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from Acts of Kindness and Excellence in Times Tables
Mother doesn't know that I have a night job. I dance in a club called The Unicorn. I mostly wear my spidersuit. Sometimes Jack, the manager, tells me to wear heels so I wear heels, or he tells me to wear a wig or a new shade of lipstick or the latest studded bracelets, so I do that too. Jack has good ideas and I like dressing up. I especially like the moment just before the curtains open, when I'm alone on the stage with only a pole and a prop, and the light is centered right on the spider in the centre of my heart, which is really a symbol, and I feel the fire of performance rising in me. It's like a real fire but softer. It starts in my stomach and rumbles there, and makes all my organs hot and then it climbs my body like a ladder until my face is red. It feels really nice, I would even say empowering, and I love it when the curtain opens just as my face reddens, because it spreads that empowerment through the room and sets the warmest mood for the evening.
I get paid minimum wage but I make a lot of tips. And I meet a lot of interesting people. Some of them take me for meals or for drinks after work too, so I save most of my earnings. I've saved up for mother's birthday present. I'm giving her the best present I've ever given her. It's a friendship ring. I found it in the window of the pawnshop that I walk past almost every day. The owner said the ring is antique. I love the design, it has a delicate gold band and a rose carved at the top with a diamond right in the centre of the rose. The rose has two hands reaching towards it from either side. I like that symbol.
Today is a special day, mother.
Oh, it's not that special.
But it's your birthday!
It gets less exciting as you get older, believe me.
But I think it's the most special day in the world.
You're a dear, Larry.
Close your eyes and put your hands out.
What is it?
Close your eyes or you'll ruin the surprise.
What have you done now, you silly boy.
Just close your eyes.
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