Street Tales Read online

  José was physically stimulated; now, he needed to control his mind and focus himself on the task at hand. The harder he tried to ignore Keke, the more easily it became to concentrate. He closed his eyes, and all of those pornographic images began to flash through his mind. He was doing the nasty with some of his favorite porn stars. His mind was in a sexual frenzy. Without Keke really being aware, he came. A small trickle of semen was released from the head of his dick onto her hand.

  José was physically spent as he lay on the bed recuperating.

  “About fuckin’ time,” Keke announced as she headed to the bathroom to wash her hands.

  Despite her nasty attitude, José liked the fact that she didn’t treat him like the sucker he was. She made him feel good about paying her, and that was the difference between her and the other girls on backpage.com. It was the sole reason he kept seeing her every week.

  Keke got back into the car and handed Larry a small percentage of her pay. They would repeat this process every time Keke got a call to turn a trick.

  ***********

  “In fifty feet, you will have arrived at your destination,” the automated computer voice announced. They arrived on Allerton Avenue.

  “Yo, stop right here. Fuck it, keep drivin’,” she suddenly said to her driver. “I don’t want you to pull up directly in front of the house. How many times I gotta tell you that? You know how much bread you blew for me doin’ that shit? Niggas be thinkin’ you my pimp. And these scary-ass niggas don’t wanna spend no money on no bitch wit’ a pimp.”

  “How many times you goin’ to tell me that, Keke? You said that a million times. You not talkin’ to a kid,” Larry replied, shaking his head. “Sometimes, I think you like talkin’ just to be talkin’. I heard you the first.”

  “See, that’s ya problem. You too caught in ya feelings. You blowin’ mine! You hear me, but you not listenin’. ‘Cause if you were, you would have been stopped somewhere back there by now,” she snapped. “You old niggas is hardheaded as fuck. And y’all think y’all know every muthafuckin’ thing. Just ‘cause you been on this earth longer than me don’t make you smarter than me. I been doin’ this shit longer than you been drivin’ me, my nigga.”

  You can’t ever make me feel bad about my age, Larry thought. I know a lot of dead young motherfuckers.

  Unwilling to escalate the situation, Larry remained silent. Mentally, he shook his head in disgust. He just reminded himself that this was a different time, and he was dealing with a different generation. Nowadays, these kids didn’t believe that shit stunk. These pill-popping, plastic surgery-having, poor decision-making youngins had no idea of what the consequences would be of their choices. Sadly, Keke routinely ignored much of Larry’s sound advice.

  For her, there was something about the way Larry disregarded her instructions and injected the wisdom that he had amassed after sixty years on this earth that rubbed her wrong. Keke had her own mind and her own opinions about life and the dirt that she did. Wasn’t no old man going to tell her any different, at least not one she was employing.

  “Right here, good?” he said while smoothly maneuvering the vehicle into a parking space just out of sight of the row house.

  “Yeah!” Keke spat. “Don’t pull off yet either. Wait until I get inside.”

  Larry watched intently while Keke made her way to the front door. With each step, his eyes seemed to be mesmerized by her voluptuous ass. Truth be told, Larry would love to sip from her fountain of youth, which was one of the reasons he tolerated Keke’s foul mouth so much. He was hoping to hang around long enough to get a shot of that pussy. Although Keke sold her body on the Internet, she wasn’t with mixing business with pleasure. Quietly, Larry was too reliable in his role as her driver to lose him over some sex, despite anything he said. She had turned Larry down in not so uncertain terms more times than she could count. Still, that hadn’t stopped him from cracking on her every now and then.

  In her mind, it wasn’t going to happen. On the contrary, in his mind, it just might. Nothing was certain, yet anything was possible, especially if he caught Keke on a bad night.

  Their relationship was one of convenience; she needed a ride to and fro to her dates, and he needed the extra money. Although they had two different personalities, they found a way to make it work. Keke ignored his sexual advances, while he ignored her disrespectful rants.

