a teenage Norma Rae

Gamal, sitting at his desk in the back room, is used to Patty’s complaints but this one has him flabbergasted.

“You’re saying the club is too cold? You? When you came here to apply, the day after your eighteenth birthday, there was a foot of snow on the ground.”

“It’s not me, it’s the other girls.”

“I already told them, the guys like it a little chilly in here. If the girls don’t like it they can always go somewhere else. I hear Seven Dolls is hiring.” This is his standard response to anything, which is why none of the girls ever complains to him. Except the youngest one, the one without clothes or shoes. They used to resent her popularity, but she’s grown on them, especially after she got Gamal to agree to taking only forty percent of their cash instead of fifty.

“Well I can go somewhere else too.”

“I don’t think you can.”

“I think I can!” She puts her hands on her hips. Her nipples are staring at him. She comes a step closer. Her pubic hair is just above the level of his desk. She’s doing this to bug him: she has consistently refused his requests that she shave it off or trim it to a “landing strip”. Actually the guys like her florid “bush”, so out of style these days. They also like her lack of tattoos. “Another thing -- why are you letting Simon in again? After what he did to Sally in the back?” Meaning, in the booths.

“He’s been behaving himself. You know what a spender he is.”

“It’s not worth it. He’ll just do it again. That really f**ked her up, you know.”

“Look, this is my club.”

“Maybe not for long. We can go to the police. I looked it up. The statute of limitations is two years.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh yes I would.” She turns around and bends over and spreads her butt, winking her anus at him, as if to say, “I shit on you!!” It’s Patty Kowalski’s version of “giving the finger”.