Nadia was the next to order, stating, “As I’m still rather tired from last night’s shift, I just want a double-espresso, please?”
Benzie asked, “And you, sir?”
He answered, “Umm, I’ll have the chocolate latte too, please. Reva talked me into it…”
“Be back in a minute with your drinks,” the waitress sang, just before she had begun to leave.
“Actually, ma’am,” Nadia kindly interjected, “can you please make all our drinks to go?”
“Sure…”
After the waitress had departed, Reva began, “So, tell me about you, Baltor?”
After chuckling, he asked, “What would you like to know?”
“I don’t know—everything!”
“That…would take some time,” he truthfully answered.
Throwing her open-palmed left hand up into the air, she asked, “What’s your last name?”
Though Baltor wasn’t prepared for this question first, especially since he had forgotten to look at his driver’s license, he figured it was safe to answer the truth, “Elysian.”
“I see…very, very nice name,” both girls said at the same time—they henceforth began to giggle for the next couple of moments.
Nadia was the first to sober up, so she could ask, “What’s your middle name?”
“Umm, I don’t have one…”
Reva asked, “So are you a businessman? I heard your friend call you his protégé.”
“Yes, I am that, as well do I hold quite a few other professions.”
Nadia asked, “Like what?”
“Well,” Baltor answered, “I know a bit of martial arts, which makes me a professional warrior, although I only fight as a last resort.”
“Wow,” Reva said, “that is so cool!”
Just then, the waitress appeared back with their drinks, setting each drink before each person—she then asked with a pleasant smile, “Do you guys want your check now?”
After Baltor had pulled out his debit card, he handed it over to Benzie and said, “Just pay for the drinks with this plastic, and add a nice-sized tip for you.”
“How much should I add, sir? Your total is thirty rubles even.”
As he looked at “his two new friends,” back and forth, he asked, “What’s a nice tip for that?”
“Ten to fifteen rubles is very nice, Baltor,” Nadia answered.
“Make it thirty rubles, then,” Baltor stated evenly.
“Thank you very much, sir!” Benzie replied with a whole lot of surprise, before departing to make the sales transaction. Meanwhile, the party of three took a small-to-decent-sized sip of his or her drink—Baltor absolutely loved his very warm, chocolate-like, and creamy coffee, as he had never before tasted anything like it!
Nadia was the next to speak, as she asked, “So, Baltor, do you like to party and dance?”
“Umm, ya,” Baltor said with a little chuckle, “though it’s been a while since I’ve done either.”
“Perfect—me and Reva have the perfect place to go—you will love this dance club that is open 24 hours a day every day of the year and is just about always packed…yes?”
After cocking his head to the side, he answered, “Sure…why not? Sounds good. While we’re waiting on Benzie to return, why don’t one of you lovely ladies tell me about the two of you met…yes?” He took a nice-sized drink.
Reva was the first to answer, “Yes…well, we first met two years ago when we both got assigned to be roommates because we attend the same university, and as of last year, I got Nadia a job at the hotel. Six months ago, we moved off campus and into our own apartment—and nowadays, we see each other nearly twenty-four hours a day, in which we haven’t gotten into one single argument. The only times we don’t see each other is during our classes, as we are taking different courses. In four more years, we graduate with our Master’s degrees, so we’re going to be roomies and besties the whole time.”
“Cool,” Baltor said with a few nods. “What’s a bestie?”
Nada answered with an endearing smile, “Best friends.”
“Oh…”
“I take astronomy as my major,” Nadia added, “while Reva takes political science—very different fields, as you can see.”
“For sure,” Baltor said with another nod. He proceeded to take another drink of his latte.
“I’m feeling good-to-go now, guys,” Reva said. She asked, “Ready to head to Euro-Rancid?”
“What is that place?” Baltor asked with a slightly scrunched up forehead and nose.
“The twenty-four hour dance club I was telling you about,” Nadia answered with a laugh, “And yes, I am ready to go, Reva…how about you, Baltor?”
