Chapter 7

Most of the drive into the city was made with Ty talking, Lee driving, and me gazing out the window. My thoughts were a total mess. I felt halfway between kidnapped and stolen, halfway between relieved and terrified. Aside from leaving his hand on my thigh and occasionally giving me a squeeze, Ty hardly acknowledged my presence. He asked me few questions but talked mostly with Lee or with people on his cell phone. This gave me time to consider my predicament.

I had no idea what these men were going to do with me except that they had mentioned making sure I was home no later than 9pm. That, at least, was reassuring. What they did with me between now and then was the big mystery. I was pretty sure I would be having sex with either one or both of them. That didn't really bother me. Sure, I wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but I figured that if that's all that happened I would end the day on top.

I was no longer a slave. I was free to be myself again. At one point during the drive I even thought about showing my Book of Sins to Father DeGrazia the next day so that I could ask for absolution for all the terrible things I'd been doing recently. I don't think I ever considered this too seriously, but I distinctly recall the thought entering my head.

Being freed from Daniel was like popping a balloon. Over the last several weeks I had been blown up with ideas and convictions that I really was his property, that I really was at his mercy. Having Ty and Lee so easily take me from him, though, was like having a needle instantly blow all those ideas and convictions out of me. I realized during the drive that Daniel's hold on me had been all smoke and mirrors. He'd never really been my master. I'd simply allowed myself to be his slave. Now, because of Ty and Lee, I was free.

When the large Cadillac pulled off the freeway and began making its way through the streets of a rather run-down area of Cleveland I began to think of the men as my saviors. Sure, they'd probably want to have sex with me before the day was through. And yes, I was smart enough to realize they might want more than just sex. But my immature mind decided they deserved whatever they wanted. They'd earned it. I began to think of them as my liberators and by the time we pulled onto Fourth Street I even began to relax and come out of my daze.

"None of these motherfuckers is answering their phones," Ty complained as he stared at his cell. "Where's everyone at?"

"Think there's something goin' on at B&E's," Lee said in his usual deep, to-the-point voice.

The street we were driving down was a narrow residential road in a kind of neighborhood I'd only ever seen on TV before. The cracked and potholed road was lined with cars, some of which looked like they hadn't been driven in years. The houses didn't look like they were in much better condition. Their yards were short and few were mowed; the sidewalks were cracked and in some places littered with junk; and most of the houses looked extremely old and in need of paint. The separation between these cheap houses also gave the feeling of crampness. Only a narrow alley separated neighbor from neighbor. It was a far cry from the suburban neighborhood I lived in.

Before reaching our destination I counted at least three boarded-up houses and one burnt-out house, too. At first blush the entire neighborhood felt dead. Dead and cramped. But then I began to notice the suspicious eyes peering out of cracked windows. I saw the groups of people gathered on their porches. Sometimes men, sometimes women, but these people were always black. More than anything that made me feel like I was an outsider in a foreign land. I hadn't seen another white person since Lee had pulled off of the freeway. I'll admit, that made me nervous.

Lee pulled the Cadillac up in front of a house with the address "1708". It looked like no one was home. Ty turned to me, squeezed my leg, and said, "Welcome to my crib, snow-bunny. This here is one of the unofficial headquarters for us Four-Oh. We gonna head on over to Lee's in a sec, but first I gots to check in on my baby's momma. You just keep your mouth shut and don't say nothing, got it?"

"Yes, sir," I said softly.

I followed him out of the Cadillac and walked with my eyes down toward the front door of the small house. He knocked once, very loudly, then turned to me and grinned. After a pause he knocked twice more and waited. While we did my eyes were drawn over to the neighboring house where they instantly met the disapproving gaze of a fat black woman smoking a cigarette on her porch. She shook her head slightly and I felt my face flush red. I quickly darted my eyes back down to my dress shoes.

Just then the porch light came on. It must have been some kind of "all clear" sign because Ty immediately opened the door. I followed him and Lee inside to a small family room. A skinny black man was standing there, watching us as we entered. He seemed suspicious of me but it was hard to tell since he was wearing dark sunglasses. Once the three of us were inside the skinny man shut the door.

