Shirl (Soylent Green, 1973) was a furniture girl --literally, a contract prostitute that came with an apartment in a luxury high-rise building in the overcrowded New York City of the future.At a time when population had increased to mind-numbing levels, and natural resources were scarce, the men in this society finally legalized prostitution. In so doing, they refined it in a way that a twentieth-century observer would probably find cynical.An old proverb from the Women's Liberation movement of the 1960s says that, to men, women are nothing but pieces of furniture. So in this society, prostitutes are exactly that: pieces of furniture. They might be part of the building furniture, available to service any man who visited a tenant. Or, if they were especially prized, they might be part of the apartment furniture, available to service the tenant.Shirl's last tenant was William R. Simonson, president of Soylent, Inc. Simonson made no demands on her; instead he let her play videogames and otherwise amuse herself, as if she were his daughter, not his mistress. This is how we see her as the story begins.Following the murder of Simonson, Detective Thorn (NYPD) interrogated her briefly. He clarified that she was apartment furniture, and then briefly examined her for bruises, broken bones, or other signs of abuse. Human furniture in this society is just as subject to abuse as inanimate furniture is in ours, and the NYPD had known some furniture girls to kill their clients after those clients had abused them once too often. Thorn found no such signs on Shirl's body, and so his professional interest in her was at an end. She had no motive; she was no longer a suspect or even a person-of-interest.But that did not stop Thorn from taking a personal interest in Shirl. While the murder investigation was still pending, the apartment was held vacant (as it would be today). So Shirl had the run of the apartment until the investigation would be completed. Thorn came to the apartment, ostensibly to investigate, perhaps even to question Shirl a little more closely about what she remembered about Simonson. But inevitably his interest became strictly personal.Shirl was touched. Even Simonson had never taken an interest in her as a person, and as an adult equal. And so she fell in love with Thorn. Sadly, both knew that it was a futile romance. Thorn's salary could not afford him anything more than a hole-in-the-wall apartment that he shared with an elderly male roommate. That was even assuming that he could swing the required permits to have her come and live with him.What happened to Shirl, no one can say. Thorn nearly got himself killed when he found out the horrifying reason why a kid with a crowbar had come in and brained Simonson. Whispers might or might not have reached Shirl about Thorn screaming, as his buddies were carrying him out on a litter, Soylent Green is people! Show less «