The Pull of Gravity (20 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Because of my lunch with Larry, I ended up getting to The Lounge sooner than I was expected. For a weekday afternoon, the bar was crowded, almost two dozen guys enjoying the show and a beer. I assumed Tommy must have sent out the call for reinforcement, because I noticed several girls from the night shift had come in early.

Tommy, never one to take his job as part-time papasan too seriously, was enjoying the special attention of one of the dancers, a girl named Charlene, and hadn’t noticed me come in. As I walked up, Charlene had just finished unbuttoning his shirt to his waist and was running her hands over his bare, hairy, flabby chest. He had a big grin on his face, and was urging her on with his eyes.

“Get you something to drink?” I asked him.

If I hadn’t been looking at him when he turned to me, I wouldn’t have noticed the flash of fear and surprise in his eyes. A fraction of a second later, it was gone.

“Hey, Doc,” he said.

“Comfortable?”

“Couldn’t be more so.”

Charlene’s hand moved down over his ample stomach toward his pants, then slipped under his waistband.

“I’ll take that drink now,” he said.

I laughed and signaled the waitress to bring Tommy a beer. The occasional fooling around on the job was not unusual. Papasans weren’t paid that much, so if a girl was willing to flirt with them, I long ago decided it wasn’t any of my business.

“I need to do a little work in back,” I said. “Come get me if you need me.”

I don’t know what Tommy was thinking. I guess he wasn’t. There had been a moment, right after I first arrived, when he could have taken action. The impulse had been there, it was what I’d seen in his eyes. But I suppose once Charlene’s hands started wandering around near his dick, his neural pathways had clogged up and his mind had gone blank.

In the end, he did get his act together. Only by then it was too late. I was already sitting at the desk in the office staring down at the remnants of two lines of white powder on the desk blotter. As if that wasn’t enough, there was the small plastic bag sitting nearby containing more of the stuff.

I didn’t even have to taste it to know it was cocaine. In my early Navy days I had tried it once. You never forget.

“What the hell?” Tommy said. He was standing in the doorway, his shirt not completely buttoned. “Is that what I think it is?”

I looked at him, my face blank. “You tell me.”

“That’s not mine, if that’s what you’re thinking. Probably one of the girls’,” he said. “I’ll bring them back here a couple at a time and we’ll find out.”

He started to leave, but I stopped him with a forceful “Wait.” Once he was looking at me, I said, “Come in and shut the door.”

I don’t know why he didn’t just run. That’s probably what he was planning to do when he said he was going to round up the girls. But instead, he did as I told him, then took the seat across from me.

“You have a better plan?” he asked. There was still a hope that I hadn’t guessed the truth in his voice.

“Yeah.” I stared at him silently for several seconds. “This is what’s going to happen,” I said, keeping my voice level and unemotional. “You’re going to give me your key to The Lounge, then you are going to get up and walk out. You’re not going to talk to anyone. You’re not going to even look at anyone. And, most importantly, you’re never going to come back here. Understand?”

“But it’s not my—”

“Bullshit! Don’t even fuck with me, Tommy. It’s yours and we both know it. I told you the rules when I took over as bar manager. Rule number one: no drugs.” I waited a moment to see if he would continue to protest, but he said nothing. “Give me your key.”

He hesitated a moment, then pulled a set of keys from his pocket, removed one and handed it to me. There was a moment of awkward silence, then he stood up.

“I’m sorry, Jay. You’re right. I fucked up.” He paused, then said, “But I’m not the only one fucking up around here.”

He started to put his hand out so we could shake, thought better of it, and left. I followed him out, making sure he didn’t talk to anyone on his way to the front door.

As soon as he was gone, a few of the girls came over to ask if something was up. I told them everything was fine. They seemed dubious, but once they returned to the fold there were no obvious signs of problems.

Over the next few days, I began to wonder if I had done the right thing. Maybe it had been an isolated event, and I’d been too harsh on him. It was the life, after all. Things happened, people made mistakes. In our fantasy existence, mistakes were often overlooked, and bad habits encouraged.

Then I found out it had been more than just the drugs. Tommy had been skimming from the receipts. I couldn’t tell how much was missing, and I would never be able to prove it, but there was no mistaking that money was missing. I knew I should have noticed it earlier, but I hadn’t. It made me wonder what else I had overlooked.

Tommy was right—he wasn’t the only one fucking up around there.

