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  Daisy looked down at the button and closed her hand. She squeezed her hand tight before letting the button slip through her fingers into the jacket pocket of her pea coat. She could hear her mother now, telling her she needed to button everything on her body. Oh, Momma.

  “It’s a good luck button too. I tell you ever since I started carrying that thing, I just felt so safe and secure. I figured since you’re up here in this big city all alone now, you might need it to keep you safe too.”

  Kimmie Sue smiled and hugged her cousin before piling into the Chrysler. Daisy waved them off and turned back up the street to the door to the apartment. It felt odd and strangely lonely inside the apartment she used to share with her mother. She had never imagined life without her mother; she never had a reason to. But, now that she was all alone, she knew that life without Abigail would be different. Up until this point, she had a mommy and was someone’s child. Now, those things had been stripped away, and she was simply Daisy Mae. She looked down at her watch.

  I better get going, she thought to herself. Knowing Calvin with his constant five, five, five, she didn’t want to be late for her first day at the Honey Pot.

  GOTCHA

  Please, excuse me, my patient really needs her rest. I thought I was being polite when I told you that once she is up to visitors and police interrogation, I would gladly call you,” said Dr. Sternberger, feeling offended by their disdain for hospital policy. He was so riled, he began reaching for the phone to call security. The detectives in front of him would be removed from ICU.

  “I’m sorry, Doctor, I just don’t think you understand the urgency. We really need for her to ID her assailant from some of these photos. Really, this is critical, because he’s still out there,” said Detective Delgado, trying to remain calm, not curse, throw a tantrum, or, worst case, hurt Dr. Sternberger.

  “Really, Doctor, we just need the opportunity to try. If she can’t then she can’t, but at least, for her sake and her little boy’s sake, let us try,” implored Merva, looking into the doctor’s eyes, not understanding him at all. “If someone shot you and your son, wouldn’t you want to ID him… if nothing else?”

  “She is our missing link for us to get a killer off the streets and behind bars,” added Detective Delgado.

  The two of them spoke calmly to the doctor, with a hint of urgency. And of course it worked. The doctor gave them five minutes alone with his patient. She was still under the watchful eyes of ICU attendants. She had tubes sticking out from her body and connected to machines keeping all her vitals and stats for the doctors as they did their rounds. Detective Ross took her time talking and speaking to Saunta. Slowly Saunta opened her eyes. She never said one word. She didn’t have to. The look of fear that covered her face as Detective Ross flashed Bernard Guess’s head shot in her direction caused her to open her eyes as wide as they could go. She pressed back on the pillow and tears formed in her eyes. She looked scared at seeing the man’s face.

  “That’s him,” she whispered with a faint breath, reliving the feeling of being gunned down, the bullet entering her chest, piercing her rib, and lodging inside her. Leaving her in the Intensive Care Unit. She went into distress. Her blood pressure went up and a machine next to her bed started beeping. Dr. Sternberger came rushing into the room.

  “She’s losing pressure. Her heart rate is dropping. We’re losing her!”

  Tommy Delgado and Merva Ross stood over to the side looking like Lenny and Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley as they watched the doctors and nurses trying to stabilize their patient.

  “Doctor, she’s flatlined,” said a blond nurse as Merva and Tommy heard a solid, steady tone, instead of the beeps that had been the echo of the ICU room.

  “Oh, damn, she’s dead?” questioned Merva as she leaned in and whispered into Tommy’s ear.

  “Yeah, I think we should get out of here before Dr. Sternberger comes back over here and chews off our asses for fucking with his patient.”

  “Damn, he did say let her rest.”

  “Well, she will now,” said Delgado, looking as if he was in fact the bird that swallowed the canary.

  “Jeez, you are the worst.”

  “Yeah, come on, this looks bad. This isn’t good. Let’s get out of here,” said Delgado, grabbing his partner’s arm.

  “At least we got our man, Bernard Guess,” said Ross, looking at the brighter side.