“Umm, ya, let’s go,” he answered with a smile, before he rose to his feet and extended out his elbows.
Only a moment later, the girls stood on each side, interlinking one arm with his. As before, the three strolled their way down a half-dozen more city blocks, filled with pedestrians walking down the sidewalks, and cars and trucks traveling down the streets…a few people here and there rode bicycles.
And as before, there hadn’t been an ounce of conversation between them—although the thought popped into Baltor’s mind that he could use this time to probe not just their thoughts, yet histories—all the way back since the day they were born—he decided otherwise. These girls had “a mysteriousness” to them that he really liked—he wanted them to reveal these mysteries.
Inevitably, they came across a long line of people—at least thirty—who patiently waited on the sidewalk next to a black brick wall of a three-story building, in which the sounds of techno-music could be heard bumping through the walls! There were no windows, other than a row of ten on the third floor.
As the party of three walked around the corner, they saw that there were eight people standing in line, in which it ended in front a single door made of reflective black glass—the top floor had a dozen glass windows, also black. Above the door was a black sign that blinked on and off in neon-green color, “Euro-Rancid!”
Standing right in front of this door and checking ids was a powerful man who stood at six-foot-seven and weighed three hundred pounds—although his head was shaved bald, he had a pointy black goatee, and a slight sneer on his face. His attire consisted of a pair of sunglasses that he wore over his eyes, a sporty leather black jacket that perfectly fit over his skin-tight white T-shirt, and cotton black pants that had been folded and tucked into a pair of black army boots. In Baltor’s opinion, this doorman looked unhappy about something.
Still arm in arm, they continued to walk passed everybody until they stopped right in front of the doorman—in the next moment, this same guy’s frown turned upside down, just before he greeted with an elated smile, “Hey there, Reva and Nadia—how are you two most-beautiful women doing today? I haven’t seen you in months.”
“Great Butch,” both girls squealed, just before they released their grip on Baltor, in order to give a tight hug to Butch at the very same time.
Once that hug had been released, perhaps ten seconds later, Butch stepped back and opened the door. After waving his hand inside a couple of times, which revealed the bumping music to be a whole lot louder now, he said, “Go on in…have fun!”
“Thanks,” both girls again squealed.
Once the three—again arm-in-arm—were inside the building, the doorman closed the door—there were five people who were standing in line ahead of them.
At the end of the line stood “a scantily clad female,” possessing all the proper proportions but wearing far too much make-up on her face and too little clothes on her body, in Baltor’s opinion. She was not only taking money and stamping hands, yet telling each person and/or persons as to when he/she/they could walk past the thick-black curtain that blocked the view of a hallway that veered to the right after ten feet.
Three seconds after having entered the establishment, Nadia said, “You have to pay with cash to get in here, which I will cover, especia
lly since you paid for both of our drinks…yes?”
“Sure,” Baltor said, just going with the flow—the more he heard this very-strange-yet-interesting music, the more he found himself liking it! As Trendon had ordered him to do, he was now “on vacation…”
Nearly two minutes later, the three had just arrived at the front of this line. It was then that Reva paid for just herself, just before Nadia paid for both she and Baltor. In turn, the cashier stamped their left hands.
Despite being stamped, the three still had to wait an additional minute before three people had exited from behind the curtain—first it was a young man and his girlfriend, and the second an older man in his forties and balding…it was then that the woman said, “Go on in now.”
The three—still arm in arm—passed the curtains and rounded the corner. Now they could see thousands of laser lights posted everywhere throughout this enormous place, and the hundreds of people—most of them dancing heartily away—in this very, very, very packed club!
All Baltor could say was, “Wow…”
Right away, both girls began to giggle and squeal in delight—Nadia was the first to yell, “Yeah, this place is freaking great!”
It took a little more than two minutes for the party of three—now led by Reva—to pass beyond the throngs of people—far more girls than guys—of who graciously moved out of their way.
