h o l l y b e n n e t t
3 6
her mom too. Who knows how something like that will
affect you?
She looked at me seriously. “I guess that was the
point. But I was in counseling for quite a while before I
could see it. At the time, I thought she deserved it, that
I was just giving her what she wanted.”
“What made you come home?” I asked.
“For one thing, it was October, and it was getting
damn cold.” She flashed a quick, tense smile. “But more
important, I had two scary things happen to me two
nights in a row. A pimp with this poor girl in tow—
God, she looked awful: bruises under her makeup and
so stoned she could hardly keep her eyes open—tried
to recruit me, and not by asking politely. And then a
crackhead pulled a broken bottle on me and threatened
to cut my face up if I didn’t give him money. He had
me up against the wall, and if one of those bike cops
hadn’t come pedaling by, I don’t know if I would have
got away. I ran until I felt like my head was going to
explode, and when I stopped I was at the bus station.
And I knew I had to get my life back together, or I was
going to end up dead.”
Wow. I felt like a ten-year-old kid, like nothing bad
had ever happened to me. I didn’t know what to say, so
I just put my arm around her and pulled her in close,
and she snuggled right up to me. She didn’t cry though.
She sniffed and dragged the back of her hand across her
nose and dogged on through.
