Beyond Grimm by Ross Deborah J. & Phyllis Irene Radford

Author:Ross, Deborah J. & Phyllis Irene Radford [Ross, Deborah J. & Radford, Phyllis Irene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: MOBI, myth, ereader, ebook, Nook, fantasy, fairy tale, Book View Cafe, Kindle, EPUB
ISBN: 9781611381559
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2012-03-14T03:13:35+00:00

Princess Dancer

Sue Lange

The Princess Dancer Lounge reigns over a parking lot two miles out of Centreville just off old Rte 121. It is a kingdom of potholes, sparse gravel, and pigweed. Two trees-of-heaven fight the chain link fence on the far side. The trees are gnarled and intertwined with the mesh. An empty dog kennel sits between the two.

The club is a single story building of yellow-painted cinderblock with blacked-out windows. A shocking fuchsia sign atop the roof and facing the highway features part of a woman’s face: a nose, a brow, a row of lashes with no pupil. Apparently, the dancer has no soul.

There were eleven of us soulless creatures living in three trailers just this side of the fence. Eleven was a bad luck number according to Lon. He had such a strangulating fear of it, he’d spent all week on the phone researching urchins and losers until, with a sigh of relief, he found a former up-and-comer who hadn’t panned out. She was now homeless.

This stringy, greasy lost child with a blood blister on her lower lip and a row of black bristles holding together a cut under her left eye stood in the doorway of the club. Susie, fourteen. She was a long way from a princess as she clutched a Foodtown grocery bag tight against her midsection. It was rapidly dissolving from the rain she’d just come out of.

Behind her, Lon’s goon, Tire, hovered. He was an oaf in a raccoon coat so shoddy it looked like he’d assembled it himself. It was matted and dripping from the wet. The skies had rained his entire trip to the battered shelter, or flop house, or emergency room, or wherever it was he’d found her, this latest doll, princess, waif.

Tire had no love for his errands even when it was nice out. Tonight he pushed Susie forward into the room and then retreated into the shadow of the door.

I saw doubt, fear, and a lifetime of pain in Susie’s eyes and recognized her as one of us. I held up my hand to signal the girls to pause, and stepped toward the waif. She stood still without cowering, but her eyes darted around the room as if she was looking for the closest, safest exit. I walked softly to her and smiled when I reached her. I didn’t touch her, didn’t fold her in my arms like you would normally do to comfort a lost child. You never know how feral a stray cat is.

Now that she was here, we were twelve and Lon could breathe again.

“I’ll show you your room,” I said, beckoning with my head to the back door. I headed in that direction and she followed like I was her mother and she had nowhere else to go. Which was true.

Even in the harsh fluorescent light of the trailer’s main room, I could see we wouldn’t have to do much with Susie’s natural blonde hair to get it into shape. Slight bleaching, perhaps. Color highlights.

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