Out of high school I got a job at a small company. The owner was a real nice man and he treated me really well. There were four other women there. I was doing clerical work, and they were professionals. At first I thought maybe they were gay or lesbian, because of how they acted with each other. One day I overheard two of them talking about who was going to go look after Mr. Jones (the owner, not his real name). That she had things to do and if her coworker could help her out. On another occasion, I saw one of the women talking with Mr. Jones and he had his arm around her shoulder and when they parted she kissed him on the cheek. On a different occasion one of the women wore a dress and it didn't fit right, and one of the other women told her that she should go home and change because Mr. Jones didn't like his girls to dress like that. It didn't reflect well.

In time I got to know them better and came to find out that they were all like his wives, they lived in different houses, had their own children, but all of them lived close to each other. This one woman who I will call B was the one that lived with him and she was the one that really ran the office for Mr. Jones and the other women went to her for decisions. She wasn't the oldest, she was like the favorite daughter. When B became pregnant it was a real big thing and the others behaved like it was the birth of the next king.

I worked there for a year, I never heard a fight, I never saw anything bad between them, they all treated me really well and Mr. Jones was always very nice to me and encouraged me to go on to college. As they grew comfortable with me, things got out, they talked more openly about how they lived, he was the father of all their kids, and they called themselves 'the girls'. In the office things got done and it was all business, I learned a lot. One day, this woman named Sam talked to me a little about their life. She was so matter of fact, she was the third wife and how when she met Papa, which is what they called Mr. Jones, she had found her place.

I stayed in touch for a little while, but then moved on. I was never shocked about them. I never found my place, I am still looking.