Part 2
The �woman� had ended her performance. Another, equally lovely character went on to the stage, whilst the first one wandered around the room trying to get men to buy them drinks. It was all so seedy. I still didn�t see the girl I knew. I think two or three songs played before the �dancer� got off. When the music started again, I all of a sudden noticed the girl I knew step up on the stage. It was all so surreal. She was out of place. I was out of place and nothing made much sense. I wouldn�t describe her as a pretty girl. I remembered that her face had been ravaged by degrees of dermatitis over the years and as I strained to see if I could notice it from a distance, I slightly panicked because she looked in my direction. But I didn�t realise she couldn�t see into the darkened room.
My concentration was interrupted by the woman who had just been dancing. She asked me if I wanted to buy her a drink. I tried to be polite in saying no, but her ability to switch from a smiling coquette to an angry crank caught me off. I tried to say I was waiting for the girl who was dancing, but the woman never heard me.
After the songs ended, the girl grabbed whatever clothes she had thrown off and walked off the stage. This wasn�t the kind of place where people applauded. It was seedy beyond words. The girl came out from behind a curtain and started asking people to buy her a drink. Everyone ignored her. She came up to me at the bar, standing directly next to me and asked if I�d buy her a drink. Stupid me, I said yes. I got the impression that she never looked me in the eyes, but instead stared at my shirt collar. Later I learned it was a defensive mechanism on her part.
When the drink came, it was in a champagne glass (certainly not a flute!). But the bill presented with it was �20! I was shocked. The waitress who stood there waiting for the money muttered �champagne� to me. I later learned it was actually Canada