see.”

Regent took a digital camera from the desktop. “Now, we’ll start with your clothes on. Just lie back on the bed and pose for me. Give me your sexiest looks.”

Heather slipped her flats off and got on the bed, stretched out on her back, propped up by her elbows. She went through a series of poses for him – bend the knee, raise this arm, lift that hip. Her movements were stiff, her poses rigid.

“You need some more wine,” Regent said. “You’re very stiff, Heather. We need to loosen you up.”

“How about some of that scotch?” she said.

Regent smiled and said, “Attagirl.”

* * * *

Regent had discovered the greatest job in the world, and he was a huge success at it. He and his buddy Josh Garner – they’d known each other since college – had joked for years about starting an adult website. Then one day they decided to put their money where their mouth was. They got a loan from the bank for “online entertainment sites,” and assembled a website made up of pictures they’d found on the Internet. But they knew they couldn’t charge for membership unless the pictures were originals. They purchased the equipment they would need, then decided to try the local community college. They put notices up on bulletin boards:

WANTED: ATTRACTIVE FEMALES

Are you an attractive young woman

in need of some quick money? Earn

up to $750 posing for photographs

and video. Tasteful.

They included Regent’s cell phone number as a contact.

Regent and Garner were stunned by the response. They were astonished that so many attractive young women were willing – even eager – to take their clothes off for total strangers.

Regent and Garner had been living together at the time in an apartment in Redding. They’d held auditions there – every girl passed. They’d set up lights and a camera in the spare bedroom. At first, most of the girls just went for the topless photos for a hundred. A few opted to pose for more explicit photos. Only one girl that first week agreed to give Regent head on camera. But she was insatiable. She didn’t want to stop with that – she wanted to fuck. She invited Garner to service her while Regent recharged. She took on both of them, and they recorded every minute of it. It remained the hottest video in their collection.

Usually, Regent had to listen to them whine a lot longer than he’d had to with Heather. That was the hook – he and Garner wanted to help them out, so what was the problem? And they spilled their guts. They were just looking for someone to listen to them for a while. They didn’t get it from their boyfriends, or their husbands. Really listen to a woman, acknowledge what she had to say about things, and she’d be eating out of your hand – that’s what Regent had learned. So he listened to their problems, and eventually it got around to some kind of financial needs. And then he presented them with the opportunity to make some quick cash. But by then, they trusted him, and that was the key. He’d listened to them, he had validated their problems, their opinions, and he had expressed sympathy and understanding. To be listening to, taken seriously – Regent was surprised by how little of that women got in their everyday lives. He and Garner gave them that. And after an hour, maybe two hours, maybe a drink or two or three or more, they felt so grateful that they were much more inclined to take off their clothes for them.

Regent and Garner had four websites – Young and Lovely, which featured college-age girls; MILF Parade, featuring mostly women in their thirties and early forties; Lusty Lesbians was self-explanatory, and was made up of pictures and videos of those women they encountered who were bisexual, women to whom more money was offered for lesbian action photos and videos; and Carnal Couples, where they posted pictures and videos of Regent and Garner having sex with women in couples only, no three-ways. But now, Regent was working on something