was back on the bus that would take her into Center City. She visited two fast-food restaurants and low-end retail stores to fill out job applications. By the end of the day, she was exhausted. She could barely remember the names of all the stores she had applied to but had a feeling that one was bound to call back. As she boarded the bus to Dauphin Street, she noticed the boys who had heckled her outside the mini-mart sitting in the back. They hooted and hollered at her, as she picked a seat as close to the front as possible. The other people riding the bus pretended to be oblivious to her predicament. No one wanted to get involved and redirect the boys’ attention to themselves.
The bus emptied as they drew nearer to Dauphin Street. The boys crept closer to where Alessa was sitting.
Her palms sweated, as the tall boy they called Tag yelled, “So now, how about some of that sweet meat we been talking ’bout? Hell, girl, we’ve been dreamin’ about you. If ya give each of us a real kiss, we’ll leave you alone—for now. Deal?”
To Alessa’s embarrassment and relief, she threw up all over herself. The boys laughed and howled at her.
One of Tag’s drones hollered, “You’re nasty. We don’t want nothing from ya now. But next time we come to see you, if you puke, we’ll make you eat that slop.”
Alessa heard soft laughter from a couple sitting three rows ahead of her on the other side of the bus. When she looked over, a young Black woman was watching her. She went on laughing quietly to herself, as the boys withdrew to the back of the bus, still taunting Alessa about what was to come. She looked at the young woman with wide, imploring eyes, hoping for some compassion, an empathetic response to her plight. But she turned away and continued to look out the front window of the bus. Alessa realized that on the streets of North Philadelphia, no one had any mercy to spare. It seemed as though people were relieved not to be a target themselves.
Alessa put little effort into cleaning the vomit off the front of her outfit. She figured it would serve as a form of protection, like wearing garlic around her neck to keep the vampires away. No one wanted her “sweet meat,” if it meant going through a layer of puke to get to it.
Idiots, Alessa thought, I hope they all choke in their sleep.
Just because she was young, white, and poor didn’t mean she had any lack of experience in knowing how to hate. She hated the teen boys. All she wanted was to be left alone so she could restart her life.
When she got off the bus, Alessa practically ran to her apartment. She saw the young Black woman watching her from the bus and wondered if she were right in assuming that maybe there was a hint of empathy in her eyes, but she didn’t stick around to find out for sure.
***
At four o’clock that afternoon, Lea knocked on her door to let Alessa know she had a telephone call. Expecting it to be Zoe, she answered the phone with a smile.
“Hello?”
“Hi, I’m Brady, the manager of the Dollar Basement. You applied for a position here.”
“Hi. Yes, I did.”
“Okay. Well, can you come in tomorrow at 10 a.m. for an interview?”
“Of course. I’ll see you at ten. Thank you.”
“Yeah, see you at ten.” The phone went dead.
Alessa was ecstatic about the interview and the prospect of getting a job. She called Zoe and told her about it. Zoe gave her pointers on her interview—what to wear, not to repeat “like” after every few words, not to chew gum, and a bunch of other things that Alessa believed would give her the edge she needed to nail the job.
The next morning, Alessa caught the nine o’clock bus to the Dollar Basement on Broad Street. She wasn’t sure what to expect. This was the first job interview she’d ever been to. She was nervous and eager to get on with it. She arrived well ahead of the scheduled time and ducked into a local coffee shop to wait until it was closer to ten o’clock. Shortly before ten, she got up and walked over to the store.
As she entered, two women in their late twenties were working the registers in front. There was a guy around the same age stocking shelves. No one seemed to notice her. She approached the woman at the register closest.
“Hi, my name is Alessa. I’m here for an interview with Mr. Brady.”
The woman regarded her casually. “Yeah, he’s in the office in the back. Walk down this aisle. The door is on the far right. He’s an ass. Good luck.”
Alessa’s whole world was filled with awful people. Would one more matter?
She knocked on the office door and out popped a small, pudgy man in his mid-fifties. He was no more than five feet tall, and the bulge around his stomach thrust through his shirt so rolls of fat flowed over one another and were visible through the gaps between the buttons. His eyes, sunken deep into their sockets, were set too close together, and sleaze seemed to ooze from his pores. The smell of stale coffee filled the air when he spoke, making Alessa’s stomach gurgle in disgust.
“Yeah, you Alessa?” Brady asked.
“I am. Nice to meet you.”
Alessa held out her hand and received a limp handshake. Brady led her into his office and shut the door behind them. She sat on an overused chair with torn upholstery, making a mental note not to touch her face until she had washed her hands.
“So, have you ever worked retail before?”
“No, but I want to learn. I’m sure I can be good at it. I’m very good with people,” Alessa lied.
Brady sized her up. “You know, we are open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, so your hours will vary. You have any issues with that?”
“No, I’m available any time. The more hours I can get, the better.”
Brady read over her application and looked back at her. “I see you will be eighteen this Saturday. You in high school?”
Alessa had lied about her birthday on the application.
“No. I am studying for my GED. My parents died in a car accident a few months ago. They didn’t have any money. So I needed to quit high school to get a job to support myself. I don’t have any other family.”
“Yeah, that’s too bad. As long as you don’t let your personal issues screw up my scheduling, I don’t care. I can start you tomorrow if you want. The job pays minimum wage. I can probably give you forty hours a week. There are no benefits, but you get a half hour for lunch and two fifteen-minute breaks for an eight-hour shift. I need you on the second shift for the rest of this week, including Saturday. The second shift is from noon to closing. I’ll have one of the other girls teach you how to close.”
