Smoke

                Lorlei bent to adjust the strap on the delicate new shoes she’d bought. Perhaps it would ease the tension that gripped her body like a vice. The band was warming up, and one of the brass players whistled as Lorlei crossed the floor to the bar. She laughed.
                Suddenly she caught her reflection in the metal base of a table lamp. Her carefully bobbed hair framed a clearly troubled face.
                This was going to be one hell of a night.
                Lorlei wasn’t sure she could really pull it off. But this had been going on too long. It would end tonite, one way or the other.
                The bartender was wiping down the smooth countertop when Lorlei sat down. Wordlessly, he poured her some cheap gin (the only kind of liquor they had), and he poured her 3 more as the evening began to pick up. The club filled with people, and the air became thick with smoke and voices. Lorlei observed from her perch at the bar, tapping her foot impatiently.
                She tried to occupy her mind with business, but things were going well. Lorlei’s club, like every speakeasy in town, was protected by the same mobster thugs who supplied the booze. Lorlei just kept and eye out for suspicious characters, and made sure Molly didn’t do too much “business.” Tonight, Molly had packed her wares into a tiny red dress with a straggling feather fringe.
                Lorlei lost patience, abandoning her post at the bar. She was threading through the crowd towards the stage door when Molly intercepted her.
                “Evening Lorlei,” Molly spoke nervously. “Whatcha up to? Tryna catch a man, as usual?”
                “You know me,” said Lorlei coldly. She eyed the stage door anxiously. It was almost time.
                “You seem kinda stuck on that tall-dark-and-handsome fellow been coming in,” Molly flicked open a cheap cigarette tin. “Smoke?”
                Lorlei accepted and Molly resumed. “So what’s between the two of you, anyways?”
                Lorlei sucked in the fragrant, soothing smoke. Perhaps she was being paranoid. Molly was still chattering. “Is he coming tonight? He always shows up when Ruby sings, don’t he?”
                Speak of the devil, thought Lorlei. Ruby materialized, wraithlike, out of a mob of people. Molly’s prating receded to the backwaters of Lorlei’s mind as she focused on Ruby.
                Ruby. Her cool blonde hair fell in soft waves about her face. Her long slender hand clutched a long slender cigarette holder; blue-grey smoke wreathed her delicate features. Lorlei returned to the bar. As the piano struck it’s first note, the back door opened.
                He was right on time. Time, time had begun to flow again, as the dark haired man melted into the shadows at the back of the club. Only the glittering whites of his eyes revealed his attention trained on Ruby.
                Lorlei’s fingernails dug into her palms. Jerry. It wasn’t much of a name for a romantic hero. Pure hate welled up inside Lorlei, and she wondered how he could be anyone’s romantic hero.
                He’d been coming here—how long? Two months? And still she didn’t really know him. No last name. No background. Just Jerry.
                Just a sinuous, beady-eyed snake who’d slithered into her thoughts.
                She hated him. Hated his perfect face, his strong body, his classy air of fashionable wealth. But hate was nothing compared to the homicidal delirium that flooded her when Ruby began to sing.
                Ruby’s voice was hypnotic and strange, changing from a kitten’s purr to a woman crying the blues. It was the kind of voice that seduces one to listen, the kind of voice that sends shivers through the listener’s bones, the kind of voice that could drive a person insane. Lorlei's bitterness was nearly palpable: she could almost taste it in her mouth. Ruby’s voice took the audience captive, the sound throbbing with the pulsing of 80 hearts. It seemed to touch Jerry softly, stroking his black hair. It ripped through Lorlei’s wall of malice and became deadly. The voice crept up Lorlei’s neck and laid it’s cold fingers around her throat. Lorlei gasped in the chokehold of an anger more ferocious than she'd ever felt before.
                How could so much hatred be born of love? Why had she been so perfectly blind? She should have known these things. But stupidly, she’d hoped. She’d believed it was finally love. Lorlei smiled a detached, cynical smile. She couldn’t possibly compete. Two people like that belonged together.
                Ruby’s body moved in flowing curves, sheathed like a lily in a low-waisted dress of satiny midnight blue. Blue not quite as deep as her eyes.
                Lorlei considered her own eyes, brown, like her hair; her own olive-colored dress sprinkled with filmy violets. You seek your own kind, thought Lorlei, and beauty will never seek me.
                And Jerry stood there—beautiful—horrible, not even noticing Lorlei, or caring about her existence. Ruby showed in every muscle of his face; his eyes burned through the audience as he leaned into the music. His jaw was taut, and a concentrated crease formed between his fine eyebrows.
                Bastard.
