ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS

22. SEXY POLE DANCER

★ Leonard ★

After the young Hare Krishna disappears into the night, a big question comes to my mind.

"What am I going to do next?"

While quietly observing the chaotic scene in front of the windshield, someone knocks on the glass window. When I look in the direction of the sound, a policeman is yelling at me through the glass.

I roll down the side window to see what I did wrong. A police officer doesn't stop people because he wants to say hello. He stops people because they did something they shouldn't be doing. He tells me to move the car because my truck is parked right next to a fire hydrant.

 So I slowly drive the truck while seeing hundreds of people walking on the crowded pedestrian pavement. Everyone seems to be drunk and lost in this vast neon labyrinth. My eyes follow the figure of a girl with long blonde hair to her waist. Her long legs are moving fast as if she is late for her appointment.

When I am about to pass her, I glance at her profile a short distance away. To my surprise, she is my Beth with red lipstick on. Someone blasts a car horn behind me because I was driving too slow. When I look in her direction again, she is nowhere in sight.

I can't believe what I saw. I frantically look for a parking space and miraculously find it only thirty yards away. After parking the truck, I run back to where I saw Beth. I look around where tourists fill the pavement and spot the entrance to a bar.

Something tells me to go inside. So I walk into the lobby, right behind a much older couple. I am hoping that the guard will assume they are my parents. He glances at me with suspicious eyes, and I point at the older couple ahead of me. He hesitates a little but lets me pass through the gate.

Inside the bar, several chrome poles are gleaming in the ample, open space. On stage, pole dancers are entertaining drunken customers. I stare at one particular dancer with long, jet black hair. She is stunningly beautiful, and her moves are very provocative. I almost forget why I came here.

My eyes are finally getting used to the darkness. I look around to see if I can spot Beth in the bar. I see a girl with long blonde hair standing in front of the pole dancer with long, black hair. She isn't facing me, but I am sure that she is the one I saw on the street.

My heart is pounding so hard as I start to walk closer to her. I can't believe that Beth is alive in Las Vegas. Why didn't she communicate with me? Why has she been hiding from me? All these questions circle in my head. I am standing only a few feet away from her. Now I am right behind her and call her name.

"Beth?"

She doesn't respond to me. The music is blaring in the bar, and she probably couldn't hear me. So I grab her shoulder and call her name again.

"Beth?"

She finally turns her face toward me. When I was about to see her face, someone grabs my neck and screams into my ear.

"What the hell are you doing to my girl, punk?"

Then he pulls me back to face him. I have no idea what is happening. As soon as I turn around to face him, his fist brutally sinks into my face. Everyone around us screams so loud.

"Watch out! It's a fistfight!"

I fall on my knees on the floor after receiving a blow on my cheek. In the corner of my eye, I see a guy cursing at me. A pole dancer with jet-black hair grabs his bicep with both of her arms. She screams at him.

"Knock it off! He is already on the ground! Leave him alone!"

I slowly turn my face toward Beth, who is looking at me so strangely. I look at her face, and her expression resembles Beth's, but she is someone else.