The Sugar Way (WIP)

I’ve heard that money can’t buy love. Try telling that to the girls in Sugarway. You can buy a day, a night, an hour with us… pay the right price and we’ll do anything to please you. You’re the only person we see or want at that given moment. So then tell me, what’s the difference? If you ask me, money can buy everything, and everything can be bought at Sugarway.1

When I was 12 years old my Father skipped town, not like he was around much anyway, but I guess even that was too much for him. That and the constant flow of whiskey down his throat. Most kids would be sad if their Father left but he beat what little love I had for him out of me long before he‘d gone. My Mother was too afraid to try and stop him, I guess I can’t blame her for that. After all, he was very good at it. Since then my Mother cared for me, if you can even call it that. For the next year she worked at a handful of places, salons mostly. Then at 15 she got a job at the local diner. It was okay for a couple months, until she started blowing all the cash on heroin again, we were in a dumpy little shack as it was and then to top it all off I could never be sure when my next meal would come. Soon after she lost her job she started doing “favors” for random guys to keep her addiction going strong. The diner owners, Mel and Mary, took pity on me. They were in their 50’s and needed a hand around the diner. So I did some odd jobs, mostly washing dishes, cleaning and straightening things up. They paid me about 20 bucks a week depending on how often I was there and then fed me dinner before I went home. Every time they’d pay me I’d try and hide a few bucks in a tin buried in the yard. The rest my Mom would slap me around for. A few months after my 16th birthday I was in back of Mel and Mary’s diner sweeping the floors when James Burke, or as most people new him Jimmy “ The Gent”, and his goons stormed in.2

He was very handsome, only 20 years old and already pretty high up in the chain. Now despite the young age and what his name implied, Jimmy could be one nasty fellow. He could smooth talk real well but when that didn’t work …well let’s just say he made it work by any means necessary. Him and the other two thugs started arguing with Mel, Jimmy asked if Mel had reconsidered his offer but he stood firm and screamed at Jimmy to leave. 3

Mel: “ We aren’t afraid of you! Get your ass out of my diner before I call the cops!” 4

Jimmy: “ Now that would be a big mistake, see I got a lot of friends down there. You know what Mel, I’ve been too nice to you so now I’m gonna have to get angry and I don’t think you or your wife want that.” 5

Mel: “Are you threatening…” Before Mel could finish Jimmy hit him. Mel’s nose was bleeding all over the place, Mary started screaming and Jimmy signaled to one of his associates. They grabbed her and stuffed a rag in her mouth.6

Jimmy: “Now see what you made me go and do Mel? I don’t like to get my hands dirty and now you’ve made me. *sigh* Alright boys, tie um’ up.” 7

I didn’t know what to do, I ran for the back exit but before I opened the door something stopped me. After all Mel and Mary had done for me I knew I couldn’t just leave them there so I crept out of the back and hid behind the bar. Mel kept a bat there, just in case I guess. I was a small thing then, very pretty for being only 16, with a bit of strength from walking and moving boxes for Mary, but that was a far cry from being able to stand up to Jimmy or his boys. Mel and Mary were both gagged and tied up in chairs. By then Jimmy took his jacket and shirt off. He was standing there in a wife-beater while the other two guys went to look upstairs. It was the perfect moment, he was alone and unsuspecting. So while he was finishing shutting the last shade I snuck up behind him, held the bat up and took a swing. I only came up to his chest so when I swung that’s where it hit him. I don’t know what I thought, that I could actually beat him and save Mel and Mary? A childish notion, the blow hardly rocked him. He turned around swinging; his knuckles just barely caught my cheek. Lucky for me I was quicker and had pretty tough skin thanks to my Dad, at least I got something other than bruises out of the time spent with him. Still, even though Jimmy barely got me I went down. My cheek started bleeding a bit. I scrambled back a few inches and got to my feet, holding the bat out in front of me, I was ready to swing again. Jimmy looked surprised at the sight of me. He dropped his hands and started to chuckle. That laugh sent shivers down my spine, I was practically shaking, couldn’t even talk at first.8

Me: “L…le…let them go!”9

Jimmy: “Haha, what’s your name kid? How old are you?”10

Me: “… Sarah… I’m 16. What are you gonna do to them?”11

Jimmy: “Sarah? You that bitch Elsie Mars’ girl?”12

Me: “Don’t change the subject, I … I asked you a question.”13

Jimmy: “ Well kid, you got balls I’ll give you that, but I don’t think you know who I am.”14

Me: “ You’re The Gent right? Jimmy… I’ve heard of you.”15

Jimmy: “ And you still came at me with a bat? Haha, you ain’t got balls, you’re just stupid. Get outta here kid, before you get hurt.”16

Me: “Not until you let them go.”17

I saw Jimmy look behind me, I swung the bat around but one of his partners grabbed it. He ripped it out of my hands like it was nothing but a toothpick then grabbed my arms and held them behind me. Jimmy walked up and held my chin. He brushed the hair off my cut cheek, looked at me for a second, then smiled and turned away.18

Jimmy: “ Tony, take the kid home, give her some cash and come straight back” 19

Me: “No, ah, ow, let go of me you ogre! Get off me, let go! …Please, don’t hurt um’ …please!” 20

I bit Tony’s arm so hard I drew blood but it didn’t matter, he drug me out, drove me home, stuck a hundred in my pocket and that was it. 21

I went to the mirror to clean up my face, it had stopped bleeding but dried blood was smeared all over my cheek. I cleaned up, stuck the hundred in my tin full of money and reburied it under a bush. I just sat outside for a long time, after what I heard Jimmy say to Mel I didn’t think I should call the cops and I was afraid of what I would find if I went back. I fell asleep in the backyard staring at the stars. I woke up a few hours later to the sound of sirens and black smoke in the distance. It was coming from the same direction as the diner. I ran as fast as I could but when I got there it was already half gone. Mel and Mary were nowhere to be seen. The smoke burned my eyes, I turned to look away and saw Jimmy getting into his car, he looked at me, put his hat on and then Tony drove him away. About a few months later my Mom went off with some strange man… she never came back. Probably overdosed in an old, dirty warehouse somewhere. Either way she was gone and I was all alone. I couldn’t get work anywhere while I was in school so I started skipping classes to work at the drycleaners. I’d steam the clothes in the back or stitch a rip here and there. It didn’t pay well but it still paid. Enough to buy me a place to stay in the tiny bunkhouse out back of the store. It had two rooms, a cleaner closet and the slightly bigger closet which would be my room. There was a toilet added on and separated by a curtain. A real high-class place, or at least the roaches thought so. Eventually I stopped going to school altogether and some “concerned” teacher notified child services. It didn’t take more than a few weeks for them to grab me and place me in a foster home. If you ask me, I was better off with the roaches. I managed to keep my tin of savings to myself, had about 800 dollars saved up too, it wasn’t much but it was a start. 22

Another 2 months until my 17th birthday. I was put with a married couple who had a few other foster kids. Margaret and Dave Monahan. They were real sweet, lived in a nicer part of town, they weren’t rich or anything but it was far better than where I’d come from. 23