Winning Texas (35 page)

It gave her a funny feeling deep in her stomach to show her breasts, but it wasn
’
t as bad as she
’
d feared. Several men whooped and hollered and a few came up and shoved bills in her tap pants or laid them on the stage. She smiled, feeling shy but pleased they
’
d liked her. She picked up the bills, her garments and bounced offstage. She didn
’
t really know what to do next, so she ambled into the dressing room and found her pink terrycloth robe.

There were about ten women in there, and she caught the eye of Leka and her posse, two girls with the same foreign look around their eyes. She smiled at them encouragingly and was rewarded with friendly looks. Leka conferred with them briefly and they all came over to introduce themselves.

“
You are Sugar, no?
”
Leka said in foreign-accented English. She shook hands with Betsy and introduced the other girls, Afrodita and Mimoza. They smiled and said hello, but not much else. Leka explained that they didn
’
t speak much English yet, but added,
“
They will be your friends, like me.
”

“
My real name is Betsy,
”
she told Leka.
“
This is my first day. I was really scared out there.
”

“
I know how you are feeling. We all were scared when we started working two days ago,
”
Leka said.
“
Are you a Texan?
”

“
Yeah, from West Texas,
”
said Betsy.
“
Came to Houston with my boyfriend. Where are you from?
”

“
Tirana, in the country of Albania,
”
Leka said with pride.

Betsy didn
’
t even know where Albania was, but Leka explained so that she kind of understood, though her grasp of geography was hazy. She listened eagerly to Leka
’
s story about their journey to Houston hiding as stowaways. She
’
d never heard anything so exciting from girls her age. She sat with them at a rickety table in the corner of the dressing room, feeling that she
’
d finally found some friends. They seemed so much nicer than the nasty girls she
’
d met at Donnie
’
s house. What a crazy trip the Albanian girls had been through hiding on a ship to Houston. She promised she wouldn
’
t tell anyone about it. She felt sorry for them when Leka told her about her cousin and the others who
’
d been sent to a ranch in the Hill Country. She
’
d lived on her dad
’
s ranch all her life and knew that it was hard work and not at all glamorous.

She reveled in the girls
’
companionship until a large woman butted in by clapping her hands and shouting orders in Spanish. She scolded that they needed to get in line because they
’
d all be dancing again soon. The girls on shift duty would take turns performing on stage, giving Betsy and the others more opportunities to dance as new customers arrived.

“
That
’
s Mrs. Jimenez,
”
Leka told her.
“
Be careful around her and do what she says. She is very mean.
”

“
And stay away from Bobo, the man who guards the door and looks at you with evil in his eyes. He will try to touch you.
”
Leka grimaced and her friends wrinkled their noses with distaste.

Every time she left the stage, Betsy gravitated toward Leka and her friends. They giggled about some of the older men in the audience and exchanged more stories about their lives. Leka translated to the girls so they could all participate in the conversation. It was nice to have someone her own age to explain how things worked. She wasn
’
t sure she totally understood the club
’
s operation. There seemed to be unwritten rules in this strange world. She
’
d looked, every time she was onstage, for Mr. Krause, the owner who
’
d been so nice to her. But he wasn
’
t in the audience.

Midnight approached and Betsy ached all over from dancing, smiling and standing for so many hours. Mrs. Jiminez told her to punch her time card and leave. She put on jeans, packed her duffle bag and called Patrick to pick her up.

He pulled into a parking space and opened the passenger door. She sank into the passenger seat, so glad to sit down. She could smell the acrid marijuana and sour beer on his breath across the seat, which she resented after working all night. But she decided not to say anything. She didn
’
t have the energy for a fight.

“
Well, babe, how much did you make?
”
He said eagerly.

She hadn
’
t added up the pile of crumpled bills she
’
d stuck in her purse. She rummaged around and counted it.

“
It
’
s $276 dollars,
”
she said proudly.

“
That
’
s a start, but not great for a whole night,
”
he said.
“
You
’
ve got to do better than that for us to be able to stay in the fancy motel you picked out.
”

“
I thought you
’
d be so happy,
”
she said in a small voice.

