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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela, chris@chrislamela.com, 707-566-8790 PST
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Magic Town, Chapter 4
Friday,
10:08 PM: Magic Town
Jeff looked around. There were cars everywhere with people milling
around or standing together in tight groups in the darkness.
In a couple more minutes they were walking through the front door into a
short hallway absolutely dark except for an outline of light around a black
curtain straight ahead which was soon pulled back, light bursting through on pulses
of loud music with a raucous punchy beat––THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP––the yelling
of what sounded like a thousand men––laughing mixed with yelling mixed with the
sounds of glass rattling, hands clapping, slapping on tables. A large black
hand appeared on Jeff’s left, leaned over yelling in a deep voice, “TEN
DOLLAHS, FIVE DOLLAHS EACH!” Jeff could barely hear the man’s voice over the
racket, the tall man leaning forward speaking directly into Jeff’s ear
apologetically, “Even fo' you, congressman.”
Congressman? Jeff laughed to himself looking up to the face
hovering over him, “What did you––”
“Sorry, suh, but dems da rules. But you can have da best table,” he
motioned to two men standing against the back wall, pointing to a table up
front with a flicking motion.
Jeff turned to look at this tall man, probably six-feet-six at least. Reaching
into his pocket Jeff accidentally pulled out a twenty that was snatched from
his hand followed by a stamp on the back of his hand, being pulled away from
the curtain by Pick who began to lead them toward a table at the head of an
elevated runway that ran from a black-curtained stage against the back wall
into the bar area.
“GOOD JOB! I KNEW HE’D LET YOU SIT UP FRONT!” Jeff stopped next to Pick
watching two burley men walk from the back of the room right up to a table in
front of the runway yanking the three men sitting at the table by their arms pushing
them away, signaling to Pick to come over, a waitress looked over, running up
to the table to clear bottles away, giving the table a quick sweep with a dirty
towel.
Jeff followed behind looking around him, the crowd of men yelling at the
stage. It was deafening as Jeff looked up seeing a beautiful black woman come
walking through curtains at the back of the stage––topless with her hands on
her hips with a come-on expression that Jeff had never quite seen before.
Jeff looked up at this female image before him on the stage, three feet
off the floor, as she strutted out on something like one of those Super Model
runways running out from the curtained stage, off-center to the room with him
and Pick sitting in the larger half, the runway ending twenty feet from the
stage.
Jeff was stunned. “My god, I’m
really at a strip joint!” was all Jeff could think laughing to himself how
earlier he had so committed himself that he would definitely not want to go to a strip joint.
He looked around him suddenly realizing that he was the only white man in
the entire room!
Jeff poked Pick’s shoulder, “I’m the only white guy in here!” Picked
waved his hand dismissively with a big smile, pointing up to the dancer.
He felt like his white face lit up like a big glowing candle even in the
pulsing swirling lights on the stage, but everyone ignored him with their faces
glued to the woman who was beginning to pull at the straps of her bikini
bottom, her large breasts dangling over the table next to them, men walking up
stuffing dollar bills into her bikini bottom.
“OFF OFF OFF OFF!” the room was yelling. In answer to the taunting the
dancer swished her skilled hand around her bikini snapping up a wad of bills, pulled
at the strings on each side, her bikini bottom snapped away, held high in her
right hand like some kind of trophy with a wad of money in her left hand, the
room full of men going absolutely wild! The crowd went crazy with yells that
made Jeff’s ears saturate with sound, the music went on THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
with some woman’s voice singing words in the music somewhere that could have
been Donna Summers, Jeff couldn’t hear over the clapping thumping yelling men.
A man’s voice roared from the ceiling, “LET’S GIVE A HAND FOR LORETTA
AND THROW A FEW MORE DOLLARS UP THERE FOR HER FINE PERFORMANCE!” a rain of
dollar bills showered onto the stage, the music suddenly ending with Loretta
picking up the last of the money scattered around the stage, thanking the room
with small bows and waves, disappearing through the stage curtain.
