Streetlife

7 - Frank Prepares

FRANK POV

The summer of 1980 was proving to be brutal and this July was no exception as my tiny cold-water flat in Alphabet City on Avenue A was baking even though I had every window open and several cheap and loud fans going at the same time. Winter wasn't any better here as I would struggle terribly to keep my apartment warm with a space heater, but at least now I wasn't freezing outside or inside.

Yeah, this apartment was a long way away from where I grew up and lived in Boston and even a long way away from Julius place. But, well it was mine and pretty much all I could afford right now.

Lighting my Lucky Strike smoke I glance out the dusty window that I could never get clean as the blaring sun shines down on the hot Manhattan pavement. The sidewalks are littered with trash because of the sanitation strike, and I was doing everything in my power to keep the damm mice and roaches at bay. But the heat just made everything worse and it was the same shit every summer. That it was and it wasn't doing me any favors considering my pimp, Warbucks, was making me work even longer hours as well as having me run ridiculous errands for him at odd hours. Hours I was supposed to be sleeping, and hours that I usually devoted to singing and performing at the gay clubs.

It was my real passion where I could be my self and I think he knew that. I think he knew it very well and was trying to sabotage what little life I did have outside of, well outside of hooking. He'd send me to get his shoes shined, his million suits to get dry cleaned, to pick up his takeout or flowers he ordered for his women and girlfriends. Any and everything he ordered me to do along with delivering drugs and booze for his parties.

I hated the man that's all I knew but I just wasn't in any position to give this up just yet.

As it now approaches 2 PM, and I toss and turn on my mattress, I was hoping to sleep longer but just couldn't. I just wasn't able to get comfortable for anything on my shitty mattress that had springs coming out of it that I found on the street, and my mind was wrecked and in shambles, like always.

Hell, I knew it was the damn drugs messing with me too as Julius loved to always point out, but, well, it wasn't like I was quitting today. I just couldn't. I couldn't seem to function one single day without them, and even though I tried, I just felt a thousand times better once I took a hit.

Of course, Julius warned me that I was "chasing the dragon" and this was a never ending cycle I had started, but I always wondered why he was capable of staying clean while living the kind of life we lived.

I mean there were far worse ways to live, and at least I wasn't homeless like I had been when I first arrived in New York City. But maybe he just didn't get it because Warbucks left him alone and didn't view him as a slave, or his little errand boy...something I was beginning to feel more and more as the days passed by and I had lost sight of pretty much all my dreams.

Putting my smoke out I realize that I need to start getting ready for tonight and gather some of my things to head over to Julius'. It always took me time to get myself together and apply my makeup, wigs and accessories as I'd pretty much transform myself into Cinderella or Cindy. But of course that was something I kept under wraps in my neighborhood and even when I was preforming I went by a different name and wore a different attire all together for I just couldn't risk someone recognizing me. Not at this time anyway.

But tonight I was hoping Warbucks would let me work in the massage parlors again with Julius or for some of his clients that like me for it seemed easier somehow.

Working with Julius was always a breeze, for he made it bearable, and also I hated working the streets for it was a true gamble...I didn't want anyone to know they were fucking a tranny because then it could become dangerous. Very dangerous, and even if Warbucks did protect me as well as his other girls and guys, I had my doubts that he could 24/7. He was one person and his body guards couldn't be everywhere all of the time. Plus, what if he just decided one night that I wasn't worth it anymore. Then what?