Dreams Ltd (15 page)

I nodded and walked away from the table, somehow relieved. I had to admit he had rather grisly eyes - that man - very cold eyes and I wouldn’t like him to complain about me later, my hospitality has to come across more genuine next time, if I ever approach him again.

In the next minute I pushed the unpleasant thoughts away and went to another table to take new orders.

“Hey, how are you today?” Jenny came to me, wearing the same uniform as me with the emblem of the club on a short skirt.

“I’m okay.” I tried to stretch my tired of high heels feet, “tired, but alright.”

“Yes, I know, but I finish in an hour, I will go up to see Roger and then I’ll wait for you in the locker room.”

“Okay.” I said wistfully looking at the clock, feeling a bit envious of Jenny who won’t have to bring orders to clients and replace ashtrays full of dog ends. She’ll spend the next hour on a leather sofa upstairs enjoying herself with the club owner. However as soon as I remembered Roger’s appearance I stopped being so jealous. I was never attracted to skinny men with receding hair, especially someone who was as big-headed and arrogant as Roger. Although, I must admit, Jenny’s probably made the right choice, the choice that will get her a one-way ticket for “Tally - Freedom Express.”

I spent another forty minutes running around the tables waiting for the night shift staff to take over.

"Twenty more minutes, just another twenty minutes and I'll be on the bus home soaking in the hot bath. Soon. "

Meanwhile more and more men were arriving at the club. Most of them have finished their daily affairs and hastened to share a drink or two in the company of their kind. The number of points on my bracelet, as well as my mood were rising slowly due to the tipsy customers - the ones who were lucky at Blackjack or other card games were especially generous. It seemed that today, for the first time, I could take home eight or even ten points!

I smiled to myself and decided to thank Jenny once again for the opportunity to work here.

“Girl, I want more vodka with ice and a Coke.”

“Yes, of course.” I quickly pencilled down the new order in my notebook, trying to catch clients’ requests buried in general hubbub.

“Top up my brandy, please.”

“Done.”

“Don’t forget to sugar coat the rim of my glass.”

“Of course, I’ll sugar coat the rim of your glass.”

“And a slice of lemon!”

“Slice of lemon, got it.”

It felt like the plastic smile on my face will remain there overnight and no bath could help to get rid of it. I quickly passed the new orders to the bartender and attached my notepad to the bar counter. In order not to get told off by the manager for standing by the bar twiddling my thumbs (he didn’t care that I was waiting for the drinks to be poured), I decided to walk to the far end of the gaming room even though that was a serving area of another waitress - we appreciated any extra help whenever possible especially at busy times and try not to leave customers unattended. As soon as I approached the tables in the centre I saw with the corner of my eye how someone raised their hand and clicked their fingers. I turned my head in amazement (was this now the gesture to call a waitress?) and saw a familiar looking man. Of course, table number four - white shirt, gold chain, and grey eyes - who else would dare to call the waiting staff this way? Meanwhile, the man, seeing my baffled look, slowly raised his hand and snapped his fingers again.

"Arsehole" I hissed to myself, smiled widely and hurried towards him.

“What can I get you, Sir? I sang, wanting to kick the man where it hurts.

“Bring me a cigar.”

“Which one would you like?”

“Carrabana Number Four.” I quickly opened my notebook and noted down his request.

“Would you like your tip cut off?”

Voices of men playing poker immediately quieted down and for a few seconds the silence hung over the table, then a loud roar of laughter descended around me. A moment later I realised that this reaction was caused by the words “your tip” that came out of mouth.

“Ooops!” I could feel my face burning up and covered my mouth with my hand. The man, who asked for the cigar, looked at me disapprovingly.

“Hulk, the girl wants to cut something off you!” laughed the man with a moustache.

“Morris, did you just hear what she’s just offered him?”

“It won’t fit into a cutter… it’s too thick!” screeching from laughter replied Morris.

With all my heart I was wishing they’d stop laughing at my expense but it wasn’t just me who was incredibly embarrassed but also Hulk who was being mocked by others because of my silly mistake. And judging by his cold eyes, he was not going to forgive me easily.

“I didn’t mean to say that, Sir…” I tried to justify myself. “Honestly. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Give me your hand.”

I reluctantly stretched my trembling wrist.

“I didn’t mean it like that ....” I squeaked, still hoping for salvation but at this moment my bracelet made a short sound.

The laughter at the table faded almost immediately.

“How much did you take off her? One point? One and half?” hectic questions were shooting from all over the table.

“I bet a hundred bucks he took two points!” the man with a moustache put a hundred dollars note on the table.

“I don’t think so…” objected Morris. “Two points… I doubt it... Maybe just one…”

“I am telling you, two points and no less. Don’t you know Hulk?”

The bet increased up to three hundred dollars and new notes were thrown on the table.

“Hulk, tell us for how many points did you fine her?”

“Five.” Said Hulk slowly tapping his cigarette lighter on the table, his eyes were fixed on my face.