The loud music stopped, “WE’LL GIVE IT FIVE MINUTES AND THEN THROW A
LITTLE MORE MAGIC OUT THERE!” Softer music started up. Jeff could actually hear
voices around him.
Jeff looked to the back of the room near a door, noticing a group of
chairs filled by men sitting with no table in front of them, without drinks. He
turned back, Pick was motioning to the waitress with a large circling of his
finger, some sort of sign that she nodded at, turning away. He put his arm
around Jeff’s shoulder, “Well brothah what do you think, huh?” Jeff turned
around to the table, surprised that all the chairs at the table were suddenly
filled as Pick pointed around the table rattling off names which replied with
wide smiles directed to Jeff, a couple hands reaching across the table to shake
Jeff’s hand, Jeff just nodding as Pick continued the introductions, though with
all the loud voices and music he couldn’t hear a single name.
Soon the waitress walked up with a tray full of Budweisers, distributed
them around the table, leaned over to Jeff matter of fact, “Eight dollars.” Jeff
reached into his pocket pulling out a ten, she turned, left without a word.
“Remember what I said, brother,” Pick patted Jeff’s shoulder in a
friendly way, “Tip good. Two dollars won’t make it, that’ll make her slow to
serve us, okay?”
Jeff laughed to himself. Ah, yes,
the Mark.
He looked around the room, the walls were painted dark blue. There were
stars painted onto the ceiling, on the back wall there was a cartoon magician
ten-feet tall pulling a cartoon rabbit out of a cartoon hat. Jeff laughed out
loud poking Pick as he pointed to the back wall, “So we did see a rabbit coming
out of a hat!” Pick nodded, they laughed out loud together.
As Jeff gazed he noticed a wall filled with bottles on the right-front
side of the room tucked into a small space maybe fifteen feet across. There
were no chairs at the bar so he assumed it was the service bar for the
waitresses. Suddenly he saw a door open on the left side wall behind the bar.
Two large black men came through the bar, pushing through a swinging half-door
from behind the bar into the room followed by a smaller man, looked Puerto
Rican maybe, shorter than Jeff, wearing a white suit and very wide-brimmed
white fedora. The look reminded him of the Panama look when he was a kid. The three huddled
together with the man in white holding a piece of paper which he read from,
pointing generally across the room at the men sitting on the chairs with no
table. One of the men next to him nodded, took the paper from Panama Hat, walked
over to the men with no table, leaning to talk to the men who huddled in to
listen. When Jeff next looked, the men were gone leaving the row of chairs
empty.
Soon the loud thumping music started up as
another black dancer came out onto the stage, the whole process repeated. Pick
kept yelling at Jeff to throw money up onto the stage. Jeff reluctantly, carefully
pulled out the wad from his pocket holding it under the table counting out ten
ones. He waited a minute, the music thumped on. Finally when the stripper was
completely naked he threw five ones, one at a time, onto the stage.
Pick gave Jeff a thumbs-up turning his attention back to the stage.
Soon the music faded as another thumpy song came on without the break
they had last time, “NOW FOR A REAL TREAT GENTLEMEN! MAGIC TOWN GIVES YOU A
RARE RARE TREAT! WELCOME OUR LOVELY SHONNA WHO TONIGHT IS HER VERY FIRST TIME
ON STAGE!”
Jeff was turned away when Pick poked at him pointing to the stage. Jeff
turned around but instead of seeing a black dancer, there was the most stunning
white woman pushing through the curtain at the back of the room. Blond puffy
hair, trim figure, wearing a bikini bathing suit including the top. She seemed
nervous, having trouble finding the rhythm of the music as she strutted across
the runway in tall high heels, leaning over shaking her covered breasts over
Jeff’s table. She looked intently at Jeff. Jeff stared blankly up at her,
fascinated as she leaned over again as though trying to say something to him
with her body, with her movements. She kept her eyes on him as she walked
across the stage, scrutinizing him, her expression as though she was trying to
say something to him.