•    •    •

Larry and Isabel spent Christmas in Manila. He had reserved a room in the one of the best hotels in town, the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. They never left the building the entire time they were there.

Isabel said it reminded her in many ways of that first trip to Boracay. They were like two people in love for the first time. They ate breakfast in bed, went for a swim every day, and made love every afternoon before the sun went down. Dinner was in the Shang Palace, a four-star restaurant on the second level. Then it was back to the room where they’d watch a movie on TV, hold each other, make love again and eventually fall asleep in each other’s arms. There was no Angeles, no go-go bars, no obnoxious customers.

“And no Mariella,” I said.

Isabel was silent for a moment. It was late, well after midnight. We were sitting by the pool at my hotel. No one else was around, just two old friends remembering other times. In some ways, better times, in other ways, not.

“Right,” she said eventually. “No Mariella.”

“Why did you stay with her?” I asked.

“It was better than going back to where I was living before,” she said, though without much enthusiasm.

Physically, it might have been better,
I thought. Mentally, I wasn’t so sure.

“Why didn’t you leave Angeles after Cathy left you?” she asked

I looked away, toward the ocean. “I don’t know.”

“Same for me,” she said.

When I looked back at her, she was holding her empty wine glass in both hands, staring at it absently, a waning smile on her face.

“Would you like some more?” I asked.

“What?” She looked up, realized what she’d been doing and put the glass down. “No. No more.”

“Do you want to go to bed?” I asked.

“Do you?”

“No.”

We sat quietly for several minutes listening to the ocean, lost in our thoughts. At some point she reached over and put her hand over mine.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” she said.

I looked over, brow furrowed. “Who?”

“Cathy. She got out,” she said, then more distantly added, “She was lucky.”

I almost laughed in surprise. Though she was right—I
was
thinking about Cathy—my thoughts were no longer of what could have been, but merely of one friend worrying about another, and hoping she was happy.

“What were you thinking about?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. There was a pause, then, “Nothing at all.”

The silence returned, this time stretching out for almost five minutes. But we were getting closer to the end, closer to the things I’d come to find out. So finally I said, “Tell me about when you came back to Angeles.”

A single tear welled in the corner of her eye, but somehow she refused to let it fall.

“We came back two days after Christmas. I wanted to stay in Manila longer. I don’t know why, but Larry wanted to return to Angeles…”

•    •    •

They returned to the Las Palmas Hotel, and though they both would have liked to stay in Manila longer, I knew that Larry was watching his expenses. His business back home was growing, but he told me that cash flow was tight. Staying at the Las Palmas Hotel was a hell of a lot cheaper than staying at the Makati Shangri-La. In another six months, he had said, he’d be doing really well. And in another year, he figured he could afford a full month at the Shangri-La without even worrying about it.

I don’t know why he never told Isabel this. Pride, I guess, but she wouldn’t have cared. In fact, she probably would have been happy to help him save every penny.

It wasn’t long after their return that Mariella showed up again, this time “accidentally” running into them while they were having breakfast at The Pit Stop the morning after they got back.

“Hi,” she said, drawing the word out so it sounded like she was almost singing it. “Larry, so good to see you.”

She leaned down and gave Larry a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I wondered what happened to Isabel until someone told me you were back in town,” she said. “What a surprise.” She smiled at Isabel. “What a nice Christmas present for you,
di ba
?”

“Yes,” Isabel said, her own smile slightly strained.

“Where are you staying? The Las Palmas again?” Mariella asked.

“Yes,” Larry said.

“That’s great, that’s great.”

“We’re just about to have breakfast. Would you like to join us?” Larry asked.

Isabel cringed inwardly.

“Oh, I wish I could,” Mariella said, “but I am meeting some friends. We’re going to the mall in San Fernando. Have you been?”

“Once,” Larry said.

“Would you like to come with us?”

Larry smiled. “I think we’re just going to take it easy today.”

“No problem, no problem. You have a fun day, okay?” She leaned in and kissed the air a few inches above her cousin’s cheek. “Next time tell me when you’re going away. You had me scared.”

“I will.”

“Okay. I have to go,” Mariella said. “I’ll see you later.” When she was only a few feet away, she looked back. “It’s really good to see you again, Larry.”

•    •    •

Two nights later, Larry stopped by The Lounge alone.

“I was wondering when we could have that boys’ night out,” he said as we sat at the bar.

“Kind of tough for me to get away right now,” I said. “I’m down a papasan, so Doug and I are working every day.”

