types that populated the bars of the district. They were in pairs and groups and occasionally alone. Some walked down the street talking and laughing with each other, while some walked purposefully, eyes straight ahead as if unaware of anyone around them. Then there were those who were fully aware of everything. These were the ones who would glance over at the guys they passed, smiling and waving and joking with them before turning their attention elsewhere. Always working, always on.
Because I was on the inside, part of the Angeles inner circle, I knew a lot of the girls, maybe not all by name, but at least by face. And they knew me, too. So when they saw me I would get the smile and the wave, but I would also get “Hi, Papa,” “You haven’t come to see me in a long time, Papa,” and “I miss you, Papa.”
It was a parade of sorts. Unofficial and unorganized, yet so memorable and eye-pleasing that many guys who visited Fields considered it one of the highlights of the day. Some guys would follow the ones they found particularly intriguing back to the girl’s bar, or sometimes they’d even try to get a girl to skip work altogether and go with them on the spot.
Larry, though, didn’t seem to notice any of it. His eyes were focused on the roof of Jolly Jack’s, directly across the street. “I have a question for you.”
“Okay.”
“How do I make her understand that I’m just trying to help?” he asked.
“I’m not quite following you.”
He looked over at me and smiled. “Sorry,” he said. “Here’s my problem. I told you I was going to send money every month, right?”
I nodded.
“I’m planning on it being enough so that she doesn’t have to work anymore,” he said. “But she says she doesn’t want me to send her anything at all.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
He took a deep breath, shrugging slightly. “I told her she could go back home to her family, but she doesn’t want to do that. She said she’s not after my money. She said she’s not one of those girls, and that she has a job and makes her own living.”
It’s funny-if someone like Mariella had said that to a guy, I would have known she was just playing him, making it so that he thought she cared about him, before she would finally give in and say yes. The guy would probably offer her even more money in the end. But with Isabel, it was different. I’d seen with my own eyes what Larry meant to her. And if she had told him she didn’t want his money, she meant it.
“Every time I bring up the subject, she cuts me off,” he said. “She doesn’t even want to talk about it. I don’t know if it’s pride or what, but, Doc, I’ve got to do something.”
“Some of it’s pride,” I said. I took another sip of my iced tea. “She wants you to know that she’s not like the other girls here.”
“I know she’s not. I tell her that all the time.”
“That doesn’t matter. Look around,” I said, gesturing to the street where the parade of girls was at full force. For the first time, he seemed to notice. “See those guys over there?” I pointed toward a group of men gathered near the entrance of The Eight Ball, talking to the door girls while keeping an eye on the parade. “This is Isabel’s life, day after day. These are the only people she knows right now. This is her reality. When she says she’s not like the other girls, that’s not completely true.”
I could see Larry’s eyes narrowing.
“Let me finish,” I said. “When she says that, what she really means is that she’s not like those girls who are here only to take the guys for as much money as they can. She’s telling you she’s not one of the ones who’ll have multiple guys around the world who think of her as their girlfriend and send her money every month. The fact that she is just the opposite, and not the only girl on Fields who is, doesn’t really matter. Because of this place, what it is, she’s afraid that your first inclination will be to think she’s just another money-hungry bar girl.”
“But I never believed she was one of them,” he said.
I looked at him silently for a moment. “Before you go judging
“No, no. You’re right,” he said. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just worried about Isabel.”
“I know you are,” I said.
As the girls continued to walk by, I noticed another familiar face. It was Jade. She used to be one of the dancers at The Lounge when I first started, but she was getting old for the job. I think she was about twenty-seven then. She’d been offered a position as a mamasan at one of the smaller bars, and had jumped at the opportunity. She always had a good head for business, and had moved on from that small bar to become a mamasan at a much larger place called The Rack.
I waved to her when she got close, and she stopped on the street just below us, hands on her hips, looking up. “Hey, Papa. What’s going on?”
“Hi, Jade. Where you off to?”
“Work. Starting early tonight. Who your friend?”
“This is Larry,” I said. “Larry, this is Jade.”
“Hi,” he said.
“Ah. Is this the famous Isabel’s Larry?” she asked.
Larry’s eyes opened wide.
“One and the same,” I said.
“He’s cute. You tell Isabel I say so, okay?” she said.
“I’ll try to remember,” I said.
“Hey, Papa. We have anniversary party for bar on Thursday night. You off that night?”
“Not this week.”
She gave me a faux pout. “Too bad. We having body-painting contests and I know how much you like that.”
I laughed.
“Okay. Gotta go. Good to meet you, Isabel’s Larry. Bye, Papa.”
We said goodbye and watched her walk off.
“How did she know about me?” Larry asked.
“Nothing’s ever private in Angeles,” I said. “Besides, Jade is one of Mariella’s friends.”
The smile on Larry’s face slipped a little. “I don’t like her,” he said.
“Jade’s all right,” I told him.
“That’s not who I meant.”
I took a sip of my iced tea. “I know who you meant,” I said.
Silence overtook us again for a few minutes.
“I have an idea,” I said. There was only a little bit left in my cup, so I drank it all down in one gulp.
“What?” Larry said.
“What if I make Isabel a waitress instead of a dancer?” I asked. “I’ll bump her pay just a bit. It doesn’t mean guys are going to stop asking to bar fine her, but it’ll happen less and it’ll also be easier for her to say no.”
“Really?” I could see actual hope in his eyes.
“Sure.”
“But what about the money I want to send her?” he asked.
I thought about it for a moment, then said, “Send it to me. I’ll open an account for her and put it all in there. When she’s ready, she can start using it. In the meantime, if there’s an emergency, the money’s there.”
He thought about it for a few moments, running the idea through his mind. “Okay. Yeah. That’ll work. But I’m not going to hide anything from her. I’m going to tell her what we’re doing.”
“That’s your choice.”
And so it was settled. Larry would be happy that he was doing something to make Isabel’s life a little easier, and Isabel would be happy she could prove she wanted him for something other than his money. And in the end, Isabel hadn’t been lying. The first time she ever touched that money was two weeks after Larry died. And on that day, she withdrew it all and left Angeles for good.
