The Burden of Innocence by John Nardizzi

Author:John Nardizzi [Nardizzi, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Nardizzi
Published: 2022-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

PART 4

Augustina’s Tale

1997

Chapter 26

Augustina Calderon drove up Route 1 past the bottleneck near Malden where the roadway swerved and tossed drivers into a sharp turn. Never easy making a living. Even north of Boston, the rents were crazy high. Her two kids stayed with her baby-daddy on Friday nights so she could pull a full shift at the Golden Banana. Last week, the manager installed steel cages that rotated over the stage. Rumor was this was groundbreaking stuff in California strip clubs. The cages dropped from the ceiling and the strippers went inside and gyrated inside the cage. Nude women in cages that dropped from the ceiling had real earning power; she heard some of the other girls bragging about making triple the cash from a floor show.

Route 1 was Boston’s version of the Las Vegas strip, a tacky 1950s-era highway lined with down-low motels, neon night clubs, and restaurants. It had a larger-than-life vibe—a replica Leaning Tower of Pisa, a giant cactus at the old Hilltop Steakhouse complete with plastic cows grazing outside. But the highway’s heyday was fading. Chain restaurants and furniture stores popped up along Route 1 as it lost its aura of glitzy fun and began to look like a thousand other lifeless shopping malls. Only a few strip clubs remained.

Augustina drove past the Nova Motel, where a white fence rotted next to a cockeyed vacancy sign. A man was touching up the paint on the shingles, makeup for a caved-in façade. A sign for the strip club, a cement building with a yellow awning and neon sign, loomed behind the motel: Cage Dancing, World Famous Golden Banana.

In the ladies dressing room, the mingled scents of dollar store perfume wafted throughout the air. Heavy metal pumped out like a sonic snake on the sound system. The girls chattered in loud voices about the two-legged ATMs out there. It was time to de-cash some dudes.

The afternoon dragged into night. After dancing a few songs, Augustina walked outside to smoke a cigarette. She wore thigh-high white boots with thick six-inch heels she had purchased from a transvestite shop owner in the South End. She set the boots off with a pink bikini. She felt good because she looked good. Ghettofab. And the Percs she got from one of her regulars was making the night slide by on a narcotic carpet ride. Maybe he would be in tonight. Even from here, she could smell the pent-up lust inside the club. Men, it was so easy to figure them out.

Augustina’s dance shift came around and she strode out onto the stage. She saw one of her regulars, Mike, the fence installer down the road who liked to eat dinner with the strippers. She could see his head pumping slowly in sync with “You Got Another Thing Coming” by Judas Priest. Mike loved the hot ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT buffet, back lit in neon, especially the chicken wings. He usually made it a long night. She went over, danced, and collected some tips.

As she came off stage, Cristal strode over.

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