Spades and Angels

A Small Favour

Lolita

I love rain. The sound of pouring rain in the middle of the night is the best. When it's all gone dark. Rainfall sounds to me the most like a scream, if I had to put into words what sound we make that's similar. Like passion and unbridled power running through the streets. An outpouring of absolute power from the skies. A wild, untamed sound that reminds me of long summer nights spent chasing my brothers in the darkness when I was a little girl and life simpler.

It's a different sound to snowfall. Snowfall is quieter, and yet equally special. It's the sound of whispers against a windowpane. Of searching for a lover between warm sheets in the early hours of the morning when you know it's just the two of you awake. A special place just for you, made by you. Of a promise made and one to be kept.  It's a veil, hiding all the ugly shit in the world from where we don't want to see it. Tamed, peaceful and a reminder of winter nights bundled in blankets around a fire with cocoa.

It's rain I love the best. The sound of it banging against the windows, the roof. And it's here often, something that makes me smile as I see it start up again as I finish work, changing out back before going home after a long night.

"Hey, sweetheart you done in there?" Shell, the voice of my boss comes and I hurriedly pull on my thin hoodie and lace my doc martin boots up as I pull on a leather jacket over the hoodie, pulling the hood tight. "Lo? Are you done?"

"YEAH SORRY!" I shout back, sticking my head out of the changing section of  Aqua and pull my hair free of the collar and step out to see Shell standing there with my cheque for the night, my tips still tucked in my bra. "Thanks, Shell I appreciate it, how much?"

Shell smiles, her eyes kind, "I won't say love but you did well," I'm about to leave when she calls after me. "Are you free to cover a shift at the bar tomorrow? I know you normally work nights dancing but I had someone call in sick, Dawn I think her name was."

I smile, checking my makeup in the mirror as I pass and smoothing my lipstick again. "Sure Shell, let me know when. I need to sleep and inhale some food before Kylain and Lucas come back. The peace will be nice."

Shell rolls her eyes, "You sure do have it hard don't you Alcaraz?" I smile and shake my head. "I'll text you, let you know when to be in by, just make sure you get home safe love, it's brutal out there." Pulling her coat tighter I see Shell roll her eyes at me when I smile and wink, saluting her with two fingers. "Don't want one of my dancers catching a cold now would I? Being bad for business and all." I laugh when she says that since I haven't been sick since fifth grade, not properly anyway. So the likelihood of me getting something serious is low but it's still sweet she cared enough to mention it.

I pass her and take the cheque from her hand, hearing the dull reverberations of the music through the walls and floor as I make my way down to the hallway to the backdoor that those of us who work there use to get in and out so we don't engage with patrons during shifts or shift crossovers. Something to maintain a rule that I never asked about when I took a job here about a year and a half ago. Just how it is a guess.

"Thanks, sugar, I owe you one." Shell hugs me then and I smile, returning the gesture for half a second before pulling away, seeing how she gives me another wide smile. "I'll text you later with the details about tomorrow. You go on home now and be safe walking back I know how you love the rain but don't drown out there you hear me?"

I give her a sloppy two-finger salute as I get to the door and wrench it open, hearing the pouring rain. "Sure thing Shell, I'll see you tomorrow." She calls something over her shoulder as she vanishes back into the club and I step out into the rain.

Walking home should have taken me about twenty minutes but when it's raining I walk slower, running through the roads where no car will drive in fear of the storm coming. Then walking through the forest surrounding my hometown rather than sticking to the roads. Passing by not only where I worked, Aqua, but also the various other restaurants, bars and clubs in the downtown Mountain View area. Places like Black Dahlia, Supernatural, Frisky Bunny, The Firepit, Black Rocks and The Pit. All places I've either seen or been in.