“Thanks, man,” the guy said. He turned around with a semi-smirk on his face. “Who is this?”
Lisa disliked him immediately.
Leon stammered, “This is—”
“Lisa Boudreux,” she said, extending her hand. The guy turned away without taking her hand.
“This is Ajani,” Leon said.
“Well, Leon, I see you are up to surprises.” Ajani cupped his hand to light up a joint, then turned to Lisa. “You a smoking girl?” He had that same quizzical smirk on his face.
God, she couldn’t stand him. “No,” she said, and shook her head gently.
Leon turned and looked at her. She really was a different type of prostitute. He could use some herbal encouragement.
Lisa noticed the early winter sunset as she watched the bright orange-red end of the joint grow brighter when Leon took a toke.
Leon drove past the Shell station on 7th Street and Market. “I gotta get gas but this place is too high.” He headed down to the ARCO on Grand. When he jumped out to pump gas, Ajani stepped out to get something from the AM-PM store.
“So, who’s this chick?”
“Somebody I picked up.”
“C’mon, man. You don’t pick up chicks.”
“Today I did.” Leon turned his back to the car and leaned toward Ajani. “She’s a prostitute.”
“A prostitute?” Ajani glowered at her. “She ain’t no prostitute.”
“I slowed down where the working girls are. She was there and hopped right in my car.”
Ajani peered at Leon, then over at Lisa.
As soon as the guys got back in the car, Ajani twisted around to face her and asked, “How about a threesome?”
Lisa stared at Ajani unflinchingly and casually said, “A threesome is more. Who’s paying?”
“I don’t want a threesome,” Leon cut in. “This is between Lisa and me.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Ajani muttered. “Tell you what. I got a spot; it’s a place not too many people know about or can know about. You heard about the Power Exchange in San Francisco?” Crickets. “Of course not. Well, this is like the Power Exchange only more relaxed. No one is required to do anything. The place has a really chill atmosphere. It’s called the Upside of Pandora’s Box. You guys seem up for an adventure today, so let’s go.”
Ajani directed Leon back down Market to 18th and made a right and then a left, stopping at a huge house on Linden Street. The ground floor had been turned into a separate apartment. Ajani ran ahead. A hunky black man in a pinstripe suit opened the door and he and Ajani laughed. The brother let Ajani head inside. When Leon tried to walk past, the guy said, “Twenty dollars a person.” Leon paid for Lisa as well.
The smell of sage greeted them as they stepped over salt sprinkled at the threshold. The air was hazy and blue light barely illuminated the place. “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane was playing, followed by Prince’s “Do Me, Baby.” As Leon and Lisa made their way up the stairs they passed Ajani sitting with another guy, pulling on a bong. His eyelids were already drooping. Ajani handed the bong to Leon, who hit, and he passed it to Lisa, and she hit it, and the bong began making its rotations. They didn’t feel anything... and then they did. The world changed. All their senses were heightened. They became hyperaware of everything. Their bodies felt lighter. Gravity was no longer in effect.
Couples were dancing sensuously. A man bent a woman over and ran his hands along her breasts and down the length of her body, grabbing her hips and pulling her into him. A girl came in, demure and sad. “Why you feeling blue, Meg?” a man asked. He cleared a long oak table and helped her lie down on it. He began to disrobe her and others joined in. They rubbed her down with oil, from the bottom of her feet to her scalp, massaging her slowly. Some guy bent over and suckled her breast and a girl on the other side did the same. Meg’s eyes were closed as she drank in the tactile pleasures. A man sunk his middle finger between her legs. She gasped and then began a low moan. He mounted her while the others continued to caress her, holding her hands out and rubbing her arms. In a short while she arched her back and pointed her bent legs toward the ceiling. Everyone applauded when they saw the shy smile on her face.
Lisa slurred, “That was lovely.”
“You think so?” Leon whispered. Ajani had disappeared to parts unknown. Leon leaned forward and gently kissed her. “You’re lovely.” He kissed her again, parting her full lips and tasting her.
A wide-hipped woman, looking like Pocahontas with two thick braids, stood up and began dancing alone. She was dancing so slowly and smoothly that in their drugged state, one of her movements seemed to blur into the next as if her body had no lines or boundaries. Lisa leaned in clumsily and kissed Leon and they both fell over. He rolled on top of her luscious thickness and the weight of his body felt delicious. Their pleasure was liquid and insuppressible. He bunched her skirt up around her waist. Neither was conscious enough of their surroundings to care. Leon began tugging forcefully on Lisa’s panties.
“Wow! Can I be next?”
It was as if a beautiful love song playing on vinyl had the needle abruptly ripped off. Lisa and Leon opened their eyes to find Ajani, grinning stupidly at them. The hunky guy in the pinstriped suit was shaking his head at Ajani — his behavior was improper etiquette for the Upside of Pandora’s Box.
“Man, can’t you find yourself a woman?” Leon said. “And find yourself a ride home!”
“Aw, man, is it like that? Over this bitch?”
Leon tilted his head and just looked at Ajani.
“Yeah, man, I can get a ride,” Ajani finally muttered.
“Good!” Leon reached for Lisa’s hand and they made for the door.
When they stepped outside, the cold air dissipated the sexual intensity they had felt inside.
“You want to get a room?”
Lisa looked down. “Yes, I do. But I have something to tell you.”
“You’re not really a prostitute.”
“You knew?”
“I guessed. I don’t really have any experience with this, but what prostitute doesn’t talk money from the jump, unless they want to blindside the guy with the price later? You didn’t seem hard enough for that. But why in the world would you get into a stranger’s car? That’s damn dangerous.”
“I know, but you had a look and I had a feeling. I was feeling low and so I took a chance.”
“Man, that could have been the deadliest chance of your life.”
“Well, why did you pick me up?”
“I was feeling down too. I looked at you and I just did it. Paying for sex, however you want it. At the time it seemed like a good idea.”
They stared at each other for a moment.
“It’s getting late. I better go back to my car.” Lisa said.
“Are we going to exchange numbers?” Leon asked.
“No, the night was perfect. It would probably go downhill from here.”
“You’re probably right.”
“But if I ever see you again...” they both said at the same time.
“We’ll know it was fate,” Lisa finished.
He drove her back to 28th Street, the block between Myrtle and Market. A car passed by and Lisa thought she saw Ajani’s face. “Are you sure you don’t want a ride to your car?” Leon asked. “You already dodged one bullet.”
“No, I’ll be fine. Let’s keep the mystery going.”
He kissed her once again and let her out. She was walking back to McClymonds, one short block, when she noticed a lump of something on the sidewalk. When she got closer she saw it was the prostitute in a heap, her eyes half open, a cigarette hanging out the side of her mouth. Lisa didn’t know if she was alive or dead. Either way it was too late for the woman to rewrite this chapter of her life, and Lisa wondered if it was too late for her too. She pulled out her phone to call 911. The heavy footsteps behind her came so fast she had no time to feel fear or dread.