Butterfly (2 page)

“Hi, I'm Sparkle.”

“Hi, I'm Butterfly,” I said.

“Butterfly? That's original.” Sparkle laughed.

“Is Sparkle your real name?”

“What do you think?”

“Well, what's your real name then? My name is Shante.”

“Never tell anybody in here your real name, even those you think you're making friends with.”

“Oh.”

“Okay, so what are you? Runaway? Escort? Single mom? What?”

“What do you mean?”

“What brought you here? No little girl has aspirations of being a lifelong dancer. Not this type of dancing anyway. So what brought you here?”

“Different circumstances, but only one really matters...I need money.”

“You seem like a nice girl, Butterfly, so let me give you some advice.”

“Okay.” I spun my chair around and faced her.

“Do what you have to do and get the hell away from here.”

“I'm just doing this to pay back Mr. Harry and make a few more...”

“You don't owe Mr. Harry shit! You do what you have to do as quickly as possible and get the hell away from here! You hear me?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” Sparkle said while taking off her clothes.

“I'm scared, Sparkle. I'm scared and I'm nervous.”

“Don't be. Remember, you're in control out there. Those men are here to worship you.”

“Nobody has ever worshipped me before. Other than my daddy, I ain't even had nobody to really love me before.”

“Trust me, Butterfly, you're about to get more love than you can handle.”

“Well, I guess I better get out there.”

“Here,” Sparkle handed me a glass, “this will make it a lot easier.”

“What is that?”

“Something that will make you feel really good.”

I took a swallow and spat it out.

“What is that?” I shouted.

“Gin and Coke,” Sparkle said. “Do you drink?”

“Nope.”

“How old are you?”

“I'm eighteen.”

“Stop lying!” Sparkle snatched the glass out of my hand. “Now how old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“You better not be lying to me.”

“I'm not lying. I'll be eighteen on my next birthday.”

“Does Harry know you're only seventeen?”

“No, and please don't tell him. I don't have nowhere to go, and this about the only job I can do without a diploma that's going to keep me off the streets.”

“I won't tell him, but you better be telling the truth. You can get Harry in a lot of trouble and get us girls on the unemployment line. And I'm not ready to quit the business just yet. I have a few more bills to pay.”

“Okay.”

“Come on and get out there and show 'em your goods.”

Sparkle smiled and walked out of the dressing room. I took a deep breath and followed her. I walked around too nervous to ask those men if they wanted me to dance for them. But once I felt that first ten-dollar bill in my hand, I was hooked. After that, taking money from the patrons of Emerald City, men and women, was like taking candy from a baby. Sparkle said I was a natural.

Over the next six months, I turned sixteen and with a little fake I.D. assistance from some anonymous friends, I got me an apartment, I got my driver's license, and bought me a car.

Sparkle and I became close friends. I turned to her whenever I had a problem and we shared all of our current secrets to each other, but nothing about our past.

Keeping my past a secret, I had fooled Mr. Harry, Big Ant, the clients, and the rest of the girls at Emerald City. It had gotten to the point where I was beginning to believe my lies, myself. However, Sparkle was at the point where enough was enough!

“Okay, so what are you going to do?”

“Do about what?”

“Workin' at the club.”

“I gotta work, Spark.”

“You can't keep workin up in that club underage. I'm tellin' you it ain't worth it.”

“What else I'm gon' do? I ain't got nobody to take care of me, but me.”

“I tell you what. You can come stay with me until you turn eighteen and we'll go from there.”

“You sure?”

“What did I say?”

“I don't want to get over there and then you kick me out on the street.”

“If you mind your business, you won't have to worry about that.”

“Okay, but I got to work these next few nights to put me a little money up, though. You cool with that?”

“That's cool, but after that, you gots to go.”

“All right.”

Getting out was easier said than done. A few nights later, I went to Mr. Harry's office at the end of the night when I knew he would be tired and not feel like doing a lot of talking. Mr. Harry had money tied into me, and he was not going to let me out of the business just because I wanted out.

“Mr. Harry?” I knocked, and then opened his door. “You got a minute?”

“Of course, I got a minute for my superstar; what's up?”

“I appreciate everything you've done for me here at Emerald City, but I think I'm ready to do something a little different.”

“What do you mean, do ‘something a little different'?”

“I don't want to dance no more.”

“Then what you gon' do?”

“I don't know, go to college.”

“You? In college?” Mr. Harry laughed. “Butterfly, baby, you were born to do this. From the very first time you stepped on that stage, you were a superstar. You can be the best. Why you want to give up on your dream?”

“This ain't my dream, Mr. Harry. This is how I pay bills.”

“Have you seen yourself out there? It's been women who have been at this business for years that ain't half as good as you. There's a lot of money to make in this business and you got what it takes to make as much as you want.”

“Thanks, Mr. Harry, but this ain't what I wanna do.”

“Okay, well,” Mr. Harry paused and gave me a mean look, “what about the money you owe me?”

“I have the money. I can pay you. It's no problem at all.”

“How much you got?”

“I got enough to pay you back for my hotel and my clothes, and my...”

Mr. Harry interrupted me while I was speaking, “Fifty-thousand dollars! You got that? Because that's how much you owe me, fifty-thousand dollars.”

“Mr. Harry you know I ain't got no fifty-thousand dollars. And I don't owe you no fifty-thousand dollars, either.”

“But I said you do!”

