Free How the Hula Girl Sings by Joe Meno Page A

sugarplum like you shouldn’t have to turn to the pity of strangers.”
    “I don’t mind so much. I’ve got a pal of mine who lives in the building. It’s not so lonesome since I started working nights.”
    “Don’t you lie to me, Luce. Remember, I know you. You must be feeling awful living there in that ugly old hotel. Which reminds me, what happened to your poor face?”
    “Fell down a flight of stairs.”
    “That’s not what I heard. I heard you ran right into the end of Earl Peet’s fist. Messing around with his girl.”
    “We just happen to be old friends,” I said.
    “That’s not what I heard at all. I heard Earl caught you climbing out her bedroom window one night, grinning.”
    “You know me better than that.” I sighed. “I’m not one to mess with another man’s girl.”
    “That is too bad.” Dahlia grinned, running her fingers over my hand. I smiled, feeling her breath move all across my neck and face. “Because we could meet sometime. Me and you. You and me. We could get together and see what there is to see.”
    I swallowed, forcing all the spit from my lips down my throat.
    “Christ, Dal, you sure know how to make a man feel all right. That Favor is a lucky man.”
    “You don’t know the half of it.” She frowned, brushing some hair out of her eyes. “Call on me during the day if you ever wanna learn the rest.”
    Lord.
    Dahlia blew me a kiss and shook on out back into the heat. I tried to light a cigarette but my fingers were trembling too much. The square kept slipping out of my hands. This was all from the same woman who had led me to that luckless state. Somehow I was an awful forgiving man where lust was concerned.
    The bell above the door gave another ring.
    These two young, dirty-faced, round-headed kids kind of weaseled in. They had their hands dug deep into their jeans pockets and their eyes were down at their feet. They crept up to the counter and stared me right in my eye. There was one red-faced kid with freckles and red hair and the other had greasy black hair and pink lips. They looked like they had just got done wrestling with each other in the dirt.
    “Gimme a pack of Viceroy Golds,” the red-faced kid stammered. I gave a little smile, lifting my head off the counter.
    “How old are you, pal?” I asked. He couldn’t have been any more than twelve or so. He licked some sweat from his upper lip.
    “Eighteen,” he lied, digging his fists around in his pockets.
    “Eighteen? You got some sort of ID?”
    They kind of looked at each other.
    “Nope.” The freckled kid frowned.
    “You’re gonna tell me you two are both eighteen?”
    They both nodded slowly.
    “Can’t sell ’em to you boys. Sorry. Wish I could. But I don’t wanna lose my job. I happen to know there’s a cigarette machine at the diner down the street. Maybe you can scare some up there.”
    “Thanks a lot, asshole,” the little red-faced kid mumbled. Him and his pal walked on out, swinging the door closed without another profane word.
    The next day at the gas station, I couldn’t get Dahlia out of my head. I straightened out a rack of snack cakes and fruit pies trying to keep my hands busy. A big, wide-faced trucker in a cowboy hat came in to buy three or four nudie magazines and gave me a good wink as I slipped them into a brown paper bag.
    “More discreet that way,” I mumbled.
    “To tell you the truth, son, my wife prefers me reading these nudie books to getting screwed behind her back. Nothing worse than a dishonest spouse, I’ll tell you.”
    I nodded.
    “Hell, I knew a man down the way from here, Diamond Lou Feltis, a hog man. He had himself a pretty little wife, few kids, a plot of land, nothing too expensive, but everything was real nice and sweet. Well, this fool took to fooling around with motel whores and then he lost it all for lust. Someone’s husband came after him with a shotgun and leveled off his head while he was in bed with some other guy’s wife. There was so many