The Cross

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Sam was right. The hotel was old-style but comfortable, and definitely not steep on the pocket. I checked into a room on the third floor. It had a double bed with two bedside drawers, a small writing bureau, a chair, a one-seat lounge and a solid, antiquated hanging closet. The room had two windows that overlooked the street below. I had a small separate bathroom with sink, shaving mirror, bathtub and john. It was homely, somewhat rustic, but not too shabby.

I unpacked my bag and found the leather pouch I was looking for. I uncovered my hammerless Colt handgun, magazine and license. I checked its action and placed it on the bedside, unloaded. I had hated guns since the war, but had always had one if I was on a case. Nowadays, it was just habit to take it along. Experience had taught me that desperate people always shoot first when pushed into a corner. I just wanted to make sure I could respond…if I had to.

I looked around the room. I needed a big drink and water wasn’t on my mind. I was starting to feel highly strung-out without my usual dose of booze. I shook my head. I knew I had to take it one day at a time. I decided to search for Janet’s phone number instead, from the cablegrams I’d received.

I dialled her number.

“Hello Janet – Jack Dallas … yes, I’m in town.”

Janet asked about the flight and when I got in. She asked where I was staying and if I would like to come over for Sunday lunch – the following afternoon, around one. She told me we could discuss the details of our arrangement and she would fill me in on the events since the tragedy three weeks ago. I told her that was fine. Janet said she would pick me up in front of the Oxford at twelve-thirty, and we’d drive over to her parents’ house.

“Sure, Janet. See you at twelve-thirty.” I hung up the phone.

I got up to stretch. I walked to the window, opened the curtains and looked at the outside world. An insistent flash of light kept glowing onto the glass. I gazed out over the buildings and remembered the first time I was in the Cross, five years ago. I was with Brodie. It was also the time I’d met Carol.

*

The boys and I were granted a seven-day furlough. I agreed to train it down to Sydney with Brodie so he could see Carol. We stayed in the Cross where Brodie planned to catch up with her. Brodie had arranged to meet her and her sister Janet around seven-thirty for dinner. He had booked a table at the Astra restaurant. I remembered Brodie was as nervous as a teenage boy, with palms of sweat, dilated eyes and chatty as a Tommy gun.

While we waited, he recounted the story of how he’d met Carol in convalescence hospital while he recovered from wounds he’d received in New Guinea.

He told me how Carol used to give him a special smile that made him tingle. How she seemed to glide near him like an angel. How they started to talk and found they had more in common than they both realised. How their love grew stronger every day of the six weeks of his hospital stay. How he felt gut-wrenched as the day came for him to leave. How his heart broke on the last day when he said goodbye. How they planned to see each other again soon.

As two women entered the restaurant, Brodie’s eyes locked onto Carol. She saw Brodie and elegantly moved towards him with her sister in tow. I remembered thinking I’d seen beautiful, graceful women before but there was something uniquely attractive about Carol. She reminded me of a fairy-tale princess – gentle and with a glow of serenity.

That night, I saw how Brodie’s life was about to change. He was in love with his princess, and she with her warrior. I got to know Carol in the short few hours of that night and could see she was a tender soul with a heart of pure compassion. She was full of laughter and abundant joy, and when she smiled, Brodie looked like he was melting, just like an ice cube in the sun. Next day, Brodie and I were invited for lunch at the house of Carol’s parents. While we were there, intentions of love were declared and Brodie was officially invited into the family. Brodie was so happy he seemed to float on air. I was just glad for my friend who had found his life’s love.

*

Now I was back in Sydney for the two people I’d never see again.

What the hell happened to both of you? I asked myself as I looked out my hotel window.

The question resurfaced like a stain.

I turned away from the window and paced up and down my room. I felt tired but couldn’t sleep – hungry but couldn’t eat. The different time zone was playing havoc with my body clock. I went to the bathroom and washed my face. I put on a new shirt and started to feel better. I had been cooped up in that flying tin can for too many days. It was nine-thirty but sleep felt a long way away. It had been three days since I’d decided to lay off the drink. I now promised myself I would wait until I finished business, and from this night on…it was business.

I made up my mind to go for a walk to see how much the place had changed in the past few years. I really needed to get out and be out in the open for a while. I remembered there was something about a Saturday night in the Cross. It was like the Cross gave off its own heat – something like a night fever!

I walked out of the Oxford and onto the streets of the Cross. I looked around and took note of my hotel’s location before I made my way onto the main strip. I turned the corner and was floored by the number of people on the street. The whole place appeared to be glowing. Last time I was here, during the war, I remembered how things weren’t so bright. Now, it looked as if the Cross was one big neon sign.

