Ennis, said with a particular accent sounds like anus, and if you aren’t expecting it, the first time you hear it leaves you deaf.
Pete called a woman over to the bar.
“Anus? Anus, would you come over hear a minute? Anus, this is Ben. Ben? Anus.”
Ennis was one of the freaks of nature women, like the Gabor sisters, women of a particular size and shape who never change so they never lose their vibrancy. Ennis presented her hand on the end of a smooth skinned, hard muscled arm.
“Anus. Glad to meet you, Ben. Pete says you’re taking the third floor place? That’s where we raised our family in the early years.”
Ben held her hand.
“Then everyone got older and we moved to Staten Island.”
Pete listened while he dried glasses.
“You mean everyone got darker,” he said.
A young girl, maybe twenty, walked behind the bar and stood next to Ennis. She had the impossible body of perfect proportion in miniature. Ennis put her arm around her.
“We still get some help from the girls, right Jilly,” Ennis said.
“Ben here isn’t concerned with our family matters. For Christ’s sake Anus, he just wants a place to live, not get adopted.”
Jilly’s eyes sweep over Ben. Ennis’ eyes sweep over Ben.
“Now look, Ben. You read this, this application. We’ve got to do it, but I can tell you’re okay here. So you read it and fill it out. Afterward Anus will get you your key. Okay? Then Jilly here will show you the room.”
Ben lifted the pen, then put it back down.
“Would it be all right to see the room first,” he asked?
“See the room? Sure, see the room. Jilly, he wants to see the room. You show him the room then?”
Jilly led Ben out the side door of the bar. She opened the door next door, then another door, and climbed the long staircase. Ben walked behind. At the top of the stair she opened the door to the right and walked in.
“This is it,” she said. “You know what I used to do late at night around closing?”
She stood in the doorway facing the windows and lifted her shirt over her breasts.
“I’d stand by the window before my folks came up to see if anyone would notice.”
She walked over to the window, showing Ben her flared back. When she turned back, her shirt was in place.
“Did anyone notice,” Ben asked?
Jilly walked out of the apartment.
“Sign the lease and I’ll tell you all about it.”