I glanced around the room. There was a TV, a coffee table lined with plastic baggies and white powder, a sofa, and two recliners. All of the furniture looked older than me except for the TV. That, at least, was nice. I also noticed an X-Box video game console, a baby's crib, and a stereo system.

Like the neighborhood it resided in the room felt cramped. Also, it was a total mess. There were children toys everywhere, the stench of cigarette smoke, and the TV was blaring some kind of cartoon. From the bathroom across the room I heard a woman scream, "Charlene that you? Get yo' lazy ass in here!"

"It's me," Ty called back as he stepped over a Fisher Price tricycle. "Charlene ain't here yet?"

"She sure ain't!" the woman said. "You're gonna have to watch Lemel till she is 'cause I'm gonna be late fo' work again. You best tell your sister not to expect any mo' money if she can't start getting that brat over here..."

The woman's angry voice trailed off after she stepped out of the bathroom. She was staring at me. She looked over at Ty, then back at me as though I was some kind of cockroach. At that moment I was extremely glad she was across the room. I felt hatred in her eyes. Unconsciously I stepped closer to Lee as though his width would hide me from this woman.

I knew right away she was the "baby mama" Ty had mentioned. On one hip she was holding a little boy, probably about 2-years-old or so, and with her free hand she was smoking a cigarette. If she hadn't had such an angry expression on her face she would have probably been rather attractive, I thought. She was in her mid-20's, had dark chocolate skin, and a very voluptuous figure. She could probably stand to lose a few pounds but she was anything but fat. In fact, her large breasts and wide hips actually made her gaudy, leopard-skin outfit appear sexy.

"Who this?" she said, staring daggers in my direction.

"Never mind 'who this'," Ty said angrily. He took out his cell phone and made a call. "I'm gonna find out where my fuckin' niece is. I don't gots time to watch Lemel today. Gots things to do."

The woman glared at me for a long moment and then looked back at Ty. "Well I'm goin'," she said. "Someone's got to be makin' some money 'round here."

She started to march forward toward Ty as if she was going to hand their child off to him but stopped the moment he put up his finger. He had his cell pressed against his ear. The room was silent and I stared at my feet. I began to tremble. The woman was close now and I could sense she was about to say something to me. Then the door opened up behind us and when I looked I saw a young girl, about my age, enter the house.

"Sorry Aunt Lacile," the girl said as she rushed into the room, "I got caught up with homework and..."

The girl stopped with her excuses when she saw me. "Who're you?" she said. She was giving me a nasty look and though I wasn't much younger than her I immediately felt intimidated. For a moment the room grew quiet again except for the blaring television. Then it seemed like everyone was talking at once, except for me and Lee, that is.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ty finally screamed. Lacile and Charlene grew quiet and he shoved his cell phone into his pocket, grabbed the toddler from the woman, and then marched over to the girl and shoved him at her. "Now you're here, now you get busy doin' what you get paid for.

"And you," he said turning back to Lacile, "You best get to work, and stop gettin' up all in my bidness!"

The woman, looking furious, marched over to her purse. She grabbed it, threw it over he shoulder, and marched past me and everyone else until she was gone, the door slamming shut behind her.

Ty shook his head. Then he said, "Fuck this. Come on."

"Where ya'll goin'?" the skinny man wearing sunglasses said.

"Over to Lee's, not that it's your fuckin' business," Ty snapped.

"Maurice was here," the man said. "Told me he was lookin' for ya."

"He fuckin' ain't answerin' his phone," Ty fumed. "What'd he say?"

"Said to call his new phone ASAP. Left a number. Here."

Ty grumbled but took the matchbook he was given and stormed off toward the kitchen. Wanting to remain close to at least one of my "liberators" I followed Lee to the sofa. I sat down next to him as he pulled a strange glass pipe off the coffee table and began to pack it with what I thought was tobacco.

"What's her thang?"

Lee shrugged as he lit a lighter over the bowl of the pipe. After inhaling he answered the sunglass-man.
"She from Fat-Man-Dan," Lee said, gesturing in my direction. "Ty thought she was worth a three week extension."

Sunglass-man chuckled then knelt down next to the coffee table. He started scooping up spoon-fulls of white power and dropping them onto an electronic scale. He said, "That's why he's my boy. Always thinkin' with his dick."