“How do I owe you that much money, Mr. Harry, for a hotel room and some clothes?”

“Interest.”

“Please, Mr. Harry, don't do this to me. I don't have that much money.”

“There is another way.”

“What other way?”

Mr. Harry turned his chair to the side and rolled from behind his desk. He unzipped his pants and pulled out his stick.

“Here you go, baby.”

He grabbed his stick in his hand and started to pump it up. I could see it harden right before my eyes. Mr. Harry, himself, was disgusting to look at, but his shriveled-up, nasty, little prick was even more disgusting than his nasty fat body.

“What you want me to do with that, Mr. Harry?”

“Just come touch it.”

“I can't do that.”

“You wanna pay your debt, don't you?”

“Not like this, I don't.”

“Well, you gotta choice. Either you give me some ass, or I'm going to have Big Ant take my fifty-thousand dollars out on your ass! What's it gon' be?”

I slowly walked over to Mr. Harry and he made me kneel down. “Please, Mr. Harry, I'll give you all the money I got, but please don't make me do this!”

“Shut up!” Mr. Harry grabbed my head and started to lower it toward his stick. I closed my eyes as I got closer to it. I opened my mouth and then he screamed at the top of his lungs, “
Oooooo shit!
”

Mr. Harry pushed me away from him and fell to the floor with his stick in his hand. Sparkle burst through the door and shouted, “What's going on in here?”

“She bit my shit!” Mr. Harry screamed.

“She did what?” Sparkle was standing in the doorway when I ran past her. “Butterfly? What happened?”

I kept running out of the club and into my car. Sparkle ran out of the club and knocked on my window. I backed up and zoomed off. By the time I got to the first traffic light, Sparkle was in my rearview mirror flashing her lights. I saw her, but I was not going to stop for her or anyone else. She pulled beside me and honked her horn.

“Stop runnin' from me, fool!”

I was running scared like the sixteen-year-old child that I was. At that moment I did not want to be an adult! I did not want to be grown!

“Butterfly? Shit! Shante? Will you pull your car over before somebody gets hurt?”

That was the first time Sparkle had ever called me by my real name, and it had a calming effect on me. I pulled into a gas station and parked. I did not know what to do so I cried like a lost child. Sparkle parked her car and ran toward mine.

“Baby, you okay?” Sparkle pulled me out of the car and hugged me. “I told you this business is not for you!”

“That man tried to make me suck his...oh my goodness!” I became so overcome with emotion, I began to hyperventilate. Sparkle did her best to try to calm me but I was hysterical.

“It's okay! You're okay! Calm down and breathe, Shante!”

“I...I...I can't!”

“You're safe now! You're safe! Just calm down and breathe!”

“That man...that man...”

“Shante! Shante! You're with me! I'm not going to let him hurt you, okay?”

I put my head on Sparkle's shoulder and cried. She held me until I stopped crying and then we went to her high-rise apartment in Buckhead. That apartment was so high I could almost see over the entire city.

“Wow! This is nice.”

“You like, huh?”

“I thought I was making money at Emerald City, but you must really be making a lot of money to afford all of this.”

“I do, okay.”

“Wow! Thank you for letting me stay here.”

“If you want to thank me, tell me your real age.”

“Okay. But if I tell you, you have to promise you won't be mad at me.”

“I'm not promising shit! Now tell me.”

“Okay, I'm sixteen.”

“You've had a birthday since you've been working at the club, so that means you were only fifteen when you started working at Emerald City?”

“Yeah.”

“Girl, I need to take my belt off and whoop your tall, grown ass!”

“I had to make some money, Sparkle.”

“But you're just a child, Shante.”

“I'm not all the way grown but I'm not a child, either.”

“Whatever! Being tall don't make you grown,” Sparkle snapped. “I need to contact your relatives. I know they're worried sick.”

“The only relative I know of is my father. He's locked up and I don't even know how to get in contact with him. Oh yeah, I have a little sister and a little brother but I don't know where they are, either.”

“Where's your mother?”

“She's dead.”

“I'm sorry to hear that.”

“That's okay.”

“We have to find somebody in your family because my lifestyle is not role-model material for a sixteen-year-old.”

“Why not? You're one of the nicest people I've ever met.”

“I never said I wasn't nice. I said I don't live a role-model lifestyle.”

“I don't need a role model. I just need somebody to help take care of me.”

“That's what I'm saying, dear; I can't take care of you like that.”

“You look like you're doing pretty damn good for yourself to me.”

“I don't mean financially, Shante. You need guidance. You need someone to put you on the right track so that you can have a successful life. I'm too screwed up for that.”

“Can we try? Just for a little while?”

“Don't worry, dear. I would never put you out, or turn my back on you. And you're welcome to stay as long as it takes for me to find you suitable living arrangements.”

“Thank you, Sparkle.”

“Call me Ida.”

“Ida?”

“Yes, that's my real name.”

“That's an old person's name.”

“Well, not that it's any of your business, but I was named after an old person that I loved very much, my grandmother. Is that okay with you, Shante?”

“Hmm, I guess,” I said sarcastically.

T
he very next morning Big Ant paid us a little visit on behalf of Mr. Harry. Sparkle was coming in from a night shift at a new strip club. She was going to bed to end her night as I was getting up to begin my day.

“How was the club last night?”

“It wasn't that packed but a few of my regulars from Emerald City stopped through, so I made a little money.”