  As soon as Keke stepped into the house, the stench of beer assaulted her nostrils. She followed the short Mexican man to his room.

  “Money, first!” Keke demanded. “I’m not doin’ shit until you put some money in my hand, yo. Yo comprende?”

  Keke stared defiantly at the lick. This icy look accompanied by her nasty attitude was usually enough for her to get her point across. Her sharp tongue intimidated most men of her own race, let alone some short Mexican immigrant who understood very little English.

  “Sí, señorita,” he replied sheepishly as he handed her his hard-earned cash.

  Since arriving in America, the man had acquired a sexual fetish for African American women. In his culture, they were a forbidden fruit; off-limits. Mexicans tended to date within their own race, hardly ever outside of it, unless it was a Caucasian.

  “I pay for one hour. One hour,” the man said in broken English with a heavy Spanish accent.

  “Listen, Papi,” Keke began before even engaging in sex with the man. “I forgot my condoms in the car. I have to go to the car and get them. I’ll be right back.”

  Keke almost laughed in his face. The idea of ripping the man off was so ridiculous; it was almost too easy.

  “Now, you wait right here. I’ll be right back in five minutes,” she promised. “When I get back, I’m goin’ to fuck the shit outta yo. OK?”

  The Mexican man nodded his head in agreement. It was clear he intended to act on the lustful look in in his eye. Quickly, Keke flashed a seductive smile back at him.

  With that said, she quietly exited the house, giving the man a reassuring smile all the way out the door. Once she got outside, Keke laughed all the way to the curb. She pictured a confused foreigner waiting for her to return. She couldn’t believe how gullible men were. White and Mexican men were the easiest to manipulate. Black guys always gave her the most trouble. They always seemed to want a whole lot of sexual acts performed on them for the least amount of money. Keke tried to avoid them whenever she could. Most times, they just weren’t worth the hassle.

  Whenever Keke saw the opportunity to get paid for nothing, she took advantage of it, even if that meant lying, robbing, and stealing. A come-up was a come-up in her book. She saw nothing wrong with victimizing these strangers she had met on the Internet. A great majority of them she would never see again anyway. With all the lewd sexual acts she was asked to perform, Keke felt like she was owed a little extra. Virtue seemed to be the last thing she was worried about in this line of work.

  “Where is this nigga at?” Keke mumbled to herself. She wanted to get out of there before the trick discovered that he had been got.

  Her eyes widened as she looked up and down the street in an effort to spot her ride, a late-model black Honda Accord. Unfortunately for her, she had no such luck spotting it. Every car she laid her eyes on appeared to be it. The vehicles were mirages—false alarm after false alarm. However, none actually were her ride, which annoyed her even more.

  Frustrated, Keke dialed his number. He picked up on the first ring.

  “Where you at?” she shouted into the phone.

  “Right around the corner,” he told her. His answer barely registered with Keke.

  With all the crazy things that this girl was into, Larry felt like the last thing she should be doing is worrying about him. He was as reliable as they come.

  “Nigga, I need you right here, right now!” she snapped. “Hurry up. I’m tryin’a get the fuck up outta here.”

  She had no idea, where “right around the corner” was, and she wasn’t trying to find
out. Larry had better come to her since that what’s she was paying him for. Not long after she hung up the phone, Larry pulled up right in front of her, and Keke hopped into the car.

  “Where we headed now?” he asked.

  “Just drive, motherfucker; just drive!” she ordered as she inserted the USB charger back into her phone.

  Keke busied herself on her phone checking her app for messages. From time to time, she’d catch Larry looking over at her, trying to mind her business.

  “Take me to McDonald’s,” she blurted out. “I’m hungry as hell.”

  Quickly, Larry found a nearby McDonald’s. He pulled into the drive-thru, and Keke ordered some food.

  “Lemme get a quarter pounder wit’ cheese, large fries, hold the mayo . . .” she said into the speaker, “. . . and lemme get a supersize Sprite, a four-piece chicken McNugget wit’ sweet and sour sauce.”

