Joe and Ruby were lovers; lovers like no other couple on the face of the planet. Joe was a talent scout, while Ruby was a tap-dancer on the local dance circuit. Both Joe & Ruby were a seamless couple and just right for each other that is until the bottom dropped out, but I’m getting ahead of myself.Joe Churchill had been down on his luck like most talent scouts of his ilk, always critiquing, always criticizing, had a list of enemies as long as a city block, yet he knew practically everyone in the entertainment industry.
One night so it went, Joe went drinking at his favorite club on
Jim, the old grizzled master of ceremonies hopped out from behind the curtains and walked over to the center of the stage and yanked down the microphone that was hanging from the ceiling. Jim’s eyes were extremely bloodshot, as were most folks in the nightclub that evening. Seems everyone in the nightclub drank to forget their troubles for a while.
Jim spoke directly into the microphone, slurring his speech slightly. “Ladies and gentlemen; tonight we have a special treat for you,” growled Jim, as the dozen or so patrons looked up from their drinks. “Please give a warm Taxi-Dance welcome to Ruby Martin, the greatest little tap-dancer since Bojangles.”
Almost all of the patrons went back to downing their drinks and chatter, as the curtain rose and out flew Ruby, gliding across the stage with the little tippity-tappity sounds that echoed throughout the nightclub. Ruby danced her way through several routines, shaking her body, most notably, chest and behind.
It was during one of those routines, that Joe just happened to look up from his beer bottle and almost as if he were awakening from a drunken stupor, he took a long gander at Ruby. Ruby was in the midst of a cart wheeling-summersault tapping routine.
For the first time in a long time, Joe’s brain started functioning, as he heard instead of the little tippity-tappity sounds that followed Ruby everywhere she rambled onstage, he heard cha-ching! Dollar signs filled his eyes almost immediately and overflowed like tears streaming down his face.
He had found his wonder-horse, his lottery ticket, his one big chance of making everything that seemed so down and out in the world, come back to his soul and light a fire within him.
After Ruby finished her dance number, she bowed and tippity-tapped her way backstage, to where Joe was waiting for her.
“Hey Ruby, that was some good dancing you did there. Say, how would like to make a little extra dough? No funny business, I mean strictly tap-dancing, your terms your routines; I put you in some great places, you get the recognition, I manage you. Whadda say?”
Ruby, at first kind of shy of the lanky drunken man smelling of alcohol, as she dabbed the sweat off of her shoulders and slipped off her shoes and put on street shoes, looked up at Joe and shrugged her shoulders.
“Gee, mister. I don’t even know you from Adam. How do I know you’re not going to pull a fast one and try to lure me into bed? I know men like you and you’re all the same: wolves,” she snapped.
“Tell you what I’m gonna do, Miss Martin,” he slurred. “Just to prove to you that I’m on the level, I’m gonna treat you like business. No funny stuff, I promise. My word is always on the level, always. If I’m not truthful to you, then I’ll just walk away and forget like we ever met. Deal?”
Ruby just nodded her head, as Joe gave her his card. Call me in a week, I’ll have work for ya,” said Joe.
And that’s exactly what Ruby did. She called Joe a week later and sure enough he did line work up for her. He got her a gig at the Kit-Kit Club on
Then Joe got her a gig at the Top-Hat Club, that as they both found out, would last for three years! Now, Joe was really rolling in the dough, as was Ruby. One night, after a gig at the Top-Hat, Joe and Ruby sat next to each other at the bar, toasting one another to their success.
“See? Didn’t I tell ya Ruby? No funny stuff and look where you ended up? The Top-Hat Club, one of the hottest clubs this side of
“Yes, I guess you were right, Joe,” said Ruby. No funny stuff and look where I am. I think you deserve a little reward.”
And with that, Ruby planted a kiss on his lips. The two went at it and for several minutes were engaged in a good old-fashioned lip-lock. There was no looking back for either.
