I went to the barber shop for a haircut and a shave. I would rarely get a shave, because I saw it as a special event kind of thing. There was nothing better than a shave with a straight razor, and today was definitely a special occasion. The feel of the warm blade gliding across my skin as my eyes were closed, took me to a land of steel and leather. A time before cars and streetlights. A time where men roamed the earth in heavy plate armor. I often felt like that was the time I truly belonged in. I was always out of place in this world of modern convenience. I felt the warm towel being place on my face and knew that my fantasy time was nearly over and I had to re-enter reality. I stood up and reached into my pocket and took out a couple of bills. I thanked Javier my barber and handed him the money. “¡Ay, caramba!, this is far too much.” “Non sense. you have always done an amazing job, and deserve a just price for it.” “You are too kind, thank you.” “ You are quite welcome Javier. Good bye and enjoy life.” I walked out the door and into the late day sunlight, there was nothing left to do now, but hit the bars and clubs, and I knew just the place to hit first. About a mile from my barber was a small hole in the wall dive, with a gruff old barkeep named Grumpy. His name was all an act. He would put on the mask whenever someone knew would walk in. If they stayed, they were the type of people he wanted in his bar, if they didn’t, then good riddance to them.
I walked in and Grumpy gave me his traditional greeting of “Hmmph, you back again huh?” “Just give me your finest whiskey and try putting it in a clean glass this time.” This was a banter that we developed over the few years that I had become a costumer. I sat down in a chair at the furthest and darkest end of the bar, just as Grumpy was setting a rocks glass full of what he called “rot gut”. It always lived up to it’s name, it would burn every ounce of your being on the way down to it’s final resting place in the bottom of your gut. It was by no means the finest whiskey he had, but he knew it was exactly what I wanted, and today, I wanted a lot of it.
A few hours had passed, the sun had fallen into the abyss of night, and I was half way through my second bottle of “rot gut”. I was finally feeling comfortable in the barstool and my own skin. “I’ve seen you in her a whole bunch of times, but I’ve never seen you drink like this before. You look like your trying to drink yourself into something.” “ Nope, I’m just trying to see what boundaries I can break tonight.” I lied. Grumpy took me for my word, and walked to the other end of the bar where there were a few regulars that I have seen before. I finished off the second bottle rolled up a few bills and stuffed them in the top of the bottle. That was how I always paid my tab there. I waved to Grumpy on my way out. “Hey, take care of yourself and stay out of trouble.” “I can’t make any promises. Good-bye Grumpy.”
There was a slight breeze as I exited the bar that caused the boughs of the trees to sing the mournful song of night. I stopped and listened for a moment, taking it all in, I was planning on turning that dirge into a waltz that would roll into an anthem. The next stop was waiting, and I was being delinquent in getting there in a timely fashion.
I pulled up to the club and noticed several people meandering around the parking lot. Some were smoking while others were just getting a break from the sound of the speakers. The bump of the music could be heard to the far end of the parking lot, and probably even further. I walked through the door, it was a den of chaos that would make Sodom and Gomorrah look like a walk in the park. Bodies undulated on the dance floor. Ripples went through the crowd as if a pebble were dropped into a pond. Everyone was in varying levels of undress, or maybe that was just their version of being dressed. It wasn’t for me to decide, it was for me to partake in the hedonistic nature of the scene. I made my way to the bar, slithering my way through the sea of dancers. I got a bartenders eyes and ordered a vodka with lots of ice and a twist of lime. I leaned back against the bar with drink in hand and watched the crowd.. People watching was always fun, but it was particularly fun in a pit filth such as this. These were my people, the people of freedom. They’re only care was who or what they were going to cuddle up with tonight. I already had my dance partner, but it didn’t mean that I was going to avoid all of this. I downed my drink and hit the floor. Spinning and gyrating with anyone and everyone. I was on the floor for what had to be a half hour before I realized I was in desperate need of another drink. I was in the middle of the dance floor, so it took me a second to get my orientation in perspective to find the bar. Once I spotted it, I took off my coat and danced my way over to it. A cute little gone girl grabbed my coat and pulled me backwards. “You can’t leave the floor yet. You haven’t danced with me yet.” “You’re just going to have to wait doll. I have quite the thirst and I need to quench it.” “You can’t suffer through one more song?” “I’ll tell you what. You hold my coat, and after I get my drink I’ll come looking for you.” I held my coat up and waited for her to turn around so I could put it on her. She turned and I put it on. I spun her around straightened the collar and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. she threw her hands up in the air and danced off into the crowd. I really liked that coat, but if that was the cost of a drink tonight, then so be it.
