by Noire
Getting back in the New York groove had been a lot easier than Pearl had thought it would be. There was something about being back on the streets of Harlem that made her walk different, talk different, and definitely look at the world in a totally different way.
New Yorkers had some bad-ass swagger, Pearl realized. There was something about this city that was colorful and moved to a funky rhythm that felt like the beat of congas and steel drums and maracas all in one.
Pearl was a little nervous about the huge task she had bitten off, but she knew she could handle it. Giving back to the community ran in her blood, and she shook off her old fears and dug deep inside for the confidence that was her birthright.
She had been up half the night making sure everything was set for this day. Menace had brought in a team of contractors to put up a Sheetrock wall and partition off one side of No Limitz so that her girls could have their own space. They would have their own computers and their own bathroom too. In fact, they’d have everything they needed to help them gain the confidence and self-esteem to get back on their feet and recognize their human value and intrinsic worth.
Pearl had invited over twenty girls from Forty-second Street to the grand opening of the women’s center at No Limitz. She had no idea how many would actually come, but several seemed excited when she told them what she was doing and promised they would do their best to swing by.
Although she would have been happy just to have at least ten girls show up, Pearl was prepared for all twenty. She had ordered bomb turkey-and-cheese heros and macaroni salad from the deli up the street and decorated the room with colorful balloons and streamers that said WELCOME, BEAUTIFUL BLACK QUEENS! She had stuffed bright yellow folders with information about welfare and food stamps, alternative high schools, emergency shelters, domestic violence centers, drug abuse and rehabilitation hotlines, and any other information she thought might help these girls get their feet up under them.
Pearl had done everything she could think of to provide the young girls with information on services that were readily accessible to them and that would meet their most immediate needs. She was confident that those who really wanted help and were willing to take that first step could definitely be helped.
Pearl had done something else for the girls at the Sunset Motel too.
Something they had no idea she was doing for them.
Just two days earlier a scuffle had gone down on the street outside of the Sunset Hotel. Somebody had dropped a dime, and the local police department had been alerted to the presence of a twice-convicted felon who was wanted on numerous major outstanding warrants. They’d rolled up with guns drawn and dropped one Tony “Scotch” Allen to the ground with a series of blows from their nightsticks that should have knocked him straight the fuck out.
But Scotch was a two-time felon and going to jail on a third major charge wasn’t something he was gonna just lay down for easily. He’d fought like a muthafucka, and when the cops got tired of tussling with him they Tasered his ass right into submission.
Pearl had stood across the street watching and laughing inside as Scotch got his. She’d showed up to drop some positive words on the young chicks before the next pimp moved in on Scotch’s action, and she ended up sticking around to enjoy the show. Good for that niggah!
She had to give it to them Blue Boys of NYPD. They wasn’t no joke. They were serving Scotch’s ass good, but Pearl knew that niggah still had a lot more payback to get. His real punishment would come when he went to trial and got sentenced for human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution. The smooth-talking two-time felon was about to become a three-time loser, and even the squarest cat in town knew what that meant. Scotch had fucked over his last young girl! Thanks to Pearl he now had three strikes against his black ass and he was going upstate to be a pretty boy for life!
Pearl ran around No Limitz putting the last-minute touches down. The floors had been mopped and waxed, there was plenty of food and cold juice and sodas, and there were fresh towels, robes, and even unopened packs of panties and bras stacked in the ladies’ room.
She’d asked the girls to come by at 2 p.m., and after helping her clean up and making sure she was straight, Menace had left the center at 1:30. They’d closed the doors to their male clients, even though Saturday was their busiest day, because they both thought the young girls would be more comfortable if there were no men hanging around.
At 2:15 Pearl was sweating. She went outside and looked up and down the street, but all she saw were the regular folks from the Harlem neighborhood, shopping, playing, and generally enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful weather.
By 2:30 Pearl was officially worried, and by three o’clock her ass was sick.
It wasn’t until 3:30 that Pearl allowed the blanket of disappointment to fall fully around her shoulders. She tried not to feel too bad, but it was hard not to. Maybe she didn’t have that thing that Irish and Zeta had had, she thought. Maybe she hadn’t given the girls enough motivation, or radiated that confidence that made people place their trust in a stranger.
