the railway to the stars

the railway to the stars

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

They call it the railway to the stars and it's a union job for women only. The women's jobs are not just for girls from the porn industry, that's a piece of mis-information. Any gal who was once famous, sorry guys women only, in any thing related to the sex industry, actress, singer, model, some porn stars, and just about any other job related to bringing adult entertainment of a tawdry nature to American audiences is welcome to steady work as a call operator on the railway to the stars. It's a televised weekly show about girls who sit in a small roller coaster car and take phone calls from the television audiences out across the country while they race up and down on a small circular roller coaster track. If no one is calling for a particular guest the girls are expected to make out going calls, it's a telemarketing job. The show is televised and runs once per week, late at night.

The telemarketing lists are of viewers who have called in before, ordered adult entertainment from numerous sources, subscribed to men's magazines or attended a strip club and signed up for the free offers. Like any telemarketing job it's plain hard work. The longer you keep the guys on the phone the more commissions you make. Five bucks a minute the guys pay to talk to us as we fly about the tracks in a little car talking to them about naughty things. Some of us wear special costumes and some of us have specialties, you know those topics men like that are odd and peculiar related to sexual preferences. We get half of the five dollars per minute as commission less certain expenses.

The show only runs once a week but there are a lot of meetings and practice runs and rehearsal throughout the week for base pay only. Base pay is twenty five dollars for once around the track. The union got us that benefit. Some of the girls set up their telemarketing calls in advance so they seem to always be talking to someone during the actual televised show, like anything else nothing succeeds like success. Most people like to see a woman be busy but don't always respect them for it.

Management sucks. They walk and ride around with their little clip boards working on a thousand ways to cut your pay and charge you double expenses, for swearing on air, being too explicit, or the worse sin of all have no "sales" for three straight rides around the merry go round. Naturally a lot of the management are men and they exploit us adult workers. We are always on camera and it's paramount that we always look "on".

New celebrities give me a pain in my rear. Princess is only here for a few weeks until the contract is signed and she is back on the director's "A" list. She can't talk to you, she is watching her text messages. Any day now she will be back on her back in front of the cameras or on the cover of "Us' magazine half dressed and the most shocking gal fatale of the day again.

Most of the girls are nice to each other and they got your back. I've had girls transfer me a call in sale call when I was in a slump or help me with my costume two minutes before air time. I support the union. No one else cares for us girls. To most of them out there we are just a piece of meat for them to gawk at while they secretly make fun of us. No one much respects us because they don't want to be reminded later of their secret base urges. Strict age restrictions apply, I'll give my opinions on that later. I wouldn't say we are exploited by having to be pretty or look a certain way. The men out there like all types, believe me men have some unusual tastes in women. Still management is after a certain look for the television audience and they enforce it when they interview and hire. There are a lot of blonds and full bosoms and anyone else pretty who can look dizzy and scared at the same time while clutching a cell phone racing around the track in a small roller coaster car whispering in a raspy voice while checking names off their telemarketing list.

It's a very stressful way to make a living. I am training a new girl, ex runway model. She whispers a lot in French. Still I'll try to show her the ropes, this one has got to be under eighteen, the guys out there will like that. She is kind of vulnerable, her life isn't going like she expected it to I imagine. She needs a costume, a specialty and a persona. I'll help her learn to cope like others did for me. I'll help her join the union, it will protect her later.