Lee shared a grin then exhaled a long puff of smoke. Just then Ty came back into the room.

"They're at B&E's," Ty said. "That's where everyone's at. It's Destiny's fuckin' initiation and you forgot all about it."

His tone was accusatory and he was looking at Lee, but it was the sunglass-wearer who answered him. "Yeah man, you forget? I'm the one who shouldn't be forgettin'. You can still get over there but I has to stay and bag all these nickels and shit. Least all you gotta do is walk down the block."

Ty looked over at him, then back to Lee. He shook his head. "Look, man, fuck that. Not my job to remember that shit. Come on, Lee. If we roll out now we won't be late."

"Ain't starting till 5:30," Lee said after blowing out a long cloud of smoke. It didn't smell like a cigarette. "No need to use my ride."

I was halfway out of my seat but settled back in when I sensed there was about to be an argument.

Ty glared at Lee in the ensuing silence but he was the one to look away after a long pause. He closed his eyes in a way that indicated he'd had this argument with Lee before. He said, "Man, ain't gonna take up an ounce of gas."

"That not the point," Lee said with a hard voice. His eye-lids were half-shut but I saw a passionate fury in them just the same. "Point is, I don't drive my ride 'less I got to and right now I don't got to. Not when we can take a ten minute walk."

Ty started laughing in annoyance. He shook his head in resignation and said, "Motherfucker, motherfucker. You know, if six months ago you'd asked me, 'Ty, think you'll ever live to see a green-fuckin' tree-huggin' nigga in your life?' I'd've laughed till I bled. Yet there you is."

Lee shook his shoulders in a dismissive way. He said, "I'm keepin' my carbon-footprint at a minimum. Nothin' tree-huggin' 'bout that."

The term "carbon-footprint" jogged a memory. I had heard it before in a movie a teacher had made us watch in school. I couldn't quite place it but then I didn't need to. Ty gave me the answer when he said, "You never should've seen that 'Inconvenient Truth' movie. I ever see that Gore motherfucker on the street I'm gonna cap him for both of us."

Despite everything else I couldn't help but smile.

The walk down to the bar called "B&E's" took about ten minutes, just as Lee had predicted. I sort of walked behind the two large black men all the way there, trying not to acknowledge the stares I was getting from random people on the street. I felt safe with Ty and Lee in front of me but I was still incredibly nervous because I felt like such an outsider in this neighborhood. I was really wishing I wasn't wearing my school uniform. It made me feel even more out of place. Not that a white, blond haired child in a neighborhood like that wouldn't be out of place anyway, but the Catholic School-girl look made things worse.

When we reached the bar I noticed that it was on the corner of Fourth Street and O Street. We had to cross O to get there but traffic was light and we didn't even wait for the crossing signal. As I walked quickly behind my two liberators I noticed that across the street from the bar was an abandoned and boarded up gas station where a group of teenage boys were loitering about. I saw one of them nod to Ty, who nodded back, but there was no other communication with the group. As soon as we were across the street we walked through a half-full parking lot and entered a squat, windowless building.

Once inside I was inundated with loud rap music, the sounds of some men cheering, and the thick stench of strange smelling smoke. Almost immediately an older black man with graying hair greeted Ty and Lee. He didn't notice me at first but he had a wide, bright-white smile for my two liberators. He said, "As I live and breathe, Ty and Lee! I knew you niggas would show. Ol' Stern owes me a five-spot."

"Yeah, we had to go take care of some bidness and Lee here forgot it was Destiny's day. How's it going, B?" Ty said as he clasped the older man's hand and gave him a pat on the back the way men so often do when they need to hug each other but still look tough.

"It goes," the man named B said. His eyes finally spotted me standing between and behind the two other black men. His smiling face turned into a look of caution as he said, "Now, what's this you brought with you, Ty?"

"This? Oh, this here's the Four-Oh's new little snow bunny," he grinned. "I needs to talk to Maurice 'bout it. Where he at?"

B stroked his clean shaved chin as if considering how to reply. He said, "You know outsiders ain't allowed at initiations. Maurice okay'd this?"

