The Long Way Home by Phillip Overton
Chapter 31
Doug shoved the five dollars change in his pocket and strode out of the café. Outside the rain had stopped briefly, leaving the street and sidewalk saturated and glistening with the coloured lights of the restaurants and clubs up and down Orchid Avenue. The afternoon light was fighting a losing battle against the onslaught of an overcast early evening sky.
Doug paused under the black and white striped awning of the Belize Café & Restaurant long enough to have a good look down Orchid Avenue towards the Cavill Mall. Neon lights blinked on and off from behind the giant palm trees that lined each side of the street. The restaurants, cafes and clubs would soon be at their busiest, although with the weather being so miserable the street would not be full of the usual crowded sidewalk dining tables tonight. Still clutching the shopping bag with the shoe box containing $10,000 Doug turned his back on the scene and started walking in the direction of where he had parked his car a few short blocks away.
Thoughts raced through his head as he again focused on the deal with Richard and the investors that had gone sour. He felt absolutely gutted for Richard. Everything had come crashing down around him and yet he had still gone out of his way to protect him from getting caught up in the controversy. What Richard had said about his name not being on any of the development proposals was true. Richard had never asked him to sign anything. In fact if the police were to raid his real estate office in Coolangatta, they wouldn’t be able to find a single thread of evidence linking him to Manningham Properties or Councilor Green.
Doug turned the corner and trudged past a string of touristy T-shirt shops. Their borderline obscenities emblazoned across the front of endless rows of T-shirts hanging proudly from every available space of the store, punctuated only by the occasional barrel of stuffed toy koalas or $2 thongs.
He was beginning to wonder if in fact Peter was who he said he was. An Angel sent to intervene on his behalf. It still sounded a whole lot better than being drunk and delusional. Once more he recalled Peter say, ‘Don’t be surprised when Richard doesn’t show up at the coffee lounge next Thursday,’ and he had been right. He only wished he could remember the rest of the conversation, there was something else pivotal to all of this that Peter had said afterwards.
Doug hurried along towards his car that was still parked a block away. It was nearly six o’clock. How was he going to explain to Sally why he was over an hour late getting home? She would have been expecting him home by 5.30 and he still hadn’t left Surfers Paradise. ‘Don’t get upset honey I was just having coffee with a stripper but hey, nothing happened because it turns out she goes to your church. Yeah, she’s really going to buy that one!’ He thought.
He passed by a homeless man propped up in the corner of a closed storefront, he had an old green army coat wrapped over his body and sat staring absently at the damp concrete in front of him. Doug immediately felt sorry for the poor bloke and reaching in his pocket pulled out the crumpled five dollar note the waitress had given him as change back at the café. He walked over to the guy and placed it in his opened hand, shaking it gently at the same time.
“Here, Merry Christmas.” Doug said before turning and continuing up the sidewalk.
“Thank you sir,” the man called out after him. Doug just held his hand up in a short acknowledged wave, and without turning around kept walking. The man called out again after him, “Just because the best laid plans can come undone doesn’t mean there isn’t a better one waiting for us around the next corner.”
Doug stopped dead in his tracks. They were the exact same words that Peter had said to him in the beer garden, the very line he had been trying desperately to remember. He spun around. The doorway in front of the closed storefront was empty. He looked up and down the street amongst the few pedestrians shuffling along the sidewalk and could see no sign of him at all. Yet he had been there, he had touched his hand, he was real.
Doug hurried the short distance back to the spot where he had been sitting. He stood there, mouth smiling widely in amazement on the spot where the man had sat propped up in the doorway just a moment before and he heard the voice clearly in his head as though someone was talking right beside him.
“There’ll be someone who needs your help, put their troubles before your own and things will turn a corner.”
He could feel his head clear and the burden of anxiety lift from his heart. A meeting with an Angel, a failed business project and a stripper named Angela had all led him to this moment. The only question that remained in his mind was why? What was waiting around the corner for him? Maybe it was time to find out. He looked down at the shopping bag with the shoe box he still clutched in his hand and knew what he had to do.
