Authors: Ray Garton
With her costume on, Anna left the big communal dressing room and went out into the nightclub. Between sets, the girls waited tables. Some chose to wait tables topless while others kept their costumes on. Anna wasn’t comfortable walking around topless. Dancing naked on the stage was one thing, but just walking around from table to table with her tits exposed – she couldn’t do it. She knew it meant less in tips, but she couldn’t help it, it was out of her hands.
The bar was in the front of the club, the stage in the rear, and in between were tables, and against the wall some booths. There was a bar along each edge of the runway, too. The club was spacious, with a high ceiling. From outside, the building looked like a ski lodge, with an A-frame and tall windows. But the blackened windows were dark, and written in purple neon in one of them were the words LIVE NUDE GIRLS. It was located halfway between Redding and Mt. Shasta, out in the woods, of all places. But it did a booming business. It helped that it was the only strip club in the area. The next closest was all the way over in Chico.
Anna went behind the bar and got an order pad and pen. She found the manager in the kitchen behind the bar, where they made all the bar food. Paul Wagner was a little balding man with a belly and jowls who always wore a suit.
“Where do you want me, Paul?” she said.
“Take section four,” he said. “Delilah was supposed to take it, but she went home sick. So I’ve got Candy working two sections, and you can take section four.”
“Will do, boss,” she said, then she turned and left the kitchen, went out from the behind the bar, and headed for section four. That included all the customers seated at bars along the sides of the runway and tables to the left of the runway.
There was just another hour before closing time. Anna sighed and went to a table and took her first order.
Her third order came from a handsome man with dark hair seated at the runway. He ordered a scotch and soda, then said, “Could I have a word with you?”
“About what?” Anna said, smiling.
“What’s your name?”
“Kitten.”
“Well, Kitten, my friend and I, here, are photographers. We have some websites and I was wondering if you’d be willing to pose for some pictures for us.”
“Pictures, huh?”
“We’ll pay, of course. Think about it. Here’s my card.” He took his wallet from his back pocket, opened it, and removed a business card, which he scribbled on with a pen before handing it to her.
It read, BURNING LIZARD AMUSEMENTS, and below that was a phone number and a post office box number in Redding. Written on the back was his name and another phone number.
“My name is Steven Regent,” he said. “You are an exceptionally beautiful woman, Kitten. You stand out here, I’m serious. You’re also the finest dancer in the place.”
“Well, thank you, aren’t you sweet. I’ll get your drink for you.”
“You’ll think about it? I think we could work together very well. We pay well.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said, then she turned and headed for the bar.
Photographers. A website. It sounded dubious to Anna. But he said they would pay. And well. She slipped the card into the top of her right stocking. She’d keep it. Just in case.
Eight
Reznick rose slowly to the surface of his sleep like a bloated corpse bobbing to the surface of a still, deep lake. He opened his sticky eyes and squinted painfully at light, then closed them again. It was morning, he knew that much. But he wasn’t sure where he was.
Did I tie one on last night?
he wondered.
He reached up and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, then opened them. He was lying on the couch in the living room wearing only his undershorts. The television was on. Cartoons. Rocky and Bullwinkle. He smacked his lips, but he tasted no liquor. Instead, he tasted bitter morning breath and the harsh remnant of NyQuil.
He’d made it through the night without having a drink, without driving down to Handi-Spot and buying a bottle. It had not been easy.
At first, he’d fallen asleep only to find himself in a dream of Victoria – a vivid dream from which he’d awakened suddenly with a ragged gasp, still smelling her perfume, his heart drumming against his ribs. He’d been in bed then. He’d tried to go back to sleep two more times, maybe three or four, but the same thing had happened again and again.
Around four in the morning, he’d come out to the living room and stretched out on the couch. He’d turned on the TV, tuned it to the Cartoon Network. Something that would shut his mind down and not require any thought. Pretty soon the cartoons had blurred, the colors had bled together, and he’d finally drifted off into a deep sleep.
He swung around and sat up on the edge of the couch, put his elbows on his knees, and scrubbed his face with both hands. He looked down and saw Conan curled up on the floor beside the couch. The dog lifted his head and looked at him, then stood and stretched. Reznick sat up straight and looked at the clock on the wall, focused. It was eight thirty-three. He could easily go back to sleep, but it was time to get up.
“Hey, buddy,” Reznick said, and Conan hopped up onto the couch beside him. He petted the dog, roughed him up a little. “Need to go outside, I bet.” Reznick stood and went to the door, opened it, opened the screen, and said, “Go ahead, boy.”
Conan dashed outside.
Reznick went to the kitchen and got the coffee maker started. By the time he was done with that, Conan was back inside. Reznick closed the screen door and locked it, then turned on the swamp cooler. He fed Conan, went into the bathroom and took a shower, and by the time he got out, the coffee was ready. He put on a pair of jeans, poured a cup of coffee, then took it outside, shirtless and barefoot. Conan followed him. It wasn’t even nine o’clock yet, and the thermometer on the wall beside his door read a hundred and four. There was no breeze – the morning was still. Country music played loudly from one of the trailers.
Reznick opened his mouth for a long, luxurious yawn, then turned to go back inside, but stopped. He heard a rhythmic slapping sound. He turned around and faced the road, turned toward Anna Dunfy’s trailer.
A multi-colored ball bounced on the pavement from the front of the Dunfy trailer. A moment later, Kendra appeared.
“Hello,” Reznick said.
Startled, she missed the ball and gasped, turning to him. The ball bounced away from her and she chased after it, snatched it from the air, then turned to him again.
“Huh-hello, Mr. Reznick,” she said. She looked at him with her mouth open.
