"I don’t believe it!"
They’re sitting in Sam’s tiny kitchen, drinking tea.
"Believe it," says Ellenor dryly. "It’s the sad, sad truth."
"THREE INCHES???"
"Yep, 3 inches," she says, "I could hardly believe my eyes! Tall, muscular, a real beef – and with a teeny, tiny little pecker! I almost asks him where he kept the rest of it!"
Sam laughs.
"Was it thin, too?" he asks.
"Nope," says Ellenor. "Short and fat, like a freakin’ bulldog!"
Sam’s laughing so hard, he gets tears in his eyes.
"It reminded me of this dirty cartoon I read once," Ellenor continues. "A girl takes a body-builder type of guy home, and he shows off his body, how muscular he is, and then he takes off his briefs, and the girl says Gee, all that dynamite, and such a short fuse!"
"Stop, you’re killing me!"
Sam’s lying over the table, beating it with his fist. He can hardly breathe. His laughter is contagious; Ellenor starts to laugh too, and doesn’t care about the running mascara. She rubs her eyes.
"You look like a raccoon," Sam giggles, and gets her a paper napkin out of a box.
The word "raccoon" sends them both into another giggling frenzy. They’re overtired, and they laugh at anything right now.
OK, so her first try wasn’t as great a success as she had hoped for. That can happen to anyone. Ellenor’s not gonna give up on the bimbo-experiment. The very next weekend, she’s out again; this time dressed in a red mini-dress and red go-go boots. She doesn’t want to risk running into Alan or the Stalker, so she goes to a different place, The Golden Ring. The crowd is more her age, and the clientele a mix of every ethnicity known to man. She starts at the bar, gets herself a Diet Pepsi, as they don’t have Coke. She moves through the crowds, scanning the room for potential candidates. That black guy with the glasses… no, he has a girlfriend; they’re kissing each other tenderly. She walks upstairs, where the dance floor is. It’s packed with people, so she settles for standing against the wall o watch.
There’s a group of guys over at the big table in the corner. A gang. They’re all dressed the same. Oh, no, she’s not going there! She’s heard enough horror stories about gang activity to get herself mixed up with such people!
However that skinny guy at the end of the table… He looks sweet and innocent, as if the gang mentality hasn’t really gotten to him yet. He catches her eyes and smiles at her, and she gives him a quick smile before she walks away. She goes back down to the lobby, and even further down, to see what sort of entertainment they have there.
Oh, a pool hall! Ellenor likes shooting pool; she instantly remembers all those afternoons in Peter Nelson’s basement when she was 14. Peter Nelson taught her all there was to know about French kisses, and in between making out, they played pool.
The room isn’t all that big, there are only 6 pool tables in it. All of them are busy. She walks up to a fat, grumpy guy behind a counter.
"Hi," she says.
No reaction.
"So, do I… sign up for a table, or just wait in line?"
"Wait in line."
Ah, the talkative type! Ellenor gives him a pretty smile and walks over to one of the tables. She stands and watches the game, like all the others, waiting for them to finish playing. The guys around the table are eyeing her, giving her flirty smiles and winks, but she pretends to be too stupid to understand what they mean.
When the guys are done, they leave their sticks on the table, and Ellenor picks one up.
"Hey! Give me the queue, we’re playing now!"
She looks up. These guys were NOT standing around the table earlier, she’s sure of it.
"I believe I was here first!" she says.
"Hey, if you wanna practice your routine, do it elsewhere! We’re gonna play for real here!"
Oh, so just because she’s a woman – albeit a bimbo-looking woman – she doesn’t know how to play pool, is that it? "Step aside, little girl, and let the big boys play their serious macho-game!" Ha!
"I was here first," she says. "It’s my turn."
"Get out of here! You don’t even have anyone to play with!"
"Yes, she does. I’m playing against her."
The skinny guy with the sensitive face takes a stick out of the macho-guy’s hand. That guy and his friends stare at him, and for a second, Ellenor’s afraid they’re gonna start fighting. Then one of the macho-guys whispers something in his friend’s ear, the friend looks shocked, and then they back off, although reluctantly, and leave the pool hall.
"Wanna play?" says the skinny guy, and gives Ellenor another breathtaking smile. "I promise I’ll be nice."
She smiles. Well, the others were rude, he’s just a little patronizing, but they’re still cut from the same block! Isn’t he in for a little surprise...!