A week passed quietly by as I tried to live as comfortable as possible. At hank’s insistence, I spent several evenings in his company as we strolled through the lively strip of bars and clubs like a couple of lost pups. We stopped into a few but generally he behaved himself in the first week. He allowed me to get out of the house but didn’t force me into a position where I’d have to find my own way home while he slipped his tongue down some girl’s throat.
The second week was not as docile. Hank began returning to his hound dog ways and I stood by, a witness to debauchery and lewdness. What girls did come my way were sent away by my grim expression and tone, the social pariah that I was channeling allowing me spare room to sit in observation.
By the end of the second week Hank decided it was time to let me “roam on my own” and turned me loose at the entrance to a club where he’d found the most satisfying prey. That he “cut me loose” was humorous considering the whole week’s worth of women he left me behind to woo. Each time he returned to water his wall flower with a glass of dark liquor. I would nurse these gifts until his eventual return. With a swift grab the glass would disappear from my grasp and slip down his gullet. Every night ended with him laying face up in the back seat as I drove his car home.
This night he dropped me off and vanished from sight. I paid the ten dollar cover charge and walked in. The music that sounded like tribal drumming from the outside turned out to be a thunderous roar of pop music that denied the other senses their turn. Sticking my finger in one ear and reducing the booming world to half a dull thud I regained the use of my other senses.
The room smelled like a gym sock that had been urinated on mixed with a flare of spicy wing sauce. Each step of mine was peeled from the floor boards as the residue clung to me like a nagging child wailing and clutching as I escaped its feral need. My eyes watched lights dance off the walls, shimmering then casting themselves upon the bodies writhing on the floor. Each a dark silhouette against a colorful and psychedelic backdrop. Each person moved like an amorphous blob, their limbs struggling for a sense of balance and place. They moved against each other in attempts to merge blob forms and create a unified super blob but with little success. I watched for a few moments before concluding that I would not be joining the pulsating mass regardless how proximate the women needed to be to the men near them. I wondered if any of them were inside each other and not only in the sexual sense.
I unplugged my ear and descended back into sensory deprivation. This would become a physical trial of sorts. The endurance of my body would be tested against the ethanol fueled youth that pervaded this establishment.
Before ten minutes were up I found myself rushing out the back door of the place where the smokers retreated to draw deeply of other fumes before climbing back into the sonic womb. My ears physically hurt and drummed with blood rushing back to replace the space left by a deep and invasive bass line.
I pinched my nose and tried to pop my ears. Sadly the pressure that had built up was completely sound related and so I stood looking like a boy about to beat his breath holding record.
“How muffled do I sound?”
The voice was feminine and contained withheld mirth. Turning I met its source. A lovely tall auburn haired woman with pretty eyes and a wide smile still holding back laughter.
“There’s a slight ringing but I can hear you fine.”
She smirked and tilted her head up inquisitively, “How long were you in there for?”
“Oh I don’t know, five maybe ten minutes.”
“Was it the oppressive altar to pop music or the orgy of chafing and mass dry humping?”
A wicked smile snaked onto my face. “I was getting a stink eye from the gonorrhea and syphilis sitting in the corner booth.”
“As long as some herpetic beast didn’t grind its blistered mass against you, which would be unfortunate.”
“Did a phallus try to stiffly offer you some drinks?”
“With the amount of alcohol in their veins I’d be surprised if their dicks didn’t catch fire when they beat off to the girls that didn’t come home.”
I became conscious of my mouth hanging open for the first time and snapped it shut. “Sidney,” I began.
“Seattle.” She stated before I could finish my greeting.
Confused I paused for a moment and considered the oddness of the name. “I haven’t met someone so ruthless yet.”
She smiled and laughed a bit, probably at something I didn’t know or understand. “Not normally but I haven’t really enjoyed the venue, plus you kept raising the bar.” She thought for a moment then stated, “Blue.”
The strangeness of the manner which she ended the sentence intrigued a quirky side of me. “Green.” Then I continued, “Why are you here then?”
Several moments passed then she raised an eyebrow and shook her head at me as though my sentence were incomplete. “Going to take your turn or are you passing?”
“My turn at what?”
She tilted back as though I had surprised her. Whatever turn I was taking or passing on was lost on me. “We’re not naming favorite things then?”
“When did that start?”
She squinted slightly, studying me. “When you said Sidney. Like a favorite city.”
A laugh tore out of my mouth before I could prevent its escape. I worried that I had offended her but she stood in good humor.
She began nodding to herself, “Sidney’s your name.” her teeth flashed in another smile.
I became aware of how pretty she was suddenly, the laugh breaking me from the trance of conversation. She wore a grey jacket over a strapless top the color of a swimming pool with a texture to match a small wake in the waters. The top of her moderate bust was revealed, sprinkled with a collection of freckles. She wore tight jeans that hugged her thighs snugly. She looked partially dressed for comfort and somewhat dressed for looks. That she wasn’t wearing a skirt or pants so tight that they showcased her claim to female anatomy garnered some respect.
“Indeed it is.” I felt my cheeks heat at this. It had been some time since I’d blushed.
“Thank you for the banter and awkward moment Sidney.” She smiled one more time and began walking inside.
“Returning to the altar?”
She turned and regarded me for a moment, something kept close in those eyes. “Leaving, I allow myself one embarrassing moment.”
Something inside me told me to let her go away but I ignored it and persisted. “Only the one?”
She laughed softly and shook her head as though I’d done something unbelievable and, I hoped, cute. “If I see you again.” She stood for a moment awaiting another question. I thought of many but settled on one more.
“What’s your name then?”
Mischievously she answered, “Seattle Blue.” Swinging her purse to and fro.
I released the hold on her by waving and saying, “Goodnight Seattle Blue.”
She took a deep breath and gazed at me from far behind those kind eyes and replied as softly as she had started it all, “Goodnight Sidney Green.”
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