Tug
It was a rare night that Tug wasn’t at the club, slinging drinks and keeping an eye out to make sure no one got out of hand and the cops didn’t cause any problems. But Roger had assured her that she wasn’t needed, and had encouraged her to enjoy a night off. She could use a break anyway. But even with a night free, Tug found that her mind was on business. She rang Janie Evans and Evie, looking for accomplices to help her feel out the competition.
‘I’ve got plans with Roger tonight, Tug,’ Evie said.
Tug was surprised. ‘I thought he was working. He gave me the night off. Someone’s gotta take care of the club!’
‘I guess Chuck’s got it covered,’ Evie said.
‘That’s odd,’ Tug said. But she wasn’t going to worry too much about it. She was going to enjoy her night off, even if Evie had other plans. She would have liked for her to come, but consoled herself with the fact that Evie sounded a little disappointed not to be able to.
Janie took more convincing than Tug would’ve liked, but she wasn’t about to complain since she won her over in the end. ‘I’ll pick you up at nine!’
‘Your father’s letting you drive his car?’
‘What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?’ The truth was that Tug’s father was rarely conscious by nine o’clock at night, and he certainly wouldn’t remember where he’d parked his beat-up jalopy. Tug borrowed it often since she’d learned to drive, and she’d become a proficient driver, even after a few cocktails.
‘See you then!’
*****
Tug pulled up outside Janie’s parents’ place at exactly nine, and Janie darted out from behind a shrub on her neighbor’s front porch.
‘What are you doing?’ Tug asked, laughing as Janie got into the car and pulled her camel coat tight around her.
‘I told my parents I was meeting some friends and I left a while ago,’ she said, looking glum. ‘They think I’m meeting some boys.’
‘Oh?’
‘They don’t like me spending all my time with you and Evie. They’re worried I’ll never get married.’ Janie stared out the front window, her eyes sad. ‘They spent my whole life keeping me away from boys and now they’re practically foisting me on them!’
Janie’s parents had sheltered Janie to the point where she was practically a shut-in, but now that she was almost eighteen they wondered why there weren’t suitors knocking down the door. Tug shook her head at the irony. Her own parents were separated, and the timing – just as she was preparing to debut – had removed any possibility of her joining the ranks of the marriageable society girls of her day. Instead of coaching her to the finish line she’d been pushing her toward for her entire childhood, her mother had moved out, taken every cent that she’d saved on Tug’s behalf, and left Tug to nurse her father, who was more interested in drinking than he was in introducing her to the right type of man. Tug was on her own.
‘We’re not worrying about that for tonight, Jane.’ She guided the car away from the curb. ‘Tonight we are two girls on the town, out for a good time. And to pick up a few tips about how to get more people into the bar.’
‘The first part sounds swell.’
‘You need a drink or two and the second part will sound swell, too.’
*****
The girls made their way to a club that Tug had heard her customers talking about, a place just north of the Village situated through a door in a back alley. The door wasn’t marked, but Tug had asked enough questions about how to find the place that when she saw two young men disappearing down the alley, she was quick to follow them.
‘We can’t follow men we don’t know into a dark alley!’ Janie hissed.
‘I need to see where the door is, Jane. Come on, or we’ll be out on the sidewalk all night!’ Tug pulled Janie behind her, following the men until they stopped and opened an unmarked door. The girls watched as the men disappeared through the door, light spilling out from inside. ‘Come on!’ Tug and Janie followed, pushing through the heavy wooden door to find themselves in a small square space lit by a single bulb glowing on the wall. The room was covered in wallpaper of heavy red flocked velvet, a pattern so dense and complicated that Tug felt the walls were moving as the velvet snaked around them. There was no clear exit from the room.
‘I don’t like this, Tug. Where did they go?’
‘There’s gotta be another door here. They didn’t just disappear!’ Tug began running her hands around the small room, her palms flat on the walls. After a moment, she became frustrated. Through the walls – or maybe the floor – they could hear the faint din of a band and of people’s voices, but they could find no clear way inside. Just then, the door they had come through pushed open again, and they found themselves standing in the small space with a large round-faced man who seemed unsurprised to find them there.
‘Hello, ladies,’ he said.
Tug elbowed Janie hard, and Janie yelped.
The man laughed, his face reddening. He had what Tug’s father would have called a baby face. In fact, Tug’s father had many things to say about the particular man in front of them, and Tug had heard all of them, especially when the Yankees were winning.
She swallowed hard. ‘You’re … you’re Babe Ruth,’ she said, looking up into the friendly face.
The man grinned as Janie gasped. ‘I was this morning,’ he said.
‘My father’s a big admirer of yours,’ Tug told the big man. ‘He thinks you’re gonna win the pennant again this year.’
Ruth glowed, rubbing his hands together and swaying slightly on his feet. ‘And what about you, what do you think?’ He winked.
Tug giggled lightly and put a hand to her hair. ‘I don’t suppose you can show us how to get into this joint, can you? I can’t seem to remember.’
‘Sure I can,’ Ruth said. He reached up and pressed a button in the high corner of the room, camouflaged by the detailed flocking of the wallpaper. A small hole flipped open at eye level in front of where Tug stood, and an eye appeared.
‘Hey Tony,’ the baseball player said. ‘I’ve got a couple pals with me tonight.’
The entire wall before them swung inward, opening to a long hallway leading into the dark. Tug hesitated.
‘Go on,’ said Babe Ruth. ‘It’s right on down there. I’ll show ya.’ He placed a hand on the small of each girl’s back, and ushered them into the darkness.
The sounds of the club increased in volume as they moved closer, and finally they came to another door, lit by another single bulb.
‘Enjoy your evening, Mr Ruth.’ The voice came from the darkness behind them.
‘We will, Tony.’ Ruth’s hand dropped lower and he gave Tug’s rear end a pat as he said it. She jumped, practically tripping through the door and into the club that had revealed itself before them.
The place was large – at least twice as big as Evie’s, Tug thought. There was a band on a small stage in the center of the far wall, and there were girls on the stage in front of the band. They wore costumes and feathers on their heads attached to large headdresses. The costumes were slinky, revealing dresses, falling high above the girls’ knees, and dropping daringly low in front.
Janie actually gasped when she saw them. ‘Those girls must be prostitutes,’ she hissed to Tug. ‘What kind of place is this?’