  “Yup, we got what we came for.”

  Once she got settled in at the Honey Pot, Daisy realized she had made the biggest mistake in her life. The Honey Pot was set up like an apartment. When you first walked in, there was a vestibule where the gentlemen would wait, seated patiently, unless they had an appointment scheduled. There was a receptionist, some tiny Asian girl who looked no more than fourteen, but was actually nineteen years old. She would take each man who came in for services into a seating area where they could wait to view the girls one by one. After viewing the girls they could pick who they wanted to give them a massage, if they had a preference. And once they had made their choice, they would disappear into one of the massage rooms just like magic.

  Daisy needed her tips, and when the doorbell rang she was always ready, wearing a see-through negligee. She did her sexual seduction thirty-second lap dance for the gentlemen callers, letting them feel free to feel her up, or if she didn’t do that, she’d take off her negligee and lie on the floor, sprawling herself wide open and making snow angels, but without the snow. Those were her secrets, and she was constantly picked.

  Once inside the room, she would undress them and lie them on the table. Then she would stand at their head and massage them, always keeping her pussy in their view. As she rubbed them, they rubbed her, and when it was time to roll them over onto their backs, they would be rock hard, ready to drive their swollen muscles into her moist pussy. The only problem was that all her regulars, and the newcomers, were lining up, and as the weeks went by, Daisy found herself a sex slave inside the massage parlor. They weren’t coming in asking for Daisy to just massage them, they expected the massage and a good quick fuck, all within thirty minutes. It was like their afternoon lunch break or a quick to-do task before going home at the end of the day. And they were lining up not just for Daisy, but for all the girls. Pretty soon, Calvin had to stop spending so much time at the Honey Dipper, because too much money was being made at the Honey Pot, and Daisy was his headliner, fucking and sucking more men in the course of a day than Vanessa Del Rio ever could in her life. It got to the point that liquor and e-pills simply numbed her from it all. And she simply did what she had to.

  One night, while she was standing at the bus stop, her pager went off. It was Sticks.

  He sure do got some nerve, where the hell has he been the last couple of months. Daisy couldn’t help but to think of everything she had had to go through since Sticks had paid her that two grand. She had tried calling him, but he never answered her call or called her back. She had really needed him when her mother died. She just knew he’d help bury her mother. But he was missing in action and it had been two months since then. She went over to the pay phone and dialed his number back.

  “Hey, Daisy, where you at? I’m over here at the Honey Dipper, but they said you don’t work here no more.”

  “I don’t, I work over at the Honey Pot now. Calvin moved me. Why?”

  “’Cause my mans and ’em is having a bachelor party and I need you.”

  “I know you don’t need me. Shoot, you don’t even bother to call to see if I’m dead or alive,” said Daisy, ready to hang up the phone.

  “Dais, it ain’t like that. I just been busy. Look, I got like two thousand dollars for you and another girl, that’s a thousand apiece,” said Sticks, trying to sound convincing.

  Daisy heard him say two thousand dollars and her ears shot straight up off the side of her head. “How many girls you say you want?”

  “Just two of y’all.”

  Daisy’s brain started to overpower the e-pills from earlier and s
he put on her thinking cap. A new girl named Trixie who was working at the Honey Pot with her. Maybe she’d like to come and make a couple hundred. Daisy couldn’t help but think to herself that she would be walking away with that two, or at least as close to that two as possible. Sure enough, Trixie was more than down; for $350 in her pocket, she was ready to do whatever Daisy needed her to. Unfortunately, Trixie had no idea that she and Daisy were walking into a trap when they walked through the door of the hotel room. Trixie and Daisy were repeatedly raped and sodomized by the bachelor party attendees. Both girls had been given champagne when they first got there. Gobbling it down and holding out her glass for more, Daisy never realized that she was being drugged. She was lucky she woke up at all after being slipped a mickey. When she woke up the next morning, she looked around the empty hotel room. Trixie was lying on the other full-size mattress that was side by side to hers. She looked at the clock: 10:38 A.M. Daisy had one hundred and one things to do before getting to the Honey Pot. She tried to stand, and her head began to spin. She sat back down. She reached over to the table and grabbed a Polaroid picture that was upside down.

