Leah
Leah is a dancer. Leah dances without any clothes. Leah has a tattoo of an anchor hovering above her left breast, and a tattoo of a wheel on her shoulder.
“What do they mean?” I ask.
“Would you like the true story, or the one I tell the customers?”
“Always the truth.”
“My broth...”
“Up next is Leah!” crackles over the loudspeakers from a voice two packs away from a pneumonectomy.
Leah is a dancer. Leah dances without any clothes. Leah is a contortionist when it is her time to be a contortionist. Leah is a contortionist on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Leah is a friend. Leah is a friend without any clothes. Leah makes me watch her be a contortionist, but only on Tuesday nights.
She holds her back to the pole, using the strength of her calves and thighs. She stretches out her arms, and her eyes shoot to me before she looks down and hangs her head as an apology.
Arms stretched out, back to the pole--Leah is on a cross. Leah is on a cross without any clothes. Leah gracefully slides down the pole to come to a kneeling position on the floor. Leah never looks up, scrapes in the dollar bills from the ground to the music of primal shouts and jeers. Leah follows her shadow off of the stage.
“Grace, Grace is up next!”
“But Grace went before Leah!”
“...And Grace danced next to Leah.”
Leah is a dancer. Leah dances without any clothes. Leah has a tattoo of an anchor hovering above her left breast, and a tattoo of a wheel on her shoulder. Leah had Grace dance before her, with her, and Grace will dance after Leah.
Grace is not a dancer, but Grace was on a cross. Grace was on a cross without any clothes. Grace’s eyes shot upward before the head fell down in shame. In defeat. In complete sacrifice.
Grace fell off the pole. Dead. In a forward motion reaching for Leah.
And if she listened hard enough, Leah would hear Grace say, “I danced before you. I held myself to a cross so that you will never have to do that again. Watch me dance. Watch me dance a dance that keeps your eyes above the floor.”
Grace will pull your eyes up.
