Black Betty

Introduction of people important to the plot.

 

                It was late Friday night and the high signs of Broadway blinked furiously. I loved stilettos, the little clicking sound they made as I marched heavy across the pavement demanding the attention of every boy and girl for a whole square mile. I made my way past the staring crowed and headed for one of the few places a girl could go to get away from it all in this city. I smiled at a group of gawking guys leaning against a brick wall. What a bunch of losers daddy had taught me how to pick them. I went straight on past them without so much as a sideways glance in full knowledge that I could have anyone of them at the drop of a hat. I made a left turn onto some old abandoned ally way and looked for the door that led to escape. No such luck as an easy shot to freedom. There some ways away were three totally different kind of guys, the dangerous type. One leaned against one of the tall brick walls he had two girls squashed under his arms groping wildly at their breasts and they sat giggling profoundly sloshing their drinks around soaking their skimpy little dresses, it was the hound. The two other guys stood mid ally looking at each other both smoking cigarettes peacefully blowing puffs of smoke into the calm New York air. One of them, the one called Wolf, had unusually grey hair considering he was quite a young guy and attached to his arm was a plain little thing with long brown hair tousled haphazardly around her shoulders, of course he would go for the plain Jane someone he wouldn’t have to work hard for, I’d have to tell her some time that night, warn her that he was just a plain waste of time, she might know that but I couldn’t stand it if someone like her might expect something from a guy like that. The last was standing alone seeming to have no interest in the ladies at all, just what the men had to say; rumors called him gay, I knew otherwise, he was known as Fox.

                “Why hello dearest, what brings you here this fine winter night?” asked the Hound in an impossibly drunk voice. Both the Wolf and the Fox turned to see who he was talking to. I had frozen at the entrance to the ally hoping the three wouldn’t notice me, so immersed in their own conversations. I knew coming here was a horrid mistake.

                “I thought I’d come and see how everyone was doing,” I lied, I just wanted to know how Alice was getting on and I knew the best time for it would be when she was drunk.

                “You look ravishing today, my sweet Raven,” commented the Fox eyeing the skimpy red scraps of fabric that had been strung together to make the dress I wore tonight. I blushed and looked away thinking how these boys would never know my real name but they were as close to a fan club a real girl could get. Wolf stared at the dress and pealed the sweet little girl off him. He walked over to me and slipped off his coat and put it on my shoulders, it felt like a movie, surreal.

                “You shouldn’t walk bare shoulders in this cold,” he bent and whispered into my ear. To think the last time I’d seen this man he’d been crying, over me, this night was going to last forever. I couldn’t get drunk, he’d take advantage of it, or would he.

                “What about your girlfriend over there, shouldn’t you take care of her first?” I couldn’t help asking the question aloud so that everyone could hear.

                “Oh her, I just picked her out of the crowd not one minute ago I couldn’t care less about her, not when you’re here.” His words stung and I had to look away to avoid his searching blue eyes. The poor little brunette looked taken aback and then looking as if she didn’t belong she scurried past me and headed for the street. Wolf turned back to his two friends.

                “Why don’t you come hang with me Ray, there’s plenty of room in my arms for you?” Hound called pushing one of the drunken girls away, then after thinking about it for a fraction of a second pushed the other one out too.

                “No, we’ve held her long enough,” Wolf reprimanded Hound for his blatancy, “go on in we’ll not keep you any longer,” he pointed to a shabby little door several feet away. He refused to look at me as I tentatively walked over to it. Hound shrugged off the comment and took the two girls, who were entirely too intoxicated to know better, under his big muscular arms. Fox looked vacantly off into the night sky above the brick walls bordering the ally.

                I knocked twice on the door and instantly heard shifting on the other side. A huge shadow suddenly blocked the light pouring out the crack at the bottom of the door. A piece of wood slid away to reveal a rather large black man with a big scar running across the left side of his face.

                “Hey Pete, how’s the night been for you so far?” I asked.

