Heat Lightning

I have lightning, if the stars dry up, to guild me
~I Missed the Point, Neko Case

Long shadows crawls the floor/the path so poorly lit/there’s moths flying away from it

~Prison Girls, Neko Case

The Cinnamon Buffalo was filled with the usual on the second Friday in July. Blue and white plaid sleeves lifted like the arms in a grain elevator to gray haired mouths. The pale ales and brown lagers were poured not into frosted mugs but filled plastic cups stamped with the logos of several breweries. Though the bar was not spacious by any means, it provided enough room for a stage and small runway which almost extend into the middle of the bar. Two men sat at the end of this runway. One glanced with boozed eyes and his tiny mouth hung open; a man transfixed. The other sat three cracked linoleum seats over. She could not see his eyes for the brim of a black cap covered them. But she did need eye contact to work and she preferred it that way. Though the stoic and silent ones generally tipped the most--- or nothing at all--- it was better than a pack of college kids up from the city. They tended to drink to much, be overtly loud, and there tips were worth shit---always singles, never a five or a ten to make their patronage and patronizing worth it. And when they slid their one dollar bills into what ever strap was at their disposal, they would often consider themselves the new owners of more than just a dance. Hands would deliberately slap and fingers would press into her flesh; parts covered and revealed.

The older men weren’t so grabby. But when it did, the gesture was retracted with in the moment and a soft apology was offered ---sometimes accompanied by another bill.

No. Don’t think like that she thought as she spun around, attempting to hurl the thought from her head and out the tips of her split ends I’m not a beggar. I’m giving them what they want and they give me what I want… what I need.

Though no college men were in the bar tonight. There were the regulars and those who were new. The new men would rarely come from neighboring towns. The newbies would drive up from city forty minutes to the south. That was her city too and she commuted along with them. Her car out back, theirs scattered out front. 

(a real possiblity for a story to expand upon)