with a chilling detail that hit my father cold. One attendee at the dance was interviewed by the police; he stated that a man who was no longer in the crowd remained unaccounted for. The descriptions from some of the partygoers all agreed that he was a very handsome, mustached man dressed all in black. He wore a beautiful black fedora made of silk.
I was now relaying all the new information to my friends as we made our way to the river and up the bank to the dance hall. They were all spellbound by now and hanging on my every word. My friend Tommy asked if the dance hall before us was the site of the event my father had spoken about. I said no to the expressions of disappointment they communicated between them. With all the building materials laid out on the ground, we commenced on constructing the ladder.
Chapter 7
The Grand Ballroom
I was straw-bossing everyone as to the design of the ladder and hurrying them along so we could explore this mystery structure that was so much a part of our lives.
We leaned the ladder against the building beneath the window we decided was the best one through which to gain entrance. Well, mainly because that was the one with a broken window, not broken by any of us I’ll have you know. We had Rene do a test run on the ladder since he was the heaviest of the group. His parents owned a Mexican restaurant, and he never lacked food. He was perfect for testing the weight tolerances. Rene took a couple of steps up, and all was well. He made it to the top and reached in and unlatched the window fixture. One by one, we all made it up the ladder and into the building. This place was way beyond our expectations, grandiose in the splendor of a bygone era long ago gone. The six of us ran around in different directions, exploring all the nooks and crannies. There was a stage where one could envision a big band like Glenn Miller’s pounding out “Tuxedo Junction” to a multitude of dancing couples there on Saturday-night dates. I could imagine many things just standing around, thinking about a past I’d only heard my elders talk about. I guess maybe I was a hopeless romantic beneath all my mischievous ways.
Some of my friends were back behind the stage, exploring the dressing rooms, while some of the others were up in the loge/balcony section, which encircled the floor below. I could envision tables with couples enjoying the festivities as they watched the couples dancing below. Such a grand place with a layer of dust on everything and some old flyers strewn about the whole place.
I made my way to the front of the place where the main entrance was. There was a ticket sales window, an office with its storage area, and what I determined was a coat check stand. Across the way was a larger room that housed an area that I took to be a special dressing room or maybe a small apartment. Everything I explored was totally empty, with the exception of papers littering the floor. I left no stone unturned, no door unopened, or no cash drawer untried. Making my way back toward the other end of the ballroom, my friends were cutting up and carrying on, having a good time. I joined in on the nonsense. The fellas asked me what I saw up front as they slowly headed to where I had just been. I told them nothing but old papers and dust. They needed to have a look-see for themselves, while I went to go explore the back of the stage and dressing rooms. My survey of the entire building was almost complete, and I could feel that all the work was done.
Then the guys had come back to the area where we came in and chatted briefly about the day’s adventure. We all had something to propose about the night that something terrible went down with the young girl’s disappearance. The girl’s body we had found in the river was another set of circumstances that in no way could’ve taken place at this long-ago shuttered-up dance hall. We wanted to know more about the girl who disappeared from this dance hall.
The sun was starting the downward descent in the west, and soon it became clear to us that we should think about getting out of the joint before it became dark and creepy. The windows being whitewashed over allowed less light in than what was available on the outside.
Going out of the building was easier than coming in because the windows were only four feet above the dance floor. We never thought it strange that there was a two-foot difference in the dance floor and outside ground levels. Tommy and Nicky had made it out of the building as I was pushing fat Rene up to the ledge. He couldn’t seem to jump up enough to get his elbow over the sill and hoist his fat ass over the window ledge.
Blackie, Bobby, and I were in the process of deciding who would go next when all of sudden, a very loud slam of something I imagined to be a door made the loudest noise from the front area where the ticket booth was.
“Holy shit! What the fuck was that?” I asked the others. Someone was in the building with us. I came so close to messing my trousers at that moment. I guess that thought scared me just a little more than the thought of being castrated by some perverted demon.
A fear came over each of us guys, and we had to get out as fast as possible. Whoever it was would be coming into view soon, and we knew whoever it was would have violence and fire in its eyes. First, Bobby went up so fast I couldn’t believe it, and he grabbed my hand as I went up next. I waited on the top rung of the ladder for Blackie as he made his way up and out. We grabbed the ladder and hauled our asses out of there. We ran across the river, up the riverbank, and out to the swampy area, hurling the ladder into the tall reeds that surrounded the pond.
As we went back to get our bikes by the riverbank, all the while not taking our eyes off the dance hall ahead, we briefly told the three who went out first of what we heard. They didn’t know whether to believe us or to pass it off as one of our typical pranks. You can pop the clutch while revving your engine in a car, and you will be able to burn rubber or peel out, as it is also called, but not on a bicycle. So would I be stretching the truth to claim that on that day, I was the first guy to peel out on a bicycle? Of course, it was on dirt, but that was no small feat either.
It was dusking up, and it signaled the normal time for us guys to head to our respective homes. We agreed that after dinner, we would meet up in front of the firehouse and go over all the stuff that had happened.
I was starving at this particular dinner. I guess this was because I had burned a ton of calories getting the hell scared out of me and operating on full adrenaline overload. My mom noticed something different too; she noticed that my cockiness was gone and that there was a newfound air of humility radiating off my aura.
It was pork chop night, and I lit in to ’em like an inmate at San Quentin. My ration was two chops normally, which I practically inhaled while asking for another, while licking the grease from my fingertips.
“No more second helpings for you, because the remaining chops are for your brother who has to work late,” my mother reported. I was still hungry. (Lightbulb moment!)
My aunt who lived a block away was a sucker for any of my shenanigans—this because I was her pet—so off I rode to her house. It just so happened that dinner was being served as I arrived, and like all good Mexican aunts, they refuse to accept no for an answer when they invite you to eat. She made the best enchiladas and beans, so of course, I filled the rest of my belly till I felt a swelling in my jeans.
My uncle asked me about the body we had found; he hadn’t seen me since all those events happened and had to get the blow by blow from me. He had read in the newspaper about us boys finding the body and followed the case as it proceeded from day to day. He did add something else I hadn’t known; he also knew the man at the mill whom my father was acquainted with. He had lost touch with that man, just like my father, when the poor guy lost his daughter some seven years ago and moved away. Feeling satisfied and my hunger sated, I bid my aunt and uncle goodbye and thanked them for their hospitality.
Racing over to the firehouse, I rolled up and plopped myself down on the grass, too full to move. Tommy and Rene were there first, due to the fact that they lived across the