Inevitably, they began to near the closest of three bars that did not have a single barstool available for any of them to sit down—all sixty stools were occupied.
Once there, Reva released her handgrip on Baltor, just before she squeezed in between two patrons sitting down, in order to begin conversing with the bartender. All the while, Baltor and Nadia continued to look around the club…
Upon gazing at the second floor, of which an entire section was void of people, yet contained its own private bar, three very comfortable couches, and a dozen stools that overlooked the entire dance floor, Baltor yelled at Nadia (but not angrily), “What’s that up there?”
She yelled back, “Oh that? That’s the VIP lounge, but it’s very expensive.”
“Let’s get that—it’s on me!”
After moving her mouth close to his ear, she asked, “Are you sure? It cost five hundred rubles for every two hours.”
Now speaking in her ear, Baltor said, “Two hours sounds good—I really like this music, but I don’t like the fact that there’s just too many people around here who keep bumping into me.”
“Okay,” she answered back, just before she tapped Reva on her butt—when she had her friend’s attention a second later, she yelled, “Tell Markie that we want the VIP lounge for two hours—Mr. Elysian’s got the bill!”
“Okay,” Reva yelled back, “Hold on…”
With that, she leaned over the bar and close to Markie, pointed her right index finger up to the lounge, and said, “We want the VIP—our friend Mr. Elysian said he will pay for it. Trust me…he’s very good for it, as he is a guest in the penthouse suite at our hotel.”
After scrutinizing Baltor for only a second, the bartender nodded his head, and answered with a smile, “No problem…just tell Vince at the VIP door that I said it’s okay you go up right away. When your private bartender comes up in about ten minutes or so—which is included in the price as is a free bottle of champagne of your choice, Alexandra will settle the bill with your friend. In the meantime, do you guys want a free drink now to bring up with you?”
“Thanks much, Markie,” Reva squealed, “I know Nadia and I both want ‘our usual.’ Hold on a second and let me ask my Mr. Elysian what he wants…”
Baltor, who had been listening, yelled just above the volume of the music, “Whatever you guys are having is fine!”
“Make that three.”
“Three screwdrivers coming right up,” the bartender said with a smile, before he began to make the drinks—nearly a minute later, the bartender returned with three clear glasses filled with an orange-colored fluid and ice cubes, a long, red straw, and a small-yet-very-colorful umbrella hanging over the entire top of each glass.
After Reva had handed two of the three drinks to her friends, as well picked up her drink, she looked back at the bartender and said, “Thanks, Markie, you’re the best!”
“No problem,” Markie said with a shy smile, “have a great time!”
She delivered one final wave, before wrapping her free hand around Baltor’s arm, and leading the three of them around the dance floor and up to the door, where stood the doorman called Vince—another baldheaded man almost identical to the outside doorman, except for the fact that his sunglasses were propped back on his head.
“Hey Vinnie,” Reva said with a smile, “Markie said the three of us can go up into the VIP, and that he will be sending Sheri up in ten minutes to take care of the bill and everything…yes?”
After scrutinizing Baltor by giving him the up-and-down look, and seeing that this man appeared to be “very wealthy,” he said, “No problem, beautiful—have a great time!”
With that, he opened the door, and gestured for three of them to walk up the four-foot wide red-carpeted stairway that led up to the second floor. After they had entered, he closed the door behind them—the three, no longer arm in arm, arrived on the second floor only twenty seconds later.
Upon rounding the corner upstairs to the right, Baltor only then realized that the lounge began at this point—all the while, Reva led the pack until they stood on the mini-dance floor against the rail, which overlooked the main dance floor on the first floor.
In the same moment, the drums of the song abruptly changed, though the tempo of the beat remained exactly the same. Perhaps a half-minute later, he heard a man’s voice call out through the speakers, “Are we having a great time out there, Club Euro-Rancid?”