Five! I screamed inside, shaking with fury, five points?!

Even the men at the table fell silent, gazing with astonishment at his and mine reaction. I just about managed to hold myself back from lashing out at him. What have I spent the whole day in this smoky boozer for? To lose all my daily earnings for one wrongly said word to this peacock? Yes, I made a mistake, it can happen to anyone, but five points?? Who the hell does he think he is?

Looking at my tensed up jaws, Hulk asked.

“Do you want to tell me something?”

Trying to stop my voice from trembling and hardly moving my lips I said:

“No, sir.”

“So what are you still doing here?”

I stared at him in silence feeling totally lost.

“I asked for a cigar. If I don’t see it in a minute I’ll take another five points off of you.”

Trying not to look at him I slowly turned around and went back to the bar.

“You’re the man!” I heard someone exclaimed in admiration behind me.

“Can you believe it!? He took five points off my bracelet for just one bloody word!”

“It happens.” Jenny shook her head sympathetically. “You have to be careful.”

We sat in a half-empty bus on the way to Bell-Oak Park; our bus stop was two streets away.

“Who does he think he is?! Why did he think he’s got the right to fine me like that?” I couldn’t get what just happened out of my head, feeling completely decomposed.

“Yes, they’ve got the right to fine us, these owners.” Jenny spat her last words with blatant hostility. “There is nothing we can do about it, that’s how the system works. Just be happy that things like that don’t happen every day.”

“Well... My whole day has gone down the drain.”

“You’ll earn more points don’t worry; though I know it’s not a nice experience. Crap like that happened to me a few times as well.”

“Really?”

“Huh... of course!”

Meanwhile the bus turned into another quiet street and passed a supermarket. We got up from our seats and headed towards the exit.

“I wish I could punch Hulk in the face…”

“Whose face?” Jenny startled as she was getting off the bus.

We were outside; the air was much cooler now after the dusk has fallen upon the city, midday heat subsided and only a light breeze was wafting over the sounds of music from somewhere down the street.

“That man’s name was Hulk...”

Jenny suddenly broke into a nervous laughter.

“Oh, God, you were lucky then!” she shivered and wrapped her thin cardie tighter around herself, “he is one of the worst scumbags in the city, at least one of the cruellest.”

“Is he really?”

“Yeah, he owns a ranch on the outskirts of Tally. He is so bad with his people that one or two of them die every month.”

“Are you joking?”

“I wish I was! Other owners take much better care of their people than he does. I heard the conditions on his ranch are extremely poor, employees are starving - they get just enough food to survive but not a single spoon extra.”

“Can’t he be sued for neglect or abuse?”

We were approaching the entrance and I just about managed to notice a steel bar sticking out of the ground, invisible in the darkness, and stepped over it.

“Who would sue him? I bet the judge has been bought and there will always be more workers coming to his ranch, so why would he bother? New employees are never a problem in Tally.”

“What a freak he is!” I swore out loud and followed Jenny inside the building.

As we reached the second floor, Jenny inserted her key into a keyhole and turned around to me.

“Shall we go and see Robert tonight? It’s boring in the room anyway; I want to take some sausages over to him.”

“Yeah, why not?” I agreed. “Let me just have a quick shower and then I’ll take something for him as well.”

“Ok, knock on my door when you ready.”

“Deal.”

Jenny introduced Robert to me about a week ago - he was a lanky, weedy guy living at the end of the corridor on the second floor. When we first came to see him together, I was completely taken aback by the chaos in his room - the table and chairs were covered with circuit boards, wires, computer chips and other electronic rubbish. As soon as he realised that Jenny wasn’t alone he started sweeping all this stuff away from chairs and stuffing it all in the wardrobe whilst trying to cover a blowtorch and microscope on a table with a bedcover, stripped off the bed.

“Bob! Calm down! She is alright, you can trust her!” Jenny yelled, looking at Robert who was blinking in confusion behind thick glasses; he was still holding a bunch of computer chips in his arms prepared to shove them in the wardrobe.

Five minutes later we finally managed to calm him down and now he sat on the sofa, greedily eating bread, cheese and ham we brought for him.

It turned out that Robert had once spent four years studying radio-electronics at the university. He was considered one of the best and most promising students in the faculty until one day when he set up a circuit board that read the PIN codes from credit cards at cashpoints, after that he was caught and sent to Tally. By that time he was living on his own and had some ambitious plans, such as to get a job at the "Electric Digest", buy a new sports car and get married to the beautiful girl Ann from another faculty so they could live happily ever after; Ann, as I understood, didn’t have a clue who Bob was. However, Bob’s quirky and inquisitive mind desired to explore new areas which eventually led him to commit a crime.

Robert confessed, munching the last sandwich - the reason why he wanted a sports car as soon as possible was because Ann was partial to beautiful and expensive toys but just the looks alone wasn’t enough to attract the Beauty Queen’s attention, and that was when he decided to go ahead with the scam. This decision cost him uni, a future promising career and, of course, Ann.