He turned and ran back along the street past all the tourist T-shirt shops that were now closing, turned the corner and darted between a small crowd of pedestrians gathered by the traffic lights waiting to cross at the intersection. Heart racing, he ran past several shops most of which were now closed and came to a stop at the corner of Orchid Avenue. Across the street was the now familiar black and white striped awning of Belize Café & Restaurant. He turned his head slowly to the right and looked up along the palm tree lined avenue. There amongst the hoard of glowing neon signs, a large pink and yellow sign of a kitten with its tail waving immediately caught his attention. Boldly emblazoned underneath in flashing letters were the words, The Pussycat Club.
‘I can’t do this,’ Doug thought to himself. He went to step forward and felt paralyzed by a wall of doubt, he gripped the shopping bag tightly in his hand and thought strongly about turning away and leaving once more. Doug trembled as fear rose up through his body, his feet felt glued to the pavement. His mind was racing with the thought that it was just too dangerous to walk into a place like that with $10,000 cash. ‘What if I’m wrong?’
Doug slowly stepped forward and his heart started to calm down from the frantic rhythm it was beating inside his chest. Another few steps and his legs began to feel solid beneath him once more. The perspiration on his forehead disappeared, the fear subsided and the feeling of doubt fell away completely. He composed himself and confidently strolled down the avenue.
Reaching the entrance he walked up the red carpeted steps of The Pussycat Club, past the huge bouncer who smiled and simply said ‘hi’ and stopped in front of a small window. Peering through it he could see a scantily dressed woman propped against a cash register.
“That’ll be $10 tonight thanks.” She smiled insincerely. “Free entry was before 6pm.”
Doug checked his watch before reaching for his wallet. ‘It was only five minutes past six, talk about being stiff’. He thought.
“Here’s your admission pass, just show it to the doorman at the end of the hallway.” She said as she took the money from him. “Just remember that touching the dancers is not allowed, have fun.”
Doug took the pass from her without saying anything and put his wallet back in his trouser pocket. He stepped into the long hallway to the distant sounds of night club music thumping through the walls. He could see the doorman standing arms crossed at the end of the hallway, black trousers, white shirt and built like a rugby player. He looked ready to throw someone out at the first sign of trouble.
‘Stay focused,’ he told himself as he strode down the red carpet in time to the whump, whump, whump, of the music coming from inside. The doorman looked him up and down like all bouncers do before nodding at him and motioning him towards the big red door to the side of him. Doug showed him his admission pass but he only waved him off like it was fine, and without so much as a word pushed the door open for him.
Doug took a deep breath, and stepped into a mirrored palace of sin. He stood uneasily in the middle of the room feeling cheapened for simply being there. Around him everyone was caught up in their own world. Behind a wall of half-drunken middle aged men, bodies gyrated to the sound of loud club music while they swayed and spun seductively from poles beneath the stage’s bright, flashing lights. In the
“Hi I’m Stacey.” A tap on the shoulder had him spinning around to see a gorgeous brunette in a body hugging, sky blue one piece dress smiling at him. “Can I interest you in a lap dance?”
“Actually I was looking for Angela.” Doug replied matter-of-factly, making sure he kept eye contact with her.
“You mean Angel?” She asked as she stopped pouting and talked normally to him now. “Yeah Angela is still backstage at the moment, she was supposed to be on stage already by now. Are you like her boyfriend or something? We only ever tell people in here our stage names? You must know her from outside the club.”
“Yeah, we only met recently. Do you know how I can get to see her?”
“All right ladies,” a loud male voice interrupted over the PA system. “Please welcome our next four dancers to the stage. They are Roxy, Desire, Angel and Trixie.”
“Yeah, that’s her about to come on stage now.” Stacey smiled before strutting off in search of her next victim.