Ty nodded. "Shit, nigga! 'course he did. I just talked to 'im ten minutes ago. Where he at?"

The old man held up his hands as if to say it was none of his business. He said, "At the bar with the others, I reckon. Destiny's already rolled the dice and she's stripping for the boys. Girls oughta be along any minute for the next phase, 'long with the other stragglers. Shit, wish I could join and watch but someone's gotta be at the door 'till everyone arrives. Maurice told me not to lock up 'til 5:30."

Ty gave Lee an annoyed look. "So we missed the beginning? Shit, told you we shoulda driven. What she roll, B?"

"Don't know," B said. "From the fellas' reaction, something low, I think."

Ty nodded, told B to watch his ass, then nodded to Lee. The squatter, thicker black man lit up a filter-less cigarette and followed as Ty led us through a door to the main bar. I was two steps behind and once through the door the music and sounds of men cheering was even louder.

Along the left side of the room was a long bar where nearly a dozen black men of varying ages were seated, their backs turned to the bar so they could look out into the main room. I immediately saw where their eyes were fixated. In the center of the room a block of four square tables had been pushed together to create a make-shift stage. On this stage an attractive young black woman stood, shaking her body to the music in an amateurish dance. She was half-naked and that made my face flush red and a jolt of forbidden excitement shoot up my spine. Her back was to us but I could tell she was probably in her early twenties. She had a fit, chocolate colored body and her ass was perfectly round and toned. For a moment I thought I'd entered a strip-club, but then I realized that a strip club would probably have a real stage for women to dance on.

The men at the bar were pretty well composed, sipping beers and smoking cigarettes or cigars. By and large they were older and more restrained than the rest of the people in the room. Between them and the stage a younger, more vocal group of black men were cheering the half-naked woman on. When she turned around to show off her ass to them I finally got a look at her face and decided she was definitely in her early 20's. She had thick, full lips painted with lavender lipstick, cat-like brown eyes, and long black hair that didn't look fake. Her breasts had to be d-cups, I figured, but I couldn't tell if they were real or not. She was smiling as she stripped the rest of her clothing off for her audience, pulling down a tight-fitting nylon skirt and kicking it off her bare feet to the cheers of the crowd.

Including me and my liberators there were probably about 30 people in the room. At first their voices filled the room but as Ty led me up to the middle of the bar everyone grew quiet. A bunch of the men took their eyes off of the woman I assumed was Destiny and looked at me instead. I felt my face blush a deeper shade of red.

The man Ty walked up to was a well dressed slender black man wearing round, rimless glasses in front of dark, penetrating eyes. If I'd seen him on the street I would have assumed he was some sort of professor or other kind of intellectual. Unlike most of the men in the room he had good posture, subdued but professional looking clothing, and the sort of poise that came from an inner strength rather than feigned bravado. His head was clean shaved and he appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties. He stood up as soon as the three of us were in front of him.

He shook Ty's hand after nodding to Lee and then locked his eyes on me. I stared down at my shoes, nervous beneath his stare.

"So," he said, his voice surprisingly deep given his size. "This is Daniel's 'collateral' you told me about on the phone. What's her name?"

Ty looked at me. As he struggled to remember my name, if he'd ever even known it, someone turned down the music in the room. Everyone wanted to hear this particular conversation. The room was quiet all of a sudden. It wasn't everyday that a 13-year-old white girl in a Catholic school uniform walked into the bar, apparently.

"Becky," I finally whispered when Ty couldn't answer.

The bald man nodded to me then looked back to Ty. "I send you to collect a debt and you bring back an outsider. A white girl, no less. I'll be honest with you, Ty. I'm seriously questioning your judgment on this one."

Ty's eyes widened and he held his hands up. "Nigga-what? Come'on, Maurice, you're the one just told me to bring 'er here..."

"Because the damage had already been done," Maurice replied. His voice was hard and I saw a terrifying evil in his eyes. It made me shudder and once again I looked down at my feet. "You call me from your house, the girl already with you. You brought her to a place where we cut a quarter of our weekly supply. Your house, Ty, a place I thought you'd be smart enough to keep outsiders away from. And a white girl from the suburbs, no less? Again, I tell you. I'm seriously questioning your judgment."

