Like an Old Penny

By RadaR

"Thank you for lunch, " Lorese said, as she gracefully took her seat, and folding her feather plume in her lap, "...again."

With a hint of laughter, Richard called to the waiters to serve the wine. Lorese was dressed in a white, sensouse evening gown made of silk. The thin cloth hinted to her bright orange brassier and panties, hiding beneath. She began the routine of her favorite customer, and her boss. He always tipped well.

"Nothing but the best for my girls." Richard toasted. With a clink of the glass, Lorese took a drink, and let a smile crest her lips. It may have been Richards club, but to Lorese, it was paradise; it was home.

"Your still on of my best dancers," Richard laid compliment,"...and tonight is yours. I want you to take the night off, and I will pay you to do so."

Pulling a large roll of money from his suit pocket, he began to count out the hundred dollar bills as he laid them on the table. Lorese looked at Richards body-guard, standing behind him, with a puzzled look. When he began to count, she began to wonder.

"One hundred."

She thought abourt the first day she had come to his cabaret.

"Two hundred."

Her mind flashed to the moment she had wanted to die, and when Richard came into her life.

"Three hundred."

It was the first time she had ever danced. The first clumsy steps, and a drug-induced ability to pull it off. At the urging of a friend, Shiva, she had come to the cabaret to interview for a job. Echoes in her mind sing along with Simon and Garfunkel to the tune of "The Boxer", in a nude-bathroom-waltz for one.

"Asking only workmens wages I come looking for a job,

but I get no offers. Just a come on from the girls on seventh avenue. I do declare there are times when I was so lonesome, I took some comfort there.

Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie..."

She was always aware of her beauty, and her angelic face. She was determined, and always got what she wanted, but never found out what that was, and could take no comfort there.

Shiva once told her that she felt like she was helping others in her dancing. To her, the dance was her gift and talent for this life. The smiles and attention were her reward... plus cash. A simple, honest trade. Not Lorese; she went into the audition with eyes bright. This was her game now.

Still, in front of Richard, the audition had a simpler, more innocent quality to it. It was easy to be sexy for a cute guy. He had an innocent sence about him, innocent in the way he onlyu looked at her eyes. Even when she slid her translucent teddy of her shoulder, he did not lower his eyes. Only when she had finnished her dance, and bergan her prance back to the dressing room, still naked, did she catch the reflection of him watching her via five or six mirrors of the thousands in the room. That is what had made it a memory for her. He did not want to appreciate her body when she stood beford him. She saw it as how he respected her. It was the moment when she understood that Shiva could be right, if all men behaved as Richard. She knew at that moment that she could work for him.

"Nine hundred."

And now, this was it. She would have to say good-bye. To the club, to the spa, the day-room, the gym, and the money. She needed to find out what she did wrong. She was still in perfect shape. Her pregnancy was taken care, and no one could know. She had kicked the habit a long time ago, falling off the wagon only once, and even that was over a year ago. She had no plastic, silcone, or scars. One tiny tatto could not be the reason. Every one loves mighty-mouse.

"Fifteen hundred."

No more Richard, no more dinners, or concerts, birthday parties. She had seen this happen to Shiva seven months earlier.Just another dinner with the boss, and Lorese never saw her again. Richard counted the money, then, and she left crying. He never even spoke about her again, she was gone.

When Richard reached two-thousand, Lorese began to cry, and ran out of the private dinning suite, over lookling the club, and ran downstairs to the dressing room. Alba, Richards longest employed dancer looked up the stairs to see Richard standing at the top. With a wave of her hand, Richard went back into the room for another glass of wine. A thin giggle was on his lips, as his body guard just shrugged. Alba went in to the dressing room to console Lorese.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" she comforted, as Lorese nestled in to another of Alba's hugs. For her forty-seven years, Alba had the physical piety of a woman half her age.

"He's firing me, isn't he?" Lorese stammered through her tears.

"Of course not," Alba consoled, "Your diploma came in the mail today. Your a graduate now. It's a night for you to think about your life."

"Is that what happened to Shiva?"

"Yes."

"I didn't know she was in school..."

"She was running from a lot of things when she came here." Alba began, "To escape that person, she had to be reborn. She stayed a little longer than I expected; but, she decided she had to just walk away, and leave it all behind."

"I wish she would have said goodbye..." Shiva said, wiping her eyes dry, and looking up to see Richard coming into the room. He said hello to each dancer he passed on his way to Alba and Lorese.

"There's my two favorite ladies.", he announced, as he spread his arms wide open. Lorese ran to him, and gave him a tight hug. He spun her around gently, as he held her, and whispered in her ear: "Hello, nurse..."

Setting her down, he pulled a letter out of his coat pocket, and handed it to Lorese, who proceeded to show it to every one in the room. Once every one had seen, she returned to Richard.

"You forgot this..." he began, as he handed her the money from before. It was in a gold money clip that bore the clubs logo. Lorese gave him another hug.

"How do you say...", she said to him. It was the only way she said thank-you, and Richard knew it well.

"Deliver Terries little girl in May, would you?"

Lorese promised, and with hugs all around, she grabbed her coat. Richards body-guard was standing at the door, peeking in at the girls as he had always done, and escorted Lorese to her car. Lorese gave him a little kiss on the cheek, and said good-bye.

Alba accompanied Richard up to his suite to have the dinner Lorese forgot. The waiter had two glasses of brandy sitting on the table before they even got into the room.

"You lose more dancers that way, Richard." Alba toasted. With the clink of the glasses, Richard replied, "I'll have another."

Lorese decided she would go town, immediatly, and begin applying at the local hospitals. On her way into town, she saw a girl standing by the bus stop. In her heart, Lorese could remember being that girl.

She stopped the car, took the girl to a cafe for dinner, and handed her a card for The Lone-Star Cabaret. On the back, she simply wrote, "ask for Richard!!"