Lucifer's Pride

Regina was re-enacting an encounter she had many years before with a particularly memorable john. Standing in the middle of the room, she had her skirt hiked up her thighs with her feet spread wide apart and her knees bent. Her audience of three was laughing hysterically as she entertained. Dirty plates of food and empty bottles of beer cluttered the old table. A cheap bottle of wine had just been divided among the company of four. Cigarette smoke hung in clouds of blue haze. “Karen, you remember, he had that yellow Ferrari and he wanted us both to go back to his place so you sat on the gear shift—you remember!” “No, Reggie, I don’t remember the 90’s.”Karen responded with a look of complete sincerity. Regina laughed and continued her story, “He takes us back to some ritzy condo and pulls out a wad of bills that would choke a horse and says, ‘Three hundred dollars each for a shower’. Karen is sitting there like the Queen of Sheba with her glass of Dom, shaking her head no way, and I’m saying, ‘Are you fucking kidding?’ For three hundred bucks the shoes are coming off, the panties are coming off, and I’m climbing up on the glass table while he waits underneath and…” Sherry took in the scene at the kitchen table and suddenly felt like that vulnerable little girl she once was, arriving home from school to find her mother entertaining a bunch of drunks that made her skin crawl. And just like old times, her eyes automatically scanned her mother’s eyes in order to assess the degree of intoxication that would set the tone for the remainder of the evening. Regina perused her Marilyn get up and gave her, The Look. This was a signal she was well acquainted with from childhood which used to mean she should disappear because uncle Freddy or some other lascivious loser was a little too interested in little girls. The last thing she needed, then or now, was instruction to get as far away from her mother’s friends as possible. Regina, however, had never recognized any of her own shortcomings or, if she had, she certainly had never acknowledged them. Rarely did Sherry see anything except her cantankerous side. Maybe, she concluded, when you see yourself as perfect in every way you lose patience for the foibles of mere mortals. “Hi aunt Karen, uncle Freddy. Nice to see you.” “Hi,” Karen answered automatically from her drunken stupor. “Yep, OK Sherry, I was just in the middle of a story…” “Sherry!” Freddy said aghast, “Fuck I can’t believe it’s you! You grew up!” Sherry could feel her mother’s eyes throwing daggers at her but she dared not look over. “Well, I better check on Lila,” she said in an effort to extricate herself from her mother’s wrath. As she left the room Freddy looked over at Luke and their eyes locked as if to say, “Do you believe what you just saw?” The uncomfortable silence was broken when Brandi, Sherry’s older sister by one year, sauntered into the room wearing a pink shorty negligee top that barely reached tiny matching panties. “Well, good morning sexy! Regina beamed. “Hi aunt Karen, uncle Freddy! Christ, I haven’t seen you in years. How have you been?” “Great, just great!” Freddy’s eyes lit up and his broad smile revealed a checkerboard of teeth in different shades of brown. “Wow, you’re all grown up too! We just saw Sherry. She came home done up as Marilyn Monroe.” The vision of her sister dressed as Marilyn Monroe made Brandi uneasy. A look of fear brushed her green eyes. Brandi put her arms up into the air and gyrated her hips in a slow circular motion revealing her mid-section and a pink rhinestone belly ring. “She might have a body but, believe me, she doesn’t know how to use it,” she retorted with defiance. Regina chimed in, “This one is knocking them dead at the new Dancing House in the city. And—get this—the manager, Nick Pricello, is a top member of the Lucifer’s Pride motorcycle club. When they saw her they hired her on the spot even without experience. She started two nights ago and the guys went nuts! But, what can I say? She’s got her mother’s good looks… and that body! Hey, if you’ve got it, why not use it? And why give away if they’ll pay for it, right Karen?” Karen nodded and then wondered what it was she had agreed with. “Can you imagine getting in with those guys? The Pride runs this fuckin’ country now. Everybody knows the Black Cat—Lion Terkel—he’s a household name. And they’re loaded! I mean big money. Yachts, private jets, mansions. I’m so proud of this girl. If I was her age, I would be exactly where she is—girls have so many opportunities these days,” Regina stated with complete self-assurance. Karen nodded in agreement. “Wait mum, you won’t believe what happened last night! After my set Nick took me to the Pride clubhouse to party. We were all feeling pretty good, and at about three in the morning this gorgeous fuckin’ guy comes in called Boots. Nick said he was one of the leaders of Lucifer’s Pride! He took one look at me and…” As Sherry walked into the room and headed for the fridge, all heads turned to Sherry. Brandi leered at her with an expression of unmitigated hate. “What do you want Sherry?” Regina asked curtly. “Just getting Lila some dinner… anything left?” “I think it’s all gone—just make her a jam sandwich,” Regina said making a dismissive gesture with her hand. “We don’t discuss anything in front of her,” Regina closed her eyes and shook her head with disdain. “She can’t handle it.” Freddy’s eyes opened wide with disbelief. “Fuck man, she’s gorgeous. She’s gotta be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen!” The room fell silent.