Immediately a loud holler went up from the crowd as the music changed and three scantily-clad girls strutted out on to the stage. Doug glanced quickly from one girl to the next, watching as one girl swung quickly around the pole at the far end of the stage, spraying her long hair in a trail behind her before stopping and letting it fall across her shoulder. One thing was for certain, the girls must be Roxy, Trixie and Desire because Angela was not on the stage.
Doug thought that perhaps everything had worked out like she had hoped it would. After all, this was no place for someone who had just become a Christian to be forced to work. He wondered what Sally would have thought of her predicament. Then he wondered what Sally would think of him being in a place like this. And then he felt guilty for simply having stepped through the red doorway. Perhaps it was time to leave. Then off to the side of the stage where the other three dancers had just appeared from, he caught a glimpse of a man with slicked back hair leading a woman by the arm. He looked tanned, muscular and extremely mean as he brought her into view and forced her out onto the stage. She stumbled forward and hesitated for a moment as she regained her composure atop her high platform heels to the cheers of the crowd down in front who didn’t see what Doug was able to.
It was Angela. She seemed to have more hair than he remembered her having at the coffee lounge and she was barely dressed in a tiny pink see-through top. She hesitated again for a moment and shot a quick glance back towards where the tanned and greasy haired man in the nice shirt still stood, joined now by another bouncer who looked even bigger and uglier than the two outside. He figured the first man must be Emilio and the other his evil henchman.
Emilio stood menacingly behind the curtains as he pointed harshly in the direction of the vacant pole in the centre of the stage. There were four poles out on the stage and only three girls were dancing around them, judging by the look on his face he wasn’t going to be happy until all four poles were occupied.
Doug looked up at Angela, she didn’t know he was in the crowd. She was trying to focus on the floor while picking up her routine. It wasn’t going well however. Her hair was becoming stuck in the trail of tears that slowly made their way down her cheeks. She reached the pole and swung around it once, stopping to turn her back to the crowd while she buried her face in her hands.
Emilio and the evil henchman seemed satisfied once she positioned herself by the pole and appeared to be following her routine. They turned and left the stage entrance area just as the DJ’s voice rang loud over the PA system once more.
“Alright fellas,” his voice droned over the thumping of the bass. “Who wants to see those tops come off?” Immediately a huge holler went up from the guys in the front row.
The three other dancers began cheekily undoing their bikini tops while they continued to dance seductively, letting them drop to the stage floor to the delight of the crowd. Doug looked over at Angela as she turned around to face the crowd. She was just standing there, still hoping that God might deliver her a miracle in the middle of this dark moment, much to the ire of those in the front row.
Among all the cheering and hollering Doug stood silently, feeling immense sorrow for Angela standing on stage crying while she tried to perform. Maybe the events of this week had led him here. Maybe it had all been coincidence. He didn’t care. He wasn’t going to let her go through this on her own a moment longer.
Angela started to cry. A trail of mascara made its way down her cheek as the song continued to bounce off the walls of the club. She reached down and began to pull the tiny pink top over her head. She was about to bare her body to the hollering crowd, when she felt two hands on hers, gently pulling her top back down. When she looked up she saw the guy from the coffee shop standing in front of her.
“Doug what are you doing here?” She gasped. In a room full of eyes lusting after her body, his face showed nothing but concern. She wondered if he understood that the pure thankfulness and gratitude that emanated from deep within her heart had her frozen to the floor.
“If Jesus means so much to you, then you should be free from all of this. C’mon, let’s get you out of here.” He instructed but she couldn’t move.
The room was beginning to erupt into a chorus of boos as the crowd jeered Doug for interrupting the show. Two of the other girls had stopped dancing and had gathered around to try and hear what Doug was saying to her.
“Can we have security to the main stage, p-leeeez!” The DJ waffled over the loudspeaker.
“What’s wrong Angela? Let’s go.” Doug tried to plead with her.
