Still Candy Shopping

by Swinson, Kiki

  Even though I broke a lot of the laws in this city by buying drugs and being a prostitute, I’d welcome the chance to talk to the police. I wasn’t afraid of them. I was afraid of the motherfuckers that roamed this neighborhood. Everyone out here cared about no one but themselves. And since the day I’d been out there, I knew that I was on my own.

  Slim told us that we had fifteen more minutes before we were going in for the night. To be perfectly honest, I was ready to go a long time ago. When he wasn’t looking, Jennifer coped me a couple pills of dope from a guy whose dick she’d sucked earlier. I had ducked behind a building and snorted it in a matter of ten seconds flat, so now I was buzzing and I wanted to relax. I wasn’t in the mood to talk, much less fuck somebody. But when this idiot pulled curbside for some pussy, Slim made me hop in the car with him. I wanted to tell this man that I had herpes or the clap so he could carry his ass, but then I thought about what happened to Paris and decided against it. The men around here were crazy and would kill you over the pettiest things. And in spite of my actions, I really did want to live.

  Now the guy was a fat ol’ black guy with a musty smell. He looked like he was a mechanic or a construction worker because his hands were hard and filthy. The facial hairs on his face looked really bushy and unkempt. I wasn’t feeling him one bit. He had on this old, red greasy baseball cap and a plaid flannel shirt while it was eighty degrees outside. He smiled at me and even though it was pitch black outside I could see his stained teeth. There was no question in my mind that he was a tobacco-chewing loser looking for some cheap fun.

  After I sat down on the passenger seat of his old, beat-up van and told him the prices of my services. he said, “Come on, little lady, it’s a recession out here. Can you give an old man like me a break?”

  I gritted my teeth because not only did this asshole want me to fuck his disgusting ass, he wanted me to give him a discount on top of that. How dare him?

  “Look, man, don’t tell me to give you a break,” I said. “You need to give me one and stop hassling me behind fifty bucks.”

  “Goodness gracious, young lady, you sure drive a hard bargain,” he said and pulled fifty dollars from his wallet. After he handed me the money, I stuffed it inside my bra and climbed in the back of his van so we could get the show on the road.

  In the back of his van this fat fuck instructed me to bend over so he could screw me from the back, and I happily obliged. The less I saw his face, the better off I was. I buried my face into the seat in the rear of his van and allowed that jerk off to do his thing. When I heard him unzip his jeans and slide them down around his ankles, I knew my time was coming and I dreaded it. But I figured the sooner he penetrated me, the sooner he’d be done, and the sooner I could go back to the apartment and finally enjoy the dope I had in my system.

  Finally he pushed himself inside me. He was pretty big, but it felt awful. I remembered when I wasn’t on heroin and I used to love to have sex with my husband. But now it seemed like a chore and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Every junkie around here would say that if sex was banned, they wouldn’t give a fuck. All we cared about was getting high and getting a good meal every now and again.

  As this old dirty man pushed himself in and out of me, he became more and more annoying. “Can you hurry the fuck up, please?” I barked.

  “Shut up, bitch! I paid you my money. Now be quiet so I can concentrate,” he continued and kept boning me.

  I sighed and shook my head. I tried to block out all the noises he made while he was banging me, but I found it very hard. The grunts and insane noises were unbearable.

  “Uhhh . . .” he growled, and then he started pounding me faster. And I knew right then that his nasty ass was about to get his nut.

  “You can’t cum inside me,” I warned me.

  “Shut up, bitch!” he roared as he pounded me a little harder. And after another handful of strokes, he pounded me one last time and then he pulled out his dick and started beating it on the back of my ass. I felt his warm body fluids squirt me on the back of my ass and that truly did it for me. That was the last straw. I abruptly got up.

  “Where the fuck you going?” he whined.

  “It’s over. You’re done and I gotta go,” I snapped.

  After I pulled up my panties and put my skirt back over my ass, I bailed out of that van quicker than he could blink his eyes.

  Before I closed the passenger side door, he climbed back to the front of his van and said, “Hey, wait a minute. Your pussy wasn’t all that good! So can I get some of my money back?” he asked.

  “And your dick wasn’t that good either, and I ain’t complaining. So fuck off, fat boy!” I yelled, and then I slammed the door in his face.

  By the time I got out of the van, everybody was waiting and ready to go. I joined them and we all followed one another back to the apartment.

  The Candy Shop part 2 Kiki Swinson

  It Comes with the Territory

  It was a Friday night, a few minutes after midnight, and the streets were jumping. We were getting a ton of business that night, so Slim was very excited. He was even counting the cars we got in, I guess to keep tabs on how much money we raked in. But unbeknownst to him, Jennifer and I still managed to skim some fat from around the edges. Jennifer had a coke habit and I had a heroin addiction, so we refused to let that bastard get all the money we made with our blood, sweat, and tears.

  Slim had eased up on us somewhat, and he wouldn’t say anything to me or Jennifer about getting high as long as it didn’t stop us from making his money. He did question us about how we got the drugs, but of course we lied to him about a lot of our customers being dope boys from other neighborhoods. We didn’t say which ones, because we had to keep our lies close to our chests.

