The Las Vegas Courtesan

I see people with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences which includes people with and without disabilities. I’ve seen war veterans who have recovered from severe injuries, people who are physically handicapped, and a even smaller number of deaf or blind clients. People oftentimes ask, “Do any of your clients make an impact on you?” Aside from injured war vets, who always amaze me by what they’ve gone through, one person stands out in my mind. I remembered him the other day: a semi-regular client from a few years ago who has been completely blind since birth.

I saw him a number of times over the course of a year when he would want to come out and gamble (slot machines mostly). Nothing sexual ever happened, and I don’t even think I got naked for dances during these visits. I definitely remember him taking care of me, typically for 3-5 hours blocks over several days to accompany him around town. Normally when people pay just for company, I have to think of transportation; where am I going? how should I dress?, etc. For once I didn’t have to consider hopping in a cab and I actually drove him around in my own car. We usually went to dinner and then I took him shopping wherever he wanted to go. The rest of the time was spent in the room talking about his personal issues — living by himself at home and how he deals with things that we oftentimes take for granted in our everyday lives, like grocery shopping or simply getting around. He really just needed someone to talk to and I felt bad because you could really tell how alone he felt when he was home. Sometimes he got overly emotional during our conversations.

While out shopping or eating, I really started to notice how different life is when you can’t see anything, and particularly if you have never been able to see your whole life. Imagine not knowing what “color” is, what “brightness” is… or darkness. Things that we might use as adjectives to describe something to someone else are limited by only things you can hear or feel. He liked going shopping for nice timepieces because of the way the watches ticked and felt in his hands. I tried describing the faceplates or colors of the armbands or shininess, but this was all unimportant and useless information to him. Most people would be enamored by the way a watch looks, but he liked them for completely different reasons that I would have never noticed before. Even counting cash is impossible if you can’t see. You have to trust that the person who is giving you change is really giving you what is right. I know that in a lot of countries currency has different sized bills or braille to differentiate, but he had a system of folding bills in his wallet six different ways for the six different denominations (I never saw him with a $2 bill). He also liked staying only in hotels that had an elevator that said aloud “going up” and announced each floors. At dinner I often read the menu to him to help him order (and eventually knew what items to skip over that he didn’t like).

And then I had to think of creative ways to “show” him around town. What is something good to hear? Or feel to experience in Vegas? Once I took him to the Bellagio fountains to hear them exploding only to be disappointed that it was a windy day. The more explosive shows were replaced with soft, swaying water sounds. He still enjoyed it.

Though I don’t see him anymore and his numbers have all changed, I used to check in with him every so often to see how he was doing. I couldn’t imagine a world where I couldn’t see or hadn’t experienced color or light before. And what he showed me in his world definitely made me more aware of what I experience in mine.

Carlin is the next stop along the Interstate-80 trail of small towns lining the highway that each seem to have a brothel or two located in or around them. I was very unsure when embarking on this trip that both brothels, Sharon’s Bar & Brothel and The Dovetail Ranch, were open. At the time I was looking for information, The Dovetail had no website and Sharon’s website doesn’t seem to be updated that often (also the directions on their site were so confusing I just hoped that Google maps wouldn’t let me down in the middle of the desert.) Carlin is a small 2,000 person town 23 miles east of Elko, and both brothels are located on a highway-to-nowhere on the eastern outer edge of town. I was glad to see that my venture paid off as both brothels are open for business, though I ran into the same common problem on the trip: my Christmas season timing made the selection of girls to be little to none.

 At least in Carlin I wasn’t met with the same strange “you can’t wait in the bar area” regulations like in Elko, though both are in the same county. Then again both places were small enough I don’t think they could have fit in a parlor. I am still perplexed as to how these two places seem to make money since you cannot see them from the freeway, and the small rolling hills make it hard for you to see them even when you are on the small two-laned highway out of town.

Sharon’s Brothel is the first house you get to on Highway 278 heading south away from the small town of Carlin. It’s a large trailer that has a bar and seating area, but has no VIP rooms in the back— only the rooms that the girls live and work out of. Since it was quite small there wasn’t much of a tour to be had, but I did learn one new thing about regulations and testing that I had never heard before. Apparently since there are new tests for HPV and other STD’s, the girls have the option in Nevada to have an anal exam to clear them of any STD’s so that they may also perform anal sex. The girl at Sharon’s informed me that she had the proper testing to be cleared to perform anal sex if the customer desired to do so. I had always wondered about the legal restrictions on anal sex since I had read long ago in the book about the original Mustang Ranch that anal sex was prohibited. I personally would never perform anal sex with any client even if I was cleared to do so, but it’s good to know there are specific tests and requirements for the girls to pass in order to keep them clean and safe.

   I struck up a conversation with the owner (who might have been Sharon herself) while she chain smoked away sitting at the bar by the door. She’s a chatty older woman who seems like she’s seen it all in the brothel industry. I would have loved to pick her brain, but we all know how much I love cigarette smoke and had to leave quickly. I had mentioned wanting to visit the brothels in Nevada since I had moved here (well, even before I had lived here), and she had encouraged writing a book about them instead of writing about them online. I know there have been plenty of small books written over the years and tried to explain that I wouldn’t get rich very quickly by selling a $10 paperback book. Ah well, I guess I’ll stick to my night job!

 The Dovetail has been closed for an undisclosed period, but had recently reopened in September of 2010 when it was bought out by new owners. The girls in that were helping out with keeping the brothel open during the holidays were super nice, but only had one girl on and a couple more on their way from southern Nevada. I unfortunately didn’t get a tour since it seemed like I had come at an inopportune time of day and caught them all off guard. They had a full bar that looked nice, and was all situated in a cute and quaint log cabin. Nice change to the run down looking trailer/manufactured homes. If I were to chose between the two brothels to visit and be entertained, I would have picked the Dovetail Ranch. The cozy and clean feel to the place plus the nice staff won me over between the two options. I hope the new owners do well and keep the place open, just wish it was a little closer to town and the Interstate.