The girl’s name was Dear Mama. Mama, as most people called her, was a huge woman, and she ran the entire Jungle with an iron fist. She was Landry and Clooney’s designated top dog and ran the three biggest rackets in prison—drugs, prostitution, and protection. She was the consummate gorilla pimp, who ran her stable of women with sheer brutality and violence. She was considered untouchable, not only because she ran the drug game for the officers, but because was considered the most violent and dangerous inmate the facility had ever had and had spent two thirds of her life behind bars. The battle scars on her face and body told the tale of a survivor in every sense of the word.
“What the fuck is your problem?” Lynn screamed, holding her own.
Mama stood up from the table to intimidate her with her six-foot height and her two-hundred-and-fifty-pound frame. “What the fuck did you say, bitch?”
Vonda jumped in front of Lynn. “You heard what the fuck she said!” Though Vonda was tall, she was small in comparison to Mama.
Mama reached behind her back and pulled out a huge shank. “I’m not that bitch y’all jumped when y’all came up in here. You better ask somebody who the fuck I am.”
The girls saw the huge knife, but held their ground.
Suddenly the girls heard the officers shout, “Ok, break this shit up!” It was Clooney and Landry. Mama quickly passed off the knife to the other inmates, who followed suit.
Landry looked at the floor and saw the mess of food scattered everywhere and asked, “Whose tray is this?” She looked at Lynn’s stained shirt and smiled. “What happened here, sugar?”
Lynn looked at everyone and said, “Nothing, I slipped.”
Officer Landry looked at Mama and knew better and frowned. She shifted her eyes back to Lynn and smiled again and said, “Listen.” She touched her shoulder and said sweetly ,“You pick up your tray and that food off the floor and go to the head of the line and get a fresh tray. Okay, sugar?”
Lynn nodded.
Landry looked at Mama and said, “Watch your ass, Mama.”
Landry walked away and Lynn proceeded to pick up the remains off the floor. As Lynn began walking back to the chow line, Mama said, “Fat, stupid bitch!”
Lynn suddenly snapped, and without warning, she smashed the tray in Mama’s face and began pounding her with it. Vonda, Jessica, and Tiny all dropped their trays and began fighting Mama’s clique, preventing them from jumping Lynn. Mama could only protect her face, because her legs were caught between her seat and the table, and she was unable to fight back or maneuver. Lynn got the best of her before the guards pulled her off and out of the mess hall.
“I’m gonna kill you, bitch! I’m gonna kill you!” Mama yelled, as oatmeal spilled down her face.
For the second time within a month, Lynn was put back into solitary confinement, but this time without her friends. She grinned and laughed hysterically all the way to the box from the mess hall as if she was losing her mind. Vonda, Jessica, and Tiny knew she was losing it, and they also knew at that moment that she would never be the same.
Mama looked at the three girls. “As for you bitches, this shit ain’t over, that’s for damn sure.”
Vonda quickly responded as said, “We right here, we ain’t going anywhere, so bring it!”
This infuriated Mama. She walked straight up to Vonda, ready to tear into her. Vonda threw up her hand, ready for whatever and wasn’t backing down.
Just as they were to come to blows, Landry yelled, “Mama! Mama!” she repeated. Landry walked straight up to Mama and said through gritted teeth, “Goddamn it, Mama, I done told you one time to back off, and I’ll be damned if I tell you twice!” Officer Landry was angry that Mama had ruined her chance of making a play for Lynn that night. Now she would have to wait thirty days till Lynn got out now that she was sent to the box. “Now get a fucking broom and a mop and clean up all this shit off the floor!”
Mama stared her down, but obeyed. She looked at Vonda and her two friends and said, “This ain’t over,” and walked off.
Landry looked at Vonda, Tiny, and Jessica and growled, “As for you three, come with me.” She took them to the back of the kitchen and ordered them on kitchen duty—washing pots for the rest of the day.