  On this Friday night while all of us were stacking our money for Slim to take at the end of the night, a black, late model, 745i BMW drove up and parked on the side of the street where Tacora and Sabrina stood. Jennifer and I had to stay back and let one of the others get the customer, because Slim had made a rule that whatever side of the street a driver parked on, the girls standing on that side of the street got that customer.

  As Jennifer and I stood there and admired how nice the car looked, Slim instructed Sabrina to take the customer. Jennifer started talking shit about Sabrina when she approached the car. I knew she was jealous by the comments she was making, but what could I say? Jennifer had become a dear friend to me, so she was entitled to hate if she wanted to. I was there to listen to her, and that was what I did.

  “Do you see this shit?” she asked.

  “What?” I asked, even though I knew what she meant.

  “Do you see that bitch strutting her shit over to that BMW like she’s hot?”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, I see her.”

  Jennifer sucked her teeth. “She ain’t gon’ know what to do with that nigga in that car. That’s why he should’ve pulled up on this side of the street and got with me, because I would’ve had him begging me to come back out here tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said and smiled. But I was really being sarcastic.

  Jennifer was a very sweet young girl, but she took this tricking thing to a whole new level. If she didn’t get the guy with the nicest car, she acted like her whole world was going to fall apart. To me it didn’t matter what kind of car they drove, because at the end of the day, we were providing a service to these bastards in exchange for money. So we knew what to expect from each other. We were fucking streetwalkers, not wifey material, and they knew it. These guys weren’t looking to take us home to meet their parents. I found myself explaining this whole scenario to Jennifer dozens of times, but it just wouldn’t sink in.

  Slim stood a few feet away from the BMW. I watched him as he admired the car. I assumed he pictured himself in the driver’s seat of a vehicle like that one day. And in my opinion, if he kept hustling the way he was, then he’d definitely have the car he wanted.

  Jennifer and I could
n’t hear what Sabrina was saying to the guy, but we knew she was trying to get his money. Finally she got into the car, and we knew she had her sale.

  “That lucky bitch!” Jennifer said. And then before we could blink our eyes, the guy put his car in drive and tried to pull off.

  Slim quickly stepped to the car and yelled, “Where the fuck you think you going?

  The guy yelled back, “I’m police! Get back because she’s under arrest.” And then he sped off.

  Jennifer and I looked at each other in disbelief.

  “What the fuck just happened?” I asked as I watched the car drive farther and farther away. Watching the car as it got smaller and smaller was like watching my chances of getting out of this situation fade away.

  “Yo, Faith and Jennifer, y’all get y’all asses over here right now!” Slim yelled from across the street. He looked like a nervous wreck, but he looked more angry than anything else.

  “I betcha he’s getting ready to tell us we’re closing down shop,” Jennifer said.

  “I’m sure he is,” I replied as we began to proceed across the street.

  As soon as we were face to face with him, he said, “Let’s go.” Jennifer and I both looked at each other. We already knew what time it was. Before we started the walk back to the apartment, he demanded that all of us hand him all the money we’d made for the night. As instructed, we reached into our money stash and pulled out every dollar we made for the entire night. Luckily Jennifer and I had already made our dope purchases for the night, or we would have been knee deep in trouble, because my body would not have lasted that long for my next fix.

  After we gave him all of our money, he made us march down the block like we were in a rush. “Y’all need to walk faster than that,” he said as he looked over his shoulders to see if we were being followed.

  The moment we entered the apartment he really showed his ass. He became really aggressive, so I tried to stay out of his way. I went with my first reaction and headed toward the bedroom. But he stopped me in my tracks and instructed me to take a seat on the couch beside Jennifer and Tacora. Tacora was on the verge of tears when I sat between her and Jennifer. I assumed she was upset about her hanging partner getting arrested. I thought Slim would have asked her what was wrong, but it was apparent that he wasn’t the least bit concerned about her feelings. As he stood before us, we all gave him our undivided attention.

  “I know y’all saw Sabrina get arrested by an undercover police officer for prostitution. Right now my mind is going around in fucking circles, and I can’t figure out what I am going to do.”

  “I know you ain’t gon’ let her sit in jail!” Tacora blurted out as tears fell from her eyes.

  “Did I tell you to open your motherfucking mouth?” he roared.

  “No, but I—” she started to say, but he cut her off in mid sentence.

  He was fuming and I could tell that he was about to get really physical. “Tacora, shut the fuck up! Now if you open your mouth again, I am gonna stuff my fist down your goddamn throat. Do you hear me?”

