Chapter
11: November 24nd – New York – Morning
It’s
a sunny November Sunday in New York. Naomi can’t remember the last time the
winter season has been so warm in New York, usually by this time super storms have
hit the coast and she wouldn’t be able to enjoy her lunch in the park. She sits
at Greenacre Park in New York, a very modern man-constructed park with small
concrete stairs leading into it. The park has a peaceful post-apocalyptic feel
to it with concrete floors and pillars being taken over by green luscious
plants, grass creeping through the cracks of the concrete, bushes outlining the
park, and flower baskets hang on top of the pillars. This leads all to the
twelve foot high waterfall wall located at the back of the mediocre Starbucks
size park. The park is New York’s best kept secret hidden between businesses
and only known to people in the neighbourhood and shop workers who enjoy their
lunches, read on their breaks, and chill out at the park.
It’s a half-an-hour before noon, so
the park isn’t very full. Besides Naomi, there are only a few other people in
the park like a hipster reading Kerouac and an older retired couple enjoying their
late morning coffee. Naomi is having an early lunch in the park before her
shift at the Fox Tail strip club at one o’clock. She stops at her cousin’s Japanese
restaurant every 2nd weekend for a free Bento Box for lunch, and it’s
worth leaving her place at Happy Hills Manor forty-five minutes earlier so she
can enjoy her lunch. It’s peaceful moments like this with free food and a nice
park to eat at why she moved to the upper part of New York, although her
parents are right telling her she would be barely able to afford it, she is
still happy she moved. From Naomi’s appearance, one wouldn’t guess she works at
a strip club even with the Monroe piercing because her casual clothing of baggy
hoody, jeans and almost no makeup doesn’t scream stripper.
Naomi is halfway done eating her
meal before grabbing her phone from her hoody pocket to take a picture of
herself. She aims it so it’s angled, believing everyone is thinner when the
picture is taken from an angle. She lifts up the bento box with her free hand and
smiles before taking the picture. She puts the food back down on the small park
table and looks at her picture. For once her dark brown hair seems to have
cooperated with her so she uploads the picture to Facebook with the following
caption: Thx 4 the meal cuz! #Lunch #Free
#Sushi #BentoBox #LunchAtPark.
“Hey.” A voice from behind Naomi
said. Naomi jumps, turning around to look at the Caucasian man dressed in a
huge puffy black jacket and what appears to be several t-shirts. The man has a gorgeous
triangular face with short blonde hair and deep blue eyes, normal a face to
fall in love with at first sight but Naomi isn’t like those girls. The man
almost looked familiar, like she had seen him around.
“Hello?” is her response to
the man.
“Hey Naomi, how’s it going? I Didn’t
know you come here!” The man says, taking a seat across from her. He rests his
hands on the table, and smiles at her. Naomi’s eyebrows raise and her head
tilts down a bit, she doesn’t often look people in the eye.
“Uh… Sometimes I do for lunch… I’m sorry, do I know
you?”
“We
live in the same building together. You’re at 323. I’m at 214. We met a few
times at the laundry room. Don’t you remember? You accidently thought my stuff
was your stuff?” He laughs a bit at the memory. Naomi is still trying to
remember it, she isn’t fond of faces but her overall memory of the laundry room
exchange was a bit creepy, he talked like he has no confidence but yet he trying
to be mysterious.
“Oh yeah… How’s your… Laundry doing? You seem to be
wearing it a lot.” Naomi says trying to get rid of him just by being overall
bitchy. She grabs another bite of the teriyaki chicken, the guy didn’t take her
hint.
“Yeah, I get super cold and I’m not feeling
to well so I just layered up just in case.” The man didn’t mind sitting with
Naomi, despite her obvious attempts at getting rid of him. She pulls out her
phone again as if she’s reading a message, if he wouldn’t leave her alone she
will just leave.
“Right, I need to get going to work. Nice meeting
your neighbour.” She ends the conversation with that, not wanting to be any ruder
than she needs to be. She pushes the chair underneath the table.
“Ah, do you still work at the Fox Tail?” The man
asks. Naomi didn’t freeze but instead looked at him again. She doesn’t
recognize the man, she would’ve easily recalled him if he frequently visits the
club and actually does live in the same apartment complex. She hears stories
all the time by other girls about stalkers who are from the club, could he be
one of them? She thought it best to just get out of there.
“Yeah, but I gotta go. Nice catching up with
you.” She says, walking away subway which is the 6th line. She speed walks and manoeuvres
around slow and oncoming walkers. The subways are always crowded and busy,
there are never any open seats by the time Naomi gets on the train. She stands
in the cramped train looking up at advertisements placed above the windows.
Naomi is listening to music on her phone, she doesn’t pay attention to the
coming and goings of people in the train. All she knows is she has twenty
minutes to kill before she needs to get off and walk to work.
The train stops suddenly, causing Naomi to stumble
back a few steps and bumps into someone behind her. She feels a hand grabbing
her shoulder, and she looks around to see the same guy she ditched at the park
less than thirty minutes ago. The man smiles, still holding her shoulder as if
he was making sure she doesn’t fall over, keeping her still. She doesn’t say
anything, but wiggles her shoulder from his grip by stepping forward. The man
lets go of her, she pretends nothing happened.
Naomi’s right ear plug is pulled out of her ear,
the man behind her speaks like he’s surprised. “Hey, what a coincidence! We’re
on the same train.” Naomi turns around
looking at the man, her eyebrows lowered and her face seems puffy, she is
angry.
