When I took up a part-time job as a nightclub bouncer, I never thought I’d be looking down at a dead man at the end of my shift. But there he was on the sidewalk–belly up and full of bullet holes.
The gunman fled into the urban jungle. The living scattered like rats. Some stood their ground with misplaced bravado. A few were frozen in fear.
Among the frozen was a beautiful redhead. She was a Saturday night regular. As I made my way back into the club to pour myself a drink, she grabbed my arm and walked by my side. I could feel her shaking. “Could you walk me to my car?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“After I get myself a drink,” I replied nonchalantly, pretending that it wasn’t the first time I’d seen a man who had been turned into Swiss cheese. “Maybe you should have one, too. It’ll stop those shakes.”
A couple of rounds and a joke or two later, we headed back out the door. The redhead took my left arm with both of hers. She must have thought I was something more than the two-bit meatheaded bouncer that I was. That was okay with me.
We walked past the cops, who were busy doing what cops do at the scene of a homicide. As the coroner put the corpse on a gurney and covered it with a white sheet, I could feel the redhead’s grip on my arm getting tighter. “What if the killer comes after me?” she asked.
“He doesn’t have a reason to,” I told her, as if I were an expert on the criminal mind.
She wasn’t convinced. Or maybe she just wanted some more reassurance. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
When we arrived at her car, she wrapped her arms around my neck and held me tight. “Thank you,” she whispered into my ear. She kissed me on my cheek and lingered there for a moment before proceeding to the driver’s side door and opening it.
As the redhead slid into the driver’s seat, she paused for a moment. She stepped back out of the car and faced me. Fear was replaced by cheerful bounciness. “Can I have a VIP pass for next weekend?” she asked. I pulled one out of my jacket pocket.
The redhead skipped towards me like a little kid, took the pass and slid it into her bra. She gave me another hug and a kiss before getting into her car and driving away. I headed back into the club–back to being the two-bit, meatheaded bouncer that I was.