She looked at him as she wiped away the tears that streamed down her face, suddenly becoming conscious of the way she was dressed and trying to cover herself by folding her arms in front of her see-through top. All the while however, Doug’s eyes didn’t budge from hers. He seemed impervious to all the nudity that surrounded them. There was strength in his eyes far greater than his own, she could feel it fuelling her with the courage she needed to reach out and take his arm.
“While I was on stage I was praying for God to send an Angel to deliver me from here, instead he sent you.” She smiled as she sniffed back the tears once more.
“Alright you, get off the stage.” A gruff voice interrupted. Doug felt two strong hands grab him by the collar of his shirt. It was the evil henchman he had seen before. “You’re coming with me. Emilio wants to see you and he isn’t going to be happy!”
“You too Angel face.” Said one of the other bouncers as he picked up Angela in a bear hug and took her kicking and screaming from the stage to the cheers of the louts in the front row while the other girls returned to their places and began dancing again.
They were taken through the curtained off entrance to the side of the stage and around the corner into the backstage wardrobe.
“Ladies if you could all go to make-up, this area is off limits for the next 15 minutes.” The evil henchman ordered and immediately the four girls who were preparing to go on next left the room.
Doug looked across the room to see Emilio quickly descending the stairs in the far corner, feet pounding heavily on the carpeted timber floorboards while at the same time rolling up his shirt sleeves and looking as though he was ready to give him a pounding. One of the bouncers grabbed Angela by the hair and threw her forward so that she fell at Emilio’s feet as he crossed the floor angrily to meet them.
“Hey watch how you treat her!” Doug growled at him, seeing a large clump of her hair, he quickly recognised as a hair extension, come away and land on the floor beside her.
“Or what?” Asked Emilio as he stepped carefully over Angela who made no attempt to get up off the floor and came face to face with Doug while the evil henchman kept his arms pinned firmly behind his back. “You know I hope you’re her priest she was telling me about, because then I can let you off with a beating. You have no right….”
“Let her go
“Don’t you dare interrupt me!” Emilio barked at him. “Not after you’ve marched yourself up onto my stage and interrupted my girls while they were performing!” He slipped his expensive looking watch from off his wrist, stuffed it into his trouser pocket and went to make a fist to pound Doug’s face.
“You know, I thought a successful businessman like yourself would have been a whole lot smarter at working out a deal than this.” Doug spoke up, catching his heart in his throat that by now was beating frantically.
“What?” Emilio stopped dead in his tracks and looked at him puzzled.
“Well she owes you some money doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, so what’s it to you?”
“See this is better, now we can start to negotiate. It’s clear she has made a decision to no longer live her life this way but there also remains the topic of a loan you have made to her that needs to be settled. Either way, this is no longer the place for her to be working. She’s been given a fresh start by a power greater than you.” Doug spoke up before wishing he hadn’t. It caused Emilio to burst open a spray of rage aimed squarely at him.
“Who are you? Are you one of her Jesus freak friends? Or are you trying to get her to work for you? Because we talked about what would happen if you tried to work for someone else, didn’t we Angel?”
Angela sat herself up on the floor behind Emilio and looked directly at Doug. It was clear she didn’t have the strength to deal with this any longer. Trying to reason with Emilio simply hadn’t worked, and now all she could do was watch on silently as Doug tried his best.
“Look man, I get girls trying to give me all sorts of excuses to get out of the industry all the time.” Emilio continued. “My Momma’s sick, I want to be a nurse, I want to be a flight attendant and she’s not the first chick to come up to me and say ‘Jesus wants me to be a happy sunbeam.’ Know what I’m saying? And the fact is, I lent her a lot of money when she first started working for me. Angel’s been a good girl, she’s been paying me back out of her cut, but I’ll be damned if I’m just going to let her walk out of here with someone who’s just walked in off the street on a promise that she’ll pay me back later.”
“How much?” Doug asked.
“Oh, think you can buy her now? How do I know you’re not just a wannabe hotshot who wants to sell her on the street to get your money back eh? Ever stop to think about that Angel?”