  She nodded. After he realized that he’d gotten her attention, he continued. “Now I don’t know what happened tonight because it happened so fast. But I do know that we are gonna have to lay low until I can figure out something. Right now the block is hot, so we can’t go back to that spot. We might have to go over to the corner of Okeefe and Goff streets and start with a clean slate. But y’all still gonna have to be careful and make sure y’all ain’t talking to the police. Remember you gotta ask all your customers if he’s the police, and he’s gonna have to answer you whether he wants to or not. I’m thinking Sabrina forgot to ask that nigga in that BMW tonight, because if she had asked him, then she wouldn’t be on her way downtown. As far as getting her out of jail, I’m gon’ send somebody down there to get her, but it ain’t gon’ be tonight ’cause I know I ain’t gon’ be able to find a bondsman out this time of night. But I will make sure I get somebody to bail her out tomorrow. And until she comes back to the apartment, make sure you don’t ask me anything about her, because I’m gonna smack the hell out of you if you do. Do y’all understand?”

  All three of us said yes in unison. When he realized that we completely understood, he dismissed us and gave us the green light to carry our butts to our rooms. While Jennifer and I headed to our bedroom, Tacora headed to hers. The moment we closed our door, we heard Slim join Tacora in her room. Jennifer and I knew what time it was. He saw how vulnerable her dumb ass was, so he was using this opportunity to get his rocks off and ease her mind about her friend. I wished Sabrina could see her sugar daddy now, banging the hell out of her home girl while Sabrina was behind bars rotting.

  It was somewhat quiet in the other room, but we knew what was going on. Jennifer started cracking up about the whole situation. We kept our voices down so neither one of them would be able to hear us. “She is so fucking stupid!” Jennifer said and chuckled softly.

  “Yeah, she’s a class A clown if you ask me.”

  “Yeah, she is, because I swear I couldn’t let a man curse me out one minute and then try to slide in my pussy the next minute. She is fucking whack for that.”

  “She’s young and gullible, Jennifer. What more can we expect from her?”

  “I don’t know, but she’s getting on my fucking nerves with this kissing-ass shit! I wish she would’ve gotten locked up too.”

  “Do you think he’s gonna go get Sabrina out?” I whispered.

  “Can dogs fuck cats?” she asked and chuckled.

  “Not the ones I’ve seen running around Huntersville.”

  “Well there’s your answer.”

  “So why would he tell us that was his plan?”

  “Come on now, Faith, do I have to spell it out? Slim doesn’t give a fuck about no one but himself. When Sabrina got arrested, she took his money with her, which was money he can’t get back. So why would he go out and lose more money when he doesn’t have to?

  “To keep her from giving the cops any information about Paris’s murder.”

  Jennifer hesitated for a moment and looked at me very strangely. “Has it ever occurred to you that he might’ve set up Paris to get killed?” she asked.

  Uncertain as to what to say, I thought for a second, and then I replayed that entire incident over in my head. When I remembered the exact words Paris said before she got in that man’s truck, I looked back at Jennifer and said, “I know you hate Slim’s guts, but I know for a fact that he didn’t have anything to do with Paris’s murder. That guy who shot her was a regular customer of hers. I heard her say that before she walked away from me.”

  “Well that might’ve been true, but I still don’t trust that motherfucker in there. I ain’t gonna put shit past him,” Jennifer said, and then she fixed her blanket so she could get cozy in her bed.

  We talked for a little while longer until I decided to pull out my personal stash of my get-high supply. I had even bummed a needle from one of the junkies out there on the streets, so I was well equipped to get that monkey out of my back.

  The Candy Shop part 2 Kiki Swinson

  I Brought This On Myself

  The very next day Slim roamed in and out of the apartment all day long. I wanted to ask him what the fuck was wrong with him, but I decided against it for fear that I’d get on his bad side, and then he’d have a reason to go upside my head. I watched a little bit of TV in the living room and then I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich to put something on my stomach before I went back into the room to lie down. Jennifer was already in the room lying down. She told me she had a headache, so I decided to leave her alone and I headed back to the living room.

  Tacora was in the other bedroom doing God knew what, but I guess she decided to join me in the living room, because she came prancing out not too long after I had sat on the sofa. I hoped she wasn’t looking for conversation, because I was not in the mood to socialize with her, especially after all the shit I’d been though because of her. She strutted her stinking
ass over to the sofa and took a seat beside me. I pretended to be engrossed in the show that was on cable, but that didn’t matter to her, because she made sure I knew she was in the room.

  “Whatcha watching?” she asked me with that squeaky voice of hers.

  I started to ignore her simple-minded ass because she knew what I was watching. She saw that it was Martin Lawrence and Gina, so she knew it was an old episode of Martin. But I smiled and played her game. “It’s Martin,” I told her.

  “When did that come back on? I used to love that show before they canceled it a few years ago.”

  “Yeah, I used to love it too,” I responded, but didn’t turn my head once to look at her.

  Before she could make more conversation, Slim walked into the apartment, but he didn’t come in alone. He had this pretty young girl with him. I knew right off the bat that he had recruited another victim. Too bad she hadn’t been warned that she was in over her head with that joker, because it was only a matter of time before he flipped the script on her. He was smiling now, but give him another hour or two, and he would be right back to his regular self.

  “Come on in here,” he instructed her as if he was the most gentle man on the face of the earth.

  Listening to him sweet talk this young girl made me want to regurgitate my entire grilled cheese sandwich. He was pouring on his phony ass charm too thick for me, and I wanted to expose him for who he truly was. But Tacora beat me to the punch.