The Savage Detectives

Ian Bargman. Kingston Arms, Cambridge. United Kingdom. February 27, 2009.

Aren’t you deejaying tonight? I asked him. He played some nice songs not played by other deejays don’t play. He merely shrugged and smiled in response before going back to the dance floor with yet another girl. He wasn’t the talkative type. Friendly usually, but he could go on for an hour or more without talking to anyone in the club. I suppose with loud music this club is not the best place for a conversation. Even with his circle of close friends he did not seem to speak very much.

Now that I think of it, most of his friends in the club had moved away by then. There was that French boy and the Peruvian boy, who had been gone for a year or more by then. I think those three sometimes called themselves the San Miguel Gang. It must have been an inside joke – their drink of choice at the club, I think. Not my choice for beer by the way. For a while, they were the new cool kids – along with several Asian kids, who hung around with them. And that Swedish girl Mimi; she was a big part of that group too.

Mimi. This reminds me. She wasn’t the first Mimi around. There was another Mimi, who caused a lot of stir while she was around. Compared to her, this Mimi hardly caused a ripple. I suppose I have been around for a very long time. I was here when Vishal was deejaying the biggest night in the Catholic parish on Friday nights – before Ivan and the first Mimi came onto the scene here. Ah. Those were different days. I still remember Vishal and his helpers hauling in and out of the church hall those big speakers and mixers every week.

I guess that makes me an old-timer. Are you wondering if I dance well having been around so many years? I don’t want to brag, but I like to think I can hold my own. I won’t say I am one of those with hundreds of moves like some of the boys seem to be able to do within a year or two. I like to think that experience counts for something though. I dance with those kids now and then too, and I don’t think they begrudge me for asking for a dance now and then. I enjoy myself – that’s the most important thing anyhow.

Speaking of Mimi, she came back one night not far from that night. Maybe it was a week before that night. Yes, I remember him dancing with Mimi that night. She was dancing mostly with us old-timers, but he was one of the few, who did not know her from the old times, to dance with her. It’s not surprising since he seemed to revel in dancing with new people. Not everyone here is like that. I don’t remember much about that dance – it must not have been especially memorable. I think Mimi looked like she was enjoying it, but doesn’t she look that way most of the time?

What does Mimi look like? She is beautiful, dark-haired, long and slender. Not quite as long as Nina of course – now she had breathtakingly long legs. Wasn’t she a fiction writer? Gorgeous dancer too – she brought the best out of Ivan, who was the new hotshot back in the days. Now that I think of it, so many of those girls were very beautiful. Perhaps at my age, all those young girls look beautiful – especially those tall slender ones. No, I don’t mean to say the short ones are not beautiful. There was that Asian girl – from Germany I believe. She was the best.

Unlike the other girls I talked about, the German girl was still around coming to club more often than not when the university was in session. It was about a month before he left for America - less than two months in any case. By that time, she was one of very few people really friendly with him - her and that short kid from Singapore. Did I mention that he was not particularly talkative? In any case, I think those two probably talked with him as much as any other people at the club – along with Vishal, of course.

I knew everyone there pretty well, but Vishal is a special case. After all we go way back together. We started this dance at about the same time. Vishal of course has an entirely different personality compared to him. For one thing Vishal is very talkative and gregarious. After all this is people business, and sociability or at least acting friendly with everyone is very important for success in running places like this. You have to be able to provide grease – smooth things between people and keep everyone happy.

I think it was about a year after he first showed up at the club when Vishal had to intervene because of that blog business. Funny isn’t it? Even now he is defined by that blog more than anything else. There were more than a few people, who were upset when they learned about that blog. I personally thought it was no big deal – well written but not particularly provocative. He was given hard time for quite some time afterwards. Even now some people really don’t like him because of it. Like that girl – well, she stopped coming to the club. Maybe it will change now that he’s gone. She was really beautiful too.

Certainly he was not universally liked. Who is? There was a girl no longer here with a dreamy body. She seemed friendly with him in the beginning, but somewhere along the way their relationship soured. After a while, they even stopped looking at each other. This is such a small place and both of them were about as regular as they come so it was easy to see what’s going on. Actually I think it was she who disliked him more than the other way around; there were a few nights when I saw him looking at her maybe to say something but she would refuse to acknowledge him, and he would never get the nerve to say anything without her turning around.

My personal preference is to stay out of that sort of business. By the way this girl didn’t like me either. A funny thing is I heard that she didn’t like me because she thought I was a bit of a pervert. I say funny because she could be a real coquette while dancing adding little seductive flourishes here and there. Perhaps it’s the difference in age issue. If you are young, you are sexy. If you are old, you are pervert, a deviant. In any case, it is merely an opinion of just one girl among thousands, who visited the club. I happen to know that most women consider me a perfect gentleman.

It was one of those monthly special party nights that Friday, which Vishal had set up with a big-time Salsa promoter in London named Joe Davids. The special attraction was a couple named Sean and Solvita, who had won the London Latinfest dance competition last summer. They had been to Cambridge for the Christmas party last year, and they reprised the Bachata-Salsa combo showcase with a great deal of crowd-pleasing acrobatics. They stayed until very late to social dance with people here. They may have helped to bring some new visitors as well as a few people, who I had not seen in a while – like Serap and Sam.

As the night went on hurtling toward the closing time, it occured to me that Vishal may continue to play his music until closing. That was when I asked him the question. This is not to say I did not like Vishal’s music. On the contrary, the way Vishal had been selecting his music has not been all that different lately compared to him. Perhaps his leaving will mark end of an era one some ways (for example, no more of that blog business) but not necessarily in the kind of music getting played. Meanwhile he kept dancing on and on – much more so than I had seen in a very long time and Vishal kept rolling on with surprising selection of song choices.