Silence followed. Someone in the room, someone near the back, said something like, "Stupid nigger got lost is all." Some quiet laughter followed and I saw Ty's eyes narrow. But that was all he did. I could tell he was afraid of Maurice. His sudden change in demeanor proved it.

"Like I said on the cell, this ain't no normal white girl. The vid-man gave her to us. She was his slave, get it?" he said, his voice just shy of sounding desperate. "She even admitted she was his slave! He tells us he don't have the money, take her instead. I tell him he gets another three weeks. Figure we get a little snow-bunny in return, ya know?"

Maurice seemed to consider this for a moment. He turned to Lee and said, "Do you agree with your partner? Is that exactly what happened?"

Lee shrugged. I noticed just then that his half-closed eyes looked bloodshot but that he didn't seem worried at all. He said, "Mo' or less."

Now Maurice looked squarely at me. His gaze chilled me to the bone and I looked away again.

"Becky," he said. He went down on one knee in front of me. He was so tall that he only barely had to look up to gaze into my eyes. "It's important that you tell me now why you were Daniel's slave, if in fact you were. Tell me in great detail. Tell me what he made you do and why you agreed to do it."

The room seemed to catch its breath. So did I. He was talking to me as though I was a little kid and at that moment I felt more like one than perhaps ever before. He was trying to sound kind, but I could still see the dead-eyed look of evil in his eyes behind his round glasses.

He was worried that I'd go to the cops later. He was thinking ahead in a way that Ty hadn't been when he'd "liberated" me earlier. I also knew that neither Ty nor Lee would be able to protect me from him. I knew all this in my gut. My response to his question would determine my fate and I felt my knees begin to shake.

"It's true, I was my master's ... uhm, Daniel's slave," I said in my soft, meek voice. I swallowed and tried to look into his eyes as I continued. "He made me do ... lots of stuff. Like, sex stuff, mostly. Sometimes he made me go out and do ... other things. For punishment, I guess. When I was bad. I, uhm ... is that what you wanted to know?"

Maurice gave me a dead, cold stare. He said, "Why were you his slave, Becky? What did Daniel have on you to force such a pretty child of such obvious means into becoming his sex slave? Was he blackmailing you somehow? Was he paying you with money? Or drugs, perhaps?"

I shook my head and felt my eyes begin to well up with tears. I said, "N-no ... he just ... made me, you know? If I uhm, you know, if I ... disobeyed him he'd ... punish me. When I was bad, like I said."

He nodded as though he understood. He said, "I want you to do two things for me, Becky. First, I want you to stand up straight. Your current posture is unacceptable."

Without a word I straightened my spine and threw my shoulders back the way the nuns at school were always telling us girls to do. My nervousness had made me slouch so the sudden change gave me at least another inch in height.

Maurice nodded at my new position and said, "Now I want you to put your hands behind your back and grasp each wrist. You will not let go unless I give you permission."

I did as I was told. Suddenly a woman behind me yelled out, "What the fuck is this, Moore? Ain't I supposed to finish strippin'?"

I didn't turn to look but I knew it was Destiny's eyes that Maurice's locked onto over my shoulder. The woman was angry that everyone was paying attention to me, my liberators, and Maurice instead of her. I could feel her staring daggers into my back.

"Tell me, my dear," Maurice said to her over my shoulder, "how do you plan on continuing to strip when you're already as naked as the day you were born? Show me that and not only will your initiation be complete but I'll give you the keys to my BMW, too."

There was laughter in the room, but once it passed everyone was silent again, including Destiny. I was still clasping my wrists behind my back, my breath heavy and my eyes locked onto Maurice's face. When his eyes returned to mine he said, "How old are you, Becky?"

"Thirteen, sir," I said.

He smiled. "Thirteen. A teenager, at least. I had feared you might be younger.

"So tell me," he continued with a voice that once again was commanding, "what would you do if I began to unbutton your shirt right now, with all these men watching?"

I gulped and darted my eyes around the smoke filled room. It felt like there were butterflies in my stomach and despite the scariness of the situation, or perhaps because of it, I could feel my pussy begin to moisten. I said, "I'd, uhm ... let you, sir."