“
Houston
’
s music scene is slow right now,
”
he said.
“
Just worried about money. Might have to do a couple of months on a rig, or go back to Greece for a while. I don
’
t want to have to leave you.
”

“
Well, if you don
’
t blow it on pot or booze, we should be okay.
”

“
Don
’
t nag me, Bets. I won
’
t put up with it.
”

“
Can
’
t you see I
’
m dead on my feet?
”
She wasn
’
t going to smooth things over for once.
“
Just get me out of here.
”

CHAPTER 38

Lila Jo
’
s luck had been remarkably consistent that night at the poker game. She and Travis had found the fancy host house on a Memorial-area street where about half the 1960s ranch-style houses had been torn down to make way for grander two-stories festooned with columns, stone accents and three-car garages. Travis hated neighborhoods that looked neither one way or another, that were always in process of becoming something else. But he understood the impulse for transformation, even though it didn
’
t always result in improvement.

For the past couple of weeks, both he and Lila Jo had lost money most of the nights they
’
d ventured out to private games. But tonight she
’
d bested everyone at the table and was taking home close to $1,000 in cold cash. He
’
d won a few hundred, after a long losing streak. Normally, Lila Jo would be taking celebratory swigs of bourbon, but she
’
d left the good stuff on the table and had sipped Diet Dr. Pepper all night. She seemed less animated than usual and didn
’
t make her usual jokes about beginner
’
s luck.

They said their goodbyes to the boisterous group and Travis drove the fifteen or so miles to his apartment on the north side. Was she angry with him? He opened the door and stepped aside for Lila Jo in a faux-ceremonious bow, expecting her to make some kind of wisecrack about his gallantry. But she rewarded him only with an absent-minded smile.

“
Wow, you blew everyone away at the table,
”
Travis said, puzzled by her silence.
“
Thought you
’
d be on Cloud Nine.
”

She turned and looked him over slowly, as if she were trying to make up her mind about something. He feared that she was about to call it quits, that she realized she could do better than a short, financially-strapped journalist who wasn
’
t all that good at poker. He dreaded her next words and hoped that if it were a kiss-off, she
’
d make it mercifully quick. Instead she appeared to want to drag it out.

“
Travy, let
’
s sit down for a moment and talk,
”
she said in her usual pleasant drawl. He tensed up, but sat down on one of his two folding chairs.

“
Sweetie Pie, I
’
m pregnant. I know that
’
s the last thing you expected to hear from this old babe, but there it is.
”

“
Well, damn, Lila Jo.
”
He was shocked.
“
I thought you said you and Beebe couldn
’
t have children.
”

“
I guess Beebe couldn
’
t, but you, on the other hand, apparently are prime daddy material,
”
she smiled.
“
To tell the truth, I thought I was past all that, since I just turned 45. In fact, I went to the doc thinking he
’
d tell me I
’
d gone into menopause.
”

He didn
’
t know what to say, but he felt a surprised tingle of excitement.

“
When did you go to the doctor?
”

“
Yesterday. He did a test, felt around in there and said I was nearly three months gone.
”

“
How do you feel about it?
”
He asked, putting a hand on her stomach. It felt warm under her black top and by no means flat. But then it
’
d always looked slightly poochy, which he
’
d never minded.

“
Baby, I
’
m thrilled,
”
she said.
“
I always wanted a child, or two, or six. I just didn
’
t think it would ever happen. My luck
’
s usually like the girl
’
s who fell into a barrel of peckers and came up sucking her own thumb.
”

He guffawed, sensing that she was trying to deflect tension from her announcement.

“
Where
’
d you get that one?
”

“
My cousin Ida Mae from Vidor. She always had the dirtiest mouth in the family. Think she ended up peddling her ass at a truck stop.
”

She settled back on the sofa, looking happier than he
’
d ever seen her.

“
Beebe and I tried for fifteen years, working with the best doctors he could buy at the Medical Center. We knew we had some issues, but no matter whatever crazy procedure we tried, it didn
’
t work. It was one reason why we split up
–
it brought out the worst in our relationship.
”

“
So you want to have it, or I guess I should say her, or him?
”

“
Oh, yeah,
”
she said.
“
But you don
’
t have to be a part of it. I know that this wasn
’
t part of our deal.
”

“
But I think I
’
d like to be part of it,
”
he said.
“
It
’
s my kid, too.
”

“
I
’
m seventeen years older than you, honey,
”
she said.
“
I don
’
t think you know what you
’
re getting into. What would your mama and daddy think? They don
’
t even know about us.
”