When he asked what happened, I looked around to make sure no one else was nearby, then told him the Tommy story.

After I finished, he said, “That sucks,” then took a sip of his beer.

“You don’t seem surprised,” I said.

“Were you?”

“Of course I was,” I said.

He nodded. He took another drink of his beer, then set it down on the counter and turned on his barstool so he was facing the dance stage. “Have you looked at this place lately?”

“I look at it every day.”

“On my last trip, The Lounge was the place to be. Every night was like a party. All the girls were having fun, they all felt cared for and watched over. By you. That was about the same time you bought a share of this place, right?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Cathy left you not long after that, didn’t she?”

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

He chuckled as if I’d said something funny. “I know you’ve been thrown into the shit, but you’ve got to pull yourself out.”

“Maybe you need to mind your own business a little more,” I told him.

“Maybe,” he replied.

One of the dancers walked by and tried to catch Larry’s eye, going so far as to run her hand across Larry’s knee as she passed. He gave her a quick smile, but shook his head so she walked on.

“That wouldn’t have happened before,” Larry said.

“What?” I asked.

“Everyone here knows I’m Isabel’s boyfriend. In the past, that meant none of the girls tried to make a move on me. But the atmosphere’s changed. It’s like no one cares about anyone else here anymore. Every girl for herself.”

“That’s crap,” I said.

“No,” he said, “it’s not.” He looked me in the eyes. “You used to have control of this place. I used to watch you work. You were gentle, but firm. Now? It’s like you just don’t care. If I can see it, you know the girls can see it. They take their cues from you so now they don’t care, either.”

I pushed up off my stool, my eyes narrowing with anger. “You come here two or three times a year,” I said, keeping my voice low so no one else could hear what I was saying. “You barely spend any time in my bar at all, and yet you’re telling me I’ve lost control of my business? Who the hell are you to do that?”

“A friend,” he said calmly.

“Well, fuck you, friend.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Isabel told me our little discussion caused more friction when Larry got back to the hotel. She was on the bed, propped up against the headboard watching TV, when he returned.

“I thought you were going to take a nap,” he said as he sat down next to her.

“I did for a while,” she said.

Isabel had the TV tuned to the music video channel. Most were Filipino bands singing in a mixture of Tagalog and English. But occasionally, a band from the States or the U.K. would show up.

Larry kicked off his shoes and stretched out, his eyes half closed.

“I thought we were going out,” Isabel said.

“Sure. Whenever you’re ready.”

“I’m ready now.”

Larry opened one eye and looked at her, smiling. “Just let me rest here for a few minutes first, okay?”

He closed his eye again, and soon his breathing became steady and deep.

“Where did you go?” Isabel asked.

When he didn’t answer, she nudged him and asked the question again.

Without opening his eyes, he said in a sleepy voice, “I went to The Lounge.”

“Why you go there?” she asked. “I’m not working tonight.”

“Doc is.”

“You talk to Papa?”

“Sort of,” he said.

“You not go out and meet another girl for short time?”

That got him to open his eyes. “What?”

“Maybe you want to have a little fun so you leave me here in the room.”

He pushed himself up on his elbows. “I went to see Jay. I had a beer, then I came back here. Why do you think I was with another girl?”

“All guys do it.” It was her biggest fear, one that gave her nightmares several times a week.

“We’ve been through this before,” he said, lying back down and closing his eyes.

“So you agree with me all guys do it?”

“When did I say that?” he asked. “And just so we’re clear, no, I don’t think all guys do it. I don’t do it.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

He exhaled, then sat all the way up, swinging his feet around and putting them on the floor. After a moment, he stood, and then turned and looked down at Isabel. “Because I’m not,” he said.

“You really went and visited Papa Jay?”

“Why don’t you go over there and ask him, if you want? He’s not likely to forget that I was there.”

His words confused her, so she asked him what he meant. He told her about his conversation with me.

“What?” she asked, horrified.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“You told him all that?”

He nodded. “You’re the one who said things weren’t the same anymore.”

“You didn’t tell him I said that, did you?”

“Your name didn’t even come up.”

She pulled her knees to her chest and began rubbing the sides of her head with her hands. “Why did you have to say anything?”

“Because that’s what friends do.”

Her head was pounding. How was she ever going to go back to work? She didn’t know how she would be able to face me again. She thought I would tell her to leave the moment she walked in, that I would blame her for everything Larry had said. Even if I wasn’t the same person I’d been a few months earlier, I was still her boss, still the one who watched out for her when Larry was thousands of miles away.