"See?" Ty, who had been silent for so long I'd forgotten he was there, said. "She's a fuckin' freaky slut! I hear about white bitches like her all the time. She's ours now, Moore, our li'l slave. Don't go lettin' her age worry you nothing, she'll be--"

"Enough!" Maurice roared. He stood up and looked squarely at Ty. "Her age isn't what concerns me. Her obedience does. Her ability to keep a secret is what matters. She saw your home, Ty. She saw Lee's car. Because of you and your actions she has become a liability for all of us."

"But she's our slave!" Ty said with an urgency in his voice. "She just done told you--"

This time Maurice responded with a fist to Ty's face. The tall, football jersey wearing black man who had so terrified my master went down like a dropped sack of potatoes. I shrieked out loud while others in the room cheered.

"She is no one's slave," Maurice said to Ty, who was barely moving on the ground. "In case you forget, our people suffered slavedom in this land for centuries. The Four Oh crew, my crew, will not enslave another. Slavery is the white-man's evil, not ours. Do you understand?"

A few minutes of silence passed before I finally heard Ty gurgle his agreement through a bloody nose. There were nods of approval from the crowd, too. As for me, I felt a twinge of disappointment that I couldn't ignore. I'd actually been hoping this alpha-male among alpha-males, Maurice, would become my new master. But he didn't want to be my master. I should have been happy but instead I was sad. It was confusing as hell.

"Getting back to you," he said, his voice softening as he once again took a knee, "You would let me unbutton your shirt? You would not resist in any way?"

Trying to keep my trembling chin under control I eventually said, "Y-y-yes, s-s-ir..."

He reached over to me and I closed my eyes as he unbuttoned the top button of my shirt. My pussy shuddered in delight even as my face burned red. I knew that every man in the room was hoping that Maurice was going to strip me naked. I knew that I was hoping the same thing, too. When his hands trailed down to the next button I bit my lower lip in anticipation but then he paused. Without unclasping the button he said, "You really are this submissive, aren't you?"

"Yes, sir," I said. My girly voice had become breathy and a little wanton, I realized. I didn't care.

He sighed in response and then pulled his hands back. He wasn't going to undo the next button after all.

He gripped Ty by the wrist in a show of friendship and helped my liberator to his feet. Although blood trickled down his nose he seemed to ignore it. He nodded to Maurice in respect and then, like everyone else in the room, he looked back at me. Maurice did the same and said, "Have you ever heard the story of the Fox and Hen?"

I shook my head slowly and focused my eyes back to my feet. It was impossible for anyone to know how worked up I'd become but I was embarrassed about it anyway. I kept my hands clasped together behind my back with every ounce of strength I had, clutching each tiny wrist with each tiny hand as though to let go would mean I'd lose my life.

"Hen, you see, was always terrified whenever she was in the presence of the fox," Maurice continued. "She'd think to herself, 'I am so weak and inconsequential that Fox could kill me in an instant. I better do whatever he says.'

Maurice paused and I looked up and saw him adjust his rimless glasses. He smiled before continuing, "You see, no one had ever told Hen what she was. They were afraid to. And Hen, you see, had a disease common to her type: she became blind whenever she looked in a mirror. Because of that, she'd never actually seen what she was. All she knew was that her name was Hen. And she knew that hens were small and weak. So she thought she must also be small and weak, given her name. Foxes were big and strong so she had to obey them in order to stay alive.

"For years she suffered the abuses of Fox and all the others, always doing whatever they told her and never thinking to fight back. Then one day Hen met an injured crow along the road. When she walked over to it to see if she could help, the crow became terrified.

"'Leave me be, leave me be!' the crow cried. 'I'm just a poor injured crow, don't hurt me!'

"'Why would I hurt you?' Hen asked. She was genuinely confused by the crow's pleading.

"The crow stared at her in confusion. Finally he said, 'You're so ... mighty. I just thought you'd be unable to restrain yourself. If you'd really rather be my friend than eat me up, I'll gladly accept your help. Only tell me your name first. Mine, of course, should be obvious. My name is Crow.'

"Hen smiled now. She liked making a new friend, and she really thought she could help Crow with his injury. She trotted over to him, knelt next to him, and said, 'My name, my good friend, is Hen.'