By the end of the day the girls was exhausted. They cleaned the pots for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that day and wanted nothing more than to get back to their cells and go to sleep, and that’s exactly what they did. But in the wee hours of the night, Vonda and Jessica were awakened by the screams of a familiar voice—it was Tiny! Officer Clooney didn’t waste any time on his conquest of the tender-loined Tiny. Vonda and Jessica jumped from their bunks and yelled out to Tiny.
“Tiny, what’s going on?” screamed a frantic Vonda.
“They taking me, they taking me!” she screamed. “Help! Help me, Vonda, they—” Her voice was followed by a muffled sound as the girls in the other cells started cheering.
“Oh, shit. They got the new one.”
“It’s gonna be some smooth fuckin’ tonight.”
“Clooney’s horny again.”
Jessica and Vonda screamed out for Tiny, but there was nothing any of them could do. Their faces stayed pressed against the bars, crying for their fallen friend.
Three hours later and still awake, Jessica and Vonda heard the opening of a cell door, then the faint sound of a body hitting the bunk. Softly, Vonda called out her name, but there was no answer. She called again and again and still, no answer. It wasn’t until six o’clock that morning did the cell open up and almost simultaneously, Vonda and Jessica jumped out and ran to Tiny’s cell. When they got there, they gasped as she lay half naked and passed out, bleeding from her vagina and anus.
Tiny had been brutally raped that early morning, and it would not be her last. The worst part about it was that there was nothing any of them could do about, and it killed Vonda to be so powerless—she couldn’t save her. Clooney took such a liking to Tiny that she became his personal sex slave every night. She was put on untouchable status, and inmates knew that Tiny was protected and not to be touched. Tiny became like a zombie and stopped fighting and resisting. She found it easier to let him have his way with her. She did have one perk, and that was all the drugs she wanted. First he supplied her with her drug of choice, marijuana. But after a while, the marijuana no longer did the trick for her, so he introduced her to something more powerful—heroin—and she instantly fell in love.
Chapter 10
When Lynn finally got out of solitary confinement, Landry didn’t waste any time making her midnight visit to Lynn’s cell. At first Lynn would fight and resist the rapes by Landry, but over time it wasn’t any hollering, wasn’t any screaming, nor was there any crying. When Lynn passed by her friends cell she was as calm and serene as the morning was blue, and she nodded to her friends that she was in fact all right. After a while, they sat down to eat breakfast without a word being mentioned from either Lynn or the other girls. It became far too normal for the girls to any longer ask about the incident. Lynn began to enjoy the midnight trysts with Officer Landry and soon began to turn the tables on her rapist.
Lynn was immediately taken under Landry’s wing as she became the property of the officers. Over the coming months, Lynn changed into a person that none of them knew, as her appearance and manners changed from feminine and ladylike to manly and butch. Out of all the girls, Lynn would have been least likely to turn into a dyke because she was always sensitive about her hair, nails, and appearance. This was the primary reason they were always late for school; she had to have her entire appearance in order before she came outdoors. Then one day she came out of her cell and her hair was cut off into a short close cropped afro. She became all into the “life” as she called it, and began having relationships with more and more other girls in the prison in addition to Landry. There was no turning back for her.
**********
Over next few months, Mama kept good on her promise and fought and harassed the girls every chance sh
e got. She began to hate them with a passion. But the Get ’Em Girls refused to be intimidated and began arming themselves with homemade weapons as well. By this time, the house was beginning to split into two groups: Mama and her crew and Vonda and hers, neither crews backing down an inch. Because Vonda, Jessica, Tiny, and Lynn had stood up to Mama, other girls began to choose sides because it was only a matter of time that someone would have to die in this situation. Vonda and Jessica became their unofficial leaders. Vonda and Jessica also knew that something had to be done and soon, if they wanted to live because word around the cell block was that Mama had already hatched a plan to kill them and that bets were being taken.
**********
Kenny would write Jessica often, and she would write him back just the same, until one day Jessica received news that would rock her whole world. Her father had died of a massive heart attack.
