"We stepped inside the building and into the living area behind the shop. I could see that Max was already beginning to drool over Rosie in her next-to-naked outfit. Ooboli was smart enough to know bad news when he saw it and wanted no part of Rosie, the baboon or whatever 'trouble' she was in.
By this time Walter, the baboon, was beginning to take an interest in his new surroundings; the beer in particular." A wave of pain and disgust washed over Louie's face. "That friggin' little bastard baboon!"
"Ooboli attended to the fireplace before he left us for the night and set us up with a nice little blaze; it gets cold in the desert at night. I pulled the curtains closed over the windows on a hunch that Rosie's paranoia was probably justified. We pulled our chairs up in front of the fire and got down to business."
'So, what have you done now, Rosie? Who did you piss off this time and why? No, wait; lemme guess, it's got something to do with your little friend, Walter, here, right?'
'Jeez, Louie; you should go into show business – you're so funny…" She was getting a little steamed with me. "Yeah, that's about the size of it. Wanna hear about it?'
'Might as well find out why I'm gonna be takin' another sleigh ride to hell with you. Fire away, I'm all ears!'
Rosie settled in front of the fire, wrapping Max's jacket around her. After a few moments, she spoke, 'Things are a little messy right now. I got a job belly dancing for this guy, Benny Joseph. What? You know him, Louie?'
'Yeah everybody knows him! The Turk; aka: Benny the Ball. His real name is Aziz ibn Yusuf. How'd you manage to hook up with that sleaze-o?'
'When I blew into town, I was broke. I needed cash and a place to stay. He ran an ad in the Sirocco Times; said he was looking for dancers and entertainers.'
'You? A belly dancer?'
'New York City College; I took a class. Used to do a belly dancing routine when I worked the Crazy Horse Brasilia, in
'
'We'll do the catching up later, OK? Let's just get current. You got anything to warm me up? It's too cold to drink beer.' She handed her bottle to Walter, then she lit two cigarettes; one for her, one for the baboon. 'He can't be trusted with matches, so I gotta light his smokes.' Walter curled up in front of her chair by the fire blowing smoke rings and sipping his beer contentedly.
'All we got is brandy, OK?' She got back to her story once more after a shot straight from the bottle. A real lady.'
'So, this guy, Benny, specializes in doing the entertainment for private parties; you know -- high rollers, big shots, politicos. Dancers, musicians, animal acts, magicians, fire eaters, sword swallowers; we were a regular carnie side show. The Berbers love this kinda stuff.
This was my third week with the troupe. We musta done two dozen shows in that time. The pay was good. I got myself a flat in the hotel near the bus station in Marrakech.
Then…there was the party tonight,' she took a big pull on the bottle, 'for this creepy guy named Tariq. I could see that Benny was really scared of him, he told us to give the show everything we got.
The show was going like clockwork…this Tariq dude was laughing it up with his buddies, having a great time. Then, disaster. The magician, The Amazing Yaqub, was doing his one-on-one with Tariq and Walter. You know, Yaqub and Walter pick the guy's pockets while distracting him with card tricks? For some reason, Walter took off with the guy's Rolex in stead of giving it back at the end of the act. Tariq's bodyguards chased Walter all over the banquet hall, finally into the men's room. He flipped the goons the bird and flushed the 25K Rolex down the toilet. They caught Walter and brought him back to their boss, with the bad news about the watch.
Tariq came dressed for the party like he was a Bedouin Sheik out of Lawrence of Arabia, he's so pissed, he draws this big ass sword. He's gonna cut Walter in half, then he's gonna do the Amazing Yaqub, too.
I couldn't just stand there and watch. In a split second, the fire eater and me went into action. He created a diversion by setting one of the bodyguards on fire. I grabbed Walter, kicked Tariq in the jewels and hopped out the window with Yaqub close behind us. He's half way to
I butted in at this point, 'This is important, Rosie…the guy's name wasn't Gibar ibn Tariq, was it?'
'Yeah, that was it! Benny couldn't stop jabbering about him. That's the guy!'
'Great, the Rock of Gibraltar; that's what they call him. We're all gonna die. Hey, how did you know you'd find me here?'
'You're not the only one with connections, Louie. I got my own network. I been following your movements for over a year. Only time I lost track of you was when you went into the jungle in Quaasiland.'
'Fat lot of good that's gonna do us now. Like I said, we're all dead. This character Tariq is The Enforcer of Marrakech. Nothing goes down, nothing moves unless he knows about it. You don't do business or even say boo unless he gets his cut first. He's a real magician; makes people disappear all the time, permanently. Gets away with it, too. His friends go all the way up to the top of the ladder here. That's who you kicked in the cohones.
Oh, well, let's just call it a night. I'm too tired to even think straight now. Try to get some shut eye, Kid. I'll send Ooboli round to your place to pick up your things in the morning. He knows the concierge. He can get in and out without attracting attention.'
"Needless to say, Hugo; we were up Shit Creek." Louie signaled another round – about time, too. He continued: "Next morning, I sniffed the air to see if Tariq had made the connection between Rosie and me. So far, so good. Nothing at all. I decided to push my luck and carry on business as usual. Word on the street from Ooboli, when he got back from town: Tariq's goons were looking for an American chic with a monkey and he'll pay big bucks to find her. Not so good."
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