The place went wild!
If Jeff thought it was loud before, now his hearing was inundated, his
ears stuffed with big wads of sound fuzz being jammed pulsing into his ears. He
was trying to watch her feeling a little embarrassed, suddenly becoming even
more self-conscious about being the only white man in the room. A hundred-fifty
screaming black men, only him and the dancer. Two flames glowing in the room of
dark faces.
Pick yelled something.
“WHAT?” Jeff yelled back at Pick.
Pick leaned in, “I SAID YOU’RE THE WHITE GUY, GET HER TO TAKE HER
CLOTHES OFF!”
“WHY ME?”
“SHE’LL LISTEN TO YOU! ESPECIALLY YOU!” Jeff felt a dozen hands pushing
him up to the runway. He walked around the table to the end of the runway, the
dancer strutted up to him leaning over.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!” she screamed.
“THEY WANT YOUR CLOTHES OFF!” he yelled back handing her a ten dollar
bill.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!” she screamed again.
“THEY SENT ME UP HERE TO TELL YOU TO TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF!” He handed
her another ten. She turned away from him, in an instant she pulled off her
top, flung it toward the curtain at the back of the stage. She spun around with
a jerk facing Jeff, her body swaying to the music. Jeff was spellbound by her
breasts in front of him, medium sized, small even that more jiggled than swung
like the last dancers. She took Jeff’s two tens sticking them in her bikini
bottom being careful that the bills would show.
There was a loud, “BOOOOOOO” from the crowd directed at Jeff as he came
back around to the table.
“JESUS, NOW YOU DONE IT!” screamed Pick. Jeff shrugged. “THESE GUYS
DON’T WANT TO GIVE 'EM TENS! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?”
“YOU TOLD ME TO BE GENEROUS!”
“BUT NOT BIG BILLS FOR THE DANCERS YOU IDIOT!”
Jeff looked helplessly around him, men were signaling him with thumbs
down, hands cupped over mouths shouting sporadic boos, faces yelling at him but
he heard no words over the music and noise. He figured he had to do something
to get these guys back on his side so he impulsively reached into his pocket
pulling out a handful of five-dollar bills throwing them onto the table. Hands
rushed into the pile snatching the money as men stood up reaching to stuff them
into Shonna’s bikini bottom. Jeff was sure that at least a few of them made it
into her bikini though he saw a few disappearing into pockets. Pick gave a big
smile with a thumbs-up motioning Jeff to do more.
Jeff stood up with a twenty dollar bill in his hand raised for everyone
to see as the room erupted into a chorus of, “OFF OFF OFF OFF!” Jeff walked
around to the head of the runway, the music thumping on, the crowd of men
screaming.
Shonna walked over to Jeff, leaning down yelling just loud enough for
him to hear, “COME SEE ME AFTER OR YOU’LL SCREW THIS UP!” She leaned way over
snatching Jeff’s twenty with her teeth, standing she snatched the money stuffed
into her bikini bottom, pulled at the strings on each side of her bikini as it
fell away raising the money and bikini bottom over her head like a grand prize.
Instantly there was a shower of one dollar bills with a couple fives from
Jeff’s table raining onto the stage.
Someone yelled out, “SHE’S NOT A BLOND!” as the men howled in laughter Jeff
looked at Shonna’s dark pubic hairs just above his face, laughing just as loud.
“LET’S GIVE SHONNA A BIG HAND GENTLEMEN––THIS WAS HER FIRST TIME ON
STAGE AND YOU NEED TO BE GENEROUS SO WE CAN HAVE HER BACK!” followed by a final
sprinkle of ones which were quickly swept up by the exiting Shonna though not
quite with the finesse of the other dancers, the music went down, the lights
came back up.
“FIVE MINUTES GENTS AND THEN WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK!”
By now the waitress had returned regularly bringing three more trays of
drinks. Jeff made sure to send her away with five extra dollars each time. He
felt a wave of tired come over him looking down at his watch surprised that it
was nearly eleven-thirty.
