Hookers Part 3

"Oh, Harry, dear, I had no idea you would be here so soon," said Pearl, happily, "Sit here, dear."

"What's the matter with you, Ev," asked Harry, "haven't you a boy friend tonight?"

"Yeah, I've had a boy friend for the past twenty-four hours, but he's up in my room, trying to sober up enough to go home. He is a louse to his wife--but--d.a.m.n--he's good to me. He paid my rent for a month, and opened me a charge account at the White House, and gives me twenty bucks a month."

"Don't this place have but the one waiter for all these people?" asked Pearl.

"Just the one dear; Frank is his name, and he takes his time, but he's a good scout--wait, I'll go and get you some water--gee, but you are sweet. Boy--oh--boy, I'd love to cut you," said Harry, as he kissed her on the ear and went for the water.

"Good Lord, Ev, did you hear what he said--he must be a s.a.d.i.s.t."

"No, I think Harry's Irish."

"But he said he would love to cut me."

"Well, dear, that expression has more definitions than the one you happen to know," said Evelyn. "My G.o.d, look who's here--if it ain't Mickey and Betty--for the love of Heaven, where have you two been for the past rear-end of the week?"

Betty and Mickey came over to the table, h.e.l.los and greetings were very much in order, loud, noisy, raucous, but good natured was the dirty banter that pa.s.sed to and fro among the crowd. Finally they left Pearl and Evelyn, but not until they made Pearl promise to pay them a visit, then they squeezed into a booth with four other people, but where they could still see everybody, and shout ribald songs of the border at the top of their voices.

"What is the matter with Mickey's face? Why, Ev, she looks like she had been through nine wars, and fought them all herself. I've never seen so many scars."

"Well, you see," explained Evelyn, "Mickey is the only woman in Juarez, or the world, for that matter, that--if a fight starts in Juarez, and she is on the U. S. side--she is sure to get into the fight before it is over. I've seen her with a bottle so deep in her skull it looked like a feather."

"Darling," said Harry, "My brother loaned me his car, just as I told you. Shall we take a little ride when you are through eating?"

"I'd love to, dear--I've never been riding around El Paso since I've been here, but where will we go?"

"Well, we could drive out the Smelter Road and back the Mesa way, or we could go up on Rim Road, on the side of Mount Franklin, or maybe you would like to drive out to Washington Park--it is beautiful at night."

"Well, if I were you," said Evelyn, "I'd go to Washington Park. At least, there's gra.s.s on the ground around there."

"Well, why isn't there gra.s.s on the ground in the other places Harry mentioned, Ev?"

"Well, you see, as far as I know--I believe the natives of El Paso have had something to do with the wearing off of the gra.s.s in said places."

"Oh, I know," smiled Pearl, "You mean cows."

"Yes--some cows, but mostly heifers."

"How do you girls feel about a drink," asked Harry.

"Well, why the h.e.l.l didn't you say something before--good Heavens, it's been a long time between drinks--bottoms up."

Screaming, gla.s.ses crashing, curses, tearing of clothes, yells, biting, pulling of hair, turning over of tables, running of people, came from the rear of the place.

"Good Heavens," screamed Pearl, "Those women are tearing each other to pieces--why don't somebody try to separate them?"

"Come on, let's get going," said Harry, as he took Pearl by the arm and piloted her out of the place, never bothering to pay the check.

"So long, kids, I'll see you tomorrow," called Evelyn.

"But where do you live, Ev?"

"San Antonio Apartments, on San Antonio Street, number twenty-seven.

Come up tomorrow, dear--adios."

Harry and Pearl went out into the beautiful new car, and took a long ride toward the Smelter Road, to the fork where you return by the Mesa Road.

"Shall we stop and look at the moon for a while?" asked Harry.

"I'd love it."

"Then we'll stop."

Harry pulled the car off the road at the top of a small Mesa b.u.t.te, and turned off the lights.

"Isn't it beautiful here?"

"Yes, but you are more beautiful than a thousand nights," whispered Harry into her ear.

She turned her head, looked into his expectant eyes, and thought how handsome he was, with that tightly brushed blonde hair, bushy eyebrows, beautiful smile, backed by manly big white teeth, surrounded by red lips.

"Oh, Harry, you are a darling," as their lips met and their young bodies quivered with the thrill of expectation to be fulfilled.

El Paso, city of one hundred thousand, not counting the nearby towns and villages. Noon, the sun maddening with its terrific heat, asphalt in the street so soft that your foot-print is left in it on crossing, only the business that has to be done is all that is going on. People move about lifelessly, clothes sticking to them. Mexicans, dressed in black, with the usual black shawl around their heads, as though it were the dead of winter, and not a bead of perspiration on them, with the only cooling place in the town being in the theatres that are ice-cooled.

"My G.o.d--I'll die from this heat," said Pearl to herself, as she raised up in bed, with her night-gown sticking to her. "Jees, I wonder if I'll ever get used to it," she mused, as she climbed out of bed and raised the shade, and looked out on the sun-baked city.

"I wonder what I'll do today to kill the time before I have to go over to Juarez tonight. I know, I'll put on my things and go and wake Ev up and have breakfast--then maybe she can suggest some place to go where it's cool."

Pearl stepped out of her nightgown, looked at herself in the mirror. She was twenty-three, but she didn't look more than twenty, her beautiful white figure, with all the curves of youth reflected back at her, gave her a happy feeling, knowing that she didn't look anything like the rest of the girls that had been down on the border long, and promising herself that she would watch out and see that she would never--never be like them. The door-k.n.o.b turned slowly, then the door was thrown wide open. In walked the big boy of the night before.

"Oh, Heavens," screamed Pearl, "Wait a minute till I get something on,"

as she fled into the bathroom.