Drowning Tucson by Aaron Morales Read Free Book Online Page B

hertits at him, grabbing them by the nipples and swinging them around like two soggy yams covered in silver glitter. He was pleased that so many of the airmen came out tonight because it made him feel more anonymous. Helped his uniform blend in. Although it wouldn’t be so terrible if someone did notice him, since he only came here two or three times a year. He pretended to be looking for a friend, glancing across the room at Vinnie and his sharp-lined face. He had a smile that only showed his top row of teeth and made him look prestigious. Not an overly toothy smile, which could make guys look ignorant. He had one of those laughs that made Manny want to hear what had been so funny. Apparently Manny wasn’t alone. A group of men surrounding Vinnie seemed to be digesting every word he said, waiting for his punchlines, laughing in all the appropriate places. The men looked at the dancer on stage occasionally, but seemed more engrossed in Vinnie’s conversation. So Manny’s staring went unnoticed.
    The next time he looked up at the stage, Desire ripped off her breakaway thong and a gasp went through the crowd. The room filled with the raging sex drive of hundreds of men wishing out loud if I could just get that bitch alone for ten minutes, wanting to touch her, to smell her, to taste her, to shout damn, woman, just gimme one lick. Manny could feel the weight of all the men longing, needing to relieve the tension. Most of the men from the airbase were privates, fresh out of basic, a few of them even virgins. They were easy enough to spot since they still tried to cover their erections with beer bottles or packs of cigarettes or by standing really close to the chairs in front of them.
    Everyone on the base knew about the Loveboat, even if they had never been inside. The enormous ship with the crude cement figurehead of a nude woman was out of place on the tiny plot of desert right across from the base, as if many years earlier, when the land was covered in water and the mountains were islands, some Spaniard ran aground, ending his quest to map the ends of the world. The enormous naked torso taunted everyone leaving the gates of the base. It made mothers blush and cover their children’s eyes—though most kids still managed to peek. It caused fights between lovers when a woman noticed the slightest pause in conversation and turned to find her man’s gaze directed at theenormous cement breasts. If it was dark enough outside, the club’s lights passed through the portholes on the sides of the boat and it looked as if oars were flapping through the air. On cloudy nights, the colossal naked woman appeared to emerge from the darkness with a vessel of lust in tow.
    The pirate theme inside the bar amused most of the soldiers. They often talked before and after PT about the grand finale each night, when the entire bar lit up with swirling blue spotlights and the whole cast of dancers reappeared in mermaid outfits, flopping around the stage, touching each other while the men lifted their drinks and swayed and sang yo, ho, ho, and a bottle o’ rum. When they finished, the lights came up and the men scurried out the door to meet their girls or to find a piece out on Miracle Mile.
    But it was still early in the evening, and Manny was happy. Instead of sitting at his desk all day and then returning home to his wife, he was doing exactly what he heard most other men on the base talking about every Monday when they came to work smelling vaguely of alcohol and bragging about bagging yet another female from off-post. He fit in here, where all the men in the area hung out—bikers, lawyers, military men, bankers, teachers, politicians—men of all rank and stature. At that moment they were men together, all wanting the same thing—a piece of Desire. But when her set was finished, she was forgotten and they shouted and cheered for Peaches, a waifish blonde girl in a sheer pink teddy who came out with a pacifier on a cord around her neck and