CHAPTER 47 -RAYS

One day while walking to get my stripper shoes repaired in my old neighborhood by the YMCA, I passed the neon of "Ray's Bar" and wondered if my old friend Ray was still bartending at "Rays." Ray didn't own Ray's. It's just in NYC, there are a lot of guys named 'Ray.'

I opened the door to the blight of a place and let the darkness settle around me —no one but a few guys at the pool table smacking balls and a couple of fixture drunkards.

"Hey, movie star! Ya famous yet?" Ray greeted me and pointed to the space in front of him on the wooden bar.

"Oh, please. I held up the shoes for Ray to see. I'm just dancing. Not at Tango anymore. With an agent out of Jersey."

Ray's eyebrows raised for a second.

"Greyhound?"

"Wow! You remember! Thanks! But I'm not drinking, Ray, trying to keep my nose clean. And Johnny, remember my man? He gets mad when I day drink  ... without him, that is."

Ray nodded like he understood everything. He put a club soda with a lemon and lime on a cardboard circle before me.

I signaled with one finger for Ray to come close.

"I want to leave him, Ray. Can you help me find a place to live where he won't be able to find me? Whenever I try to go, he finds me, or I call him. He does his stupid Barbados magic, tells me I'm beautiful, and I'm in love again. Just his voice, you know?"

A smile began to appear on Ray's face.

"You really wanna leave the moolie?" Ray used the slang term for African American like he was Sicilian.

"Didn't you try this before?"

"Yeah, I know, a few times. But I can do it this time if I have a place."

I leaned in.

"Johnny beat me up pretty bad in Boston. And I was kidnapped and raped by another pimp last week and he pretty much did nothing about it." I showed him the strangle marks Jimmy had left on my neck.

"Ray, I need your help to leave him. Remember how once you told me your name means wise protector? I really need a wise protector right about now."