Chapter 23 -- "Willow"
Kim's homecoming turned out to be every bit as painful as her sister had feared. She did not bother to bring up staying at her old room in her parents' house; she instinctively knew it would be better to stay at Cindy's apartment.
Now that her sentence was over, the older issues poisoning Kim's relationship with her parents resurfaced, especially the endless deceptions she had inflicted on her family throughout her adolescence to spend time with two friends who turned out to be totally worthless. The Lees did not feel comfortable lecturing her or treating her in a condescending manner, however. Their wayward daughter obviously had matured in Upper Danubia. She thought and spoke like a person much older than her current age of 20. What most surprised them was how determined she was about details of her life; her marriage, her music, and the odd idea that she wanted to become a Danubian defense attorney.
Kim's parents instead treated her with a cold tolerance, none too happy about the fact she only planned to stay in the US for two weeks before going back to Upper Danubia. Kim's braided hair and foreign appearance bothered them, as did her radically changed personality and constant use of Danubian expressions such as "the path of my life", "it is a question of honor", "proper protocol", "damaged soul", and "the Ancients have guided me". To the elder Lees, their daughter had become a complete stranger, and on top of everything else, just plain weird.
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Besides her strained and tense get-togethers with her parents, Kim spent much of her time trying to readjust to the United States. She was very uneasy during her trip and a bit dismayed at the fast pace of life and the over-all appearance of a society completely oriented around consumerism and automobiles. The crowded smoky streets bothered her, as did the enormous dirty parking lots, ever-present fluorescent lighting, the public's constant rushing, and overwhelming amount of cheaply-made products in stores and people's houses.
What bothered Kim the most, however, was the constant noise. Noise was everywhere, as though the entire nation was afraid of a few minutes of silence. Kim, after having been out of the US for two years, winced at the ever-present assault on her ears.
The three interviews went well. Kimberly Lee tried to set the record straight over who was the real inspiration for most of her group's music by trying to give as much credit to Eloisa as possible. Many US fans of "Socrates' Mistresses" had assumed Kim was the band's lead singer, because she was the band's English voice. Kim used the interviews to give US viewers a much more accurate idea of what her group really was all about.
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Cindy accompanied her sister around her hometown as she confronted the ghosts of her past. Kim understood that her life in the US was truly over. As Cindy had warned the previous year, all of Kim's old friends from high school were scattered. The luckier ones had gone out of state to college, but most had drifted into obscurity. Two friends from her past, including an ex-boyfriend, were in jail. Kim's first week back in the US ended with a painful jailhouse visit to her former high school boyfriend, and a visit to the parents of another friend who overdosed about two months after she left for Europe. Everyone Kim talked to mentioned her how great she looked.
Kim's hardest encounter with her past came at the beginning of her second week, when she decided to visit to her old high school with Cindy. She talked to a couple of her teachers who happened to be giving school classes, and gave much needed apologies for some of her behavior. Kim then went around to a spot behind the gym where she had spent endless hours with Tiffany and Susan. Cindy stood in nervous silence as her sister sat down in her favorite old hang-out spot, just staring at the pavement and not saying anything.
As Kim silently sat contemplating her past, a tall, lanky teenager with a rather punkish appearance and reeking of cigarette smoke showed up. She jumped to her feet and hugged him. It was Joe Walker, Tiffany's younger brother. He heaved a sigh of relief.
"Hey, Kimmie, real glad to see ya...The guys said you were back...and fuckin' Jones just told me you were here at school...just got out of class...glad I got ya while you're still here."
Kim smiled slightly. "You're in summer school?"
"Yeah...fucked up the year again. What else is new?"
Cindy, who never really liked either Joe or his sister, excused herself, claiming she had to go to the bathroom. Cindy's departure left Kim alone with her former best friend's younger brother. She felt very uncomfortable, but at least one huge question in her life was about to be answered, what happened to Tiffany? She gathered from Joe's comments that he actually had been looking for her, which struck her as rather odd.
Kim decided to give her companion an update on her life with a very abbreviated and censored version of her sentence in Upper Danubia. She informed Joe she had just been released, and pointed to the tan-line from her collar that still was visible around her neck. She didn't mention the fact she had been nude during her entire sentence, hoping Joe was ignorant enough about foreign places that he didn't know that detail about Upper Danubia. It turned out he didn't know anything about Upper Danubia, nor had Tiffany been eager to share any details about her disastrous trip to Europe when she returned home.