                “Oh hey Raven! Come in, tonight’s been great,” he rushed to open the door. I could hear the meticulous clicks as he deactivated the first round of the clubs security. He let me in quickly not really believing it was me.

                “It’s been a long time Ray, I was beginning to think you’d forgotten us,” he smiled and I politely smiled back as best I could then slipped Wolf’s coat off; Pete took it to a back room and I looked on into a crowd that I’d not seen for what seemed like a millennia. A throng of drunken gamblers with cards in one hand a bottle in the other and a girl on their arm. Suddenly the room got quiet and in the distance I heard a glass drop to the floor shatter and the shards went flying across the floor. In a second all eyes went back to what they were doing pretending they hadn’t noticed me, I knew better.

                General chatter filled the room talking about the recent fall in the dow jone or the recent influx of income taxes or something of that sort, old jazz music dribbled out of the speakers just loud enough for the three or so couples that’d decided to dance on the dance floor several feet to my right. There was a set of three stairs bellow me that led into a path that led through the small tables and booths that littered the main part of the club up to the stage which held three tall shiny poles; it seemed the exotic dancers had turned in for the night or were catering to the needs of specific customers in the top rooms. Next to the stage was a long spiral stair case and at the top of that stair case stood a very beautiful girl that I’d come to know and love.

                “Hey girl where’ve you been?” Alice ran up to me and gave me a big hug, “I’ve missed you so much.” I looked into her pale gray eyes and saw where they’d started to tear up and gave her another hug.

                “Kitty!” a blond boy called from the stair case that led to Alice’s private suit, that was her code name here but it didn’t count much since her face was always on all the popular magazine covers.

                “Shut up Conner, can’t you see I’m talking to someone,” she turned and gave him a glare that could kill, “these politician sons they want so much attention!” I rolled my eyes, of course she’d be with a politician’s son, or a lawyer, or the best player at the little casino area on the other side of the room opposite the dance floor. She’d been known to bet herself to make any game interesting down at the black jack tables, our favorite card game. She looked at me for a second looking over my scandalous red dress and daring red three inch heals then took me by the hand and led me toward and up the stairs after the boy who had called. There was a small room at the top of the stairs and that’s where we stopped. It smelt entirely of smoke and alcohol; by the door stood a single man he was old and sly, he tended to remind me of one of the blues brothers with the side burns, black hat, and dark sunglasses. His name was Tom, or at least that’s what we’d known him as, he was a trusted man of Alice’s father and had been assigned to cater to her every whim while keeping her in the utmost security. In the middle of the room was a large old poker table and around it sat various old leather wing back chairs and one very old fabric couch which was a vibrant yellow with some sort of butterfly pattern that was stained all over with various colors. Alice and her beau sat on the couch and she rolled up in his arms and laid her head on his chest, then I sat in my favorite chair across from her. A waiter came in and asked what we’d like to drink.

                “Another one of those cherry drinks I think,” Alice slurred her words and then I knew she wasn’t really drunk. How horribly tolerant my old friend had become in my absence, but she was playing drunk to get the poor boy to open up. She loved to play with her food.

                “Get me some vodka declared the boy,” obviously drunk himself the boy wasn’t even thinking about the issue of getting inside my friend so easily. He had probably never even had a drink in his life till he’d met Alice.

                “Dr. Pepper, please,” I sighed. I’d been 2 years sober and I wouldn’t ruin that just because I’d gotten back together with some old friends. Alice had her beau light her a cigarette and then he grabbed one of his own. That was one thing I’d always disapproved of, cigarettes. They might look like the epitome of cool but when your 50 talking through a hole in your throat dragging an oxygen tank everywhere it seemed a lot easier to put a tooth pick in your mouth and get a similar aura of awesomeness. Maybe that was one of the reasons I’d left.

                “So how’s life been for you… since you left?” she asked, the last bet barely a whisper as she stared vacantly at the table.