Angela remained quiet while she sat on the floor. Emilio motioned to the evil henchman to let go and Doug’s arms swung free, the shopping bag with the shoe box he still clutched returned to his side.
“Give me one good reason why I should even consider letting her go.” Emilio stared at him coldly.
“Because she made a decision to follow Jesus.” Doug replied, again wishing he had kept his mouth shut.
Emilio stared at him in disbelief and looked him up and down. He had already summed him up as a typical middle aged nobody and was still wondering why he hadn’t smacked him in the head. He wanted to, simply for him just wandering into his club in his coffee stained trousers with his stupid shopping bag that he was still clutching and making a nuisance of himself up on his stage.
“I’ll tell you what,” Emilio paused staring coldly at Doug. “Unless you’ve got the $9,200 she owes me in that stupid bag you’re still holding, and God himself standing beside you, then you’re both in a lot of trouble.”
“The way has already been made clear for you Doug.” He heard Peter’s voice loud and clear as though he was in the room with him.
Doug trusted his feelings and reached into the shopping bag. Carefully he pulled the shoe box out and let the plastic bag drop to the floor. Angela still sat on the floor, her gaze now riveted in the direction of Doug while Emilio and his bouncers looked on grinning coldheartedly. Opening the lid carefully, he counted out eight $100 notes and shoved them in his top shirt pocket. Placing the lid back on the shoebox he prepared to hand the remaining $9,200 over to Emilio. If Peter was indeed an Angel who had led him to this moment, then he was going to have to take over from here, because Doug had just done all that he could do.
“There was $10,000 in there this afternoon. I’ve just taken $800 out. So the rest is yours.” Doug said as he offered the shoebox full of cash to him.
Emilio snatched the box from him with an ‘hmmpf’ and then looked up startled. A look of shock spread across his tanned face turning it pale in an instant. Eyes and mouth wide open, frozen with fear he clutched at the shoe box until his knuckles also turned white.
“What’s up boss?” The smaller of the two bouncers asked. “Boss, are you okay, what’s going on?” He asked again when there was no reply.
“Is she free to leave now?” Doug asked trying to work out what was going on. The whole room fell silent. All eyes were on Emilio who continued to stand there stupidly, frozen and unable to move. Doug glanced quickly around the room trying to work out what was going on but the room apart from the five of them was empty, and his bouncers didn’t have a clue what was going on either.
“Boss?” The evil henchman standing behind Doug asked. “What do you want us to do, should we let them go? I mean that was the exact amount she owed you right?”
Emilio slowly nodded his head.
“Do you want us to count it first Emilio?” The other bouncer asked, still trying to work out what was wrong with him.
Emilio slowly shook his head. Down on the floor Angela looked up at Emilio in disbelief, he looked scared. From where she was sitting to the side of him, she could see that he was actually staring past Doug, over his shoulder. She caught a quick glimpse of light reflecting in his eyes which were wide open and appeared very watery. When she looked in that direction however, there was nothing there.
“Boss, boss.” The two bouncers were now gently shaking him. “Are you okay? What do you want us to do?”
“The two of you are free to go.” Emilio finally replied, his voice clearly shaken before it regained some of its strength and he said much louder, “Praise be to God!”
The two bouncers stood either side of him and stared at each other in disbelief before shrugging their shoulders and accepting what he had said.
“Alright you heard the boss.” The evil henchman barked at the two of them. “On your feet and get out of here before he changes his mind. Don’t ever let me catch the two of you back here again either, understand?”
Doug reached down and helped Angela to her feet. She immediately hurried over to get her handbag and coat, the same one that Doug had spilt coffee down earlier that afternoon, and put it on. The two of them took one last puzzled look at Emilio who stood transfixed, staring at nothing and left the room.
“What was wrong with him?” Doug asked as he followed Angela out a side entrance that led through the make-up room, he could see the other girls stop and stare at Angela as they passed by.
“I don’t know,” she paused for a second. “But I think he could see something that we all couldn’t.”