Shocking Exposé! Secrets Revealed!

by Carol Queen

Whenever Abby traveled, she bought books. It was somehow more exciting to discover an interesting book when she was far from home, even the same exact book she might find in a bookstore in her own town.

Maybe when most people thought of San Francisco, they thought of sea air at bayside or delicious scents wafting out of North Beach cafés. But Abby thought about the mysterious mustiness of vintage bookstores or the clean-page smell of big bookstores like City Lights and Modern Times.

She was three stores into her shopping trip today—or, as she secretly liked to think of it, her “literary orgy.” She visited at least a couple of favorites each time she came to San Francisco and tried to find at least one or two new bookshops to explore. She might manage to hit six or eight stores today if she timed it right, and then tomorrow she’d head home—clutching a cloth bag of treasures or lugging a box.

She’d only found one purchase so far, but it was a gem—in a tiny, dusty nook of a bookshop on Polk Street, she’d found an old picture book of strippers and burlesque queens. No photo in it was newer than about 1965, and some went all the way back to the turn of the twentieth century, where the women wore body stockings to create the illusion that they were nude.

What a find! Abby loved books best when they transported her somewhere else, and with this one, she didn’t have to imagine the dancing girls with their sequins and huge feather fans—they were right there before her! She found the closest coffeehouse and sat dreamily sipping a cappuccino, carefully turning pages. She’d never been to a strip club, but the filmy outfits and racy high heels fascinated her. Look at this one, she thought. If my grandmother had been a burlesque dancer, she might have looked like this. Or what if she herself had been born in another era? That might have been Abby herself on stage, opening for beautiful blonde Lili St. Cyr.