Brett Battles - The Pull of Gravity

Isabel was about to turn and retrieve his drink when Rudy said, “Hold on there. Not so fast.”

She turned back. “Yes?”

“Let’s see.” He looked at his temporary harem. “Lady drinks for her, her, her and her.” He pointed at a different girl each time. “But not for her,” he said, gesturing at Lamie. “You stood me up last time. So you’re out.”

Lamie gave a halfhearted laugh and looked around, uncertain.

“I’m serious,” he said. He flicked his hands in an outward motion. “Shoo. Find someone else, because you aren’t drinking from this well.”

One of the girls, Veta, leaned over and whispered something in Lamie’s ear. Lamie looked past her at Rudy, then got up and left.

“What did you tell her?” Rudy asked.

“I told her she should just go,” Veta said. “That you weren’t interested.”

“Good girl.” Rudy looked back at Isabel, pointing his thumb toward Veta. “She gets two lady drinks.”

“Anything else?” Isabel asked.

“Get yourself a drink, too,” he said with a wink.

“Thanks,” Isabel said. She turned and headed for the bar.

“Who’s that?” Rudy asked me, as if none of the other girls were around.

“Isabel?” I said. “You never seen her before?”

Rudy started to shake his head, then stopped. “Didn’t she used to be a dancer?”

“For a while.”

“She’s fine,” he said.

“She have boyfriend,” Veta said.

“Really?”

“Yeah. She no go out on bar fine.”

“That a fact?” he asked, looking straight at me.

“Afraid so,” I told him.

“Too bad.” His eyes lingered in Isabel’s direction a bit longer than I would have liked.

Rudy stayed for another hour, judiciously handing out chocolates and occasionally starting tickle fights with Veta and the other girls. But when he left, he left alone.

“I don’t like him,” Isabel said to me.

I was standing near the bar, talking with Cathy and keeping an eye on our meager crowd, but I didn’t have to ask her who she meant.

“Something happen?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said in a way that told me the opposite.

“You gonna tell me?”

“Not important.”

“Tell him,” Cathy said.

Isabel frowned, then told us how Rudy had offered to bar fine her. She told him no. But ten minutes later, he asked again. When she told him no for a second time, he said he wouldn’t accept no for an answer, and that before he left to go back home, she’d go out with him.

“What did you say?” I asked.

“I said that I was sorry but I don’t go out with anyone. I am just a waitress, I tell him. ‘You cherry girl?’ he ask me. I tell him that is my business. Then he laugh and not bother me anymore. See, it was nothing.”

Isabel smiled confidently, then left to get drink orders from a new group that had just arrived.

“I think maybe it was more than nothing,” Cathy said.

“So do I,” I said.

It turned out to be a slow night all around, and by three a.m. we’d seen the last of our customers. I waited a half hour before officially closing, then told all the girls who remained to head home and get some sleep.

By this time Cathy was basically living with me. She still shared an apartment with a couple of girls from her province who worked at the Bang-Bang Club, but she was seldom there. Our routine was to close everything down, make sure everyone was gone, then lock up and take a trike home.

I’d gone into the back for a minute to turn off all the lights. When I returned, I found Cathy talking to Isabel and Noreen. The tone of their conversation seemed serious.

“Everything okay?” I asked as I walked up.

They immediately stopped talking and looked up at me.

“Well?” I asked.

Cathy glanced over at Isabel, as if she was waiting for her to say something. But Isabel remained silent, so Cathy said, “He’s out there.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. It had been a long night and I wasn’t connecting the dots.

“The big guy,” Noreen said. “You know, from earlier tonight.” She held her arms out like a bodybuilder.

“Rudy?” I asked.

“Yes,” Noreen said. “I see him out there. He ask me if Isabel leave yet. I tell him yes, but I don’t think he believe me. So I tell him I go back inside and check.”

I looked at Isabel. “Have you gone out there yet?”

“No,” she said.

“Okay. Noreen, you come with me,” I said. “Let me do the talking.”

“What will you tell him?” Isabel said.

“That you’re gone.”

I put a hand on Noreen’s shoulder and could feel her trembling slightly under my touch. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll deal with him. You can just go home.”

Cathy unlocked the deadbolt for us and opened the door so we could exit. Manny Aznar, who’d appointed himself my personal ride-home driver, had parked his trike right in front of The Lounge, just beyond the sidewalk. He jumped off his seat the minute he saw me.

“Hi, boss,” he said. “Home now?”

“Not yet,” I said.

I looked around, but didn’t see Rudy at first. Noreen nudged me, and when I looked down, she motioned with her eyes to my left. And suddenly there he was, an image of Thor, leaning against the building. He had one of his Mr. Happy smiles on his face.

“What’s going on, Rudy?” I asked.

“Just hanging out.”

“Noreen tells me that you’re looking for Isabel.”

“Then Noreen has a big mouth,” he said, still smiling.

Noreen slid behind me a little more. “Why don’t you go home?” I said to her.

She tried to smile, then nodded and was gone.

“Isabel’s not here,” I said.

“I haven’t seen her leave.”

“You been here long?”

“Long enough.” He pushed himself off the building and took a step in my direction. Even in the glow of the streetlights and nearby neon bar signs, it was hard to tell whether he was drunk or not. But Fields being Fields, it was best to assume he was.

“You been here since ten o’clock?” I asked.

He stopped about five feet away from me, still grinning. “Like I said, I’ve been here long enough.”

“Well, unless you’ve been here since ten,” I said, “then you wouldn’t have seen her leave. That’s when she went home sick.”

He furrowed his brow, his smile slipping a bit. “She didn’t seem sick earlier.”

“She’s not going to act sick in front of the customers.”

He seemed to consider this new information. “You’re sure she’s gone?”

“I already told you she was.”

“Okay,” he said, nodding slowly. “Maybe I’ll come by tomorrow and see how she’s feeling.”

“Sure,” I said. “But I can’t guarantee she’ll be here.”

“It’s okay. I’m not leaving for a week.” He turned and took a few steps down the street before stopping and looking back at me. “I think she and I made a connection tonight.”

“I’m sure you did,” I said. “Goodnight, Rudy.”

“Goodnight.”

As Rudy ambled in the direction of The Pit Stop, I stopped by Manny’s trike and asked him to follow Rudy for a while to make sure the guy was really leaving.

A half hour later, Isabel joined Cathy and me in the trike as we drove to my house. By then we were laughing about Rudy, saying things like, “He probably won’t remember anything in the morning,” and “I’m sure he won’t come back.” But our laughter was a little forced, and like I said to Rudy, nothing was guaranteed.

The next night we employed our creep-watch procedure. If Rudy tried coming in, one of the door girls would engage him in conversation while another would slip inside and warn Isabel and me. If Rudy asked about Isabel, our greeter would tell him Isabel hadn’t come in and was still sick. I knew that probably wouldn’t stop him from checking, but if he did, Isabel would be safely hidden in the back room, and the rest of the girls would claim to not have seen her.