EXPOSURE

FICTION

Dee Raymond

If it had been possible for a "cub" reporter to refuse an assign- ment, Eddie McIntyre would have refused this one. But, when Frank Gentile, the entertainment and features chief, gave what he thought was a good assignment to the Tribune's most junior reporter, refusal was not one of Eddie's options. He stood on the sidewalk outside the Cafe LaDonna, looking gloomily at the colored pictures in the wall showcase. Above the glass, a simple label, "Appearing Tonight," headed the photographs of "The Fabulous Lola Levine." Cover the act, had been Gentile's words, interview Lola and make sure he had enough for three paragraphs in the Saturday Entertainment and Night Club Review. A simple assignment with a byline for McIntyre.

McIntyre looked at the pictures closely. Lola's long golden hair topped an extraordinarily curvaceous figure, all the more extra- ordinary considering that Lola was, in fact, a man- a female imper- sonator. With an expression of distaste on his face, Eddie analyzed the photographs. Lola, in fishnet stockings and long, black strapless even- ing dress was shown singing into a microphone. She had shed the gown by the last photograph and was standing, posed, legs wide apart, bending forward to show an exaggerated cleavage, her mouth formed into a small "o" In each photograph, she wore impossibly high-heeled black patent leather shoes. Her fringed panties and tasselled bra in- dicated, to Eddie, that the man he would have to interview would sure- ly be just like the simpering, homosexual queens who festooned the main entertainment streets of the city in their ruffled shirts and fringed jeans.

Eddie circled the club to the side door. An older, grey-haired man sat in a small, glass-walled office inside the door reading a dog-earred copy of Variety. "Whatya want?" he sniffed, not looking up.

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