Palace of Love

"Kevin?" asked my wife ,Sepia as I lay in bed on a Friday Morning...

''What do you want for your birthday?" she asked.

"It's not for another week or so!" I said.

"I know...but I need to know early just so I can get it and have it by the time it comes." she said.

"Well that's easy...I want you , naked with a big bow tied around you." I said with a straight face.

"You are so silly....You have me every night." she said.

"Yeah and, I aint complainin." I laughed...

"Come on ,I'm serious." she said.

"Aww..I don't know...Let me think about it...I'll let you know okay?" I said.

"Can you let me know at least by Monday?" she asked.

"Okay...Hey where are you goin?" I asked.

She got up and headed towards the shower.....

"Unlike you...I have to work today." she said as she put on her shower cap and headed to the shower...

I had worked Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday of this week and I was taking today off....Sepia had worked everyday...

I drifted back to sleep and then awoke when she was coming out of the shower and toweling off...I watched as she lotioned herself down and began to get dressed...I loved watching her dress...

''Damn girl...you sure you want to go to work this morning?" I asked...

"Have to....I'm seeing a client today...Oh and Kevin...I need you to do me a favor.." she said.

'What's that?" I asked.

'Well you remember Opal Gardener don't you?" she asked.

"I remember her corpse...She was dead by the time I uh "met" her...Yeah...Your romantic rival for Cock Robbins for West Orange or Jersey City right?" I said.

"Don't remind me of him....Well anyway... Opal had a younger sister...Jewel Gardener....She and I were alright...Anyway...She called me...She's gotten a job here in Philly and she'll need a ride from the bus station." said Sepia.

"A ride?? I don't even know what she looks like." I said.

"Here's a photo..It's about six years old...but I'm sure she hasn't changed much... Can you pick her up at the bus station please?" she asked.

''Why me? Where is she staying?" I asked.

"Not here..if that's what you were thinking...She's got a job and a place all set up." said Sepia,

"Alright...I'll get her...Aren't you taking your car?  Why can't you get her? " I asked.

''Because I'll be busy...I'm showing a house to a client today." she said and she walked over to where I was laying and kissed me, long and passionately....I reached to grab her, pull her towards me, but she broke my embrace...

"Uh..Uhhhh...Not now...I have to go to work.....Will you do that for me Kev?" she asked.

"Of course." I said.... She knew how to "work" me.

II-

''You in here early kid" said Gus...

I was...It was Friday...Lunchtime...There was a modest lunch crowd in Josies...Not nearly the crowd it held at night.  I had been working so hard lately that I hadn't even been in Josie's for about a week or so...

"Yeah...I been busy." I said as I sat at the bar and ordered a cold Corona.

"I meant to call you a few days ago...Do you know who was in here?" asked Gus.

'No..who?" I said.

"Ray...Ray Kind." he said.

"What?..That's impossible!!!...He's coolin his heels in a Copenhagen Prison for at least a year." I said.

"Nah, he was in here, free as a jaybird...He made some kind of deal and got released early in Copenhagen and then fled to Amsterdam ,where the coppers grabbed him there and turned him over to the FBI...The Feds brought him here and some judge granted him bail until he comes up for trial." said Gus...

''WHAT???" I said...I couldn't believe this....How could this guy...a guy who masterminded several jewel heists...one which resulted in the death of three people be out walking free??  Something was very wrong here.

''Guess what else?" said Gus.

"There's more?" I said.

"He was in here with that girl...that girl you was so crazy over years ago...Laura...Laura Como!!!" said Gus..

I stopped cold in my tracks...Laura!!!  Long before I knew that Sepia existed...There was Laura.... she was my first love, she was my first heartbreak....

''Laura was here? Laura is back in Philly?" I asked..

''Yeah buddy...and she was with Ray...What is the connection?" asked Gus.

"I don't know...but you can be sure I'm going to find out." I said.  I paid Gus and I got up...

"Got to pick a friend of Sepia's up from the bus station. Thanks for the info Gus." I said.

I headed for my car.... I thought about Laura...and how many years ago..We were in love...I was going to marry her, Her father loved me...but Laura was distracted... In love with someone else...someone I didn't know....It broke her heart to finally tell me....It broke my heart to hear it...It changed my life for ever..It was the reason I joined the Marines and went to college later...

Just when I finally think I'd forgotten her...Here she was again!! Back in my town, my city....

III-

Jewel Gardener wasn't hard to spot....She looked much like her older sister, Opal.  Opal had been my wife's friend...I didn't really know her, but I could look at the way Jewel dressed and carried herself that she was what my mother used to call "fast"....

"So you're Sepia's husband eh?" she said with a smile as I drove her into town....

"Yup." I said.

She looked me up and down....and then smiled.

"Sepia always did have good tastes.." she said.

"Thanks" I said.

"No thank you." she said and smiled flirtatiously....

"Where you workin?" I asked.

"I got a job at the Palace of Love" she said.

"The Palace of Love? That's a strip joint." I said.

"Not a strip joint, but the premiere strip joint in Philadelphia...Four floors of exotic dancers, four bars and great food." she said with pride.

"I'm staying with this girl named Melissa Jemima...She's the boss of that place-" said Jewel.

''Wait...You're an exotic dancer and you work for Melissa "Aunt" Jemima." I said.

"You know her?" she asked...

"Yeah...She's a female pimp....and most of the girls who work for her make their living staring at the ceiling." I said.

"Yeah, well I aint doin that...I just dance...When I make enough dough...I'm out...I'm goin to school...." she said.

At least she had a plan....I mused....

I pulled up in front of the house of Melissa "Aunt" Jemima... It was a very beautiful home, with a little land seperating it from the next house in a very, very exclusive Northeast Philadelphia home..a far cry from the North and West Philly neighborhoods where her exotic dancers and prostitutes plied their trade.

''Thank you Mister Kevin." she said as she grabbed her two suitcases and one bag out of my car....

"Look...Here is my card and there are two numbers on there...My home number and my cell number and here is Sepia's number...If you change your mind or you have any trouble...you call any one of those numbers , you feel me?" I said.

She sensed the concern in my face and she smiled....

"Awww thank you Mr. Kevin....I will and tell Sepia that I'm comin around to yall place just as soon as I get me a little car, which won't be long...I got a little money wit me...oh and Mr. Kevin?  Uhh Don't tell Sepia what it is I do, huh?" she asked.

"I won't " I said and I drove off...I couldn't know then that this would be the first and the last time I'd see her alive!!

What a day this had been....My arch enemy, free as a bird and with a woman I used to love and my wife's friend is a stripper....I know I had been to Josies once already...but now I really needed a drink.

(To Be Continued....)