My Asian Dragon

Joy shivered at the thought, and gave Luana a reassuring smile. “You’ll do fine. You’re a much better singer than I am.”

Luana laughed softly, her almond shaped eyes rolling. “We both know they don’t care at all about how well we sing.”

The manager stuck his head backstage, his normal flow of yammer breaking up their conversation. Joy made her way to the back, through the kitchen where she was able to grab a drink of water. The back door was open, allowing at least a hint of fresh night air, even if it was redolent with the stench of the garbage in the alley. Still, for Joy is was ambrosia compared to the tobacco, alcohol, and sweat stench of the club itself.

She was just gathering herself to come back inside when Longwei stepped out, supposedly taking his ten minute break he was allowed every shift. The club owner was generous, and Longwei had a small bowl of rice and fried pork in his hand. Joy smiled. “So, what did you think of my set?”

“As usual, I wish I could have been in the crowd,” Longwei quietly replied, eating quickly. “Will you do the same songs for the later set?”

“No,” Joy replied. “From what I think the manager told me, the Boss is coming in tonight, and he wants sexier music, is what he said. I’m going with some really raunchy stuff from my youth and college days. Pure filth, but for some reason they were songs people bought a lot of.”

“I shall look forward to hearing it.”

Changing the subject, Joy looked inside quickly. “How are things at home?”

Longwei shrugged. He had to be surreptitious, going back and forth to the village on almost a daily basis, slipping into dragon mode to make the journey possible, where he could cover the distance from the village to Heifei in just under an hour. He was exhausted, and Joy could see it in his face. “Yingtai is doing better. Your medicines are helping. The Triad is still being held until we know what to do with him.”

“Do the elders still want to have him killed?” Joy asked. It was one of the most contentious parts of the plan, and Joy was glad that Longwei had finally gotten the elders to promise not to harm the man until they had gotten more information. Joy thought that, more than the supposed reason of checking on the day to day operations of the village, was why he went back so often.

“Yes, but they are abiding by the agreement,” Longwei said tiredly. “By the way, the children miss you. Ming specifically asked me to inquire if you are keeping up on your Chinese studies.”

Joy chuckled at the innocent persistence of the girl, and nodded. “Yes, but I doubt she’ll like some of the words I’ve picked up from the Triads around here.”

Longwei grimaced and nodded. “Yeah.”

Joy glanced inside, and saw the manager looking around in the back. “Well, there’s the manager. Let me get inside before he starts wondering. Can you stop by my place later?”

“You know that’s dangerous.”

“Being without you is worse,” Joy said softly. Longwei looked her in the eye for a moment, and nodded, causing her to smile. “See you later.”

Stepping inside, she headed straight for the manager, who was babbling. “Listen Joe,” she said, using her own chosen name for the man, “you need to slow the hell down before I can understand what you want. One more time?”

The manager repeated himself a bit more slowly, and Joy went with what she thought was the information he wanted. “Yeah, the new playlist. Give me five minutes to write it down, and you can start downloading it quickly. It’s not that damn hard.”

*****

The Boss of Heifei was a bulky man, one of the few truly fat Chinese, Joy had seen in this part of the country, with a greasy pompadour on his head that looked like he was trying to be an extra in a 1960’s Elvis movie. As soon as he came in the door, she could sense a palpable change in the atmosphere of the club, as the minor flunkies all straightened up a little bit, and their posturing took on a servile quality to the enormous man. He settled himself into a table in front of the stage, and Joy watched as three of the so-called “hostesses” immediately scampered over to sit with him, one of them on his lap. The man’s hand went to the poor girl’s hip immediately, his smile revealing rotten, blackened teeth. Joy felt her gorge rise, as she knew she would have to at least get within talking distance of this pig of a man.

Luana was doing her second set, finishing up one song early as the manager cut her off. Coming back stage, she gave Joy a sad smile. “Good luck,” she said, and Joy could tell that the girl was truly glad not to be the center of the Boss’ attention. It concerned her, as she knew how desperate Luana was for money to send back home.

Stepping on stage, Joy tried her mental trick of imagining Longwei, but it wasn’t working. Even from two meters away, the fetid blend of powerful cologne and body odor wafted off the man, and she desperately wanted to gag. She knew to do so was dangerous, so she fought it down, and instead fell into another role. Setting her face into a mask, she felt herself split into two personalities, the outer personality that was grinding and moaning to the sounds of Adina Howard and TLC, while on the inside she was sitting back, laughing at the obvious way she was playing the man. She could see the bas*ard lick his lips, his eyes glistening with lust as she cavorted and playacted, pretending she was performing just for him. Part of her realized she was, but not in the intent he thought. She was intentionally playing him, and she realized the intoxicating power she wielded in her hands and voice. When the last notes faded away, the Boss was totally under her control it seemed, as he pushed the poor girl who had been in his lap off, standing up and applauding.