                “Alright,” I whispered looking down at my fingers. For the longest time we sat staring at anything other than each other. So the truth is I was the horrible friend, I had left without a word and changed my number, ignored her calls whenever we ran into each other in public. It wasn’t my fault that I’d delved entirely to deep into the sin infested world in which my eldest friends reigned as high kings and queens untouchable, as once I was, to others of our lowly kind of conniving, spying, gossiping fools who drank to forget and cause others to tell what they feared most to tell.

                “I always knew I’d lose you to that stupid goody-goody-two-shoe’s crowed,” she spat across the table.

                “She doesn’t have a crowed,” I said half defensive half guilty.

                “So did you and that boy ever get together?” she ignored my defense and lashed back with and ugly offence.

                “What boy?”

                “Don’t lie to me, you know who I’m talking about, the one you dumped Wolfy for, the one who’s supposed to be your brother!”

                “I didn’t dump Wolfey for anyone, he was a playboy always cheating on me, how did you expect me to go out with someone who plays around as much as him?”

                “He said he was sorry, he said he would change! I thought we agreed we wouldn’t be like those stupid pushy girls on TV making a big deal out of every little mistake a guy makes!”

                “Five times, I gave him five chances to change! He never did anything except for apologize and try to get me into bed! I hardly call that acting all picky choosy”

                “He loved you! He still loves you! All he ever does is mope around the front door hoping one day you’ll just turn up and here you are!”

                How could she do this to me, blame me for things I didn’t do. That b*****d was no good for me I only kept him around because she liked him, but then my other friends came around they really cared about me and my well fare. They all but stuck a gun to my head to get me to stay away from him. I could see it would kill him despite what it would do to me. We were over now and there was no going back.

                “So here I am,” I sighed after a long pause. I felt the tears fall down my face so I grabbed my head and bent low over the table. I heard Alice take in a sharp breath.

                “Izzy,” she said calmly, “I’m sorry, I just hate that you left all of us because of that jerk.” I looked up at her; she was looking at the walls filled with pictures of important people we’d met together.

                “S’all right, I’ve missed you too but I’ve just had other things on my mind.”

                “Did they send you back to school?”

                “You know I never really dropped out, I‘m attending a private school now, Brother Bear’s very happy about it; he feels a lot more comfortable with me safe in that little prison.” She laughed and flashed me a smile. That was it, there’d be no more confrontation. She shoved the poor boy onto the floor and me and her sat down on the couch. The waiter came in with our drinks and feeling quite content Alice and I sat down to a good game of black jack. She was drunk and I got 50 dollars out of her before I left. Before I could help myself I was drowning a bottle of vodka shot by shot falling into old habits; there’d be hell to pay tonight.

                I got around to leaving at about 4 o’clock in the morning as drunk as a monkey. My number had gone off with several mysterious boys … and men, who would be surprised to later find out it was only the number to one of my favorite rejection hot line. Somehow half my skirt went missing, but thankfully there was enough left to cover things others didn’t need to see. I had had a great night even with Wolfey there in the chair opposite us dealing cards. Before I knew it it was time to go. So here’s what happened.

                Wolfey told me to go; he’d seen the eyes many of the drunken gamblers were giving me downstairs, he told me to leave. My sight was blurred and before I knew it I was falling flat on my face. Without hesitation Wolfey caught me as Alice fell on the couch beside me onto yet another man. It was weird with him touching me like this. He hoisted me up into his arms and took me out to a taxi. The last thing I remembered was laying my head on his shoulders and closing my eyes.

                So maybe what you’re thinking is that this our story, me and Wolfey’s, but oh you couldn’t be farther from the truth. He can sit in his pit of loneliness for as long as he likes but never shall I stoop to his level again, I’ve seen that puppy dog face too many times for it to work again. No, I would never go back to him! I just couldn’t take that.

Reviews

[Dylan I. Cree]

Wow, this write is amazing. the depth is wonderful. Your wording is superb. Is this written in present time or is it more 20's/30's/40's because if it is it reads well for those decades.