She jumped off the bed and raced to the bathroom, but the tears came before she was able to get inside, and by the time she had the door shut behind her, she was sobbing. Within seconds, Larry was on the other side.

“Isabel, it’s not that bad,” he said, his voice muffled by the door. “You said you wanted to help him, so I tried to help him.”

She had said that, but this wasn’t what she meant.

She reached up to make sure the door was locked. For ten minutes, Larry continued trying to talk to her, but she refused to answer him. And when he left the room, she didn’t even hear the door open, her sobs deafening her to anything else.

•    •    •

I have no way of knowing what Larry was thinking when he left the room. Maybe that if he gave her a little time alone she would calm down and see he had only been trying to do the right thing. Or maybe his intentions had been to find help right from the start. Whatever it was, at some point he found himself on Fields Avenue, ducking in and out of the different bars looking for someone he thought could make Isabel come to her senses. Looking for Mariella.

We are all fools at one time or another in our lives. Most of us are fools on more than one occasion. Larry was a fool that night. I knew for a fact he was not fond of Mariella, and he had to know that Isabel, even if she hadn’t said anything to him, had issues with her, too. But for some reason, he put that aside. If Cathy had still been in town, she would have undoubtedly been the one he asked to help him, and if we hadn’t just had our own fight, he would have come to me next. Who else did he know here? No one, really. No one but Mariella.

He found her playing pool at The Eight Ball. I don’t know what he said to her, but soon they were on their way back to his room.

•    •    •

Isabel had no idea how long she had been in the bathroom when she heard the front door open. Until that moment, she thought Larry was still in the room, but realized he must have left sometime earlier.

“Isabel,” Larry said. “Are you all right?”

Her sobbing had stopped, and most of her tears had dried up, but she didn’t trust her own voice, so she said nothing.

“Isabel, It’s Mariella.”

Isabel tensed at the sound of her cousin’s voice.

“Why are you acting so crazy? Come out now,” Mariella said.

This probably wasn’t the kind of help Larry wanted. Isabel heard Larry whisper something to Mariella, but she couldn’t make out the words.

“Isabel,” Mariella said a moment later. “It’s okay. We’re your friends,
di ba
? Come out and talk to us.”

“I’m sorry,” Larry said. “I didn’t mean to do anything to hurt you. Please come out.”

Slowly Isabel stood up. Her hand rested on the doorknob for nearly a minute before she finally turned it. The pained look on Larry’s face was enough for her to know he truly had meant her no harm. He seemed to hang there, a few feet beyond the doorway, unsure of what he should do.

Mariella, on the other hand, stepped forward immediately and put an arm around Isabel’s shoulders, guiding her out of the bathroom.

“Are you okay now?” Mariella said. “Everything all right?”

Isabel sniffed a couple of times, and nodded.

When she reached Larry, she stopped. He tentatively put a hand out and moved a strand of hair that had fallen across her face.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Tears welled anew in her eyes, but this time she reached out and pulled herself into his chest. Larry led her to the bed, where they sat on the edge. He stroked her hair and kissed her on the forehead. At some point, Mariella handed her a glass of water and a pill.

“Take it,” Mariella said. “It will help you relax.”

Isabel wanted to protest, but the look in Mariella’s eyes told her she’d better just do as her cousin ordered. It didn’t take long before she was feeling sleepy. The last thing she remembered was Mariella looking down at her, smiling peacefully. But it wasn’t the smile that made the biggest impression. It was her cousin’s eyes, filled with hatred and jealousy.

•    •    •

What happened next wasn’t surprising. Ever-loyal Larry told Isabel everything the next morning. At first, it was as if her whole nightmare was coming true. Isabel cried again, but this time, Larry didn’t leave her side until she listened to everything he said, and understood that he would never let anything come between them.

What he told her was this: After Isabel fell asleep, Mariella had said her cousin wouldn’t wake until the morning. He thanked her for her help, and told her she didn’t have to hang around. But she insisted on staying a little longer to make sure Isabel was okay.

They watched TV for a while, Larry sitting on the bed next to Isabel, Mariella using one of the chairs by the window.

“Do you mind if I get something to drink?” Mariella asked.

“Help yourself,” Larry said.

From the small refrigerator she removed a couple of beers and opened them.

“Here,” she said, handing one to Larry.

“No, thanks,” he said, putting a hand up. “I’m okay.”

“But it’s already opened,” she said.