Jeff felt a firm tap on his shoulder, turning around to see the tall
doorman standing over him, “Your attention is wanted in front of the dressing
room.”
“Dressing room?”
Pick chimed in, “I bet it’s the white girl! Man somebody is gonna get
lucky tonight!” The men around their table howled with delight that the white
guy was going to get the white woman tonight!
Jeff looked around for help from anyone, back at the doorman, “Dressing
room?”
Jeff felt enthusiastic hands pushing him to his feet again. He got to
his feet walking across the room to follow the doorman through the black curtain,
down the short dark hall toward the entrance, light appeared to the right of
the front door, the doorman pushing open a door pointing through it down a
stairway. “Go down and wait in front of the dressing room,” turned pushing past
Jeff back through the black curtain. Jeff peered down the stairs, gingerly
making his way down. At the bottom there was a corridor to the right. He turned
seeing two blue plastic chairs in front of a door with a big cardboard gold
star taped to a door on the left, a hallway with lime green chipped walls lit
by two bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. It was during a break in the bar,
the music was low so it could barely be heard down here.
As he stepped down the hall he noticed a tall black man standing in
front of a door at the other end as though he was guarding the door there. Jeff
tried to nod to the guard but got no response. He stepped forward sitting in
one of the two blue plastic chairs in front of the big gold star. He glanced at
the man at the other end of the hallway, wondering why he didn’t take a load
off, just sit in the chair right next to him. Jeff noticed the man had a
holstered gun, standing with a strange vacant stare, a tinge of fierce scowl.
His eyes stared over Jeff’s head not once looking down to him.
Soon the loud music upstairs started up again. Jeff could hear the THUMP
THUMP THUMP THUMP through the ceiling as the men starting up their yelling. He
could hear the sound of the announcer’s voice, couldn’t distinguish the words
which was not surprising seeing as he could barely understand them when he was
in the bar with the loud music, all the men yelling.
He waited nearly twenty minutes before the door with the star finally opened.
Shonna the dancer came out dressed in a red oriental design dressing gown. She
was even more beautiful up close, her hair was actually a dark auburn, no, not
really auburn. It reminded him of the dining room set in his aunt’s house, the
color of dark cherry wood. Her bangs were neatly trimmed in a curve around her
eyebrows tapering around her head covering her ears, coming to a nice round
shape below the nape of her neck; he knew from his wife’s haircuts that this
was attended to by an expensive hair stylist, not a cut you would get at the
six-dollar hair cut joint in a shopping mall. It flashed in his mind to wonder
if her hair was colored, but he remembered he had just seen her naked, that all
the evidence pointed to it being her natural hair color.
It didn’t matter because the effect was stunning.
Her face was still flushed from her dancing. Jeff felt intimidated. He
couldn’t tell her height, she was still wearing high heals, her complexion had
a bit of an Irish flush that borrowed tone from her hair. She was a beautiful
woman. What is it about beautiful women that he always found so intimidating?
He guessed that every man must feel that way, especially when the woman is
tall. He couldn’t really tell how tall she was in those shoes. That didn’t
matter. He still felt intimidated.
He remembered junior high school, his fascination with Amazon Women. His
junior high school hosted a guest teacher who he later came to realize was a
feminist before the word had even been invented. Maybe even a lesbian, of
course he didn’t know anything about that back then either. She taught about
Goddess worship of the pagan religions, about the women of Lesbos
and the Amazon women. The Amazon women were incredibly fascinating to him. He
had spent many a night in his bedroom playing with himself imagining that he
had been kidnapped by a tribe of them, a hundred tall buxomly Amazons, where he
was required to constantly give them sexual favors. And of course in his
adolescent mind’s eye he could do so relentlessly until they were all laying
fainted upon the ground from utter exhaustion, all from his enormous sexual
prowess.
But here was the real thing!
He gulped.
Beautiful.
Scowling.
