Oldest Portland Strip Joint(Photo)
Bill is lying. It is a sin.
Bill encounters two favorite things. He walks up to the bus stop to wait for the 44. On the corner, a young man and an old man in suits and ties stand beside each other displaying Watchtower and Awake magazines at their chest. It's Downtown Portland. Bill's had his 2 breakfasts, one at Blanchet House, one at the Mission. Bill accepts a pair of magazines from the Japanese woman, who comes up to Bill with outstretched hand, and passes on behind him silently. A third Witness in street work. The 44 is one of the buses up the street, Bill doesn't know it.
The other favorite thing is closed, now. 2 weeks. The Bikini Coffee Company, where bikini clad good looking girls in tennis shoes and sandals would sell coffee and hot chocolate to anyone walking into their small shop on Fifth. Bill was an occasional customer. Both the coffee and hot chocolate were worth the admission price.
The girls at Hawthorne Strip lie. But the customers come anyway, not many of late, no one has money. They take their clothes off and pretend they will have sex. Instant familiarity. They join you at the bar, between dances and pretend to be interested in your day, in your life, to convince you a $20 lap dance is going to bring you pleasure. To pretend is to lie.
Bill lies when he is baptized by the man in the white t-shirt in the pool at the hotel in LA. He lies to himself, to his parents, to anyone that knows him. He wasn't ready, he rushed into it.
Revanche is not about a murder, nor is it a mystery. It is a study in lying. Tamara is a prostitute in Vienna. Her lover, Alex works for her boss as gofer. When asked by her boss, if she has a boyfriend, Tamara says no. He wants to set her up in an apartment, no more full time at the brothel to service exclusive clients. He says she may choose to do so, but he lies. She's killed accidentally during a botched robbery with her boyfriend, the proceeds to pay for their life away from the boss. Alex hides at his Grandfather's farm. The neighbor is the police officer, who accidentally killed Tamara. The policeman’s wife wants a child, he cannot bear one, she seduces Alex. After she conceives she's made to know who Alex is and that he always knew about her husband.
Bill catches himself in a lie, now and then, when honesty strikes him. Is lying mature? Why do we lie?
"Why don't you go to a shelter, you don't like shelters?" asks Sia. Bill's having trouble landing, he cannot find an airport or a suitable strip of land. And he's afraid he will land among cannibals. They will emerge and swarm and drag Bill to Hell. "All you need is a friend.", Dawna, 1998, September. Rod and Dawna have been in Alaska 8 years.
Bill's answer is not religion or God or JW's. Or drugs or psycho-therapy. Or maybe it is. Maybe Fate doesn't like Bill.
