Lexi had never been so happy to see the Malibu before. She patted its hood with a triumphant smile. She’d thought for sure it would have been towed away by now considering the illegal spot where she had left it. But there it was looking as rusty and old as ever.
Lexi borrowed a telephone book from a clerk at the gas station down the street and used a payphone to call for a tow truck.
The tow truck arrived fairly quickly, and Lexi gave him all of the cash she had on hand to haul the Malibu to the nearest auto shop to replace her tire. “Make sure to tell Antonio that I will pick it up in a few weeks when I get back to town. He knows I’m good for it,” she said.
“Sure thing, honey,” the driver assured her.
On any other day, Lexi would have responded to his honey with a snarky comment. But this was a new day. She was a new woman now with a brand new attitude to boot.
Since she was out of cash, it was time to go to her apartment. She was not looking forward to it, and the last thing she needed was a run-in with one of Reggie’s goons. However, her emergency cash stash was there along with all of her clothes, toiletries, and mementos. There was no way she was leaving her stuff behind.
But before she caught the bus to her apartment, she had another stop to make. The Clamshell’s sign was off since it was daytime, but they weren’t closed. The Clamshell never closed. Kind of like hell, Lexi thought drearily.
Lexi nodded to Charlie as she strolled through the door. He looked surprised to see her and even more surprised by her battered face. She flashed him the most sincere smile she could muster.
She headed straight to the back to retrieve her makeup, costumes, and toiletries. Lexi had assumed all of her things would be cleared from her station by now and either thrown away or divided up among the other dancers, but she was pleased to see that everything was just as she had left them.
Lexi grabbed one of her costume bags off its hook beside her mirror and started tossing all of her stuff inside. She wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible before Billy showed up and bawled her out for her recent absences from work.
Three of her fellow dancers were sitting at their stations, and not a one of them said hello, or even glanced her way. She felt pissed off, which was silly considering the fact that no one here was her friend, and she’d probably never see any of these girls ever again. It’s not that Lexi disliked them, and in fact, she had hoped to find a friend or two when she started dancing at the Clamshell. Unfortunately, like most other women she knew, these girls viewed each other as adversaries instead of comrades. We always turn on each other because we view one another as competition, Lexi thought sadly. But what the hell are we competing for, anyway? she wondered. The last time she checked, men were the only ones who seemed to have a leg up in life in comparison to women. So, why don’t we join forces, and instead of looking for our differences, why don’t we appreciate all of the commonalities we share?
Lexi stopped philosophizing and finished packing the last bit of her stuff into her costume bag. She started to head for the door but then had a thought and turned back to her now-empty work station. She pulled a tube of red lipstick out of her bag and used it to write on the vanity mirror above her station. First she wrote:
Billy—I quit!
After that she wrote nine more messages, one for each of her soon-to-be former dance mates. She wrote something nice about every single one of them and finished off with a sloppy,
It was a pleasure working with every single one of you. I wish you all the best of luck, and I’m sorry for not trying harder to be a friend to all of you. Dance on, ladies!
With that said, she draped her costume bag over her shoulder and walked out of the Clamshell for the last time. Billy was standing at the bar, and he called out after her, but she just gave him the finger and kept on walking. She started humming the lyrics of that old, catchy, pop song recorded by Nancy Sinatra.
“These boots are made for walking…and that’s just what they’ll do…”
Pretty soon these boots will be boarding a plane making their way back home to my boys! Lexi thought happily.