Ruby gave Joe a look that Joe felt in his heart; he knew he shouldn’t do it, but he thought to himself, what the heck you only live once, as he scooped up Ruby in his arms and carried her piggy-back style back to his apartment and threw her on the bed, then jumped atop her and continued what they were doing previously.
Then Joe looked at Ruby; he had to have her right then and there or it was nothing. Ruby wasn’t complaining when they made love for the first time, exploring each other’s bodies with passion, caution and curiosity. They made love three more times that evening.
Joe couldn’t get enough of her and neither could Ruby get enough of him. They fell in love that night, fell in love hard and fast and remained a strong steady couple, Joe as her manager and Ruby, the little tap-dancer that was fast becoming a hit on the local dance circuit.
Soon, the dough began piling up. Ruby started getting better gigs via Joe. The local press began to notice Ruby, as they raved about her dance stylings in every show she danced in. Then Joe was getting Ruby bigger gigs; the dough was getting bigger and coming in faster than ever before; Ruby was tippity-tapping faster than you could say Jack Robbins!
Joe and Ruby decided to move in together. It just made more sense. Joe had even curbed his drinking and didn’t have a drop for several months, until one night when Joe started in with his old habits; the gambling, the leering, which led to drinking.
Ruby scolded him and made him sleep on the couch that night. It would be the first of several times Ruby would make Joe sleep on the couch. So Joe had nothing better to do, but to jerk off and drink his troubles away, not in that order. He kind of felt Ruby was getting a little big-headed, now that she was a local star. After all, thought Joe to himself, I was the one that discovered her.
He got bold enough one night and told her so. Ruby didn’t take it so well and slapped him silly until Joe backed off. Ruby didn’t appreciate the hard times; after all, they were still partners in crime. It upset Ruby that Joe would even have the nerve to say such a thing and made her think of him in a bad light.
Difficulties began to set in. Joe began making demands on Ruby that she wasn’t about to do; things like talk to the press and when she refused, he would take her place and talk to them for her, telling them the same thing he had thought earlier; that he was the one who discovered her, not the other way around. He began divulging secrets that Ruby didn’t want everyone else to know.
One night Ruby told Joe that she had to go somewhere and she’d be home later. Joe said alright and went home. He waited up for her as she danced her way through the door at 2am, all giggly. Right then and there, Joe demanded to know where she went.
“Hey! You don’t own me,” snapped Ruby. I was hanging out with a bunch of my old dancing friends. You got friends Joe and I don’t complain when you hang out with them, do I? You know the answer is no,” said Ruby. “I have rights too and you’d better respect them or one day I’ll be gone.”
“You go on and do that, you little bitch! See if I care! See, I made you who you are and I can make trouble for you too,” he spat angrily.
And with that, Ruby walked out of the apartment.
Joe didn’t hear from Ruby for two weeks and got worried sick. Then she turned up on morning in the local paper, in the middle of a news-story that linked her up as having an affair with a wealthy playwright, who inked a lengthy contract for her to dance on Broadway, New York, New York, the show built entirely around her.
One grey night when Ruby thought Joe might be asleep, Ruby snuck back into the apartment to gather a few things together in a suitcase and make a beeline back to the playwright’s pad. Joe was waiting for her, as he read her the riot act!
“You stupid bitch! I was the one that made you! You’re mine, goddamnit, mine, all mine. You were always mine to begin with,” he shouted at her in a drunken state.
“Not anymore you’re not. Bye Joe,” she said, as she shoved her way past him.
Joe grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back to the couch. He began laying into her, punching her till she bled like a virgin. “I own you, got it? You are my slave! Got that? My slave, no one else’s,” snapped Joe.
Woozy by all accounts, Ruby slowly rose to her feet and kicked him in the balls, sending Joe into a doubled-over position. Then Ruby slipped on her tap shoes, swung her suitcase in one hand and tippity-tapped her way out of the apartment, down the stairs, down the street and into a waiting world.
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