Larry smiled halfheartedly and took the bottle.

Before he knew it, they’d finished off all the beer in the refrigerator.

“You want to play some pool?” Mariella said.

“I should stay.”

Mariella glanced at Isabel. “She won’t even know we’re gone.”

He didn’t relent right away, but when she continued to entice him, he finally did. He thought they would go to the tables right there in the hotel, but instead Mariella said she wanted to play someplace else.

The neon lights of Fields were shining brightly, illuminating the constant flow of traffic. The street was jammed with trikes and jeepneys, while on the sidewalk door girls stood in front of bars talking to any guy that passed by. There were people everywhere—couples, individuals, groups—all smiling, laughing, having a good time. Music seemed to be coming from all directions, competing songs blaring out of speakers mounted above the door of each bar, melding together into a strange rhythm all its own.

Mariella led Larry past The Pit Stop and down to The Rack. To him, everyone in the place seemed to know Mariella. The mamasan bought them both a drink and told them to have fun.

There were two pool tables in the back beyond the large, square stage that sat in the middle of the room. While the place was doing a pretty good business, only one of the tables was occupied. Mariella racked the balls on the empty table.

“You can break,” Larry said when she offered the honor to him.

He lost track of how many games they played, but he was pretty sure Mariella won most of them. While they were playing, Mariella would touch him on the shoulder or the arm. Each time Larry would step away, chalking up his cue or pretending to check out his next shot. Once she brushed passed him, her breast running lightly across his back as she made her way to the other end of the table. It could have been explained away by the tight space between the table and the wall. Then again…

“I think it’s time I head back,” he said, wrapping up the last game.

“What? It is still early,” Mariella said. “Isabel won’t wake up until morning. And you are on vacation. She would want you to be having fun.”

“Thanks for the pool.” He handed her some pesos, then headed for the door.

He’d barely stepped outside when he felt Mariella’s hand on his back.

“I can’t let you walk back on your own,” she said, smiling. “You don’t mind, do you?”

As much as he wanted to say otherwise, he said, “No.” She
was
Isabel’s cousin, and, as Isabel pointed out several times, the only family she had in town.

As they walked, Mariella talked almost nonstop about things he didn’t care about and barely listened to. She didn’t stop until they were climbing the stairs of the hotel to his floor.

At his door, he removed the key from his pocket, but didn’t put it in the lock right away.

“Thanks again for your help,” he said. “Goodnight.”

“You’re sure you don’t need my help?”

“You’re the one who said she’s not going to wake up until morning,” he said.

She pouted. “Are you sure?”

Larry nodded. “We’ll be fine.”

“All right,” she said.

She opened her arms, so Larry leaned forward to give her a quick hug. When she turned her head to kiss him, Larry thought it was going to be her normal peck on the cheek. Instead, her lips found his. Immediately, he pushed her away.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

She took a step back toward him. “Giving you what you want.”

“I don’t want this!”

“Come on,” she said, reaching out and putting a hand on his arm. “Isabel will never know.”

He pushed her hand away. “No.”

“We can do it in the shower. You’ll love it. I make better love than Isabel ever will. You’ll see. I’ll show you.”

Larry stepped backward until he felt the door behind him. “Get away from me. I don’t want you.”

“Everyone wants me.”

“Not me.”

She stared at Larry, then the grin on her face grew. “That’s okay. I’ll tell Isabel we did it anyway. Maybe I’ll tell her you tried to rape me while she was sleeping.” She paused. “But if you really want to do it, I won’t tell her anything.”

“Go ahead,” Larry said. He took a step toward her, angrier than he’d ever been. “Tell her whatever you want, but don’t think I’m not going to tell her everything you’ve just said first.”

There was a flicker of doubt in Mariella’s eyes, then she laughed. “Larry, I was just kidding,
di ba
? Just a joke. Isabel is my cousin. I would never do anything to hurt her.”

“Get out of here,” Larry said.

“It’s okay. You’re just upset. It was only a joke.”

Larry took another step toward her, so she backed away.

“Okay, I’m leaving. You’ll feel better in the morning. You’ll see I was just joking. Maybe we can have lunch.”

“I don’t ever want to see you again,” Larry said, pronouncing each word carefully. “And if I do, I will tell everyone, and I mean
everyone
, what you tried to do to me tonight.”

Her smile disappeared. “No one would believe you.”

Larry shook his head. “You know they would.”

She stared at him for a moment, eyes narrow and piercing, then turned and walked away.