Page 40 of Their Pup to Tame

Uncle James chuckled and shot me a look. “You are your father’s son, kid. He felt the same way. He positioned himself where hecould intervene if the guy and his fish needed help. They didn’t. It was a quiet night. Most of them were back then, which was likely why the guy felt safe bringing his fish in there. Would be nice to see us get back to being that place again.”

“Should I assume that you starting us off with the fish story was a means of easing into the realm of bizarre and unusual things that happened at the strip club, or did you toss us right into the deep end?”

“No, that was tame,” Uncle James said. “There’s no way any of you will be ready for the deep end tonight. He’s been hearing my stories since he was a kid, and even he isn’t ready for a few of them yet.”

“Seriously?” I grumbled. “Just how old do I have to be?”

He stroked his salt-and-pepper beard. “I don’t know, kid, you may have to wait around and read about them in my memoirs.”

“You don’t even like filling out the purchase orders,” I reminded him. “If you can’t jot it on a cocktail napkin, you don’t bother.”

“Exactly, but I bet I can piece my memoirs together one cocktail napkin at a time,” he said before taking a bite out of a cookie. “Now where was I?”

“You were at the part where you tell us what lay beyond the Mollies,” Parker said.

“Well, let’s see, there was Candy, and yup, that was her real name. Her folks pretty much predetermined that she was going to land in the industry somewhere by giving her that moniker.”

“Unc, should you really be making comments on the names other people gave their kids when I’ve got a cousin named Tequila?”

“As I was saying,” Uncle James said, pretending he hadn’t heard me, even while his cheeks pinked up. “She came in there, and man, could she dance. Too bad she had a temper like a rattlesnake. Got into it with damn near all the other girls, especially if Sheela paid any extra attention to them. Well, unless Sheela was pissed, then Candy would just stand around smirking while waiting to hear what kind of trouble the other dancer had gotten in. If you ask me, I think she had a hand in some of that bullshit, but no one could ever prove it.”

“When do we get to the bizarre part?” Parker asked. “The guy with the Mollies was way more interesting.”

“I’ll give you that, at least in the beginning,” he replied. “It’s hard to work in a place like that without winding up with a chip on your shoulder about something. But a few months in, that’s when shit got strange.”

“There we go,” Parker said, leaning forward in his seat.

“So, one of the dancers, Delilah, used to have this clear plastic umbrella she carried out with her, for when they made it rain, only she’d flip it over and catch the money in it, among other things. Sometimes she’d bang it on the floor a few times, and one night, when she did, the tip went through the floor, and the next thing you know, wasps came buzzing out of there like someone had holleredlast calland started stinging the fuck out of people. Turns out they had a nest under the stage. Three days later, we got a fire ant infestation in the women’s dressing room; they were pouring in through a window. So, we get the exterminators in there again, it’s starting to cost a pretty penny to keep shutting down, plus all the cleaning and sanitizing that has to be done after they’re finished spraying the place. Not to mention the actual charge for extermination. We even called the fucking Orkin man in at that point in case we were facing a plague ofsome sort, but he found no signs of mice, thank the goddess for that.”

“Ummm, I’m still not sold on the whole bizarre part,” I said, sure Parker felt the same way.

“I’m getting there, damn. Got any more cookies?”

“Tons, let me grab the container,” Parker offered.

“Actually, Aspen, if you don’t mind helping him, I could use a minute with my nephew.”

“Sure thing,” Aspen said. “Looks like everyone could use their drinks refreshed anyway.”

Within moments we were alone, and I finally had the opportunity I’d been waiting for all night.

“Uncle James, before you say whatever it is that’s on your mind, I need you to look at this,” I said, passing him the list I’d made.

He stroked his chin while he studied it, his head beginning to tilt the longer he read. When he grunted, I expected words to follow, but he just scratched his cheek and flipped the page.

“I thought it was taking longer than usual for you to do the bouncer rotations,” he said as he flipped through the copies I’d made.

The longer he stayed quiet, the more concerned I grew. Had I been completely off base? I didn’t write a summary at the bottom of the report I handed to him. I’d wanted to see if he came to the same conclusion.

“The only common factor in every incident is Big Jim.”

Relief hit me then, like a weight tumbling off my shoulders. He saw it. Aspen and Parker were right when they insisted that I could be an asset to my family’s business without needing to use my fists,

“That’s what I noticed too,” I told him.

He nodded and looked thoughtful. “Thank you for this. I’m impressed you put it together so fast. Your Uncle Glenn and I will deliver his walking papers in the morning so he won’t have to worry about showing up at work. I should have trusted your gut when it came to hiring him, but his father is an old friend and asked if I’d give him a job since he’s got felonies and a couple of kids to support.”

“Is that going to cause a rift between you and your friend?” I asked.