A few more drinks and it was time to dance again. I hit the floor with an unforeseen passion. I challenged it to tire me before the dawn. I spun around and there was my darling with my coat. It seemed it didn’t want to leave me yet. She grabbed a hold of me and we spun in each others arms like we were making love standing up. We entwined ourselves together in the middle of the floor. We danced with monsters whose faces looked similar to our own, but they were disfigured and misshapen. The night does that. It was either that or the copious amounts of alcohol and morphine that I’ve already had, but the night was still early, and several more mysterious and monstrosities were left to me uncovered.
We found a table in the corner and sat down. We needed to relaxing our burning muscles for a few. She leaned in to say something to me. I quickly placed my finger on her lips. “I don’t want to get to know you. I just want to have a good time tonight, anything beyond that is an impossibility, so if you don’t want that and would like to leave, this would be the time to do it. I’m going to go get a bottle of vodka. If you’re still here when I get back, we will have a great deal of unadulterated fun. I stood up and made my way to the bar. I didn’t bother to look back to see if she had left, I knew she would be there when I returned. There was something in her eyes that told me she wanted exactly the same thing, and idle conversation was her way of trying to seduce me.
With a bottle of vodka in hand, I went back to the table. She had removed my coat and placed it on the back of my chair, her shoes were sitting as a center piece on the small table. I placed the bottle on the table and leaned into her, I looked her directly in the eye, and then kissed her. I sat back in my chair and took a long hit of the bottle. I handed her the bottle and she did the same. We sat there in silence drinking and staring at each other. Without warning, she jumped up and began to dance around me. It was the most seductive dance that I have ever experienced. Strippers couldn’t perform a dance like this. She sat in my lap and began to gyrate. It was doing every bit of it’s job too. She reached between her legs and began to stroke my crotch through my pants. she stood up and spun in one motion until she was facing me, and then sat back down again. She reached down again and fumbled with my belt and pants until they were both open wide. She leaned into me and whispered in my ear. “Reach in your right coat pocket.” I did as she said and felt something soft and silky in there. I pulled it out and found that it was a pair of panties. Her panties to be exact. I looked up at her and we both smiled. She stood up and spun again, she reached back and pulled my manhood out of my pants, and then lowered herself onto it. Her warmth enveloped me and I could feel our existence combine into one singular beast. She rose and fell like the sun, slowly taking her time. I grabbed her and lifted her up, I turned her and grabbed her leg so that she would straddle me, and then lowered her down again. She guided me into herself again. She kept the same rhythm, I gently placed my hand on the back of her head and pulled her towards me and we kissed. We were now connected at both ends and the beast had grown. It was raging inside of us. You could feel it’s heat as we got closer and closer to the climax. The music pounded, the people danced, and the lights strobed. No one noticed us, if they did they didn’t care, and neither did we. The room, the world, and the universe were ours. We both arched back and howled, the breast had formed it’s wings, and took flight into the nighttime sky. She fell into me and I could feel her heavy breathing hot on my neck. I reached blindly for the bottle of vodka. I hit it nearly knocking it over, but managed to grasp it before it’s fall. I took a gulp, and her head rose off my shoulder. I looked at her and then the bottle. There was only enough for one more good drink, so I shook it towards her. She leaned back and licked her lips. I held the bottle up to her and slowly tipped it back until the clear liquid trickled down her throat. I was still rigid inside of her, and didn’t want it to go to waste. I put the table on the floor next to me, and lifted her up again. I turned her around and bent her over the table. She reached back and pulled her skirt up, and I entered her for a third time. The crowd had disappeared and we were there alone. I thrust into her for what seemed an eternity before I spilled my seed. I collapsed back into my chair and she stood up, turned and then fell into my lap. Slowly I became aware of the crowd again. It seemed that they were blissfuly aware of what had just happened in the corner.