She had stepped straight through the door with the big gold star. Without
a word she stood in front of him, examining him intently. She pulled the blue
plastic chair next to him around sitting backward in it facing him, her exposed
thighs stuck out around the chair’s back as she sat looking straight into
Jeff’s face. They could hear the thumping music, the faint racket of men
yelling through the ceiling.
She studied his face closely, tilting her head, looking at every detail,
his dark curly hair, his ears, his hazel eyes, looking carefully at his chin.
“My god,” her expression got so stern that Jeff pulled back, “you’re not him,
are you?”
“Who?” Jeff felt uneasy, she stared intently at him.
“You’re not him.” She shook her head. “Jesus, you could be his goddam
perfect twin brother, but you’re not him. What are you doing here?” Her
expression darkened even more. “Who are you?”
“Name’s Jeff, who are you?”
“Why are you here?”
“I don’t know. I just kind of followed this guy Pick over here from the
Underground. I thought that Magic
Town was, you know, where
they pull rabbits out of hats.”
She glowered at him, sat up with a piercing scowl. “You’re kidding
right? I mean what kind of con-man black guy named Pick brings you to a rabbit
hat place on the shitty side of Atlanta?”
She looked at him with a disgusted glare, “What? Were you born yesterday?”
“Look, I’m just a business man, a tourist that hooked up with this guy.
He brought me here. You know, a mini-vacation. And I think I was having an okay
time until you came out on that stage.” Jeff returned her intent look. “So
what’s the deal with you? What kind of nice white chick ends up showing off her
ass in a place like this?”
Shonna turned away for a second, back again. “I shouldn’t even be
talking to you.” She turned, looking at a big chip in the wall in front of her
keenly for a few seconds, tilted her head slightly, shifting in the chair as
though something occurred to her. She looked back at Jeff, the corners of her
mouth curling into a half-smile as though she was working something over in her
head. They sat there for what felt like ten minutes, total silence.
Jeff looked at her face, it was perfectly shaped, a perfect compliment
to her body which was on the thin side with just the right shapeliness. She had
fine features, eyelids that hung nearly to the black circle of her retinas that
were so focused on him at that moment. Bedroom eyes. He sighed, he was a total
sucker for a woman with bedroom eyes.
She had a strong chin though it didn’t protrude. Or maybe that was
because of the expression she was giving him now. There was no question of her
perfectly shaped face that so wonderfully matched her perfectly shaped body. He
tried to look beyond her intent expression, he could see a really beautiful
woman in front of him inspecting every detail of his face at that very moment.
Her face suddenly softened, the corners of her mouth curled into a smile,
“Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t really mean anything.” She half-reached out to him
with her left hand but didn’t touch him, giving him a little more smile. “I’m a
student. Studying business at Brown University. Everyone tells me that the
girls can make a lot of money on the stage. Hell, I made nearly a hundred
dollars in one dance!”
“Yeah, but fifty probably came from me, maybe more.”
“The guys have been trying to get me to do this for months. Okay, maybe
I won’t get rich, but I’m warning you…you need to know…look, this can be a
really dangerous place, these can be really dangerous people. Nice white guys
shouldn’t be hanging out around here. You shouldn’t have come here.”
“Well, I’m here.” Jeff glanced at his watch. “It’s nearly midnight and I
probably won’t be able to get a train back to my hotel, so what do I do?”
Shonna put her finger to her mouth thoughtfully. She sighed.
“Your name’s Shonna?”
“Yes, with an O and two N’s.”
“Really, I’ve never heard it spelled like that.”
Jeff suddenly noticed her eyes, at first he could not figure out what
was so unusual. Her eyes were a bright gold, almost as though they had started
out to become green but just somehow could not manage such an ordinary color.
Tiny little flecks of black swam in the golden color of her eyes, sprinkled in surrounding
the dark irises that were so intently focused on his eyes. He heard words
coming from her but just could not discern those sounds emanating from under
those fascinating eyes. The tone of her words kept wanting to express that he
was in some kind of trouble, danger even, but those eyes called to him in
another voice, telling him not to see but to gaze, not to hear but to sense. He
felt numb looking into those eyes that spoke to him as plainly as any words he
ever heard, in a language he could not understand. A language he so desperately
wanted to understand at that moment.
