Begging For Time

Tuesday, May 13, 2031, four years after the passage of the Voluntary Servitude Act of 2027 (the Slave Act), two struggling business owners, Kristen Nguyen and Nicky Gregg, young women who financed their computer custom tailoring business by collateralizing their loan with a potential five year slavery commitment, find themselves at the Downtown office of Ultra Capital Venture Credit, Ltd., a lender who specializes in human collateral, begging for their freedom:

"We just need a little more time." Nicky said, trying to hide the desperation in her voice. "We're about to turn this around."

Despite Nicky's vain attempt to act calm, we all but shivered in fear. It's terrifying not to own the pink slip to your own body but we didn't – Ultra did. When we signed a loan to Ultra, it placed a slavery lien on ourselves with a right to repo us if we got three months behind in the payments, like we are right now. At noon we'd officially be three months delinquent on our loan. We were in serious danger of being enslaved and we knew it.

Ultra loan officer, Paul Brooks shook his head no. "I just gave you a three month extension."

"And we gave you an extra six months of servitude collateral to get that extension. Now if we default, we owe you 66 months of slavery not just five years."

"Are you prepared to offer Ultra another six month addition of your servitude commitment in exchange for an additional extension?" Mr. Brooks asked.

Nicky hesitated for a moment and bit her lower lip, "Yes."

Stunned, I stared Nicky in disbelief. Nicky had just offered to extend our potential enslavement for another half a year.

"Can we talk about this?" I whispered into Nicky's ear.

Nicky shook her head no, "It's the only way."

Nicky and I had been best friends since kindergarten. In high school she was a basketball star and I was a cheerleader. We attended the same college and roomed together as well as both majored in fashion design. Again, I joined the cheerleading squad and Nicky became the captain of the women's basketball team. After graduation, she became a fashion model while I took a job as a fashion designer. With her height, six feet tall, and statuesque Nordic blonde looks, Nicky's modeling career was quite successful. While I modeled on the side as well, with my rather short stature, 5' 4", my modeling career was considerably more modest, small fashion shows, occasional lingerie and swimsuit modeling, tiny paychecks, and infrequent jobs.

Our love of fashions developed into a desire to design and market our own clothing and after years of planning and research, we opened our own company, Gregg & Nguyen Custom Tailoring, Ltd. We specialized in making men's and women's tailored fashions from our own patterns, using a computerized body scanner to measure the client and to produce an exact fit. The measurements were then sent to a computerized custom tailoring firms in Vietnam and Hong Kong who would produce an exactly tailored garment at an extraordinary low price. Our advertising stated:

"The finest in tailored fashions at off the rack prices. Every garment we sell is custom made from scratch and tailored to your exact measurements from the finest fabrics. You pick the fabrics, you pick the design, you pick the colors, and our computer scans and measure's your body for a perfect fit every time. Best in the industry quality at a shockingly low price."

It was a great concept but office space costs money, computer scanners costs money, advertising costs money, sample fashions costs money, furniture and personal costs money, and we didn't have enough money to open the business. So we gambled heavily and put ourselves up as collateral for a $750,000.00 loan with Ultra Capital Venture Credit, a lender who specialized in human collateral commonly known as a bondage banker.

At first it was tight and we got by as best we could, living together in a one room apartment, and watching every penny. We both sold and modeled our own clothing, taking every opportunity to show our fashions off at functions that catered to rich and upper middle class as well as conducting our own fashion shows. We flirted with the guys and talked fashions with the girls, often discounting our initial purchase to cost, or even at a loss, just to get the customer. Slowly, it began to work and the cash started to roll in.

The money allowed us to hire Lori, a secretary/bookkeeper, and make double payments on our loan. Even though I found her to be bitchy, erratic, and selfish, hiring Lori had been a godsend. It freed us from typing and administrative duties and allowed Nicky and I to concentrate on sales. As a result, our sales nearly doubled almost overnight.

But, just as it seemed our business was about to really take off, a lot of our clients, even our best clients started to fall behind on their invoices. There were all the usual excuses: I never got that invoice, I thought I paid that already, etc. It got to the point we had over $73,000.00 in unpaid invoices and, with no money in the bank, we were forced to beg for an extension. Fortunately, Ultra agreed but only after we increased our slavery commitment from 60 months to 66 months.

For a couple of months, the money started rolling in again and we almost got caught up with Ultra, only to have another disastrous bout of delinquent invoices which has brought us to the brink of ruin. With over $87,000.00 in unpaid invoices, we ran out of money and missed another couple of payments on our note. Now we find ourselves pleading for our freedom in front of one of Ultra's loan officers.

Mr. Brooks leaned back in his chair, looked sympathetic, and sighed. Then he took out a pen, wrote a message on a sticky-note, put it on our application for a second extension, placed the application in a courier envelope, and hit the intercom button on his phone.

Cindy, could you send me a mailgirl?" Mr. Brooks said.

"Yes sir," a female voice on the phone answered.

"Thanks," Mr. Brooks turned his attention back to us. "I've written a note to my manager recommending your request but, I warn you, if he says no, you're out of time. Your extension period ends at noon today and, if Ultra doesn't give you a second extension, it'll probably call the note."

"What do you mean by call?" Nicky asked even though she seemed to know answer.