The owner of the club was supposedly in his office counting the evening’s proceeds. Casey was behind the bar closing out the register and emptying ashtrays.
The music had been shut off. The only sounds remaining were the clanging of glasses and the ringing of the register. While Casey was closing the club, I was busy emptying my locker. It took me approximately fifteen minutes to pack up my belongings. This was the last night that I would ever work at this club. I was to start working at the Ruby Garter South immediately.
The dancers that remained in the dressing room with me were busy drinking Southern Comfort and polishing their nails. The eerie silence of the club was abruptly broken by a large bang. At first the other women and I ignored the noise. Moments later, we heard blood-curdling screams coming from the foyer area of the club. Before we even had a chance to react, one of the dancers who had been sitting outside came crashing through the dressing room door. The woman was hysterical screaming for someone to call the police. I could hear Casey screaming in the background for someone to call a “fucking ambulance.”
Apparently the owner had been stabbed in the back seven times by a strange man posing to be a customer.
Although outwardly calm, I was panicking inside. My immediate response to the situation was to flee. There was an emergency door located to the immediate left of the dancer’s dressing room. I picked up my belongings, opened the door, and took off. Frantic, I ran thru the pitch-black parking lot towards the direction of the motel where I lived. I could hear the screaming sirens racing down the highway as I fumbled in my jean pockets for the key to my room. As soon as I got into the room, I called a taxi and began to pack up my things. Because I was desperate to leave the immediate area, I lied that a family member was critically ill. The cab arrived in about ten minutes. My destination was Diana’s house. I arrived at my friend’s home at around 5:30 a.m. Diana and her mother were sound a sleep. I banged frantically on the kitchen door until I woke them. Diana and her mother were surprised to see me, and were completely shocked by what I told them. The three of us sat at the kitchen table and talked for awhile. Completely exhausted, I went into the living room and fell asleep on the couch.
When I awoke the next day, I called the club to find out what happened the night before. The manager answered the phone. He told me that the owner had died from the attack and that both the clubs would be closed for the next week. I wanted to find out all the details of the incident, so I went to the nearest drugstore to buy a newspaper. Sure enough, the story had made the front page.
I ended up spending the next four days with Diana. During that time, I racked my brain trying to figure out where I was going to live next. I remembered that a friend of mine had just recently been transferred up to the other club. She mentioned something about renting a room in a house behind the Ruby Garter South. I decided to call and ask if there were any more rooms available for rent.
My old roommate told me there were still several rooms available. I asked her for directions to the Ruby Garter South, and told her that I would be there by 6:00 p.m. that evening.
By 5:00 p.m., I had my bags packed and was ready to leave. I remember feeling sick inside as I dragged my severely worn luggage down the stairs and out into the driveway. My transient existence was beginning to take a toll on me. Nevertheless, I threw my baggage into the trunk of Diana’s car, and off I went.
4. Ruby Garter South
The Ruby Garter South was located about sixty miles from where Diana lived.
Situated in a somewhat rural area, this club was certainly not an easy place to find. When we finally arrived at the club, neither one of us were pleased at what we saw. The club itself appeared old and depressing. A large beat-up sign on the front of the building read “Live X-Rated Entertainment” in bold-red letters. The word entertainment was spelled wrong. Directly to the left of the club was a small deserted looking grocery store. To the club’s right stood a tiny blue shack-like structure. There were two little dark-haired girls playing in the garbage cans behind the house.
We pulled into the gravel-filled parking lot and followed it around to the back of the club. An old white farmhouse with a dilapidated looking screened-in porch stood nearby. Toys, garbage, and rusted car parts were strewn all over the house’s weed-filled yard. I couldn’t believe that this slum was actually going to be my new home. By 8:00 that evening, I had rented one of the rooms and completely moved in.
By 7:00 p.m. the next day, I was more than ready to go to work. My sleeping room was extremely depressing and lonely. I couldn’t wait to leave. When I walked into the Ruby Garter South, I was even more disheartened. The interior smelled like decomposed garbage. The stage was quite large and over-powered the small room. The floors were nothing more than bare wooden planks, which were haphazardly nailed together. Directly behind the service bar was a maze-like area comprised of dark corridors and ghostly corners. This was the secluded area where the dancers took their paying customers.
This place could have given Alfred Hitchcock the creeps. The club’s employees were equally as frightening. This club was run with a small crew of six dancers, one haggard-looking waitress, and an apathetic thirty-nine year old doorman that claimed he used to ride with the Hells Angels. The dancers that worked at this club were ill kept and extremely unprofessional. I didn’t fit in, nor did I want to.
By the end of my first night at this club, I realized that I had made a serious mistake. I had already made up my mind that I was going to quit, and find work somewhere else. I just didn’t know where.
Although the women who worked at this club weren’t of my caliber, most of them were basically nice people, with the exception of one woman named Sara.
She lived in the small-blue shack located directly next door to the club with her husband Samuel and their two small children. Sara was a tall large-boned woman with a face like the evil witch in the movie The Wizard of OZ. Unfortunately, Sara’s appearance wasn’t her ultimate worst feature. Her personality, what little there was of it, left a lot to be desired. Sara was a loner, and although she primarily stayed to herself, I still didn’t like her. There was something quite odd about the woman, but I just didn’t know what. To top it all off, she was seven months pregnant and dancing naked on the stage. I found it difficult to believe that any club owner would allow such a thing. But when I found out that it was Casey who was responsible for hiring her, it all made sense to me. Casey wasn’t the most selective person that I had ever met. He didn’t care about the quality of the women that he hired. All he cared about was the quantity. The more women that he could exploit, the happier he was.
I made very little money at this club. The customers were few and far between and primarily consisted of non-spending voyeurs and dirty-old men. I didn’t have a car, so my choices of places to work at were extremely limited. However, there was another club directly north of the Ruby Garter South. The name of it was the Nite Strip Lounge. According to my ex-boss Casey, the owner of the Nite Strip Lounge had a violent temper and would physically abuse some of his female employees.
A typical night of work at the Ruby Garter South consisted of nothing more than drinking coffee and dancing on the stage for every drifter or pervert that was able to scrounge up the price of the admission. I could truly never get used to this place.
A month went by and Sara was due to have her baby. One of my co-workers decided to throw her a baby shower because she felt sorry for her. She invited me, and some of the other dancers to the occasion, but I declined the invitation. One of my co-workers, another naive soul, asked me if I would like to contribute twenty dollars towards the shower gift. The Good Samaritan that I was flat out refused. Three weeks after her baby shower, Sara gave birth to her child at home.