As I walked up the strip, I looked around at the buildings and noticed nothing had really changed too much. I wanted to see if I could remember any of the places I’d been to during the war. I saw the Woolworths building with its grey-green tiled façade and large glass doors and windows with a display of variety goods. I recalled during the war the first floor had been a restaurant called the Balcony and used as the Australian Combined Services canteen. I walked past the Imperial hotel on my left that was also commandeered by the military. As I recollected my familiarity with the place, I began to feel more relaxed. The stroll down the main street was lifting the haze from my head.

In the crowded distance I saw a place that used to be a restaurant. It must have been the same place Brodie and I had met Carol. Now it was a nightclub. I scanned the place up and down, then looked across the road and back again to the building in front of me. I knew it had to be the same place.

I stumbled through the front doors of the place, now a nightclub called Siren’s. I took a moment to check the place out. Say, this joint’s really been done over, I said to myself.

I glanced over the room, trying to remember where the restaurant tables used to be, and the kitchen and the bar. Now it was completely re-modelled. The large front windows had ornate panels of intricate designs hung in their place. I noticed how they sealed away the outside world. I gradually strolled around to the bar across the other side of the room. The bartender watched me walk up. He looked at me without any interest.

With a brief nod he asked me, “What will it be?”

“Just coffee – black.”

I lit up a cigarette and turned around.

Up on a mezzanine floor above the nightclub – I saw her standing there.

A woman watching. She was watching everything and everyone in the club. I turned back to face the bar. My coffee had arrived. I took a gulp, then turned back around. The woman leisurely moved around a walkway to the top of the stairs. She looked over to the bar and then slowly descended the staircase.

I sensed everyone in the room was either looking at her, or was aware of her presence. This woman cut the nightclub like a knife as she reached the bottom landing near the club’s dance floor. She paused a moment and looked around the room. Her eyes came to rest on me.

She was a tall, blonde woman wearing a long, black sequinned dress. She had a full set of curves nobody could improve on. Her hair was like the colour of gold in old paintings, and it had been purposely fussed with. It was styled straight and rolled inwards at the end; parted on the left side, over her forehead and down to kiss the right side of her face. I looked away and took a gulp of my coffee again. Slowly my curiosity got the better of me. My gaze swung back to the blonde woman. I fixed my eyes on her and noticed what appeared to be a quick sneer escape from her lips. She proceeded to slink her way across the room, moving in my direction. I noticed how she placed one foot directly in front of the other as if she was walking on an invisible straight line. I took a drag from my smoke and watched her walk. She was definitely radiant, with an air of ambiance and vanity. She seemed a bit hard boiled and was probably full of sin. She sauntered her way towards the bar in a very slow, deliberate manner.

This long, cool woman in a black dress with Bette Davis eyes now stood in front of me.

“Well, hello there. Welcome to Siren’s. My name is Vanessa Sentura – hostess of Siren’s nightclub. Whatever the gentleman’s pleasure, I am confident we can accommodate you,” she said, as she extended her elegantly long hand towards me.

I tried to look into her eyes, but she flirtingly lowered them. I took her hand, and brought to my lips. Her skin felt as soft as silk and smelled like jasmine.

I grinned and said, “Howdy, gorgeous. So, you’re the hostess with the mostess around here? Nice place, doll-face. How’s Sammy doin’ these days?”

She snatched her hand away and a look of displeasure splashed across her face. I noticed the colour of her emerald eyes had darkened.

“Excuse me,” she demanded, “how exactly would you know Sammy?”

I smirked with the cigarette dangling from my lips.

“I see, so we’re gonna play tough tonight, hey my little hostess, and I bet you can.”

She gave me nothing.

“Well, Miss Sentura, Sammy and I use to swap lasagne recipes back in ’43. This used to be a restaurant back then, right, and Sammy did have the best lasagne this side of the world, right!”

I noticed her stance slightly softened.

“You seem to know a bit about this town so you’ve obviously been here before.” She paused, looked up and down to gauge me, and then continued. “Sammy’s doing fine. Let me see, you were in the war and were like so many Yanks that passed through this part of town. Am I right?”

I smiled and said, “Ding!”

A maître d' walked over to Vanessa and stood by her side.

“Please excuse me, will you.” She turned to the maître d’ and spoke to him briefly, then looked back at me. “Oh, by the way, I don’t believe you told me your name?”

“You didn’t ask, my little lotus flower, but since you’re asking now – Jack, Jack Dallas. I’m in the insurance game and in town on business.”

“Ha, that’s hysterical. You don’t look the insurance type!”

I laughed and slapped my knee. “You know what, Miss Sentura, you’re the second woman tonight that’s told me the same thing.” I laughed a bit harder.

I noticed the colour of her eyes had become even darker now.

After a beat, Vanessa turned and walked towards the front doors of the club with the maître d' in tow. I watched her as she moved away; she seemed to glide like a swan across water. I knew the type of woman Vanessa was. Like a woman I once knew. It started to evoke the memories of when I’d first met her. She was a woman with an unattainable spirit. A spirit that flowed in waves. I remembered how we flowed like an ocean at full moon with a gravity of two bodies, pulling each other together.

