Sunset Shuffle - A Fiction (continued)
The bar Alexander chose was several blocks west and north. Vera cleared her throat as they approached it. The neon sign flashed “Girls Girls Girls,” and alternated “Nude Nude Nude.”
“My sister works here,” he said without apology as they stepped up to the door.
“Sure,” she said, “my brother works at Der Weinerschnitzle. Free is free.”
They walked in and Vera was quite surprised. She was expecting dark and dank, something seedy and grungy. But this place had plenty of lights – strobes, streamers, flashers, spot lights whirling and twirling, and three round stages. Each stage had three girls dancing, each in different levels of undress.
Alexander walked straight into the bar, ignoring all the dancers, and Vera followed him. He took a stool and she sat next to him, on his right. There were two other patrons at the bar, but they appeared well tended for the moment. The bartender came over.
He was a burly man, mid twenties in age. His face unshaven for a day or two, dark and scruffy. He wore lose fitting blue jeans and a black t-shirt with a golden image of the four members of Led Zeppelin on his chest, chipping and peeling off the shirt with vintage wear. “Hey Alex,” he said. “Susan’s doing stock right now. She’ll be out in a minute. Want a Coke?”
“Yeah, one for her too.” The bartender drew two Coca-Colas from the well. “Thanks, Pete.” Vera was hoping for something a little stiffer, but, as she said earlier, free is free.
Vera was about half-way finished with her beverage when Susan walked up behind the bar. “Good afternoon, Alex,” Susan spoke with the loveliest voice Vera had ever heard. She looked up from her soda to see the shapeliest woman she’d seen in a long time. Even in sunny California, this much tone to a body and such well rounded yet firm breasts might seem unusual. But what was most unusual was that Susan sported beneath her beautiful almond shaped eyes and a petite nose a full beard. A bearded woman! Vera dropped her glass flatly on the counter top. It splashed some of its contents on to the bar. Susan smiled beneath her well trimmed veil of facial hair.
“Here,” Susan grabbed the glass, “let me refresh that.” She drew more Coke into the glass. “Whiskey or rum?” she asked. Vera sat dumbfounded.
“It’s not every day you meet the ‘famous’ bearded lady. This one’s on the house. What are you havin’?”
“Oh, uh, Captain Morgan,” Vera responded and smiled back. Susan filled the glass with two shots of Captain Morgan rum.
“Have a double. You should’ve seen your face!” Vera could only imagine the look of shock she must have shown. In the city of glitz and glamour, filled by the presence of some of the world’s most beautiful elite, a bearded woman is never something you’d expect to see.
“So what brings you here today, Alex?”
“I think Vera’s life is being threatened,” he said, “and I was wondering if you still have a vacancy upstairs.”
Susan gave Alexander the kind of look you get when you reveal a person’s darkest secret, the look that says “how dare you bring that up now.” The Big Top Strip Club may not be the most family friendly three rings in town, but it still had a reputation to uphold as a law abiding establishment. Even when it wasn’t abiding by the laws. More especially when it wasn’t!
The first three rooms at the top of the stairs where declared as office space. That’s where the business of running a business was conducted. Two more rooms beyond them was storage. The first held files and boxes of papers and books and all sorts of office materials like toner, CRTs and paper clips and coffee makers among other things. The second is where you’d find posters, old signs and props and costumes that hadn’t been used for years. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you what one of the dancers back in the 70s could do with the lava lamp that sits in this room somewhere. And on the east wall was a life-size poster of John Merrick, the “Elephant Man,” descreatly concealing a door that might normally be mistaken for a closet.
Behind that door lies a hallway with six more doors. Three rooms with beds and dresser drawers. Two with toilets and sinks, and one with a shower. Your basic brothel. Of course, more things than you might imagine go on up in here. Like tonight, maybe it’s a safe house.
Vera was taken by surprise again. She had no idea she was going to find herself in protective custody when she first noticed the black Cutlas with its tinted windows. She’d never seen the car before but she caught a glimpse of the driver. He seemed hauntingly familiar. She couldn’t put her finger on it, it was creepy. She felt she’d seen him before.
“You know,” Susan said, “we haven’t used those rooms in years.”