He slowly started to hear words again, her eyes finally let loose of
their spell allowing sounds to find his ears again. Shonna gave another soft
sigh. “I don’t know. I suppose you could hang out with us, but I’m warning you
this is a really tough bunch. You’ve got Pick. Chances are he can protect you
okay. And I suppose I have no choice.”
Jeff cocked his head as words were finally being processed inside his
head, he could now make sense of those words which suddenly frightened him.
“Protect me? What are we talking about? I mean, how bad can it be?” He shrugged
shaking his head trying to make sense of her words, “I mean these are just a
bunch of guys having a good time, right?” Now the words of warning from the shuttle
driver and his wife rang in his ears. He tried to think quickly how he had gone
from a little evening out in the Underground to now sitting in this scary
hallway with a man wearing a gun on one end, this golden-eyed Amazon in front
of him, a room full of guys upstairs that would probably rob and kill him as
soon as look at him.
How the hell did this happen?
He felt a quick rush of panic, deliberately making a voice occur in his
head telling him to calm down.
I’ve been in fixes before, right?
Calm down. Stay calm. Look cool.
He looked at her gown smiling to himself at the black pagoda figures set
in the red with little yellow-faced characters with hands together bowing to
each other.
She smiled again speaking softly, “Look, you seem like a nice guy who
just got to the wrong place. There’s no way you’re going to get a cab from here
and there’s no way you can go walking out of the club alone. And I’m sure the
trains are stopped anyway.”
Jeff didn’t even bother to look at his watch, he knew she was right. He
waited, watching her closely.
“You’re stuck here. Well, at least you have me and Pick.” She looked at
him again, slowly, back to examining every feature of his face. “Stand up.”
Jeff raised his eyebrows standing up anyway, turning around as she
signaled him with a swirling motion of her fingers.
She put her finger to her right cheek, “Hmmmm, maybe just a little
taller. What are you, about five-ten or so?” He nodded. “Me too,” she smiled,
“it’s okay, that’s a good height.”
“And what about you?” as he sat down, “I thought you were a new dancer
here and that made me think nobody knows you.”
“I told you that I’m a business student, right?” He nodded. “Seems I’ve
got a knack with numbers.” She paused, thought for a second, “Look, you look
like I can trust you. You don’t look like the kind of guys who’s going to conk
me on the head.” She considered for a second, “I work part time keeping the
books for this place. I spend all my time locked in that room over there,”
pointing to the guarded door down the hall. “Tonight was just a way to get more
people to know who I am. Kind of showing off. I spend all my time in that room
down there or up in the office with the club owner. I wanted to get out, maybe
have a little fun. It seemed kind of sexy to get up there to do what I did.”
“Well, was it sexy? Was it what you thought?” he smiled wondering.
She paused for a second with a half-smile. “Yeah, it was sexy. I mean,
I’ve been to the nude beaches out south of Savannah so I know what it’s like to be naked
in front of other people.”
Jeff laughed, “Nude beaches in Georgia?”
She gave an indignant smirk, “Hey, we’re not all prudes in Georgia. But
yes it was sexy, and I have to tell you that having you in the audience really
helped!” He tilted his head in question. “I don’t know, seeing you out there, I
don’t know, like being one of my peeps as they say, one of my people gave me a
little more courage.”
“And I suppose the tens and twenties helped too,” he laughed.
She gave a bashful smile. “No, I mean that you have a sense of dignity
about you that none of those cats do. You made me feel like I was giving a
show, not just stripping my clothes off.” She shrugged, “Does that make sense?”
He smiled, “I don’t know how, but it does make sense. I suppose I should
say that I enjoyed seeing you up there, and well, you know that I was obviously
at a strip club and must have come to see naked women.” He grinned. “But I
really did think Pick was bringing me to a rabbit hat place!” They both
laughed, he could tell that she was finally feeling relaxed.