  “Will that complete your order, ma’am?” The cashier working the drive-thru asked.

  Keke turned to Larry. “You want somethin’, old man?”

  “Nah, you know I don’t eat this shit. It ain’t no good,” he remarked.

  “That’s not what I asked you,” Keke said, shaking her head. “Why everything gotta be a fuckin’ debate wit’ you? You know what, forget it. You ain’t gettin’ shit now. Yeah, miss, that’s it.”

  “Your order will be $10.55. Please drive around to the first window and pay the cashier.”

  Slowly, the car pulled to the first window, and Keke paid for the order; then they drove down to the second window to pick up the food.

  “Thank you for choosing McDonald’s. Enjoy your meal,” came the reply as the fast-food worker handed over the food. Larry passed the bag of food to Keke, and she immediately dug in.

  “You gotta another call?” Larry asked.

  “No, these niggas can wait. I’m eatin’,” she replied.

  “OK, I’ll park then. Ain’t no sense burning gas,” he commented.

  With one hand she devoured the hamburger, while simultaneously texting her girlfriend with the other. Keke stared down at her phone waiting for the return text. How things were going on her friend’s end was the only thing on her mind. These two were in a real competition every night to see who could make the most money nightly, selling pussy on backpage.com.

  My phone is lit, the text read.

  Keke shifted her attention from her food to her phone, dialing her friend’s number immediately.

  “Bitch, how much you made so far?” she cursed into the phone.

  “Almost a stack,” her friend lied, trying to impress her. The temptation was too strong for her to resist.

  Keke’s reaction was as could be expected. She frowned up her face with envy.

  “What?” Keke exclaimed. “You gettin’ to it? Long you been out here for?”

  “Oh, since six o’clock. At first, it was slow. But the last hour or so shit picked up,” Tonya smirked.

  Larry sat in the driver’s seat pretending not to overhear the conversation. He was of such little consequence to Keke that she spoke freely around him. For all intents and purposes, he may as well have been invisible. Keke completely ignored him until she got a new text on her phone.

  “Take me to Dyckman,” she instructed him.

  “Where?” he asked.

  “I’ll tell you when we get there,” she hissed.

  Backing out of the parking spot, Larry put the car in drive and headed to the area he was instructed to take her.

  “Lemme call you back Tonya. I’ma finish eatin’,” she told her. “Talk to you later, bitch!”

  “Oh, you goin’ out to Queens, to Angel’s tonite? It’s supposed to be a movie in there. Tekashi 69 gonna be there,” Tonya said.

  “We there!” Keke exclaimed. “I’ll call you when I’m done, or if you finish first, call me.”

  “Kopy,” Tonya replied before hanging up.

  Keke finished her meal, and Larry drove to the next destination. Things were looking up; her phone was vibrating like crazy with callers from the Internet looking for sex. Her spirits were lifted when she saw the sheer number of texts.

  This might be a good nite, after all, she thought.

  Suddenly her phone rang.

  “Hey, you doin’ out-calls or in-calls?” the caller asked.

  “Out-calls. Read the fuckin’ post!” she stated before hanging up the phone.

  “Ole man,” Keke suddenly said, “can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure; go ‘head,” he told her.

  “Would you fuck wit’ a girl who sold pussy?” she blurted out.

  She was suspiciously quiet at the moment as she awaited an answer she may—or may not—want to hear.

  Expressionless, Larry continued driving, staring straight at the road. Although her question seemed to catch him off guard, he didn’t tip his hand about what he was thinking one way or another. He toyed with the idea of telling her the truth. Perhaps this was the opportunity that he had been waiting for, to get inside Keke’s drawers, not steer her in a different direction.

  Who am I to judge? he wondered.

  Keke had her own life to live, and this was how she chose to live it at the moment. More or less, that summed up how she felt. She expressed that sentiment every day that she called him to take her to work the streets. What she was doing was no one’s business but her own. She was at the stage where she didn’t know which direction her life was headed.

