Exotic Dancers

Exotic dancers or strippers make a living by turning their body into a commodity. The dancing part doesn’t require the lady to have contact with the customer. She is just displaying her naked beauty, and her audience showers her with dollar bills, and occasionally larger denominations. However, the real money maker is the lap dance, where the dancer grinds her body into the groin of the customer, who pays $20.00 and up, depending on the girl and the duration of the dance. Of course while that’s all going on she’s hustling guys for drinks, because if she doesn’t rack up ten, she has to pay the bartender $20.00, and her stage fee is $50.00, along with tipping the DJ. So on a bad night, she could owe the house money, but that seldom happens. Some make initial contact with a John, and connect after hours, at their place, for $100.00 and up for ½ hour.

Strippers tend to take taxis quite a bit, so after a while you get to know them, somewhat. Some are reticent, since they just got off work and are tired, some talk on their cell phone and some carry on a conversation with you. Over the years I’ve driven hundreds of women to the cabaret, home from it and afterwards to, from and round trips to turn a trick.

Brandy was gorgeous, and worked at Stars Cabaret. She took a cab two to four times every day, and always tipped well. She was always friendly and if she didn’t talk, it created an aura that made her presence impossible to ignore without wanting to say something, even if it was stupid. But she would laugh if she was supposed to and always knew exactly what to say to you to put you at ease. One night I picked her up at a bar that she went to, after she got off work early. She was drunk, and she told me a story.

“When I first started dancing it was in Las Vegas,” she told me and continued,” right after I graduated from High School. I used to share a cab with one of the other girls that I lived with, at the time. We lived on the outskirts of town, and she looked really young for her age, like 13 and not 18. One night we took a cab together and the cab driver drove past the turnoff that led to the area that we lived in. When I told him that he passed our turnoff he said, ‘don’t worry I know exactly where I’m taking you girls.’ The other girl carried a hand gun that she had a license for, and she pulled it out, and pressed it against the drivers head. ‘Turn the cab around or I’ll blow your brains out!’ she told him. He immediately stopped and turned the car around. We had him drop us off at the cutoff and walked. When we called the cab office later to tell them, they said that the driver that we described had the night off."

Another time I picked up a dancer at LaDonna’s around 1:00 AM, who was talking on a cell phone from the minute that she got in the cab. After she gave me her destination, she acted as if I weren’t even there, even though she sat up front with me. She was so loud that I couldn’t ignore her if I tried, so I listened to her one way conversation.

“You didn’t hit him again did you?”

“I’m worried about him, he isn’t like all the other kids.”

“I’m going to spend some quality time with him. I know tomorrow I’ll get up early and go for a walk with him before school.”

“Honey, I love you so much, I can’t wait to see you.”

“Why can’t you stay home tonight? I don’t want to be alone.”

“Okay! Fuck you then. Go ahead and leave!”

“My God, what am I going to do?”

When we arrived at her address the meter read $12.60, and she paid me $13.00 in $1.00 bills and told me to keep the change. Jezebel worked all the clubs and turned tricks on the side. She was the consummate hustler, who knew how to exploit her young body for every penny that it was worth. The first time that I drove her she was working at Cheetah’s, but eventually she worked her way up to Stars and even worked at Jiggles up in Portland, once in a while. I’ve been driving her for at least 3 years now, but she is always at a new address. I’ve ascertained that she has a regular boyfriend or husband, I don’t know which, who takes care of the 3 kids who are under 5, when she is working.

One night just about when my shift was over I got a call to the latest address that Jezebel had been living at. When I arrived, she handed me a $50.00 bill and said.

“I want you to wait for me until I come back out. If the fare is any more than what I gave you, I’ll pay you the rest when you get me home. Okay?”

“Okay,” I told her.

After waiting for over half an hour the meter read $32.50, when she returned to the cab and told me to head back to her house. She didn’t say a word on the way back, and the meter was at $41.90, when we arrived, so I handed her $8.00 and she numbly got out of the cab and went into her home.