White Pages
by Kevin FisherPage 2 of 3
So I went to the bar where Mikey hangs out. I had two Molsons waiting for Mikey to finish dancing so I can tell him what happened. But Mikey is dancing with this incrediblybeautiful Korean woman in an antique dress, and blue Pumas. I have a thing for women in antique dresses. It doesn't always work. I've been to nursing homes and I didn't feel a thing.
Mikey can't dance. Because he learned to dance from Brian Ferry videos, he does this self-conscious thing like people are watching him. Finally, I join them and she dances with both of us in that awkward way where one woman orbits with two men. I tell Mikey the story as we all dance. And the first thing Mikey says after I finish is, "So that means you still have the money?"
Mikey leaves me with the girl and we dance. And I know I'm hooked because I have no idea what she looks like since I can't look at her too long. I'm like that. I won't try on clothes I can't afford. She has a copy of Colette in her pocket. They stop the music because some couple's fighting, and she smiles, kisses me on the mouth before I have time to react, and she murmurs, "I'll be back." She isn't. I call home. Mikey picks up on the 20th ring. He can't remember her name, so I have to wait a day or two and I keep asking him until he says "Bailey." And her first name?" "That's her first name." He doesn't know anything about her, or so he says. I start stopping by the bar each night about the same time, but she's never there.
All the Baileys I can Google are nine-years-olds in Utah. I put an ad in the Voice. One of those ads, that can't work. "We danced to Nine Inch Nails, and you were reading Colette. Please call... Small reward." I get fifteen calls the first day, and ten the next. None of them sound remotely like her. None of them are called Bailey. Mikey starts calling them back and asking them out. I come home now and Mikey's always on the phone speaking French.
I should be studying after I finish cleaning, but I find myself at the bar going through a white pages I found there for the name Bailey. I actually make it through in a week but I don't see her name because I skim. So I decide to start again by crossing off the names. This takes longer, but after a few weeks I find a Bailey in the "M"s. Downtown. I don't tell Mikey. Mikey's always at the bar anyway now sitting with one of the Colettes.
I don't call Bailey because I don't have success with calling. I have success with a clean shirt and surprise. Dropping by. It has to be in the daytime too. A surprise visit at night is just creepy. I wait till Saturday. And she's not home. I try again on a weekday. I break down and start calling. She's never home. And since I'm convinced she's going to forget who I am, I leave a message.
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