  Ohmigod, she whispered to herself as she looked at the photo of her body squished between two men. There was another photo of her giving head while having sex with someone else doggie style and Trixie doing the same, and then Trixie and Daisy doing men together, each other, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. She looked around the room for her pocketbook. Quickly she fumbled through the purse. The money, where’s the money? She thought carefully back to the night before. Sticks paid me, right? He had paid her before they started drinking. But what the fuck was that he had me drinking? He drugged me, that he did for sure, and he done took back that money he gave me. Quickly she finished putting her clothes on and grabbed her pocketbook. She looked at Trixie. Should I wake her or let her sleep? Daisy decided to leave her asleep. She walked out of the hotel room and made her way down the hall to the elevator. She had collected all the Polaroid pictures left around the room and quickly flicked through them as tears began to drop down her face. She couldn’t believe that Sticks would rape her like that. Pass her around like she wasn’t nothing and drug her up so she couldn’t resist. Shit, I know that damn Trixie is going to want the $350 I promised her. What the fuck am I going to tell her? She’s gonna be mad. Daisy didn’t even want to think about that argument. She would just have to deal with her later. Fortunately for Daisy, though she didn’t know it at the time, the mickey they had slipped Trixie had left her in a real bad way.

  Several hours later, housekeeping found Trixie walking the hallways naked and unable to identify herself. She seemed to be humming a nursery rhyme and had no idea who she was, where she was, the day of the week, the month, or what year it was. The hotel manager called 911 and an ambulance came for her and took her away. By the time Daisy got to the Honey Pot, the news of Trixie was all the girls were talking about.

  “She was in some hotel and was drugged up, raped, and sodomized.”

  “I heard they say she’s never going to come back right, like she’s all messed up in the head.”

  “That mickey shit can fuck you up. I know this one girl, she real retarded now ’cause of that shit, and she was raped too. I wonder who did that to her?” said another girl, turning to see Daisy walk into the room. “Oh, hi, Daisy. Did you hear what happened to Trixie?”

  “Yeah,” said Daisy, “I heard. It’s just unbelievable.” Daisy didn’t want the other girls to know she had taken Trixie to the hotel for Sticks’s little get-together. She didn’t want anyone to know she had anything to do with Trixie’s condition at all. Rape and sodomy were criminal activity, and Daisy wanted nothing to do with a criminal investigation. Damn, did anybody see us leave together last night? Shit, I hope not. What if Trixie phoned a friend and told them she was with me? Damn, damn, damn, I’ll be suspect number one before the night is out. With that cloud of gray news hanging over her head, Daisy just couldn’t seem to get right. All night, she was off her marker. Truth was, she just didn’t feel like working. It was too much, the night before, Sticks beatin’ her for her two thousand dollars and then Trixie being drugged lay a little too heavy on her mind.

  Quitting time couldn’t come fast enough. Daisy was the first one out the door. Walking down the street to the bus stop, Daisy was so lost in her own translation of last night’s events she wasn’t paying attention and bumped into a passerby.

  Her pocketbook fell to the ground and some of the contents fell out. In particular, Sticks’s photo gallery collection. Damn, she thought as she quickly bent to pick her purse off the ground.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Here, let me help,” said a kind voice, as the passerby bent to pick up one of the Polaroids that was lying face down.

  “That’s okay,” said Daisy as she slapped the Polaroid back down on the ground and picked up the photo herself. “I don’t need any help. Thank you,” she said, making eye contact with a fine-looking brother, wearing a business suit at that.

  “I’m so sorry. I was looking at my cell phone and I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going. Can you forgive me?” he politely asked.

  “It was nothing. Of course, I’m fine. Thank you,” she said as she adjusted her pocketbook over her shoulder.

