Shit N it’s the acid you just aren’t down yet: she is quiet: she She says, I see something big and black crawling on you: I say, Sprawls out on the mattress, I sit across the room: suddenly Giving out, tired: we are on our way home: we get home: she The sun burns: we walk: we pick up what we can: bodies are Walked a hundred miles in the city and rolled in the sewers: Hustle, no sleep: the last night we took acid for R & R : we We have been going four days straight: drink, speed, fuck, We drink as much as we can as often as we can: shot at a time We pick up tricks as fast as we can find them. We never sleep at the same time: one of us always has a knife. It isīitter: school chums: rich school chums: keep N out of jail.Ī is gone from this time on. To want to be that close: they help a little: they eat while weīeg for coffee with hungry eyes: sometimes we get coffee. Near us: but we are too used, too disreputable now, for them No more timidities.Įspecially we try to borrow money, because we need it fast:įrom old school chums: it brings rich women back near us: NĬould have gotten away, she chatted with the police for a whileīefore they realized anything was wrong: but didn’t: wouldn’t The boutique, it turns out, belonged to a former lover of his,Īnd she is pissed. Money to raise: have to get back to business. All this happens before I give a thought toĪ. Prosecutor: he demands $2, 000 but she won’t do six months, Me when I was in jail: she calls a lawyer who used to be a I go to them one after another: I call up everyone for money: I Strip-searched and raped by hands, by speculums, by doctors,īy police, by prisoners. The maze of jails and holding cells and end up there, to be Bail is set at $500Īnd there are two hours before she will arrive there, go through This night, not ever, I will not have her there. She will not have to go to that prison, not Legal-Aid lawyer comes over to me, N has pointed me out:ĭon’t worry, he says, she will only do six months. Others wear heavy, shiny makeup and high-heeled shoes. Miniskirts and bare shoulders and nearly bare chests. The others are mostly black with bouffant hairdos and vinyl The head of this awful room where she waits with the others. She is exhausted by now, but she can’t sit still, even at Rubbed it back and forth, rubbing off sweat or as a nervous How many times she has rubbed her hand across her head, Hookers and N, her scarf too high on her forehead, marking Hard: after an hour or so, a group of women is brought out: Of justice are wide and dreary, the benches are wooden and Night court is interminably dreary and hopeless. N is on her way to the Women’s House ofĭetention. I willīe with poor R who does not know this is happening. N has some tools in a bag embossed with her last He and N are going to rob a store: a boutique to be I am going to stay with R, not toīe alone and to be near a phone. Movement, mostly examining herself, much motion to little Her eyes are lined with black, there are deep,ĭark circles under them. She isĬarefully dressed: flare pants, a silk blouse A has bought for N has on her most flamboyant scarf, like a headband. I thought because he was a junkie he would want money. The next time you come, he says, you be sure you remember Prescription now, he says, and give it to you now, he says, but In the office there is a desk with aĬhair behind it and an examining table, the one I am sitting Says, but the next time you come you understand what I wantĭon’t you? I stare at him. I am going to give you the prescription, he
He rubs his hands all over my bare skin and all over myĬlothes. He rubs his hands up and down my arms and all over myīreasts and my neck and up and down my legs, between my He is sweatyĭespite the air conditioning and old and pale yellow and fat.