The girl on stage was all legs. Legs and purple hair with a white streak, front to back, dyed on one
side; a punk stripper who looked about as sexy as a stuffed flounder. Weasel Murphy was sitting at
the bar, as close to the action as he could get without getting his nose caught in her C-string. A pair
of worn-out speakers were thumping out a scratched version of “Night Life” as the punker peeled off
her bra and let her ample bosom flop out. The Prussian army could have marched in and Murphy
would have missed it. He had eyes only for the Purple People Eater.
“Wanna just put the arm on him?” said Chino.
“Dutch says try to avoid a ruckus,” Stick said.
“What do we do?”
They sat down at a table the size of a birdbath near the door to think it over. Purple People Eater was
snapping her bra like a slingshot in Murphy?s face. He stuffed a five-dollar bill in the tip glass and
she kneeled down in front of him, pulled her G-string down to the bar, and let it snap back. He tucked
a twenty in the string, dead center. She ended her performance by seducing an imaginary pony,
complete with squeals of delight and instructions to the invisible animal. Murphy was wired so tight
he was humming.
One of the B-girls slid a chair over to the table and sat down backward. The runs in her hose looked
like black varicose veins. This one had orange hair, no streak. It looked like it had been cut with
pruning shears. She ran a finger along the brim of Stick?s hat.
“Love it,” she said. “I didn?t think anybody wore those anymore.”
“It was my grandfather?s,” Stick said. “How?d you like to make an easy twenty?”
“We?re not allowed to do that,” she said coyly. “Just have a drink with the customers.”
“You don?t even have to do that,” said Stick. “See that dude at the bar, the one who?s sweating so
hard?”
“You mean the one that looks like a possum?”
“Close enough. See, what?s happening, we got this bowling club and we just voted him in but he don?t
know it yet.”
“You?re into bowling?” she said. She made it sound like child molestation.
“Yeah. Anyway, see, we?re gonna put the snatch on him, take him out to my boat. The rest of the
