Hookers Part 8

"A thousand pardons, Senorita, there is five parties going tonight. You will look and see which one you are invited to. I need not go up with you--you will hear these parties long before you see them. Have a very good time, Senorita."

"Come back here, you s.l.u.t--do you hear me--come back here with my leg,"

came a voice, as Evelyn and Pearl neared the second floor.

"You can just go to h.e.l.l, you cheap, lousy b.a.s.t.a.r.d, having the nerve to promise me two dollars, and then when I'm ready to go, you saying you wasn't going to give me a dime--G.o.ddam you, you just try and get this leg back," said Mickey Finn, as she came to the head of the stairs, with an artificial leg under her arm, with the shoe and sock still on it.

"What's the trouble, Mickey?" asked Evelyn, as she and Pearl came up.

"Why, can you believe a guy would have the nerve to pull a trick like that on me--promising me my money, and then not giving it to me? I'm taking this leg and hock it--to h.e.l.l with him--the thing that makes me sore is anyone trying to pull a lousy trick like that on me--can you believe it?" fumed Mickey.

"Come back here with my leg, you b.i.t.c.h. If I get my hands on you, I'll wring your d.a.m.n neck."

"Go to h.e.l.l," screamed Mickey, "You'll pay me more than two dollars to get this leg back."

"Pipe down, Mickey," shushed Evelyn, "If Guts hears you, he'll raise h.e.l.l right."

"A thousand pardons, Senoritas, but what is this trouble--and you--what are you doing with the Senor's leg?" came the voice of Guts from behind the trio.

"You seen me come in here with this guy, didn't you, Guts? He paid for the room, didn't he? Well, after he had his fun he refused to pay me my two dollars, and I'm d.a.m.ned if I ain't taking his false leg for the bill--and come to think of it, what have you got to say about it? Are you for me, or are you against me? You remember, I know of a couple of dirty deals I could tell the Custom and Federal authorities about--and by G.o.d, you know me, Guts," frothed Mickey.

"Ah, Senorita--I am so sorry. Why you did not call me before? You are my friend, and no one can say different," answered Guts, as he pulled his enormous belly up, and with a scowl on his near-black face, started down the hall toward the half-opened door.

"Take that leg away from that s.l.u.t," ordered the man, leaning against the dresser to support himself, as Guts and the three girls came into the room.

"Why have you refuse to pay the Senorita?" asked Guts.

"Refuse to pay her--why, the d.a.m.n liar--I have paid her."

"You are just lying because there's some other people here. You ain't give me a red cent, and what's more, you are giving me ten dollars or I'm taking the leg. Ain't I right, Guts?"

"Si, Senorita, you are right."

"Hand the leg over and I'll give you the ten dollars to get rid of you."

"All right, I'll give it to you, but don't you try to pull nothing funny or I'll take that thing away from you again, and beat the h.e.l.l out of you with it," said Mickey, as she handed him the leg.

"Thanks," said the man, as he took the leg, and reached down the top of it and pulled out a roll of bills, "Here's your ten," as he dug it out of a roll of fifties and hundreds.

"I'll be d.a.m.ned!" said Mickey, as they all left the room, "That's what I get for getting chicken-hearted, and giving it back to him. Every time I get sympathetic I lose money."

"Cheer up, Mickey--let's find the drinks," said Evelyn.

"Well, you ain't got far to look. They are right above us on the next floor," answered Mickey, as she made for the stairs.

"Well, n.o.body can't say it ain't starting off well--if we all don't end in the Mex jail, it will be a miracle of fate."

As they reached the third floor a sight greeted their eyes that would have made the old Roman gatherings look like child's play. There were couples everywhere in the hall, some fully dressed, some partially dressed, others practically nude, all oblivious of each other, while in the room there were less clothes but many more bodies, laying around on the floor, sprawled on chairs, on the bed, on the bathroom floor, while the bathtub was piled high with ice and bottles of every description; the connecting room to the bathroom had been opened, and an old phonograph was scratching the Mexican National Anthem, while a couple scantily clad, both male and female, in ladies' step-ins, insisted on doing their idea of the rhumba, which consisted mostly of the male part of the team goosing the female with the third finger of the hand, while she leaped, and screamed, with elephantine grace, much to the joy of the spectators, who were beginning to undress and join the dance, midst shouts and screams of gaiety.