She got a more serious expression, “Plus I wanted to find out about the
money the girls get.”
“So you’re an accountant for this place? Wouldn’t you know how much
money they get?”
“I’m not an accountant. I am the accountant
for this place. And no, the girls just take their tips.”
“But I don’t get it.” Jeff shook his head. “This place has to be rolling
in dough, why wouldn’t they just hire some professional bookkeeper. There must
be stacks of cash in that room.”
“Stacks, yeah that’s sure a word for it.” She continued in an almost casual
tone, “Let’s just say that a bookkeeper would ask too many questions––they
would probably not like the answers.”
“Criminal?”
“That’s a harsh word. Sometimes it’s just not that black and white.” She
paused. “So you’re obviously some kind of businessman, where are you from, what
do you do. Family? Kids?”
Jeff told her the statistics.
She grew more concerned.
“Well, tell you what. We can’t let anything happen to someone with so
much responsibility! Jesus, though, I wish you weren’t here.” She paused
looking at him with a curled lip smile, “You know…” her voice trailed off. She
deliberated, she studied him more. Jeff could see an emerging look like something
was occurring to her, that she was making up her mind about something. “Everything
happens for a reason, I guess, and seeing as you are here,” she gave a wry
smile that she tried not to show, “let’s see what we can do with this.”
There was a long silence. There were too many words in the jumble that
he was hearing, like a big ball of yarn of loose words, lots of loose ends made
of nouns and verbs hanging out, almost too many for him to catalog in his brain
at that moment. Loose strings. Jeff started to fidget.
She gave a quick smile, “Look, I get off in twenty minutes, at
twelve-thirty. I’ve got a car out back. You need to go back up to your friends,
buy them another round. Watch for me at twelve-thirty at the curtain, make all
your worst excuses and meet me at the front door.” They started to get up when
she said sternly, “And don’t go outside!”
Shonna disappeared through the door with the big gold star. Jeff guessed
it was the dressing room as he tried to look around her as she stepped back
through just in case he might see other dancers in there. No such luck.
He went back up the stairs. When
he got to the table it was the break again, there was only one other man
sitting next to Pick. “Hey, my man! You owe the waitress for four more rounds,”
he signaled to her, she turned toward them.
“That’ll be thirty two dollars, sugar.”
“Sugar?”
She gave a big smile, “Hell yes sugar, you’re the best tipper in the
room!”
Jeff glanced down at Pick who gave a shamed shrug and small sideways
smile. Jeff turned back to the waitress, “How many rounds? Never mind, here’s
forty dollars and bring us three more here, that should cover it, right?”
She quickly counted the money, leaned over to Jeff with a quick kiss on
the cheek. The whole room roared up, “Woooooooo!” Jeff sat down crimson faced.
Jeff happened to glance over at the chairs that Panama Man had pointed
to at the back of the room earlier, there were three different men there now.
All this watching and yelling made Jeff thirsty, he drank two bottles of Bud
that were stacked on the table in front of him, drank them straight down as the
waitress showed up with three more. He glanced at his watch, saw stroke of
twelve-thirty, he leaned over to Pick, “Hey, man, gotta go. It’s late and I
gotta get back to my hotel.”
“How you gonna do that? No way a cab’s coming to this side of town this
time of night.”
“I got a ride.”
Pick gave a big grin, “A ride, huh? Any chance a white woman is your
chauffeur?”
“Come on my man, a guy’s gotta be discrete, right?”
“Yeah, whatever you say brothuh, but I’ll probably catch up to you later
anyway.”
Jeff wondered at Pick’s words as he stood up glancing toward the door
seeing Shonna standing at the curtain. “Okay, man, gotta go, thanks for
everything,” he waved around the room vaguely at the nods, smiles, hands raised
in goodbye.
The man sitting next to Pick looked over to him as Jeff started to walk
away, “Hey, where’s he going?”
Pick gave a big smile waving after Jeff.
“The white woman, where else?”
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