Alessa was so excited she readily agreed to all his conditions.
As she was on her way out, one cashier asked, “So, are you gonna work here?”
“Yes, I start tomorrow on the second shift.”
“Good,” the woman responded. “We need someone to cover that lousy shift. Since we have seniority, you had better get used to working it.”
Alessa left, relieved that she had found a job. The minimum wage was enough to cover her rent and still leave her with a couple of hundred dollars a month for groceries. Things were falling into place for her. She got off the city bus at Fifth and Dauphin. Then she noticed the young Black woman she had seen on the bus the day before.
Alessa approached her. “Hello.”
The young woman was stunningly beautiful. Her skin, slightly darker than Alessa’s olive tone, was flawless. She had beautiful almond-shaped eyes, a slender nose, and full pink lips. Her hair was jet-black and shoulder-length, with soft brown highlights. She was thin, with perky breasts and a plunging neckline showed off their fullness.
The young Black girl looked Alessa up and down before responding. “Hi. Ain’t you that girl who puked on the bus the other day?”
Alessa blushed, feeling a fool. “Yeah,” she admitted, “that was me. I don’t know what happened. I got so scared, and it flew out of me.”
“Well, my name is Tasha, and those boys are bad news. They don’t mess with me because they know my brother will kill ’em. There ain’t much you can do about it, but try to avoid them. They aren’t just screwin’ with you. They would do the stuff they were threatening you with. They roam around here causing trouble for whoever is in their path. So don’t take it personally. You live down at old lady Lea’s house, don’t you?”
“Yes, it was the only place I could find that I can afford. I got a job at the Dollar Basement on Broad Street.”
Tasha laughed, and Alessa blushed, embarrassed. The girl must have thought she was pathetic.
“Okay,” Alessa said, backing away. “Well, maybe I’ll see you around. Nice to meet ya.” Alessa retreated a few steps before realizing she hadn’t introduced herself. She turned around again and said, “I’m Alessa, by the way.”
As she walked away, Tasha yelled back, “Remember what I told you about those goons! Be sure to stay away from ’em!”
Tasha felt sorry for the girl. She looked like she had no one in the world. And she was so naïve! She wondered if Alessa would make it through the week in this neighborhood. People didn’t live here without some protection. She knew Alessa didn’t know that she was living in hell on earth.
Around dinnertime, Tasha’s curiosity got the better of her and she walked down to old lady Lea’s place, looking for Alessa. When she knocked on the front door, Lea opened it a crack.
“What do you want?” the old woman snapped.
“I’m here to see Alessa. Can you get her for me or let me in?”
“Wait here. I don’t want any trouble coming into my house.”
Lea shut the door behind her, and a few minutes later, Alessa appeared. She stepped out onto the broken porch and was surprised to see Tasha.
“Hey, what’s up?” Tasha said. “I stopped by to see if you wanted to go to that chicken place down the block and get some dinner. I was on my way there and thought you might want to come.”
Alessa almost wet herself in her excitement. “Okay, let me grab some money and I’ll be right back down.”
She reappeared within minutes, and the two girls walked down to the restaurant. Tasha talked about her family. Alessa discovered that Tasha’s mother was white, while her father was Black. The mix explained her beautiful complexion and fine features. Tasha told Alessa that her older brother, Harlin, was all white. Her mother had been married before to some Irish jerk and had lived in South Philly before he almost beat her to death. Then she met Tasha’s father and married him. Tasha was the only kid from that marriage. She also revealed that her brother was a badass dude nobody in North Philly would ever dare mess with. Harlin and the gang he hung with were tough and didn’t take crap from anybody.
When they got to the fast-food restaurant, Tasha pulled out a big wad of cash to pay for her dinner.
Alessa looked at the wad of bills, and her mouth dropped open. “Where did you get all that money?”
“I sell pot for Harlin,” she replied nonchalantly, “and he takes good care of me. Some of this is from a couple of big sales I made before I got to your apartment, and some of it is mine. I’m meeting Harlin after we’re done eating to give him his money and get more dope. You want to come with me?”
Alessa would have done about anything to have a friend. “Sure,” she said.
After dinner, they walked to a row home in the 600 block of Dauphin Street. Alessa observed that the front door and windows were barred, and even the second-floor windows had bars on them. The row home on the right was boarded up. The one on the left was run-down, but there were lights on inside. Tasha knocked, and a man answered the door. He was muscular and nearly six feet, four inches tall. Alessa couldn’t stop staring at him. He had large green eyes, shaped like Tasha’s, and light brown shoulder-length hair. He had a strong face, with a well-defined chin and jaw. He flashed Tasha a broad smile, showing off his perfect teeth. Even though she wanted nothing to do with boys, all Alessa could think about was how much she wanted the guy to lean over and kiss her.
Tasha pointed to Alessa. “This is Alessa, a new friend of mine.” Then she gestured toward the good-looking guy. “This is my brother, Harlin.”
“Is she cool?” Harlin asked, studying Alessa intently.
Alessa immediately wished she had taken the time to change into one of Rhonda’s cooler T-shirts.
“Yeah, she’s cool,” Tasha assured her brother. “She’s new around here. Living at old lady Lea’s house.”
Convinced Alessa was okay, Harlin opened the broken screen door and let them in.