Not only were dozens of whooping noises made all across the room, yet nearly a hundred people cried out words like, “Yeah,” or “Hell yeah,” or “Hell %$#@ yeah!”
“Awesome—awesome! Well, this is DJ Spinner coming at ya right now with this killer music…don’t forget to tip your waitresses and bartenders, who are also here to keep you highly entertained. And one final thing before I let you go and play this next club banger, called ‘Beneath it all,’ which hit is currently #1 on the Top 40 Charts in Russia, Europe and the US, I’d like to introduce the rapper behind it all who is here right here and right now, known to the world as, ‘E—Main!” He had purposefully stretched out the man’s stage name when he said it, so it lasted a grand total of fifteen seconds.
Right away, nearly everyone in the room began to cheer and applaud vigorous enthusiasm—at the same time, both girls began to squeal in utter delight! Only now was Baltor “mildly curious…”
A second later, the beat slowly-but-surely began to descend in volume—just as slow in replacing this beat was a choir that began to sing out a very melodious tune. By the time the beat from the first song was gone, the “equally awesome beat” in the new song kicked in!
All the while, more than one hundred additional people had commenced to either mosey their way to the dance floor, or to the elevated stage where the two men stood.
The man on the right—wearing a wide-brimmed red, white, green and yellow-striped hat, no shirt though covered in tattoos all the way up to his neck, blue jeans and black shoes—stood behind a large electronic gadget, flipping levers and pushing buttons.
The other man—wearing a black hat where the brim was facing back as well a white T-shirt with the blue letters “BluColla Ent” imprinted on the front, a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, a pair of loose-fitting black pants, and a pair of crisp, white shoes.
Firmly held in this man’s right hand was a microphone that he began to rap into, which voice could simultaneously be heard through the speakers, “Feel that sweat, pouring down your neck—it’s like that, that’s a fact, my lyrics make your body hot like that! Feel that sweat, pouring down your neck—it’s like that, that’s a fact, my lyrics make your body hot
like that!”
Already was Baltor amazed by this artistic performer who possessed an incredible-sound-quality he had never-ever before heard…not only were the two girls clapping their hands and/or writhing their body all around sexily, yet so was every other last girl in the place.
Following the chorus, “E Main” began rapping aloud his first verse, sounding a bit different yet just as awesome, “Baby girl, I’m talking to you—listen up to dis rapping fool—on this stage using this killer tune! Time for you—out yo seat—shake that thing—riding on dis beat—I’m tasty just like a Halloween treat! You and me—walking down da beach—sailing down them seas—feeling that ocean breeze—sipping on them drinks! Laying under the sun, having tons of fun—you and me—will run-run-run to the sun, my Hun!”
Again came the chorus line—equally-exciting-yet-slightly-different-in-instruments-and-notes…many of the girls were now singing the chorus line along with him! Baltor found that his own head was now bopping up and down repeatedly, just like were most of the males in the place—more than half were now dancing with females, while only a few pretended this song wasn’t playing at all.
E Main still wasn’t done, as he proceeded with his second verse, “Baby let’s be real—this the deal—shake that ass around for real—you about to squeal—forget all your pills! All around this club I’m the thrill—I’m the stud—I’m the steal—got the cuts—got the reels, around this pub! Drink them beers—use the stance—make a dance—take your chance—you so hot—you won’t stop around this clock! Thanks CJ—we okay—homie we about to pave the way—make for yet another day!”
It was at this point that another just-as-exciting chorus line commenced, but instead of singing out the chorus line all alone, he stuck out the microphone toward the crowds and allowed them to sing too—they emphatically did! During the outro, he waved his free hand around in the air, while saying into the microphone, “Thanks ya’ll—awesome to be here in St. Petersburg, Russia! I just wanted to give you a little taste of what I’m about, and to let you know that my very next show on my world tour—nearly sold out—is tonight at nine p.m. at Oktyabrsky Big Concert Hall—be there.”
The War of All Wars Page 33