Saving Corky

“I started out on the streets when I was 16 years old - when my parents walked in my room one night and found me in bed with one of my dad's business partners. My parents didn't care that a man came into my room and touched me inappropriately during their party. They were more concerned about their reputation. "A well-respected business executive" like my father couldn't have a whoring daughter like me, bringing his name to shame, so I had to go. And it didn't matter that I had nowhere to go. So, now at 22, I find myself a prostitute with a bad-tempered pimp, and a drug problem. I stay high on anything I can get my hands on just, so I don't have to feel the nasty shit the Johns are doing to me or be sound of mind when I'm blowing them off. I'm in my tiny ass apartment right now getting ready to head out to my corner for the night and get me a John or two.... try to make me some money for the night. I have rent due in a day are two, so as I'm getting ready, I snort me I line of coke and fuck that shit good. I look at myself in the mirror one last time... make sure I don't have any white shit on my nose, are anywhere else, then I head out to the corner. "Hey Layla, any new business tonight?" I ask the lady and my best friend that stands on the same corner as me. "Hey Corky girl. No, it's been kind of quiet tonight, but the night is still young girly... and you're looking fire tonight, so I'm sure you will get a few hits." "I hope so, Layla. I have rent this week, and you know how Martin is about us being late for our rent." "Yes, well, Martin should take the cut we give him after every night as our rent money." Layla spits out. "Watch what you say, Layla. He has ears everywhere." I tell her and sway a little on my feet. "Corky damnit girl, you really need to lie off that shit," Layla shays at me. "Only if I could find another way not to feel I would, Layla." "Corky girl, why won't you get your GED? Carry your ass to college... and get the hell out of New York, away from this shit." Layla says for the 100th time. She tells me the same shit every night. She has since I was 18, and first started prostituting for Martin, our sleaze-bag pimp. I'm smart enough I could get my GED, and get into a community college, and make something of myself, but would Martin let me go? I'm one of his highest paid prostitutes. "Corky, look alive, baby girl. Here comes some action, Layla says," breaking me out of my daydream. "Oh, joy!" Here we go. "Hey there, handsome... what'll be tonight?" I say, leaning into the passenger window. It's a nice-looking older gentleman in his mid-40's not someone you would think you would see picking up a prostitute for an hour. "I would like to rent you for the hour." "Rent me?" This guy has done nothing like this in his life. Poor fucking sap. "Um, sweetheart, you don't rent us. You buy us for as long as you need us. We do whatever you want in that time frame and the price starts at $50 dollars and goes up from there, I tell him." "That's doable he tells me." Then he just sets there for a minute like he's not too sure what to do about the information I just gave him. "Okay sweetheart, if you want to do this, then I have to get into your car. Then we will go to a motel or somewhere and that's where the real fun will begin," I tell him. "Oh, yes, right, sure? Um, get in and then we can figure out where we will go for the night," he tells me, so I open the passenger door and climb in." Your first time I ask him?" "That obvious, huh?" "Yes," I smile at him, "but that's okay. So, what are you looking for tonight?" I ask him, then I kind of glance around his car and find a damn car seat in the back seat of his car. Really, man? "So, you and your wife just had a baby, huh?" "Oh, um, I'd rather not talk about that, if you don't mind."”