Stephen Leather - Once bitten

She gave me directions and five minutes later we pulled up across the road from a black-painted windowless building. Steps led up to double doors which had been opened and above them was a neon sign which said The Place. The door was being guarded by a broad-shouldered bald Negro in a black suit. His impassive face broke into a grin when he saw Terry.

"Terry, my girl!" he boomed. "How's my favourite creature of the night?"

"Hanging in there, Toby," she said. She kissed him on the cheek. "This is my friend Jamie." she said as she breezed past him. Toby nodded at me, but I didn't get a grin. I followed Terry down a red hallway to another set of doors guarded by another Negro, even bigger than Toby. He also greeted Terry by name and pushed open the doors for her, allowing the throbbing beat of heavy metal music to billow out. The dancefloor was packed with pretty much the same sort of characters we'd seen in the cinema, lots of black, lots of leather, lots of skin and pierced ears and noses, and everywhere Terry was welcomed, a kiss on the cheek, a hug, a warm smile. She seemed to have an incredible number of friends and I felt a surge of jealousy, especially when guys touched her, but she never spent more than a few minutes with any of them before moving off with me in her wake.

The sound system was deafening, making conversation impossible, but by the look of it there was little if any interest in talking, just lots of body contact and flailing of limbs. I felt old. Hell, who an I kidding, I was old, it was just that my mind hadn't accepted it yet.

A bar ran the length of one side of the dancefloor, shiny black wood and brass rails, with half a dozen barmen in matching black trousers and waistcoats doing their best to deal with flow of orders. There was a crush at least three deep of people wanting to buy drinks, waving money and shouting to be heard above the brain-numbing music. Terry stopped and put her mouth up close against my right ear, so close I could feel her breath. I thought she was going to kiss me but instead she asked me what I wanted to drink. I put my mouth against her ear and said I'd better get it, she'd have no chance of getting through the crowds. She grinned and said that one of the barmen was a friend so I asked her for a vodka and tonic. She took me to a pillar and told me to stand there so that she could find me again and then she made her way to the bar for all the world like a black shark carving through a shoal of fish. She went to the far right of the bar where the crowd was thinner and where there was no barman serving and she stood on the footrest to give herself an extra six inches of height, but even so she didn't stick out and I reckoned it would be some time before she got served.

To my left a young guy in a red and green Mohican haircut and a t-shirt slashed with a dozen cuts gyrated in front of a girl with waist length blond hair in a tight rubber dress that left little to the imagination. Behind them two brunettes in matching leather outfits were dancing slowly and kissing, oblivious to the pulsating beat, lost in their own bodies. It was hot and I could feel sweat on my face and in the small of my back. I looked back at Terry. She still hadn't been served. She wasn't shouting or waving or doing anything that would attract the intention of any of the men behind the bar. Instead she seemed to be waiting and was staring intently at one of the barmen, a tall, thin guy with long black hair that was tied back in a feminine ponytail. He had long arms that seemed ungainly at first glance, jerkily moving from bottle to glass like a badly-manipulated puppet, but he was fast and never seemed to make a mistake. He had deep-set eyes and a narrow face which always appeared to be set in a frown with deep furrows across his brow. He seemed a very intense guy, and when he was taking orders he stared the customer right in the face, almost glaring at them, and then he'd nod curtly and fill the order. He always seemed to hear them correctly first time, he never asked them to repeat and, unlike the rest of the serving staff, he wasn't constantly leaning over the bar to hear better. It didn't seem to matter where he stood or how quietly the customer spoke. It was as if the music just wasn't there, as if he was working in total silence. He never spoke either, just keyed in the orders into the cash register and pointing when the customers queried the amount. He was deaf, I realised. He was deaf and he was lip-reading. He was doing it well, too, by the look of it.

He finished serving two lagers to a couple of men wearing studded dog collars and leather vests and then scanned the bar, his eyes widening when he saw Terry. He headed towards her, smiling widely. He raised his open right hand and moved it back and forth, sign language for hello.

She mimicked the gesture, pointed to her right ear and then made fists with both hands, moving them together then apart. The sign for noisy. She followed it by angling her fingers upright at right angles to her palms and then dropping both hands down. Then she put her left hand at chest height, palm down and moved it in an arc over the right hand. The two movements together signified tonight. Noisy tonight.

He nodded, pointed with his right finger and rotated it clockwise. Around the clock. Always.

He pointed at her and then pointed his index finger directly up, palm in front of his face and then rotated it anti-clockwise. You alone?

She waved her open right hand with the fingers together and the palm towards him made an S shape in the air. Never.

He laughed soundlessly.

She made two fists and brought the knuckles together, thumbs on top. With. She opened her fists and linked her hands together at the index fingers, separated them, switched positions and linked again. Friend. With friend. She meant me.

He laughed again, placing his two fists together, knuckles meeting, and waggled his thumbs towards each other. The sign for lovers.

She shook her head and repeated the sign for friend. My heart fell.

He pointed to his own chest, patted his forehead, and pointed at her. I know you.

She pointed at her own head with her right index finger and moved it clockwise. Crazy.

He looked past her, scanning the crowds, and caught me looking at him. He smiled and then looked back at her. He made a sign at his forehead, as if gripping the brim of an imaginary hat, and then pointed. The sign for he. He made a V sign with the first two fingers of his right hand and pointed at his eyes, then swung the fingertips out and away from his body. Watch. He watches.

Terry turned from the bar and saw me. She frowned and tilted her head on one side. The barman was laughing and began to serve a girl with platinum hair who was well over six foot tall and who had a tattoo of a fire-breathing dragon on one shoulder. Terry's hands began to fly in front of her body, she pointed to me, then put her hand against her head and flicked up her index finger, then pointed the index fingers of both hands up and made rising circling motions in front of her face, then pressed her thumbs and first fingers together and joined her hands and then moved them apart in a wavy motion. She had asked if I knew sign language. She did the movements quickly, as if testing me, and I had half a mind to pretend not to know what she was up to, but another part of me wanted to show off, to demonstrate that we had something in common.

Of course, I signed back. You sign well.

She grinned. You too. How come you can do it?

My sister is deaf, I signed.

Is she older or younger?

I put my fingertips on my chest then moved them up to just above my shoulders, then repeated the action several times, the sign of spirits bubbling up. Young. Deaf from birth, I signed. I learnt with her.

What's her name?

I signed her name letter by letter. Patricia. Terry frowned and signed back that she didn't understand. I realised my mistake, I'd used the British alphabet system which was different from the American version. I knew both because Patricia had had some deaf friends from the States and I'd met them several times. I spelt the name out again, this time using the American system.