                And Ruby. Ruby the liar, Ruby the golddigger, Ruby the whore. Flauntng a perfect leg in a smoky silk stocking rolled to the knee. Lorlei asked herself again why she’d hired some one like Ruby. She knew the answer of course, but didn’t care to recall it.
                She just couldn’t believe this was really happening. How could she....?
                The song came to and end, and Lorlei had reached a decision.
                Jealousy can make you do funny things, thought Lorlei as she slipped backstage. Love makes us all crazy. But no one cheats on me.
                When the applause died down, Jerry was waiting.
                Ruby came backstage. She seemed surprised to seem him. A first, he came towards her menacingly, whispering in a strange, sibilant voice. But she looked him in the eyes and spoke low, calming words. His face betrayed a flicker of surprise as she petted him reassuringly.
                When Lorlei was close enough to smell Ruby’s perfume, she drew the gun out of her garter.
                Jerry roughly pulled Ruby to him. Fury took hold of Lorlei and the gun clicked in her hand. She pressed it against the back of his head.
                Jerry fell backwards and crumpled to the floor. Lorlei's unfired gun fell next to his corpse, his perfect dead body marred only by the knife jutting from his gut.
                Lorlei slowly moved her eyes over Ruby’s stunned face. Ruby looked at the body, wide-eyed. “I didn’t think I’d really do it,” she murmured.
                Lorlei couldn’t speak, her head pounded. Why, why? Her gaze still fixed on Ruby, who suddenly frowned. “I don’t understand. Why are you back here-“ She paused. “That’s not his gun.”
                Lorlei found her voice. “No,” she croaked, “it’s mine.”
                “But then you’d have to kill me, too....” Ruby stopped as the truth began to dawn. Lorlei wiped away the tears that came unbidden. She couldn’t go through with it now. She could never kill Ruby and she knew it. Bitterness crept into her voice.
                “So...why did you....?”
                Ruby stood dead still. “He’s been....seeing me....sending...notes....well, threats.” Ruby took a deep, shaky breath. “He’s been blackmailing me. Saying that if I didn't...if I didn't sleep with him, he'd tell everyone about you and me.”
                Lorlei grabbed Ruby’s wrist in a iron grasp.
                “Ow, you hurt,” Ruby’s eyes probed Lorlei’s face. “Did you think.....my god, you did, you thought I was....” Ruby put her hand to her head, “...oh Jesus, and with Jerry?”
                Lorlei nodded mutely.
                Ruby stepped over the mangled corpse and grabbed Lorlei’s shoulders, managing a tiny smile. “You must be pretty goddmned stupid to think I’d cheat on you.”
                Lorlei’s face was still tortured and confused. “Then why," she finally said, “didn’t you tell me?”
                Ruby’s voice tightened with. “He’d have come after you too. You could have lost the club.”
                “I could have taken care of it.” protested Lorlei, looking away from her unused pistol in embarrassment. Ruby took Lorlei’s hands and kissed her. “I love you, honey,” she said, “but I can take care or myself.”
                “So I see,” Lorlei gave a wry smile.
                Ruby nestled in her arms. “But the fact that you were jealous enough to kill is really, almost sweet....in a maudlin sort of way.”
                “Ummm....what do we do about him?”
                Ruby poked the body with her toe. “Truly?” she said, “I don’t give a damn.”
                “Well, we can’t just leave him.”
                “Why not? I can't think of anywhere that the cops--or the mob, for that matter--wouldn't find him.” Ruby bent down and retrieved the pistol, wiping off the handle of the dagger with a handkerchief. Lorlei raised an eyebrow.
                Ruby smiled at her. “But I do know somewhere they won't find us. Screw him, let's just get out of here.”
                They went hand-in-hand out the back alley door. Lorlei hailed a cab and Ruby climbed in. “But,” stalled Lorlei, “where are we going?”
                Ruby winked, and pulled Lorlei into he taxi.
                Only after their voices died away did Molly cautiously step out from behind the heavy stage curtains. For a moment she just stood, trying to grasp what she’d just witnessed.
                Then the body on the floor stirred.
                Molly jumped. When she bent to examine the body, she spied the gun that had fallen out of his jacket. Again Jerry twitched, and uttered a low moan. His eyes fluttered open, and he tried to speak. “H-help.”
                Her eyes narrowed. “You sick bastard.”
                Jerry made a low grunting sound and tried to move, but Molly kicked him. “Just shut up, Jerry. For once I’m going to do you a favor you don’t have to pay for.”
                After all, she had nothing to lose. Molly picked up the gun.

-Violet Nova, Nova #2, 1997