"Ya know, when she got back, she didn't talk. People said a lot of shit to Tiff because of you and Susie...ya know...how she took two friends to Europe and came back solo...I don't know...She's pretty fucked right now...has been for two years...I think the trip did it."
"When you say Tiff's 'fucked', what do you mean by that? What's she actually doing?"
"What ain't she doin', Kimmie? She's doin' just about everything...weed, smack, 'K', blow, crank...I think now it's mostly crank, 'cause of her boyfriend."
"That's it? Just drugs?"
"That's it, Kimmie. Drugs. That's all she's doin'. Says she ain't no good for anything else."
"Where's she getting the money?"
"How do you think she's gettin' it? She's dancin' over at Dirty Grampy's. Strippin' and, well...ya know...gettin' paid..."
"Shit. And it's all going for drugs?"
"All of it, Kimmie. Drugs and that fuck, Raymond. That's her boyfriend. She ain't got shit for anything else."
"And that's why you were looking for me? To tell me this?"
"Kimmie, I was lookin' for ya...'cause...I don't know... I thought maybe you could talk to her...make her feel better...maybe tell her you're not mad or something...you know...about Europe."
"Joe, I can't tell her I'm not mad, because I am. I'm fucking furious at her. Do you know what it felt like, when I was in that courtroom on trial, and my defense attorney told me what Tiff told the police, that the pot she bought was all mine and that she didn't know about it? That she lied to ditch me? Do you have any idea how that felt? Because of what Tiff told them, they were gonna hit me with a 20-year sentence, and it was Spokesman Dukov who talked them out of it. No, Joe...I'm mad, and Tiff's gonna know it. But...then...I guess I'll try to talk to her, and I suppose maybe I can do something for her."
Joe was a bit stunned at Kim's last statement. "20 years? For what?"
"For dealing. The Danubians don't like drugs. You want to piss-off their government, the best way to do it is have drugs on you. I had a full pound of pot on me, and they thought I was dealing."
Kim decided to have Joe take her to Dirty Grampy's that night, along with Cindy. She called Cindy on her cell phone and told her to come back. An hour later the two women and Tiffany's brother made their way to the strip bar.
Dirty Grampy's was a juice bar, which allowed Kim, who was 20, and Joe, who had just turned 18, to go in. Cindy already was 23, so there was no problem for her. Joe was a bit reluctant having Kim see Tiffany at her current job. Kim, however, went in with the confidence that she knew exactly what she needed to do. She still was furious at Tiffany, but now she also was mulling over ideas with the hope of salvaging her life.
They entered as several scruffy middle-aged patrons turned around to see the two women's fresh faces. Kim and Cindy obviously were not dancers, nor did either seem a likely partner for Joe. The European-style braids made Kim really look out of place in Dirty Grampy's. Cindy obviously was out of her environment as well, with the clean-cut look of a serious graduate student.
Kim handed Joe two 20-dollar bills.
"Get me some singles."
"Huh?"
"I want singles. That's what you tip the dancers with, isn't it?"
Joe returned with a stack of one-dollar bills. Kim took them and sat at a barstool right next to the stage while the other two ordered smoothies and sat at a table a little further away. She watched the routine of a rather wasted-looking young Asian, who she thought looked eerily like herself. The girl ended her routine completely nude. Kim passed the dancer a few dollars to get her to do a sexual routine close up, to learn what the dancers actually had to do for their tips. Kim's companions were surprised to see her tip a stripper for a dance, but what she did next would shock them much more.
It turned out Tiffany was the next performer. Her stage name was "Willow", because she was so tall and thin. Kim watched in anger and disgust as Tiffany moved about the stage and peeled off her clothes. Once Tiffany had stripped down to a loose blouse and G-string, Kim pulled out two dollars and held them up. The flash of money drew Tiffany's attention, but as her glance met the face of the young woman holding up the cash, the dancer froze in horror.
Kim's dark, angry eyes bore into Tiffany. She waved the cash.
"Willow, it's a tip. Please show me what you do for tips. I tip very well, but I expect value for my money."