  “You know what they say . . . It ain’t what you do; it’s how you do it,” Larry began. “As long as you’re discreet, why should anyone have to know? Think about it like this . . . You don’t know what ya mama did to put food on the table or clothes on your back. With that being said, do you think any less of your mother?”

  Whether or not she cared to admit it, Larry had a point. So, why should she be ashamed of doing what she was doing? Men do it all the time.

  “Exactly,” she chimed in.

  Immediately, Larry noticed that Keke suddenly looked happy. It was as if he had shed light on a situation that had been bothering her. He didn’t know his words were having the desired effect on Keke until he heard her comment.

  Keke continued, “The reason I asked that question I asked was, this dude was tryin’ to cuff me. We went out a couple of times, and I ain’t goin’ to lie; I was feelin’ him. So I fucked him. Now he wants us to be on some exclusive shit. But I don’t know. I was wonderin’ if I should tell him what I do or keep my mouth shut. What should I do?”

  Personally, Larry thought Keke was crazy. She could deal with one man and get all the material things that she desired. He couldn’t understand how easily she could put a price on something so priceless.

  “If I were you, I’d just be up front with him. Be honest. That way, he can’t ever say you didn’t tell him, Keke. He might not like what you have to say, but he can never say he didn’t hear it from you first. He’s gotta deal with you for who you are, not who he thinks you are. And if none of that stuff don’t work, fuck ‘em. When one man won’t, another man will. You just have to find the one that will,” he explained.

  Larry definitely gave Keke something to think about. Still, she was terrified about what she was doing and the knowledge that she could easily be exposed. Word could get around about her occupation. Say, if she had a fallout with any of her friends, they could take to social media to put her on blast. In this day and age, the thought of that frightened her more than anything else.

  Once she ran into an old classmate while answering ads on Backpage. They came to a mutual agreement, “You don’t tell I’m buying pussy, and I won’t tell you selling pussy.”

  That encounter was the closest she’d come to being exposed. However, it wasn’t enough to make her stop.

  “So, what you going to do?” Larry questioned her.

  Keke answered, “I don’t know; I have to think about it.”

  She refused to make a rush decision, especially a
bout a critical situation like this. Keke would let the thought marinate in her head for a few days before she decided upon anything. She had gotten into the habit of doing what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it. No one could tell her different. Until then, she would just give her suitor information on a need-to-know basis.

  “There’s nothin’ wrong with giving the issue some thought,” he replied, accepting her decision.

  It was no longer a surprise to him how comfortable Keke felt around him. In many ways, he had come to believe that their working relationship was of greater value to her than having sex with him. Larry knew that Keke wasn’t sexually interested in him, to say the least.

  “I feel so much better, now that I had a chance to talk about it,” she admitted. “Thanks, old man. I don’t care what nobody say about you; you all right wit’ me.”

  If nothing else, Larry added a little balance to Keke’s life when she needed it the most by giving her a little wisdom and common sense to make a good decision. At times, he was her voice of reason.

  “You know, it might require time for you to quit doing what you doing,” he said. “Nothing lasts forever.”

  Keke pretended not to hear him. She wasn’t trying to hear that shit. She was going ride this wave for the foreseeable future. The money was too good to give up. Besides, she had an endless supply of product, better than any drug known to man that she could peddle daily. She literally left the house broke and returned with a pocket filled with money.

  This old nigga trippin’, she thought. Stop sellin’ pussy for what?

  Keke wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore. The car arrived at the address, so, it was back to business. Quietly, she savored the silence as much she had the conversation. Now, it was time to get back on her grind. She had some serious partying to do later tonight. If Keke wanted to pop a few bottles, she had to handle her business now.

  “I’m here,” Keke spoke into the phone. “I’m comin’ upstairs now.”

  Keke exited the car, grabbing a small purse that contained condoms and baby wipes and K-Y Jelly. She had a strong feeling that she was going to have to earn her money the old-fashioned way this time. Larry followed her with his eyes until she disappeared inside the building.