“Please leave me the fuck alone.” Naomi
said, being direct. A few people in the subway took notice to the exchange and
Naomi used that to walk away to the opposite end of the subway. She stood
holding the subway bars looking at him for the few stops left in her trip, all
he did was look at her and smile.
The streets are a bit shadier than
what she is used to. Even in the daylight she is uncomfortable walking down
these streets. Men of all types sit on the steps of their apartment buildings
yelling catcalls to girls who walk by. The men would often harass her as
she walks by, because she doesn’t dress provocatively or give them the time of
day. Today doesn’t change.
“Hey girl, you need a ride
someplace? I got a good one, on my fucking cock girl.” One of the Latino men
yells out at Naomi. She ignores it, her head held low as she walks pass the few
blocks of apartment complexes. Luckily no one else called her names.
After passing through the apartment
buildings on East 4th street she manages to reach a bit of
civilization. Small shops and a few tourist make up the 1st Avenue
stretch, it isn’t really much of a tourist trap but people who like to venture
out and find the real New York to try Asian dishes as it’s fairly close to
china town. She would often stop at shops and look to see what they have as she
walked, and today isn’t any different. She stopped as soon as she saw a nice
pair of heels outside of a boot shop called Just
Boots, beautiful red 8” heels that will be murder to walk in but amazing if
she pulls it off.
“You know, you don’t need those. You’re
already beautiful.” For the third time today the same man spoke to her. She saw
his reflection in the window and turns around trying to throw a punch at the
man’s face which he easily avoids by stepping back letting her spin and almost
fall to the ground. He smiles.
“I’m just saying, you don’t need all
that.” He smiles, she is incredibly pissed off and is tired of him following
him around.
“FUCK YOU, CREEP” Naomi yells, a few
people on the street take notice but continue on with their daily business,
after all why should they care? The man takes a step back raising his hands
trying to calm her down.
“Lower your voice, no need to yell.
I was just wondering if you’re okay. I heard what those guys said to you a---“
He’s cut off, Naomi screams again.
“WHAT? YOU’RE FOLLOWING ME? WHY THE
FUCK ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?” She screams again, the guy obvious not want to
attract any more attention backs off and walks away, leaving the conversation.
His hands dig into his black puffy jacket’s pocket as he walked away. Naomi
grumbles and hurried off to work, she’s in a bad mood and is early. Great.
The Fox Tail strip club is in one of
the many warehouse districts in New York. The reason for such an obscure
location is because it’s easier for people to be discreet when there isn’t a
lot of foot traffic and the cops don’t poke their nose at club business too
often. The club is a one story large building with a bar/kitchen to the right,
a large stage and space for tables in the front, and VIP private rooms to the
left. Behind the stage is management and girls prep area for their shows. Naomi
works in the kitchen as a cook, she’s responsible for the buffets on the floor
and any special orders for the big spenders. The actual club itself is always
dimly lit with a few spot lights on the stage, it gives the idea that it’s
always night time in the club.
The doors to the club swing wildly,
almost slamming the back of the wall. The bouncer who sits near the doors to ID
everyone who enters rolled his eyes at Naomi’s dramatic entrance as she rushes
towards the kitchen. “Woah, there kid.”
“Not fucking today.” Naomi yelled
back, a few of the customers who could hear the exchange over the loud thumping
music of the club turned around and took notice. Naomi enters her small 8 feet
by 8 feet kitchen and starts to work. It only took a few seconds before the
supervisor walks in, her name is Alice.
Alice is a girl who started at the
Fox Tail when it first opened nearly fifteen years ago. Since working the stage
she’s been promoted as a shift manager for the club for her reward as being a
loyal girl to the club. Part of her responsibilities is including the girls are
happy. Alice is a long haired brunette girl in her 40’s, wrinkles can be seen
on her face, and she always smells of cheap cigarettes. Besides Naomi, Alice is
the only girl in the club who shows up to work on time and fully clothed. Most
of the girls including Naomi call her by Mom
because she acts like a mother to most of the girls, so Naomi wasn’t
surprise seeing her enter after her small episode.
“So, what’s going on hun? Another
bad breakup?” Alice asks, Naomi and her never really talk because she’s behind
the scenes but most of the girl’s issues here are relationship base, and that’s
usually why they’re stripping. Naomi shakes her head pulling frozen appetizers
from the freezer to put in the oven, almost nothing in the strip club is fresh
or actually cooked.
“No, just fucking assholes. I think
I may have a stalker from my building.” Naomi says, preheating the oven and
putting bacon wrapped scallops onto the cookie sheet. Alice grew concerned.
Alice’s dress is casual but formal.
“Call the cops.” Alice suggests.
“What?” Naomi asks, she didn’t
consider calling the cops. She didn’t think it’s criminal what he was doing.
“Call the cops, say that you work at
a strip club and there’s a guy following you around. Give him his address, say
you’re from his building and they’ll follow up on him. There’s a reason why we
teach our girls different phrases when entering the club, just in case this
happens.” Alice informs. The club did have a protection phrase like this, if a
customer is getting too close to a girl often she would say allowed that she
isn’t feeling well and has to freshen up. The Fox Tail took issues like this
seriously as they’re all too common in the business.
“Yeah… I will do thanks.” Naomi
responds. Alice smiles.
“Next time, don’t swear and yell at
the customers. Ok?” Alice leaves the kitchen going back to work. Naomi opened
her cellphone and called the police, filing a police report on the stranger who
followed her late this morning, giving them all the details including where he
lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment