Darlinghurst Road Read Online Free Page B

earlier, I had a
guy in the club who was causing trouble so I kicked him out.
    The guy didn't want to quit and kept coming
back. It was a minor annoyance until he walked in one night and
threatened me. Now, a sex shop is not the kind of business where
one typically calls the police, so consequently, most issues with
problem customers tend to be solved in-house. I told Trevor about
the incident and the next night he came in for a few hours in case
our friend turned back up.
    It was after midnight when he came in and he
was belligerent as ever so we threw him out again but this time we
did it pretty roughly and Trevor made it plain that it was not a
good idea to come back. Angry now, the guy stood out on the street
yelling at the top of his voice “you can't throw me out, I've been
coming here for twenty years and I know all about this place.” He
continued “I know you pay your people cash, no one here pays any
taxes, I work for Social Security, I'm going to call my my friend
at the Tax Office and have this place shut down for not paying tax,
I know your name... it's Trevor.”
    It went on for a few more minutes with his
threats until Trevor finally lost it. He stepped out onto the
street, dragged the guy back into the store and slammed him up
against a wall. Through gritted teeth he said “if anything happens
here in the next few weeks, I'll have you shot you cunt!” Trevor
slammed his fist into the guy's stomach and threw him back out onto
the street. That was the last we heard from him.
    In spite of his seriousness, Trevor could
have a funny side. We had the Fire Marshall come through for an
inspection one day. Trevor and I followed him around the dimly lit
club as he checked for violations. Theoretically, smoking was not
permitted in the building under the fire code but in practice, it
was something virtually impossible to police unless you had someone
walking around constantly. The Fire Marshall stopped, pointed his
flashlight at a pile of cigarette butts on the floor then turned to
us and suggested that he was considering a fine because of the
smoking that was clearly going on. Trevor went on the
defensive.
    “Did you see anyone smoking? I don't think
you can do that unless you actually see someone smoking can
you?”
    “There's nobody in here is there but no, I
don't have to because the evidence is right there on the
floor!”
    “What evidence?”
    “The cigarette butts all over the floor,
look!”
    “Maybe we're seeing two different things
because all I see is evidence of our complying with the law.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “The cigarettes butts are clear evidence that
my employees are doing their jobs. As I understand the code, if the
signs are up, as they are, it's not actually an offense for us to
have someone light a cigarette because we can't control what an
individual does but it is an offense for us not to tell them to put
it out when we see it. You might be able to give them a ticket if
they lit up in front of you, I don't know, but all we can do is to
ask them to put it out, the butts are here because my staff caught
them smoking and asked them to extinguish their cigarette which
they did, on the floor, that makes us in compliance, correct?”
    “I guess, but these are all smoked down,
look.”
    “Well, my employees can't be everywhere at
once, that would be unreasonable, I may have to fight this
one.”
    The Fire Marshall gave up because he wasn't
going to win. Sometimes you have to pick your battles and I could
tell from the glint in Trevor's eye that he was enjoying himself.
Trevor confessed to me later that his real intention was to
distract the Marshall from a broken Exit sign further down, a more
serious offense.
     
    The Flying Bottle
    Amyl Nitrate is a relatively innocuous drug
better known on the street as Rush or Poppers. It's a pungent
liquid, sold in small bottles and very popular in certain sections
of the gay community. The general idea is that when it is inhaled,
it