  “I’m Reggie Carter,” he said as he extended his hand to her.

  “I’m Daisy, Daisy Fothergill,” she answered as she took his hand in hers.

  “You know, I was just getting ready to go over to this tiny coffee shop and get a bite to eat. Would you like to join me?” he asked, looking every bit a nerd, glasses and all.

  “Umm, no, no thank you. I must be getting on my way. But the offer is very kind of you.”

  “Well, maybe if you don’t want to grab some coffee or a bite to eat now, maybe another time?” he politely asked, very much hoping to be able to share her company.

  “Ummm, why not,” Daisy said after carefully thinking it over. He seemed nice, well groomed, even though he wasn’t very stylish. He was attractive, tall, brown, and seemed to be well educated.

  “So, what do you do for a living?” he asked.

  Daisy didn’t have a response. For the first time in her life she felt shame at her occupation. She looked down at the Polaroid sticking out of her pocketbook and pushed it back down into the side of the purse.

  “Ummm, I’m a receptionist for a physical therapy center,” she said, lying through her teeth, knowing damn right well she gave out naked massages and whatever else came her way all day and night long.

  “Oh, wow, that’s great. I’m a home line of credit specialist for a mortgage company. You wouldn’t need a line of credit, would you?”

  “I don’t own a home.”

  “Ooops, can’t help you!” He laughed with her.

  “Well, here’s my contact information,” she said after writing down her telephone number.

  “Thanks, maybe we’ll get together for dinner one night this week?”

  “Sure, that sounds nice, just give me a call,” she said as she realized her bus was approaching the bus stop.

  “Take care,” he said as she hurried to the corner stop.

  “You too,” she hollered back.

  He looked at her number. She seemed really nice, attractive, and the plus side was that she had a day job. He had been looking for a nice woman he could make some moves with for quite some time now. Little did he know, she was far from a housewife, but she definitely had some moves he’d be interested in. He decided he wouldn’t waste time and would be wining and dining her before the week was out.

  SWEET DREAMS

  It was like a dream come true. Reggie Carter was a knight in shining armor and had been sent from the angels above to love Daisy, and you couldn’t tell her otherwise. Every day he wanted to see her, every night he was by her side. He even changed his cell phone number, tired of other women calling.

  “I don’t need nobody calling me but you, baby.” Sure enough, that’s what he told her. She should have known
something wasn’t right then and there, but love is blind, and Reggie Carter had Daisy walking around like she was Helen Keller.

  As far as she was concerned, he was turning out to be heaven sent, a real man’s man who doted on her. If she wasn’t feeling well, you best believe Reggie would show up with every over-the-counter medication sold to man. If she had a headache, he’d rub her head. If she said her feet hurt, he’d rub her toes. If she had to shit, he’d be right there with toilet tissue balled up in his hand. And needing something was out of the question.

  “Baby, you won’t need for nothing. You hear me, Daisy, you won’t need for nothing. Maybe want, but never need. I will take care of you.”

  Who was he and where did he come from? Daisy just couldn’t believe it. It was just too good to be true. She questioned everything about him. Everything, even his previous relationships, wives, children, retirement plans, everything. He had a medical card in his wallet and told her that he was the co-owner of a shoe store, on Thirtieth and Sansom streets across from the train station. He even took her there one day and, believe it or not, his business was thriving. He said he had no previous marriages and had no children. He is amazing, just simply amazing. Daisy knew she was in love, she was happy, and she was being taken care of. Thank you, God, I just love him, he’s really perfect. Really, perfect. She just couldn’t believe it was happening and it was happening oh so fast. He was always doing something for her. Refused to let her take the train and even told her that he was going to get her a car, so she wouldn’t have to walk. Whenever he was coming over, he always asked if she needed anything. And he took her to the grocery store and bought food for the apartment every week. One day, Reggie came in with flowers and candy and it wasn’t even Valentine’s.