I Went Down (NaNoWriMo Read-Along)

19 Cal

Cal knew the moment that Jimmy Primrose walked into Minnie’s. First the conversations around the hall hushed, then they immediately picked up again  one or two levels higher in excitement. Wherever Jimmy Primrose had been, he was back now, flanked by Dapper Jack and a few of his other men. They swept into the room and by small miracle there was a table for them in the middle of the room, where they had a good view of the stage but were not so close that the music would overpower their conversation. If they were able to have a conversation, that is. It didn’t take fifteen years of tending bar to see that, with the usual exception of Dapper Jack, they were already quite well watered.

Cal left his place at the bar and went to greet them. “Mister Primrose,” he said. “What a pleasure to have you visit Minnie’s again.” He shot a look at one of the waiters. “I’m pleased to see you in such good health.” In truth, there were deep lines under Jimmy Primrose’s eyes which told of sleepless nights, but at the same time he looked happier than he had been since Baccarat first started pushing into Delta Mouth and building the new railroad station in the contested Ornette area.

“Thank you, Delanton,” Jimmy Primrose said. “I’m feeling quite healthy.” He looked at the girls on the stage. “Where’s that Ibai girl you’ve got?”

“Emiliana Josephine?” Cal glanced up at the chorus, who were singing a medley which gave the leading lady time to change costumes backstage. From what he’d seen lately she seemed to have forgotten all about Jimmy Primrose. But he hadn’t forgotten about her.

“Yes. That’s the one. Send her over here.” Jimmy sat down in the chair which the waiter had pulled out for him and leaned one elbow on the table, pushing up a wrinkle in the tablecloth. “And a couple bottles of something bubbly.” All his teeth showed as he smiled. “We’re feeling happy tonight, isn’t that right?”

“We are,” said Dapper Jack. The other men nodded, taking their places at the table.

“Everyone here was overjoyed when we heard about the railroad last night,” Cal said. “If you had been here, you would have heard your health toasted amny times.” He left them nodding happily and sent the waiter to fetch them an ice bucket and several bottles while he waved Harper over. The young man had a mild, unthreatening face and a way of moving so you hardly noticed that he was there, which had made him the defacto emissary to the dressing room where the chorus girls were liable to squeal if someone else walked in on them. “Jimmy Primrose wants Emiliana,” Cal said. “Go tell her.” He hesitated a moment. Where on the spectrum of drunken male behavior would Jimmy fall? “But don’t let her come out half-dressed,” he added. “Tell her to cover up; I don’t want her to catch cold if she is sitting too long.”

Harper nodded and went off, weaving his way through the tables that filled the hall. Call returned to the table to open the first bottle and fill a glass for Jimmy Primrose and each of his companions with the fizzing, golden wine.

“Pour yourself one,” Jimmy said. “Pour one for every man in the whole saints-blessed place. We’ll drink to the mastery of shipping over rail!”

He was in such an expansive mood that he might even pay for the drinks, rather than counting them as part of what Minnie’s owed him for his protection. Cal lifted a glass. “To shipping,” he said, “and to you, Mister Primrose, the master mariner of Delta Mouth.”

“To shipping,” said Jimmy with another grin. His companions raised their glasses. Dapper Jack held up the delicate glass stem with his perpetually gloved fingers. The glasses clinked together and each man drank a healthy swallow. Jimmy drained his and for a moment it seemed that he would dash the empty glass on the floor. But instead he set it down and indicated that Cal should refill it. Call poured the last of the bottle into the glass and uncorked another bottle to refill the glasses of the other men. Then he retreated to send a few of his waiters down to the cellar to carry up cases of the sparkling wine. If Jimmy Primrose wanted everyone to drink, then everyone would drink.

By the time he returned to the table at the center of the room, Emiliana had joined the men. There were four empty bottles on the table. Cal hurried to fetch a fifth. Once again Jimmy Primrose insisted he drink with them. “Sit down, Mister Delanton. You’ve got good men working for you, take a breather. What’s the point in having a helmsman if the captain always insists on steering?”

Cal found a chair. Dapper Jack made a space and Cal sat down next to him. On the other side of the table Emiliana was holding a wine glass in her long fingers, gently swirling its contents. The bubbles were fast escaping but she didn’t seem to care. The black and white dress she’d put on might have been the same one she had been wearing earlier in the day, when her Ibai friend had come by with the pomegranates. It covered up more of her skin than the costumes she wore on stage, but still draped alluringly over her breasts.

“Where do you get your girls, Delanton?” Jimmy Primrose asked. He hardly glanced at Cal as he spoke; he attention was quite clearly on the girl.

“I don’t,” Cal answered. “They generally come to me.”

“Like Emiliana?” Jimmy Primrose said. She had been watching the patterns that the bubbles made in her glass but she looked up. He reached out to put one hand on her chin and direct her gaze towards him. “Did you come to Minnie’s on your own?”

“Yes, Mister Primrose,” she replied.

“There’s no need to be so formal,” he said. “You can call me Jimmy.”

“Jimmy,” she repeated. “I heard about Minnie’s on the riverboat, so I came here first.”

“Did you hear about me on the riverboat?”

“Of course, Mister—Jimmy. Everyone’s heard of you.”

That was a lie, for she’d barely known a thing about the city when she’d arrived. If the convention between the peoples who shared the region hadn’t settled to call it by the simplest name, Delta Mouth, she wouldn’t have known where she was, let alone who Jimmy Primrose was. And yet, how quickly she had learned to name the islands and their adjacent islands, and to sing every song in the whole musical repertoire of the performers at Minnie’s.

She drank the last swallow from her glass. Jimmy Primrose flicked his fingers and Dapper Jack, his face an impassive mask, refilled both Emiliana’s and Jimmy’s glasses. “What did they say about me on the riverboat?” Jimmy asked.

“All nice things,” Emiliana said with wide-eyed sincerity. “I couldn’t possibly remember everything they said, but mostly that you are a very good friend to have.” That was a little over the top, but Jimmy Primrose was so deep into the bottle that he accepted her words without hesitation.

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” he said and smiled when she nodded. “Have you ever ridden on a train, Emiliana?”

“No,” she answered. “Well, only on the tram in the Mouth, but never on a real train.”

“Good girl,” Jimmy Primrose said. He slid his chair back a little from the table and leaned towards her. “Promise me that you’ll never ride a train.”

“I’ll never ride a train,” she said obediently.

“Good girl,” he repeated. “Now give me a kiss.” He held out his cheek. Emiliana set down her wine glass and leaned over to kiss his smooth shaven cheek. At the last moment he turned his head, catching her mouth on his. She pulled back in surprise as he chuckled. “Now, now, I thought we were friends.”

“We are friends,” she said, but her eyes flicked to Cal with a brief uncertainty. Around the table, Jimmy Primrose’s companions laughed at their boss’s humor. Even Dapper Jack cracked a slow smile.

Cal set a smile on his face as well. “We’re all friends,” he said. He leaned over to heft the bottle on the table. It was nearly empty. “I’ll get another,” he said, standing up. He’d get a bottle of cognac as well. Perhaps with enough liquor, Jimmy Primrose would simply fall asleep on the table.