Pearl wasn’t stupid and she wasn’t naïve. If she wasn’t able to rescue her own twin from the grips of the street life, what in the world made her think she could rescue a bunch of perfect strangers? Hell, Irish got most of the boys in his program because the judge mandated them to be there. Not because they walked in on their own. None of the girls Pearl had picked up off the strip had any special reason to allow her access into their lives or to trust her. This was New York. That’s just the way shit was.
Reaching for the cell phone clipped to her jeans, Pearl called Menace and gave him a quick rundown.
“It didn’t work,” she told him, fighting hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice. “I guess they wasn’t feeling me, ’cause nobody showed up. You can come on back now, and bring the boys with you so they can eat up some of this food.”
Menace wasn’t feeling that.
“Just because they didn’t come today doesn’t mean they won’t come one day,” he reassured her. “People don’t heal and grow on somebody else’s schedule, Pearl. They can only do that shit when they’re ready. Those girls know where you are. And they know who you are too. They’ll find you when they need you. It might not happen today and it might not happen tomorrow, neither. But if you keep your heart open, Pearl, some of them will definitely come.”
The turkey-and-cheese heroes were all that. There was nothing like that long New York Italian bread to make a sistah feel good. It was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. It wasn’t a sub and it damn sure wasn’t a hoagie. In New York it was a hero, and it had its own distinct taste and flava, just like everything else in the naked city.
Pearl sat down in one of the chairs she’d arranged in a semicircle around a podium and took a big bite of the sumptuous sandwich. She swigged some cold vanilla cream soda straight from the can and thought about her sister.
Both her and Diamond had loved eating heros when they were growing up, which was one of the reasons Pearl had decided to serve them to the girls on the track today. She had ordered way more than enough because she knew that no matter how much bank a prostitute made on her back each night, almost all of it went to her pimp. A lot of those girls barely got enough to eat on a daily basis, and she figured some of them might want to take some food back with them.
With Menace and some of their male clients on the way down, Pearl knew the food wouldn’t go to waste, though. She finished eating slowly, glancing around the room at her carefully placed decorations with more than a little sadness in her heart.
She had just gotten up to throw her napkin in the trash when she heard the front door open. Pearl turned around with a wry smile, expecting to see her man’s handsome chocolate face, but instead she was treated to several pairs of street-worn eyes and uncertain smiles.
“Sorry we so late,” said a girl that Pearl had come to know as Uniqua. “You know niggahs and bitches can’t be on time for shit!”
&nb
sp; All Pearl could do was grin. Uniqua was a beautiful dark-skinned girl of about sixteen who had the prettiest smile that Pearl had ever seen. Uniqua had told Pearl bits and pieces of her personal story, and the fact that the young girl still had the strength to smile after all she had gone through in her short life seemed like a miracle to Pearl.
And Uniqua hadn’t come by herself, either.
Pearl’s smile got big as shit as almost all twenty girls she had invited filed into the room, plus over twenty more! Most of them were dressed in their hoochie hooker street clothes, and there were mad juicy titties and phat asses hanging out galore.
“You said we could bring some of our friends,” a young Hispanic girl said, sashaying up to Pearl for a hug. Her name was Juliana and she was from Spanish Harlem. She had big hips and a bright attitude, and Pearl had grown to really like her. Juliana was thirteen.
Pearl stood in the middle of the room watching as the girls came in and rushed straight over to the long table that was stacked with food. Some of them were wrapping heros and chicken wings in napkins and sticking them in their purses and all up under their clothes, but Pearl didn’t care. They could have any damn thing they wanted today. She hoped and prayed that they’d strive for everything they needed tomorrow.
Menace showed up just as the girls had finished grubbing. They were laughing and talking and clowning around just like kids taking a break from their grown-woman duties.
Go away! Pearl mouthed and waved Menace away from the door with a big grin. Come back later! Him and the boys started acting up, pointing at the food table and making eating motions as Pearl shooed them away.
