Excerpt: Normal

Joe sat slack at a corner table close to the stage, watching the young thing that gyrated around the pole in alternating hues of red and blue. A thin smile curled one corner of his thin lips. A day’s growth of salt and pepper stubble covered the sunken, bumpy landscape of his face, like a denuded forest on blackened earth. The edges of a tight, flat afro were likewise speckled with grey. His eyes shined bright with life and intelligence from behind their hard, creased slits. He wore black dress pants, wingtip shoes and a pressed, white button-down shirt loosened at the collar. His long, slender legs stretched out into the aisle and crossed at bony ankles. He nursed his Coca-Cola and watched and smiled.

Music dominated the crowded club, devouring catcalls and the little fragments of conversation that tried to escape.

Hollaahh..people sing around,
Now people gather roun', now people jump aroun',
Get your freak on,
Get your freak on,
Get'cha, get'cha, get'cha, get'cha, get'cha freak on.

A voice came through the din. She was standing right next to him. She traced his shoulder with half inch fingernails painted ruby red, the color of her glossy lips.

“Would you like a dance, sweetheart?”

He turned his pleasant gaze toward her, beginning at her meaty legs and gradually working his way up over broad, rolling hips to a plentiful bosom and angelic face, white and soft like the petals of a lily. His gaze had paused ever so briefly, hardly detectable, at her belly, which bunched oddly as she breathed and revealed the jagged shadows of stretch marks. His smile had weakened and another expression had taken its place…nothing unkind, surprise perhaps…before her manicured fingers had come down and delicately adjusted the teddy so only her frowning belly button showed.

Neither one acknowledged in word or expression this silent exchange they had just had.

“Hey there, sugar,” Joe said gently, beaming at her and taking her hand. His teeth were white and square. “Where is Miss Sally tonight?”

“Sally?” She seemed momentarily lost. “Oh. I haven’t seen her in days.”

Joe’s face changed, his eyes lost their glimmer and wandered off, and only the smile remained as if frozen there. She squeezed his hand and added brightly, “But two for one is coming up. A free drink and two of your favorite girls or twice as much of your favorite one!”

“My favorite,” he repeated to himself, the words lost under the pulsating beat and only seen, not heard. And then to her, a little louder: “That would be nice.”