“Excuse me, mister,” she began. “I’m homeless and hungry. If you would be so kind and spare some change it would be greatly appreciated ….”

The old white man just ignored her and kept walking. He was very wary to whom he gave his hard-earned money. One never could tell who was on drugs these days. He left her standing there looking stupid. At the same time, another stranger overheard the conversation and came to her aid.

“Here you go,” she said, placing a twenty-dollar bill in her hand.

“God bless you,” Gloria replied. “Thank you, miss.”

“Is it true? What you told dat man ’bout you bein’ homeless?” Kat inquired. Kat had noticed Gloria, thinking that even though she was dressed like a bum, she was beautiful. She was pretty enough to be any man’s wife. And yet she was living like this.

Gloria was reluctant to talk to her. She answered with a look.

“Come on, I’ll buy you a soda.” Gloria nodded and followed Kat. “Where you from?” Kat asked, stepping up to a self-serve soda fountain. “Let’s sit down.” Kat motioned to a bench.

“Why you being nice to me?”

“Well,” Kat said, “you look like you’ve had a hard time and don’t deserve it. You out here, but you look too good for me to think you been out here long. I might be able to help you.”

“Help me?” Gloria looked doubtful.

“What’s your story?” Kat asked.

Kat was in the station because she had worked a private party in New York. When she saw Gloria it occurred to her that she could find girls to work the parties with her. What better women than those who needed somebody to have their back. Fuck a pimp getting a piece of the piece a woman sells. She wanted an alliance of women like herself who needed to hustle but didn’t want to be under any man’s rule.

In Gloria, Kat saw someone so down in the dumps that she could mold and control her.

“If you want to, you can come stay wit me, at my crib. I gotta extra room,” Kat offered. Gloria hesitated but Kat could see the joy already registering all across Gloria’s face.

“Fa real?”

“Fa real!” Kat replied. “You too pretty to be livin’ like dis. There’s all types of shit you could be doin’ ta get paid. I’ma show you how ta make some ‘real’ money.”

Gloria wanted to ask what she meant by that but she didn’t say anything. No matter what Kat was offering it was more than she had at the moment. Together they hopped in a cab and headed straight to Kat’s house. Kat had a gut feeling that this was the best twenty dollars she ever invested.

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER
4