It took more than twenty minutes to take the girls on a tour of the center. They were crazy and wild and running their hands all over the computers and printers and touching everything that looked high-tech and wasn’t a part of their normal world.
A lot of them freaked out when they saw the brand-new bathroom and the five big, clean shower stalls. It seemed like Pearl had only blinked twice and in a flash all the towels, bathrobes, and endless packs of panties and bras she had filled the room with had disappeared. These girls were desperate and resourceful. Like scavengers, they were out to get any and everything they could.
“Oh, I’ma be first in one of those big-old showers and then I’ma put me on two pairs of these clean drawers,” one girl announced, causing everybody else to bust out laughing.
Pearl turned toward the voice and was astounded to see it was Cookie, the beautiful young girl with the dead-looking eyes. The girl who reminded her so much of Diamond. Pearl smiled at the girl and got a shitty twisted lip in return.
Cookie turned to her friend and muttered, “I don’t know what the hell she looking at. Only reason I came was to get something to eat. After I get in that shower and wash my ass, I’m out.”
Yeah, Pearl said to herself. This one was gonna need a whole lot of time and attention. But she was capable of being helped, Pearl knew. It was just a matter of offering herself and her love, and putting in the work.
“Okay, ladies,” Pearl said loudly as she shuttled the girls back into the main room and encouraged them to take a seat. There weren’t enough chairs so some of them sat together, half of somebody’s ass hanging off the side of each seat.
Pearl looked out into the sea of worn, but innocent and expectant faces. She saw possibilities in each of them. She saw possibilities in herself.
“Y’all know I asked you to come down here because I see hope and promise in each of you. Some of y’all probably came just to get off the track for a quick minute, others might have come because I promised to hook y’all up with some free food.” Pearl waited as they laughed and dapped each other, covering their mouths like the joke was on her.
“But I want you to know,” she held up her hand and continued, “that it really doesn’t matter why you came. The important thing is that you made it here.”
Pearl paused and took a deep breath. She felt the blood of her father coursing through her veins and it felt so damned good. Pearl was starting to believe that if she opened up her arms wide enough some of the girls would walk into them on their own.
“Check it out. I’ve heard it said that every journey begins with just one step, and I believe that. But before we can walk we have to crawl. And before we can crawl, we have to first believe. Belief begins with the words we tell ourselves. It begins with a single sentence.”
Pearl came from behind her podium and stood before the girls, the light in their expectant eyes warming her soul until there was no room in her heart for selfishness anymore.
“I’d like you to turn around, ladies. Turn around and read that sentence written on the wall behind you. Let’s say the words out loud together as we begin a journey into the possibility of a new life.”
“There are no limitz on a soul emboldened and a mind inspired. ”
• • •
Pearl smiled. Every one of them, even her tough little Cookie had spoken the words out loud. And really, Pearl knew, that was all it took. Speaking could lead to believing, and believing could lead to changing.
Pearl looked out at the young prostitutes and sighed deeply. Grief tried to sneak up on her and shut her down, but she wouldn’t let it. She might not be Daddy’s Pearl anymore, but these young girls needed her, and from now on she would always be Harlem’s Pearl.
I can change! was something Pearl had heard her twin sister say over and over throughout the years. I can change!
Yes, Diamond. Pearl whispered a few silent words of love to her twin.
There are no limitz in this life, my sister, but with a soul emboldened and a mind inspired, all of us can change. Even me.
She’s Harlem’s Pearl and she’s here to stay
She cut down the thugs who took her family away!
She found room in her heart for the girls on the track
Now she’s helping little sisters get their precious souls back
There’s no place like Harlem so she stayed and flipped the script
’Cause hell has no fury like a chick who comes unzipped!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to the Father for my highs and my lows, my peaks and my valleys.
Without both, who would I be?
Stay Black
NOIRE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NOIRE is an author from the streets of New York whose hip-hop erotic stories pulsate with urban flavor. Visit the author’s website at www.asknoire.com or email the author at [email protected].
Unzipped is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A One World Trade Paperback Original
Copyright © 2010 by Noire
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by One World Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
ONE WORLD is a registered trademark and the One World colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-51969-6
www.oneworldbooks.net
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