“You can call me Marc,” he said.
“Mommy likes me to call grownups by Mr. and Mrs.”
“I see. Well,
I’m
more comfortable with Marc.”
“Okay.”
Conan hurried over to Kendra and pawed at her bare shins. She hunkered down, put the ball on the ground, and petted him with both hands, saying, “Oh, you’re just such a sweet little doggy, you know that, Conan? You’re a sweet little doggy.”
While she played with and talked to Conan, Reznick took her in.
She wore a short sleeve red plaid shirt open over a bikini bra, and a pair of black shorts, flip-flops on her feet. Her legs were long, her sizeable breasts round and firm. Her long, honey-colored hair fell down on both sides of her face as she bent and played with the dog.
Reznick realized his breathing had increased in speed. His heart was beating faster. His palms were sweaty, and it had nothing to do with the heat. He could not remember the last time he’d wanted a woman so badly, so deeply, the last time he’d felt a physical hunger for the touch of a woman’s flesh, for the sensation of her lips on his.
He remembered the night before on the roof of Anna’s trailer – he’d noticed something odd about Kendra. What had it been? He’d been unable to put his finger on it then, and he couldn’t identify it now, either.
He sipped his coffee, but it tasted bitter, awful. He tossed the coffee out on the small patch of grass in front of his trailer.
“How old are you, Kendra?” he said.
“I’m sixteen,” she said. “I’ll be seventeen in November. Mommy said she’s going to be buy me a big cake for my seventeenth birthday. German chocolate’s my favorite. What’s your favorite kind of cake, Mr. Rez – uh ... Marc?”
Mommy
, he thought.
How many sixteen-year-olds call their mother “Mommy”?
“I guess my favorite would be chocolate,” he said, frowning now, trying to put his finger on it. “You like Conan, huh?”
“Oh,
yes
! He’s such a cute little doggy.”
“Don’t you have any pets?”
She stood up then, and a frown created lines between her eyebrows and on her unblemished forehead. She tilted her head to one side, mouth open slightly. “No, I don’t. I’ve
never
had a pet. I’m gonna ask Mommy if I can have a doggy.”
“You go to school, Kendra?”
“Not during the summer. But yes, I go to school.” She frowned again. “Some kids, they make fun of me, because I ride on the short bus.”
Mommy. Doggy. The short bus.
Oh, my God,
Reznick thought.
She’s retarded.
“I’m gonna tell Mommy I want a doggy.” She took a few steps until she was standing right in front of him. She spoke in a whisper. “When you see Mommy, will you tell her you think it would be a good idea if I got a doggy?”
She was so close to him he could almost feel her heat. Her eyes were the blue of denim. She wore no lipstick, but her lush lips were rosy.
“Well,” he said, “I ... I suppose I could put a word in.”
“Oh,
thank
you!” she said. She threw her arms around him and squeezed him.
Reznick’s heart stopped as he felt her breasts crush against him, felt her warmth against his body. He did not return her embrace because he was afraid that if he did, he would not let go, he would be
unable
to let go until his mouth was on hers and their tongues were together and his hand was on her breast, and he thought,
Whoa, buddy,
as his heart seemed to beat against his ribs like some kind of animal locked in a small cage desperate to get out. He smelled the shampoo she’d used to wash her hair, smelled the toothpaste she’d used to brush her teeth, and felt her breasts, still pressing against him. It seemed to go on and on, and he felt perspiration dribble down his sides, down his back, and he hardened against her, he couldn’t
help
himself, he couldn’t
stop
it, his erection pressed against her and she pressed against it, and her embrace seemed to last and last and –
“I’m gonna go tell Mommy I want a doggy right now,” she said as she pulled away. “And if she don’t agree with
me
, maybe she’ll agree with
you
.” She turned and picked up the ball, tucked it under an arm. She bent down to pet Conan one more time. “Bye-bye, Conan.” She tossed him a smile over her shoulder and said, “Bye-bye. Marc.”
“Bye,” he said, but it came out a broken whisper.
Kendra disappeared around the front of her trailer.
Reznick turned and went inside before someone saw him standing there with a hard-on.
* * * *
Anna leaned out the door of the trailer and said, “Kendra? Breakfast is ready.”
“Okay,” Kendra said, coming from the front end of the trailer holding a ball.
Anna noticed what she was wearing and said, “Hey, if you want to wear that shirt, you’ll wear it buttoned up, understand me?”
“But it’s cooler this way.”
“Then put on a cooler shirt you can button up. You’re not going around like that, Kendra.”
Anna stepped back as Kendra came up the steps and entered the trailer.
“You don’t think it looks good?” Kendra said.
“That’s not the point. I don’t want you walking around dressed like that, and I think you know why. Don’t you?”
“But what about when we go to Brandy Creek and I swim in the lake? I’m wearing a lot less then.”
“Well, that’s different. We’re not at Brandy Creek right now. Sit down, now, I’ve got pancakes.”
“Oh, goody!”
Kendra went to the small table in the kitchen and sat down.
Anna put a plate of pancakes and some banana slices in front of Kendra. There was already margarine and syrup on the table.
Anna’s parents had been crazy people. They had been abusive and unloving. But they had given her something she had always appreciated – they had seen to it that the family had always eaten their meals together at the dining room table. Well, they had eaten breakfast and dinner there, anyway. In the morning, they’d gathered at the table and, when the yelling subsided, they talked about the day ahead, and their plans for it. At dinner, they’d talked about the day that had passed and what had become of their morning plans. It was a good memory she had of growing up – one of the few – and she wanted to pass it onto Kendra. It would be nice if Kendra could pass it onto her children. But that wasn’t going to happen.