The State allowed Jessica to attend his funeral and since then Jessica had turned cold. She felt responsible in some ways for her father’s death, and from that moment on she no longer cared about life as she knew it. No longer would she accept mail sent to her from her family or Kenny. She decided to leave the outside world behind her and finish her term so she could survive. After a while, her biggest supporter on the outside, Kenny, no longer wrote her letters, after she no longer responded back to him.
**********
Tiny turned into a full-fledged junkie and began to stray off and hang out more and more with other addicts as they scored their dope and used together. Above all, Tiny was still part of the crew and ate every breakfast, lunch, and dinner with them and was right there with them whenever there was a beef. She resented Officer Clooney with a passion as he continued to use her as his personal sex slave. He got off because of her childlike body, and he too, became smitten by her and began to develop feelings for her. Any time she resisted he would threaten to cut her off of her drug supply, so she would submit to all his sexual whims.
Lynn no longer hid the fact that she was gay and hung around other butches and femmes that she took on as lovers. Officer Landry resented the fact that Lynn had gone off on her own, since she was the one to turn her out, and made her life miserable.
In addition to learning about the death threats, Jessica and Vonda learned of the entire operation Mama had from the drugs, prostitution, and protection. Vonda became obsessed and paranoid about the death threats and Mama’s operation and decided it was time to make her move. She called a meeting with the three girls.
**********
Recreation Room - Evening
The four girls sat around the table and pretended to be just playing some spades. They talked loudly as if they were going to kick each other’s asses in the game just to throw Mama and her crew off their scent. After an hour passed, and they were sure that no one was interested, Vonda began to lay out her plan.
“Everybody knows that Mama is gonna be gunning for us real soon,” she said as she threw down a card.
Everyone nodded and continued to play their hands.
“One of my girls that fuck with Mama’s number two in charge told me that they going after you first, Vonda, and that it will be this week,” Lynn mumbled, as she picked up and shuffled the cards.
Jessica spoke next. “So what we going to do about it?”
“What do you think? We gonna have to take that bitch out, that’s what we going to do,” Lynn quickly answered as she passed out the cards.
No one questioned her and knew they had no other choice. A death warrant was issued.
Tiny spoke next and asked, “Why not take them all out?”
There was an eerie silence as they looked at Tiny.
Vonda answered, “We don’t have to take out her whole crew, Tiny. Slay the head, the body will follow.”
Tiny looked up from her cards and she had a blank gaze as if she was looking through them.“I’m not talking about them.”
The rest of the girls were confused until Tiny gestured with her head behind them. Officer Clooney and Officer Landry had just walked in for their evening shift. They turned around and looked to see if Tiny was joking.
“Tiny,” Jessica chuckled and said in a whisper, “you can’t be serious. We can’t kill no cop.”
They stared at Tiny for a response, but none came. There wasn’t a smile on her face—she was deadly serious.
“This bitch is sniffing too much dope,” said Lynn.
“Yeah, least I ain’t eating no pussy,” countered Tiny.
Vonda quickly squashed the beef before it got started and asked Tiny, “Come on, Tiny. I know you twisted about that shit Clooney do to you, but that nigga is a fuckin’ cop. Nobody kill cops.” Vonda stared into Tiny’s eyes to see if she got the point, but Tiny wasn’t backing down.
“Fuck that! You ain’t the one he fuckin’ raping, Vonda!” Her eyes began to water. “Do you know what he makes me do? Do you know how that shit makes me feel to have this white motherfucker fuck me in my ass? Kissing me with his nasty, stinking tongue down my throat when he on top of me? I hate that shit! ” Her eyes pleaded for them to understand what she was going through. “I know y’all have eyes. Don’t you see what I turned into? A motherfucking junkie, that’s what the fuck I am. An eighteen-year-old junkie, and I’m fucked up for the rest of my life and that motherfucker turned me into one!”
The three girls remained silent.
