Our eyes met.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Ali asked. I shook my head. It wasn’t veryoften that we had a meeting of the minds.
“We got to go out and find him,” I said.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
Later, I would regret this decision, understanding that it was one of the biggestmistakes of my life. But when you live a lie, you need to constantly confirm that it is true.
I was pumped up. I could feel the excitement surging through my veins. I waseleven, Ali was thirteen and we were both under age, violating curfew, and completelyout of control. Wow! It felt good to be bad. We walked everywhere looking for this man.I think that we both sighed with relief when we saw the “Sniffies” sign. It was the lastclub in town, and we were hoping that he would be there. We immediately found a hidingspot by a tall tree. We sat and watched with amazement as single men and couples of allages walked in and out of the bar. A motley collection of old, beat up cars were in theparking lot. My brother and I rested our eyes on an old red pick-up truck; we knew thevehicle too well.
“I’m going in.” He whispered, like a police officer that needed cover. I trailed behindhim.
“Nelly, go back, they ain’t going to let us both in,” Ali said. “No, I’m scared; I don’twant to be in the dark by myself,” I whined.
“See, I knew that you should have stayed home,” he said.
He was quiet for a minute. “You go in and I’ll stay out here”
“Ali!”
“They’re going to let you in before me. Just go and I’ll be watching you from behindthat tree,” he said pointing to a spot off in the distance.
I was beginning to regret my decision. What the hell was I thinking about,convincing my brother to sneak out in the middle of the night to look for a man whoobviously didn’t want to be bothered? I swallowed a knot of fear and took baby stepstoward the front door. I looked at the building; it vibrated in sync with the music. Therewere two bald-headed bouncers manning the front door. There was an explosion ofruckus that caused them to abandon their post. Minutes later, they came storming out,stringing a strange man by the neck, like a doggy carrying her cub. Only, the man lookedlike he was in a great deal of pain.
One of the bouncers forcefully threw him down on the pavement.
“Don’t bring your ass here no-more.”
“How in the Hell did he get in here anyway?” the other bouncer asked.
“I don’t know, probably one of the motherfuckas at the door let him in.”
“I told them, time and time again. Do not let this motherfucka in the club.”
“Yeah, but nobody listens.”
“He ain’t going to buy no fucking drinks, because his ass is drunk before he getshere. He’s always groping and trying to get free feels on the girls, without no fuckingmoney.”
“Shit! He must think that he got it like that.” “He used to be the man, back in theday.”
“Yeah. Back when my granddaddy’s dick used to get hard.” They laughed.
“Hey Cabron, don’t you ever lay your fucking hands on me like that again,” themysterious man said with a strong Spanish accent. He got up and began to wipe theinvisible dust off his shirt and pants.
“Get the Hell out of here.”
“Yeah. I’m going to leave, but the next time I come here I’m going to knock your assup.”
“You mean knock me out? You illiterate, Spanglish speaking motherfucka.”
“Nico! Get your ass out of here,” the second bouncer yelled throwing a half emptybeer can at him. It landed hard on his chest with the fuzz spilling out onto his shirt. Theman flinched and then sent the bouncer a dirty look.
“Yeah. Yeah. What you gonna do?” one of the bouncers said. The man named Nicostarted to walk away.
“Yeah, I knew that you didn’t want a piece of this,” said the second bouncerflaunting his brawn by unzipping his black bomber jacket and banging his chest.
The door was wide open. I slipped inside the club unnoticed. I tried to adjust to thedisco lights as I looked around the room for my father. The men were lined up onbarstools drowning their sorrows by drinking two for one beer and feasting their eyes onyoung flesh that danced around flauntingly.
This place looked really pathetic. It was where non-eligible bachelors and miserablymarried men gathered to escape their grossly obese wives and bastard children. The girls,who looked a little older than me, took turns dancing on a plate-form stage, meagerlydressed and plastered with tattoos and piercings. Secret rooms were roped off for menwho were ready to spend some serious cash on lap dances and other activities that wereusually guarded with an X-rated label.
My heart began to pound when I spotted him. He was sitting with a less thanordinary blond. She was wearing a micro miniskirt with thigh high boots and a fake furthat came down to her waist. I was standing quite a distance away, but I could see herface. She had ice blue eyes that were cold and heartless as arctic snow. Her lips werepencil thin and stained from years of smoking. They got up and walked towards me. Iscurried away like a frightened mouse and bumped into someone behind me.
“Hey little momma, what are you doing in here?” said a halfnaked woman withbutterflies painted over her nipples. Quickly I rushed out of the club and ran to the spotwere Ali was hiding. I couldn’t speak, and I didn’t have to, because minutes later, theycame walking out. We both watched in silence as they climbed into the car and drove off.My hands begin to clinch up into fist; I bit down hard on my lip and tried to control theblack rage that was erupting inside of me. I stole
