A Clubbing We Will Go

The weekend seemed endless without Ute.

At lunch time, I went out to get something to eat, then stopped at an apothecary to stock up my med kit and buy some postcards and stamps. Back in my room, I rearranged my gear, wrote out 20 postcards and got them ready to mail.

Toward evening, I showered and dressed to go to meet the other guys at the club. I wasn't much into the idea, but I was so bored that I couldn't imagine sitting in my dark little room all night, either. Leaving my room, I met Tomash who was also ready to go. We went out and walked a couple of blocks before finding a taxi. I gave the driver the address and we took off across town.

We pulled into what looked like an industrial park and almost immediately heard our destination. We turned a corner and found a fairly long line to get in the club, with enough polyester and gold chains to make a Greek tycoon jealous. Every time the door opened, a wall of New Wave and industrial synth pop slammed my ear drums.

Tomash and I climbed out of the taxi and scanned the line to see if any of our mates were around. No luck. We queued up behind a group of German girls who looked barely out of high school and barely dressed, as well. When we finally got to the door, we paid the 10 marks and plowed our way into the audio typhoon.

We both headed to the bar and lucky got there just as two other guys walked off. We claimed our territory and began surveying the location. It was as it appeared from outside – a huge warehouse painted all black on the inside with some half-assed neon accents, a stage and a DJ booth. The dance floor was in the center with a respectable light show, obligatory mirror ball and enough speakers to make visible waves in the clouds of cigarette and hash smoke.

Tomash and I managed to order two beers and turned to watch the show. It was still early, only about 8 or so, but the place was filling up fast. After a few minutes, Tomash tugged on my arm and pointed across the room. Two of our mates had managed to get a table and were already surrounded with available women.

We fought our way over, bouncing off of people who clearly were not in the room with us, though they had left their bodies on autopilot. We got to the table and the guys waved us into the chairs they had been struggling to hold for us. We sat and a waitress pirouetted through the mob and came to take our orders. We both ordered two more beers, just to keep the flow going in case the waitress never made back our way.

One of our crew, his name was Guy but pronounced Gee, was saying something while gesturing wildly. I could hear his voice, and I could tell he was yelling at the top of his lungs, but I couldn't make out a word he was saying. I smiled and nodded, agreeing with whatever he was saying, and we both went back to surveying the scene.

Two girls came up to the table and made gestures like they wanted to dance. Tomash and Guy took off with them, leaving me with Manny – Immanuel but no one called him that. We smiled and I could see by his pupils that he was tweaked on something – acid? Speed? In any case, we didn't try to talk and instead enjoyed the show. The waitress, with practiced ease spun and dodged her way through the crowd and put our beers down. I paid with a nice tip and she left with a smile that let me know she'd take care of us.

Tomash came back after a couple of songs soaked with sweat and panting happily. No sign of the girl. Just then, another girl came up and grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the dance floor. I wasn't much into dancing. It wasn't one of my strong points, but it seemed I had little choice.

The floor was little more than a writhing pile of vertical boddies…oops, mostly verticle…with barely enough space to move. Dancing was mostly bobbing up and down and occasionally changing positions. The heat from the bodies and the hopelessly underrated air conditioning left me dripping with sweat almost instantly. It got worse as soon as the DJ shifted into Ska and a new British band called The English Beat. There was an audible squeal of excitement throughout the house and the dance floor got even more crowded. After a few minutes I noticed that I was dancing alone. The girl who had pulled me out had vanished into the haze, so I sliced my way through the mob and back to the table.

Manny and Tomash were there. Manny just sat with a grin on his face, watching the scene as if it were on some imaginary TV. Tomash was sloshing through his beer and looking around for the waitress. I grabbed one of my beer bottles and finished it off and started on the next one. Tomash managed to order another round for all of us.

This went on for some time, with one, two or three of us taking turns on the floor, while Manny sat and grinned.

At one point, I couldn't wait any longer and went in search of the toilets. I finally found them and immediately regretted it. Though there were clearly marked MALE and FEMALE rooms, no one was paying the least bit of attention. There was a constant flow of both sexes in both rooms. I managed to push my way into the Men's room and was greeted by the stench of vomit, sounds of dry heaves, and every horizontal space covered with someone doing some kind of drug.