I shook my head. I looked up at the bartender and motioned my head in Vanessa’s direction.

“What’s the story with the hostess over there?”

The bartender looked at me with a stare. “Listen, she doesn’t suffer fools lightly and everyone in the Cross knows her. Some friendly advice, Yank…she’s well connected and is one not to tangle with, so I’d watch my step if I were you, mate.”

I looked at the bartender, then back to the hostess.

Vanessa returned after five minutes.

I stood up from my stool and gave her a slight bow. “Welcome back, doll-face! What were we up to…oh yeah, Sammy. How’s he nowadays?”

“Mister Dallas, I do not care for these silly names you call me!”

Anger appeared, then faded from her face. I sat down.

“I apologise for any harm, Vanessa. My intent is only an expression of admiration.” I flashed her a smile. “Did you know that every elegant move you make is like a perfect picture to me? Did you also know I think you have a very graceful and beautiful body, all topped off with an indescribably gorgeous face?” I gave her an even bigger smile. “The names I use are only meant as a term of my admiration.”

She smiled back slowly. “Why, thank you.” She paused a moment and looked at me very carefully. “You know what, Mister Dallas, you do actually remind me of someone I used to know who was in town during the war. In fact, you look very much like him, and he was an American as well.”

“Well, it wasn’t me, though I was in the Cross during the war but I would’ve definitely remembered a princess like you. In fact, how could anybody ever forget a woman such as yourself? The guy must’ve had rocks in his head to have let you go.”

“Bobby was killed fighting the Japanese at Okinawa, Mister Dallas,” she said with a sad glimmer on her face.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Vanessa.”

“So was I.” She slowly tossed her hair to one side. “Incidentally, Mister Dallas, no one ever lets me go – I let them go.”

“Oh, I see, that’s the way it is. A strong-willed woman, hey, who always gets what she wants.”

“Always,” she said, as she gave me a fleeting look of desire.

I sensed there was a lot more to this woman, and I was finding her very attractive. I also sensed the attraction was mutual, as she was trying to work me out.

“You’re beginning to interest me, Dallas – but only vaguely.”

“I’ve got plenty of interests for you, Miss Sentura, believe me.” Big grin. “So tell me about what happened to the Astra and Sammy.”

“I had an idea for a nightclub this town had never seen before. Sammy closed the restaurant and I renovated it. We then reopened this establishment as Siren’s Nightclub, the best nightclub in town. After a time, I bought him out and gave him enough money to retire from working.”

“Well look at you…big girl plans and all! Well, you must’ve really shook the place up to get it all swanked up as you have, and it must’ve cost you a pretty penny to boot!” I looked around. “You arrange all this glitzy décor here, Miss Sentura?”

“Yes, Mister Dallas. Do you like it?”

“A bit flashy for my tastes but you do seem like the flashy type, I guess.”

“Mister Dallas, Siren’s has the best reputation in this town, and it is all because of me,” she said in a lush tone. Vanessa slowly moved in towards me.

She smiled and leaned close to my ear. “Would you like to be in a position to feel the thrill of desire, Mister Dallas?”

“Oh, what did you have in mind?”

“Have you ever experienced a ménage a trois?”

“Pardon me, my little Lady Marmalade? Come again?”

Vanessa stood there with a seductive leer splashed across her face, then moved in again. She gently stroked the side of my face and placed her other hand on to my knee. “No, well, Mister Dallas, maybe I could personally entice the thrill of your desires?”

I leaned back and took a long, cool look at Vanessa. I shook my head with a slight mocking grin. “Hoo-ha! Thanks, Miss Sentura. You surely seem to wear your pleasure like a torch, but you must also think I’m crazy!” I grinned. “A diamond girl like you, who I’m sure, likes to walk on the wild side! And let me just say, I reckon there wouldn’t be anything wrong with your wild side but…I don’t kiss on the first date.”

I sat there and gave her a wink.

Vanessa ignored my humour as she held an impassive look on her face. “I can’t get a hold on you, Dallas? A big man like you, newly arrived in town, aren’t you looking for something you’ve never had before?”

“It’s just Jack and thanks for the offer, Miss Sentura, but I’ll have to take a raincheck tonight, if you don’t mind. Besides, I’m in town on business. Maybe when I’m finished, you and I could parlay.” I smiled, stood up, put my hat on and dropped a coin on the bar.

“Thanks for the coffee, mack.”

I tipped my hat at Vanessa who stood there with her mouth slightly ajar. I turned my back and started to walk across the nightclub, heading for the front doors.

As I strolled away I thought I heard Vanessa sneer, “You’ll be back, Yank.”

I grinned to myself.