Twelve
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The hallway they entered was marked with an arrow for the restrooms. The door at the end said“ Office.” Frank knocked once and headed in. The room smelled of stale cigars and the slightest hint of perfume. A heavily built man sat behind an old oak desk banding stacks of cash. The glass top covering the wooden surface was protecting numerous Polaroids of obvious dancers. All were signed with kisses and hugs. All were in various stages of undress, including completely. George had dark circles under his eyes. Bushy eyebrows and thinning hair sat upon a pale round, pockmarked face.“ Who’ s your sidekick?” George asked, as Frank shut the door. There was only one chair in the room other than the one already occupied. They stood.“ This is Eddie. Eddie meet George,” Frank offered introductions.“ George,” Eddie said, with a nod. The man was busy so Eddie did not extend his hand.“ What, you didn’ t bring Godzilla?” George asked Frank, and did not wait for an answer before turning to Eddie.“ He brings this guy who I figure is gonna scare the shit out of my girls. I tell him go find a seat in a dark corner, enjoy the show and I’ ll buy him a drink. Frank and me got business. A half hour later we go find Godzilla. He’ s got one girl on each knee and two in the wings waiting to take their place. I ask the girls if he’ s a big tipper. They look at me like I’ m speaking Greek.” George turns back to Frank.“ What’ s Eddie doing for you?”“ Resurrecting the Center at Golden Estates,” Frank answered. Eddie watched as George ran the information. His eyes and eyebrows moved independently as the brain searched for about two seconds.“ You’ re fuckin’ kidding me.” He turned back to Eddie.“ What kind of magician are you? How you gonna resurrect a ghost town? That neighborhood is never going to get out of the courts. Not in your lifetime,” George said.“ He is turning it into a haunted house,” Frank said. George smiled for the first time and it was not pretty. Frank continued.“ Eddie took about three hundred dollars and a hand full of volunteers, built a haunted house in the school, and in four hours, turned it into three thousand dollars. The money went to our kids music fund. It was magic, and he is going to do it again,” Frank stated. The conviction in Frank’ s words touched both Eddie and George.“ The money come out of your pocket?” George asked Eddie. Eddie nodded.“ You get it back out of the three grand?”“ Never expected too.” Eddie spoke.“ Frank you cheap bastard!”“ He gave me a job,” Eddie defended.“ He didn’ t do you no favor. You don’ t expect the money?”“ It was for a good cause,” Eddie said.“ You and me got a lot in common. We are both generous guys. Frank’ s so tight his farts squeak.”“ Speaking of tight, where’ s my rent?” Frank asked.
A stack of bills landed in the automatic counter. The wheel spun making a ruffling sound. George snatched the money from the tray, stuffed it in an envelope and threw it over Frank’ s head. Frank deftly pulled it from the air and put the envelope in his coat pocket.“ Eddie you see all those girls out there?” George glanced the direction of the muffled sound coming through the smoke stained wall. Eddie nodded.“ They like generous guys like us,” George said, fanning three hundred dollar bills on the desktop, like a dealer in Vegas.“ Go find a table and be generous for a couple of hours. Me and my cheap ass brother-in-law got business. Don’ t take any of it home,” George said, pushing the bills toward Eddie. Eddie nodded and reached for the money.
The move was amazingly quick as a banded stack of twenties was slapped on top of the three C-notes by a hand with no wedding ring. Eddie’ s gaze was held for a moment by George’ s piercing dark eyes. Eddie smiled, gathered the cash and tried to picture a family resemblance to the woman in the painting in Frank’ s office. He saw none as Frank opened the office door. Eddie stuffed the money in his pocket and exited. In the hallway he removed the band and wrapped the hundreds around the twenties.
The table he found was close enough to observe the dancers and far enough away not to feel like an old lecher. Eddie had often wondered what it would feel like to be as generous as the wad of cash in his pocket allowed. The waitress approached and Eddie ordered an Amstel Light. She was back quickly. Eddie peeled a hundred off