The Tour

Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Photo prompt: Sandra Crook

 

“We’ve come a long way from small children crawling under looms,” the proprietor boomed, arm sweeping proudly across the antique refurbished mill.

The group of portly men nodded sagely.

One of them patted a balding pate, florid face sweating in tailored wool. He was gratified to see another man masking a yawn.

The two-hour Textile Investors Tour satisfied requirements for business expenses, but the real draw of the area was a manicured golf course, good wine cellars, and a particularly discreet hotel concierge.

Too bad, the balding man thought to himself. A few crawling kids would’ve been right fine.

 

 

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

 

35 thoughts on “The Tour”

    • Thanks, Iain (I think …) and yes, alas these things have been going on all around the globe throughout much of humanity’s history and to our shame we have not yet managed to end the most awful exploitation of the most vulnerable.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Alas, they have not, Rochelle, for some … and the awfulness is amplified by the disinterest and dehumanizing of others. As such persons are known to be interested only in themselves and their own hedonistic (and often cruel) tendencies.
      Oy.
      Glad it came across …
      Thank you, my friend!
      Na’ama

      Like

      Reply

    • Thanks, Keith.
      I am quite sure some still do … and most of them are not the type of person I’d want to spend any time with, in any setting, for the only thing they care about is themselves, and they think naught of exploiting others in the most awful, cruel ways.
      Now, I don’t know about ALL the men in that mill visit, but the one with he balding pate and icky proclivities … I’d stay away from him (and keep any children well well WAY away from him).
      Na’ama (off to read your piece!)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Thanks, Linda.
      Yes, alas ugly men with ugly preferences are often not the ‘homeless stranger danger’ so many children are taught to fear … but are the supposedly ‘respectable pillars of society’ …
      (Not to mention that over 90% of children who are maltreated are abused by people known to them–including teachers, coaches, clergy, neighbors, etc.; and how in over 75% of the cases abusers are the caregivers of said children).
      Nice clothes do a poor job to hide the corruption of the soul, if one knows how to look … (i.e. and is encouraged to follow their intuition, no matter how well-off, well-appointed, or well-dressed one is …).
      I’m glad the ‘ugly’ got across … I would not want to be in the same room with this man.
      Na’ama

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Na’ama, as a psychotherapist, it is sometimes my job to try to help these victims process their abuse and put it behind them. I work very hard to make that happen. What I will NOT do is accept a predator as a client. I have no sympathy for them or their foul behavior.

        Liked by 1 person

      • I hear you.
        As someone who often sees traumatized children (not necessarily sexually, but it is often part of exploitation in vulnerable children of any group, especially children with any developmental and communication disabilities, who make for easy prey, unfortunately); and as one who’d worked with many an abused child from both homeless as well as very well-off families, I can understand how that is a choice one often needs to take.
        Granted, it can get a little tricky when one works with children (and therefore, their families and caregivers) when the caregivers/parents have been part of the problem … Not all maltreatment comes from the same cause or tendencies (some are repeating what they’d lived, and aren’t intentionally abusive, others may not understand boundaries or the impact of violating them because theirs have not been respected and/or because they are still in the clutches of family dynamics that will allow, say, a child to visit with a grandparent who’d been the parent’s own abuser …).

        These caregivers are, perhaps, a bit of a different ‘class’ of people than the ones who you are referring to — the psychopathic pedophiles, the sadistic abusers, the ones who lack empathy and do not wish to revise their ways — whose prognosis is not inspiring anyway, and where perhaps almost the most one can do is do one’s best to get them behind bars for ugliness done and then barred from any contact with children thereafter to prevent more ugliness from taking place …
        Na’ama

        Liked by 1 person

      • Alas, yes, you are right. Change is difficult, and changing ingrained dysfunction (where at least one ‘side’ does not want to change and has a lot vested in NOT changing or reality even being acknowledged …) is harder still to change.
        Great comment!
        Na’ama

        Liked by 1 person

    • Perhaps to ‘see about investing’ in the refurbished mill, perhaps to justify a ‘business trip’ that had other … um … intentions. …
      Whether they went away happy or not remains to be seen, but I sure hope no child was harmed in the process …
      Na’ama

      Like

      Reply

Leave a reply to pennygadd51 Cancel reply