Of the three hosts that gave the party, two had pa.s.sed to the realm of unconsciousness, while the third sat stark nude on the dresser, with his toupee in one hand, and a bottle of whiskey in the other, wasting no time in trying to join his friends in the happy state of unconsciousness.

"Looks like good pickings to me," said Mickey. "Everybody is undressed--it won't be no trouble to go through their pockets."

"Good G.o.d, the bathroom is the place we are looking for. That is where all the drinks are. Come, come, my dear, let us not waste time," said Evelyn, as she stepped over the sprawled bodies on the floor.

"Jees, this takes the prize--I been on lots of parties, but never on one like this," said Pearl, as she followed Evelyn, who by this time was opening a fresh, cold bottle of whiskey.

"Why, the h.e.l.l--will they put whiskey on ice."

"Well, you couldn't expect anybody in this condition to know any different, could you, Ev?"

"You couldn't expect people who get in this condition to give a d.a.m.n in the first place," said Evelyn, as she took a long swig of the freshly opened bottle, "Even I don't care after the first ten drinks."

"Quick--give me a slug of that stuff--if I ever get sober on a thing like this, and actually realize what it's all about, I'd do a nose dive out of my hotel window some morning," said Pearl, as Evelyn handed her the bottle. "Come to think of it--I ain't seen hide nor hair of Harry, and he said he would be here."

"Well, Pearl, dear, when you see a pile of wh.o.r.es about ten deep, dig to the bottom of them and you will find Harry--at least, that's where he usually is."

"Oh--Jees--that's lousy whiskey--open another bottle--that tastes like tobacco juice."

"There's going to be trouble here this night as sure as the world stands--" said Evelyn under her breath. "I just saw Juan Moros pa.s.s the door--and that's a bad sign, as sure as you're born."

"Who is Juan Moros?"

"He's the boy friend of Negro Noche, and he has been on the trail of Irene, the blonde girl that came in with the crowd we saw come in just ahead of us. You know Irene, the tall blonde--he is crazy about her."

"Well, what's that got to do with us?" asked Pearl.

"Plenty--and in more ways than one--Negro Noche is the one woman in the town to be afraid of. She has been pulled in by the government officials several times for smuggling dope over the border into the United States--but they have never been able to convict her. She was arrested not long ago for smuggling Chinese across, and several attempts have been made to frame her, but no one has ever been able to pin it on her, and now she has threatened to kill any woman that she catches the boy friend with, and what's more, Irene is crazy about him. Now, ain't that cause for trouble?"

"Well, I can't see what that has got to do with this party. He is here and so is Irene, but that is no cause for trouble--surely she wouldn't come up here and start trouble," reasoned Pearl.

"Which proves conclusively that you don't know Negro Noche."

"You might add that I don't want to."

"Well--well, h.e.l.lo, Henry, you devil--I thought you went home to your wife every night," said Evelyn, as a bartender she knew came into the bathroom.

"Well," laughed Henry, "She can't say nothing if I don't get through work in time, and get locked on this side of the river, can she?"

"Not unless you pull that gag once too often--here, have a drink," as she offered him the bottle.

"Well, Pearl, what do you think of the party?" asked Henry, as he turned to Pearl, who was looking out into the other room, trying to see Harry.

"Henry, my darling, since you inquire, I think it is the most charming affair--in fact, I've never been on a party where so little self-consciousness was present--in plain English, it is the d.a.m.ndest thing I've ever seen--let's drink to it," as she raised her bottle and clinked it against his.

The phonograph in the adjoining room had stopped, but everyone was singing instead. Everybody had joined the first couple in the rhumba, making the scene more hilarious by not having any clothes on at all.