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okay.”
     
    Tamara was
unconvinced and shook her head slowly. “I don’t know how you push
yourself this hard without falling over. I would be asleep on my
feet.”

“Maybe I’m asleep now.” Six-oh-five, time to roll. I pushed back
off the desktop. “I’m good, I promise. If you and your friends are
still coming out tonight ask for me at the VIP door around back. I
never have guests so they should send someone right for me.”
     
    “Leave me your
number. If we end up going out I’ll text you.” Tamara reached for a
pencil as my face flushed.
     
    “Yeah … uh,
just ask for me at the back.”
     
    “What? You
don’t want to give me your number?”
     
    “No, I can’t
give you my number.”
     
    “Why not? Wait,
do you have a girlfriend?”
     
    “What? No,
that’s not it.”
     
    “So
you do have a
girlfriend?”
     
    I ran my hand
down over my face for what seemed the thousandth time that day.
     
    “No girlfriend.
I promise. My cell is … Sorta non-existent at the moment.”
     
    Tamara quirked
her eyebrow. “You broke it?”
     
    “Uhm …”
     
    “How’d you
break it?”
     
    “Didn’t break
it. Well I did break it. But now I don’t have one.”
     
    “Who doesn’t
have a cell phone?”

I showed her both my thumbs and then pointed them directly at my
chest. Hopefully the look on my face came across as funny instead
of embarrassed.
     
    Tamara
leaned away from me with an exaggerated look of disdain. “I don’t
know if we can be friends now. “
    “Cute. Just ask
at the VIP door. I gotta jet.”
     
    She waved and
turned her attention to another staff member with a question as I
turned and walked down the hallway past the basketball court
towards the locker rooms, thankful to get away with a few shreds of
my dignity intact.
     
    How do you not
have a cell phone in this age? When your credit rating with the
phone companies sucks so bad no one’ll give you a contract anymore
is one way.
     
    I used to have
a cell. Several in fact. But when they kept breaking and
malfunctioning on me I got tired of paying reconnection fees and
contract cancellation charges. Cell companies are worse than loan
sharks, I swear to God. They create an environment where you
suddenly feel you can’t live without them and then they nickel and
dime you for every little thing.
     
    Though it’s
damned inconvenient at times not having one.
     
    Stupid phone
companies.
     
    A few feet from
the door to the change room I passed by a group of young native
toughs. Now don’t get out your “Racist Pig” banners on me, I am
just being descriptive. Walking through downtown Winnipeg was tough
to do without running into groups of aboriginal Canadians (happy
now?) congregating in groups. This group was like many others. A
bunch of kids in their mid to late teens wearing three sizes too
big clothing sporting angry and arrogant looks on their faces for
anyone who walked by.
     
    It wasn’t
uncommon to see this group or others like it leaning on the other
young kids who populated the YMCA, trying to intimidate them or
sell drugs or whatever. There’d been at least two occasions where
things got violent when I was nearby and helped to break up
skirmishes.
     
    It was too bad
really. The YMCA strived to provide a safe place for kids of all
ages from all walks of life. And kids like this who can’t see
beyond the rough gang lifestyle they’ve grown up with don’t
understand how they’re perpetuating the cycle by taking a venue
like this and turning it into a haven for crime and
intimidation..
     
    Things like
this make me glad I never got into law enforcement. Too many gray
areas.
     
    A lot of
haughty expressions greeted me as I purposefully walked directly
through their little group, not allowing them to intimidate me.
Heard a couple of them whispering insults behind my back as I
walked past. Whatever. I get called worse by the snobby bitches
waiting in line at Cowboy
Shotz .
     

Chapter 4
     
    “All I need is
a ten