Still Candy Shopping by Kiki Swinson Page A

fucking prostitutes. And Slim was their pimp. Now all the clutter of women’s clothing and shoes made sense.
    As the girls were about to head back out onto the streets, I politely got up from the couch, grabbed my duffel bag, and walked toward the door to leave. “Hey, Slim, I gotta make a run,” I told him as I began to leave.
    Slim turned around. “Where you going?” he asked.
    “I gotta make a run,” I said again.
    “You ain’t going nowhere, so sit your ass down!” he roared.
    I looked at Slim’s face and could see that his whole demeanor had changed. He literally looked like he was possessed with a demon. I couldn’t fucking believe my eyes. I tried to run for the door, but he reached over and grabbed me by my hair. If I’d moved one more inch, he would have snatched every strand of hair from my head. That was how tight his grip was.
    Caught completely off guard, I screamed, “Get off me!” Both girls looked at me as I struggled to get him to loosen his grip.
    “Shut the fuck up, bitch!” he snapped and yanked me backward, causing me to lose my balance and fall to the floor.
    Lying on my back, I looked up at Slim, who by this time was standing over me. “What is wrong with you?” I screamed. “Are you crazy or something?”
    I had to let this bastard know that I wasn’t his fucking property, so he needed to recognize that. Unfortunately he had some other shit on his mind, because as soon as I expressed how I felt about him putting his hands on me, he reached down and wrapped his entire hand around my throat. I tried to prevent him from choking me, but everything I tried just would not work. I thought that maybe one of the young girls would get up the nerve to help me, but I found out the hard way that I had to deal with this psycho on my own.
    While I gasped for air and struggled to get his hand from around my neck, he started lifting me up from the floor. Where in the hell was he getting his strength from? I tried to cry out, but the only sound I could belt out was a choking sound. And from the looks of things, my situation did not look like it was going to get any better unless I stopped resisting. So that was what I did. And guess what? The asshole loosened his grip and eventually released his hand from my neck altogether.
    When Slim let me go, I fell back onto the sofa. I sat there and tried to re-group. The high from the dope I had just injected into my arm was long gone and replaced by a feeling of fear. While I was coughing and massaging my throat, Slim grabbed my duffel bag from the floor and threw it down the hallway toward the back of the apartment. His actions immediately told me that he had no intention of letting me go anywhere. Both girls must’ve known that too, because after they witnessed him toss my bag, they turned around and quickly made their exit.
    After they left the apartment, a million things ran through my mind. Watching Slim walk back and forth from the kitchen area to where I was made me feel really uneasy. I knew that it was only a matter of time before he tried to rape me. I didn’t know whether to play his game or go against the grain. But I did know that I didn’t want to be there, and if I didn’t think of an escape plan really soon, then I was going to end up being one of his bitches just like those young girls.
    “You know you made me do that to you, right?” Slim asked as he continued to pace from the kitchen to the living room. “I was trying to warn you, but you didn’t wanna listen.”
    I just sat there and looked at him. I couldn’t believe what the fuck I had just gotten myself into. Not even thirty minutes ago I was walking down Washington minding my own business. And then Slim approached me and convinced me to come and chill with him at this apartment. I realized too late that he was a fucking pimp and I was his next recruit. How was I going to get out of there without him ripping me to shreds?
    I sat there clueless. I finally decided to strike up a