The girl began to stand up, but stopped for a moment, and looked me in the eye. “Are you going to get another bottle.” I winked at her and smiled, and she finished standing up. I stood up and straightened myself out, zipping, buttoning and buckling everything back into its proper place, and then made my way to the bar to get another bottle. When I returned, she was gone. I had expected it, and was relieved that I didn’t have to ditch her later when the this bottle was empty.
I drank that bottle until they closed the place down. I stood up, but it took a couple of attempts, and then stumbled out to my car. The parking lot was pretty empty at this time of night, so what would have been a challenge normally to find my car was nothing of the sort. I made it to my car and got inside. I could feel that I was slowing down, and the alcohol had gotten a solid grip on me, so I would need a swift kick in the ass if I was going to make it through the night. I reached in my center console and fished around. I found what I was looking for and pulled out a small vile of cocaine. I pulled the rubber stopper out and snorted the whole thing. There was an instant rush of intense pain as the uncut powder passed through my sinuses, and then the calm before the storm. I closed the door and sat back. It took about five minutes to hit me, but when it did, I was wide awake and ready to go.
I made my way to an after hours strip club. It wasn’t the best place, and the girls were usually the ones you didn’t want to see dancing on a stage, but it was the only one open that time of night, and I had a few hours to kill. I walked in, and it was a smokey dismal place. If hell was a place on earth, this was surely the location. I was wired and ready to go, and this was beginning to be a bad idea. There was nothing stimulating here. Then it happened. Someone bumped someone, or stole a dance from someone’s girl and the fist began to fly. Things escalated quickly and an all out brawl was on. I sat back in the corner watching like the emperors of Rome must have done in the Colosseum. The girls ran screaming into the back room, as the neanderthals pummeled themselves senseless. A couple of bouncers, the bartender and DJ began clearing a path through the melee to let dancers that had been caught in the danger zone a way to get through. Once the girls were safe, they began clearing out anyone that was fighting. They would grab them by the collar of their shirts and the waistband of their pants, and just toss them from one to another like an old time fire line. With the riffraff tossed out, the girls began to emerge again, and take care of they few of us that were left.
I was shocked to see a pretty little thing making her way over to me. “Hey darling, what are you doing working in a place like this?” “The only time I have is late at night, so this is where I go. What are you doing out at a place like this, you’re pretty sharp looking?” “I’m just living out my last few hours. How would you like to make enough money tonight to take a few weeks off?” “I certainly would. You just tell me how to do it.” “Well, it’s quite simple really, you just stay right here with me, and I’ll give you everything I have in my pocket.” “You got a deal.” A waitress came, I told her to bring me a glass of whiskey every ten minutes, and she did just that. “Do you want me to dance for you?” “No, I just want to sit here with my arm around you until they close the place down.” “That might be the strangest thing I’ve done here, and I’ve done some pretty strange things here.” We sat there and drank whiskey until “last dance” was called. I got up, reached in my pocket, took out what was left of my money. I took a hundred and handed it to the waitress, and then gave the rest to my girl. “I thought you were joking mister. I stayed here with you, cause you seemed nicer than everyone left, and after that brawl, I didn’t want to spend time with a creep.” “It’s all yours darling. You earned every penny of it.” “Thank you.” “Make sure you take that time off like I said too.” “I will.” She stood on her tip toes and planted a kiss on my cheek. I walked out of the strip club and could see the faint light of the pre-dawn. The night was nearly gone.
I drove to a spot that over looked the beach, so I could sit in my car and see the sea and the beauty of that pre-dawn. I could see a storm far out at sea. Lightening strikes enhanced the beauty of the colorful light show that was before me. I gazed at it for a short while pondering the cycle again. It always continues, even when we stop. This was it, the moment I had been waiting for. I have seen my last sunrise, and couldn’t afford another one. I reached into my glove box, and pulled out my snub nose .357 Magnum. It felt heavy in my hand but comforting. I checked the cylinder and it was fully loaded, just the way I had left it when I put it in the glove box. I looked at the horizon watching the storm rage in the distance. I place the barrel against my temple. The steel felt cool against my hot skin. I squeezed the trigger and th