One guy came up to me, wearing a green coat that had US ARMY stenciled on it. He pulled open one flap to expose 20 or so small plastic bags. "Pills, powders, pog," he said.

I had no idea what pog was, but I didn't stop to ask. I moved past and found the urinals. I settled in to relieve myself as a girl came up beside me and squatted backwards on the urinal. I made note of yet another thing I had never seen, and as I stared, she turned and smiled at me, then dropped her skirt and disappeared into the crowd.

I stopped at the sinks to wash my hands, but couldn't get anywhere near them for all the heads bobbing up and down snorting speed balls. It reminded me of those novelty birds with liquid in them that rocked back and forth until they tipped down, then bobbed back up again. The image made me laugh and I went out to plow my way to the table again.

When I got back to the table, the waitress was setting more beers on the table and Manny was alone, grinning. I paid the waitress and tipped her well again. She smiled, took a pen from behind her ear and a dry beer mat off her tray and wrote, "STELLA" and her phone number, and handed it tom me. She smiled and winked and dived back into the madness. I looked at the beer mat then tucked it in my pocket.

Tomash came rushing back to the table with a girl in a black skirt that looked more like a sash, since it barely covered anything of interest. He sat in the chair, sweating and panting, and the girl sat on his lap facing him. There was a flurry of hands and kissing, then she began to gyrate her hips against him. I looked at Manny, but he just sat grinning, though his head was starting to nod slightly in time with the music.

I looked out at the crowd, not particularly interested in what was going on. A guy came by with a glass stuffed with joints. I hesitated, but then bought one and lit it. It was good quality hash, but there was a slightly odd flavor to it. I should have stopped there, but didn't. After a minute, Tomash's girl skipped past me and I turned to look at him. He was tucking himself back in and gave me a smile and a slight shrug. When he had reassembled the goods, he took up his beer and powered it back. I offered the joint and he took that too. After a brief break, Tomash got up and dived back into the crowd.

As I sat there, I felt a warm numbness coming up out of my stomach. It was a feeling I recognized…opium. That was the odd flavor in the joint, I though. The feeling spread throughout my body and the music seemed to get more distant, while the light show took on a new vibrancy. It felt like my heart was beating in time with the drums and my thoughts trailed off into a kind of calm within a storm.

I remember dancing and drinking copious amounts of beer. I don't remember if I was actually dancing with anyone, but at this point it didn't seem to matter to anyone if they had partners. The floor was just a crush of bodies weaving and jumping and swaying and bouncing off each other. It appeared as if everything was moving in slow motion with a haze of lights and colors and hypnotic music.

Sometime during the evening, I noticed that our table was packed with beer bottles in various states of emptiness. Manny hadn't moved in some time, though he still had the same frozen grin on his face. I thought about checking his pulse, but decided not to. If he was dead, he could wait until the house staff found him after closing time. I remember thinking I hadn't seen Guy in a while, then forgot about it and slid back into my inner calm.

I woke up the next day in my bed. It was after 12 o'clock and I had no idea how I had gotten there. I suddenly panicked and felt all my pockets, but everything was where it should be. My head felt like a block of cement with a jack hammer going at it. I reeked of stale beer and thought about a shower. I checked each muscle group one at a time to make sure everything worked before I attempted to stand.

When I finally got verticle, I swayed a couple of times then found my footing. I was ravenously hungry but didn't want to go out. I remembered seeing a bunch of delivery menus in the costume shop some tie back, and I slowly climbed the stairs and went in search of them.

I found them tacked to the call board and thumbed through the options. One in particular looked well worn and it was for a place called Pizza 2. I selected the one that looked to have the most ingredients and picked up the phone to call.

After ordering, I sat in the shop leaning on one of the cutting tables. I didn't want to go down to my room, only to have to come up again. I checked the money in my pocket and was surprised to find I still had quite a bit. I wondered how many beers we had all drunk, and more importantly, who paid for all of them.

As I sat there, I heard a knock at the back door. I went down the hall and opened it to find my pizza waiting, still piping hot. I paid the driver and he dashed off. I closed the door and started back to my room. The smell was intoxicating and my stomach was roaring. As I got to my room, I wondered if Tomash had made it back. I put my ear to the door, but didn't hear anything, so I retreated to my cell and laid into the pizza. I ate about half of it before falling back on the bed, rubbing my swollen belly.