“I just don’t know if I can take it much longer, I just don’t know.”
The girls felt torn and hadn’t a clue on how to answer her.
“Sometimes at night,” Tiny admitted as she wiped the tears from her eyes, “I just feel like tying my sheets to the gate and just ending all this bullshit now before my mother sees what I turned into. ” She no longer could control her tears, and Jessica stood up and put her arms around her and Tiny reciprocated.
Jessica lips turned into a sneer and she said, “She’s right, all them fuckers got to go.” Jessica shifted her focus back to Vonda and Lynn. “And I got just the plan for all their asses.”
She looked at Tiny and said, “In order for me to do this, Tiny, I’m gonna need your help, so you got to be strong, ok?” Jessica caressed her hair and she nodded.
“Good,” said Jessica. “Now let’s get busy.”
Chapter 11
Lynn worked in the mess hall, compliments of Officer Landry. The very next morning she started her shift at 4:30 AM, went straight to the rear of the kitchen, hopped on the table, and used a rolling pin to smash the ceiling light bulbs. She looked over her shoulder and paused to see if anyone was coming. Satisfied that no one had heard it she leap down and used a broom to clean up the mess and kept the larger shards of glass. After cleaning up and disposing of the ruins on the floor, Lynn found an apron and put the remaining glass in it and began folding it. She then took the rolling pin and began to roll and pound the apron. She repeated this process till she was satisfied that the glass was minuscule enough that the naked eye couldn’t see it—almost crystallized.
She had more than enough to get the job done, so she exited the back room. On the way out she spoke to each and every one of the girls who would be on the chow line serving that day, who happened to be part of her clique, and set the final piece of the puzzle in place.
Like clockwork, Mama and her clique came into the mess hall at 6AM on the dot, loud and obnoxious as usual. Shortly after they came into the mess hall, Jessica, Vonda, and Tiny entered behind them. When they spotted Lynn who was serving the bread, she gestured with a slight nod that everything was in place and they nodded back.
As Mama and her crew moved down the chow line, they threatened each girl who was serving for larger portions. They were now close enough to count Mama’s position and it was then that one of the girls on the chow line began to unravel the apron that held the crystallized glass and stealthily poured all of it into the oatmeal and began mixing it in. Lynn watched the girl’s every move as she mixed it into Mama’s food. The server looked at Lynn, whose eyes was now
widened, and mouthed the words, “I said half.”
The server shrugged her shoulders as if there was nothing she could do now.
When Mama got up to the girl she was handed her tray. Mama looked down at the tray and sneered, “You think I’m stupid?”
Lynn, Tiny, Jessica, Vonda, and the girl who served her the food held their breaths.
“I saw you gave everybody else more than me. Give me some more.”
The girl breathed again, smiled, then said, “No problem, Mama,” and served her an extra portion of oatmeal on her tray.
The girls sat back and watched their victim eat and chat with her friends as if she didn’t have a care in the world. But, soon, very soon, the broken and crystallized glass would be slowly traveling down her esophagus, through her small and large intestines, slicing the lining of each, making millions of tiny incisions as she began to bleed inward. Then finally, because of all the holes, acid and bile from her intestines would cause the hole to rupture even more and she’d begin to bleed outwardly from her mouth, ears and eyes, until finally she would die from choking on her own blood.
Mama turned around from her table and saw the four girls staring at her and stuck out her middle finger at them.
Mama skipped lunch that day, and by dinnertime she was sweating profusely and asked the officer on duty if she could see a doctor. It was then that the officer see blood coming from her ears and rushed her to the infirmary, but by then it was too late. Unfortunately for the rest of her crew, it would be the last time anyone would see the infamous Dear Mama ever again.
Jessica, Lynn, and Tiny wasted no time putting the second phase of their plan in action as they stood guard outside of Dear Mama’s cell while Vonda frantically searched it. When she found what she was looking for she exited the cell and all the girls walked off unseen in different directions.
Harlem Girl Lost 2 Page 9
