Armstrong
by Bill Bailey
 

The Last Strip

It's a Family Addiction
by Robert Baucom

 

Crystal Evans

First Boy
by Denise Brown
Third Place Winner, Fiction

 
Face
by Rachel Busnardo
  Carlie raced around the corner of the dingy gray square building careful to dodge the large pothole, jumped the railing, threw open the back door and let it slam shut behind her. In the safety of the building she bent over double, her lungs screaming for air and her heart pounding against the cage that held it in place.

She glanced down at her watch and saw she had made the five mile run from the hotel where she worked afternoons as a maid in less than forty minutes, her best time yet. She had been making the run five times a week for nearly the last four years and her time had improved drastically.

Running had put her in the best shape of her life. She had always been slender but the workout with a large backpack filled to brimming with heavy textbooks on her back and a duffle bag with her work uniforms slung over her shoulders, had melted away every ounce of fat and chiseled her body into perfect form. With her dark brown eyes, voluptuous long brown hair, smooth almond skin and killer curves she was nothing short of stunning.

When her chest began to rise and fall at a steady rate and her heart stopped fighting its way out of her body she went to her dressing room that she shared with Sarah. One quick glance told her that Sarah had not gotten there yet, not that she would have expected her here this early, and she closed the door behind her.

Carlie undressed and hopped into the shower. The cold water ran down her back, cooling her body and washing away the sweat and the grim. At first she savored the cool contrast of the water against her hot skin but she quickly began to curse the bad plumbing job her boss Rick refused to fix as her body involuntarily shuddered in the icy cold temperature of water from pipes that refused to render any warmth. She quickly finished her shower and got out.

Reaching into her duffel Carlie pulled out a clean pair of sweats and threw them on. Glancing at the clock overhead she noted that she had a good hour to study before the other girls would begin arriving and she would need to get ready.

Carlie grabbed her backpack and dragged it over to her vanity mirror that she used to get ready. Reaching into her bag she grabbed her laptop and her notes from her interviews with the President of the Associated Student Government at her University and a couple of students about the upcoming presidential election. Having written hundreds of articles before she quickly pounded out the piece for the school newspaper and made a mental note to e-mail it to her editor when she got to school the next day. Then she pulled out her communications notebook and began pouring over her notes in preparation for her test the following week. She was so absorbed in her studies that she did not hear the door open when Sarah got there.

“BOO!”

“God damn it Sarah!” Carlie screamed as she jumped a foot in the air. “I hate it when you do that.”

“I know but it’s so funny,” retorted Sarah with a kind-hearted lopsided grin that always made Carlie forgive her immediately. “I do it every night and yet you never fail to jump, it’s great. So how’s school going?” She asked gesturing to Carlie’s mess of notes.

“Good, hard to believe there’re only two months left until I get to graduate and leave this hellhole.”

“I’m jealous, I’m going to be stuck here forever, or at least until I’m too old and ugly to work here anymore and then I’m just going to be screwed. So you heard from any of the places you applied to yet?”

“Well you should go to school and no I’m still waiting. Not sure if anyone will hire me until I have a degree in my hand, but we’ll see. May’s not that far away. If I don’t have a job before then I’ll just have to bug the hell out of them again when I graduate.”

Sarah chuckled and shook her head. “They have a death wish if they decide to tell you no. Anyway we better start getting ready; Rick’ll kill us if we aren’t ready on time again.”

Carlie grabbed her bag and pulled out her outfit for the night. After she pulled off her sweats she put on a black lacy bra and stepped into a matching thong, then she shimmied her way into a skin tight black dress that was slit down past her navel and up past her right hip. She sat down and grabbed her makeup bag and applied liberal amounts of eye shadow and a red lipstick. After she had straightened her hair she admired herself in the mirror. She wasn’t arrogant, but she could not deny she was beautiful. One last look over and she was satisfied that she was ready.

“Hey, Candy, you ready?” Carlie asked Sarah, referring to her stage name.

“Yep. Let me get a good look at you, Destiny.” Sarah said, turning to scrutinize Carlie. “Yep, absolutely gorgeous, as usual. Let’s go.”

They headed out together to the main room and when they got there Destiny, for Carlie did not exist inside this room, silently cursed all the men in the room for their womanizing ways and then thanked God that they were that way, for after all they were paying her way through college.

She made her way to her table hopped up and began to dance around the pole. Despite the disgust she was filled with, the disgust she was always filled with, she kept dancing with a large smile on her face and slowly, very slowly, began to seductively strip in order to please the men surrounding her. When one of the younger, obviously drunk, guys made a particularly uncouth slur and tried grabbing at her she thought of the money that had already been thrown her way and then reminded herself, just two more months.

At the end of the night Carlie went back to her dressing room, placed the wad of cash she had been tipped into her bag and took another ice cold shower to wash away her sweat and all the beer that had been spilt on her. When she stepped out she felt as though Destiny had been left behind and she was just Carlie again.

“Hey Sarah you ready to head home?” Carlie asked when she was dressed and had her things together. Her eyes were heavy from long day and she longed to fall into a comatose state on her bed.

“Yep, let’s go.”

They headed out to Sarah’s car and as they turned the corner of the building towards the parking lot there were two guys loitering in front of the club. Carlie instinctively got closer to Sarah for protection.

“Hey ladies, looking good,” said the shorter, and apparently more drunk of the two. “Where are you two headed?”

They ignored him knowing that pleasantries would only encourage him and continued toward the car. Though they were walking briskly the men quickly closed the gap between them.

“What’s the hurry ladies? How ‘bout one more dance?” came his drunken slur.

They continued on their path to the car but Carlie felt a hand grab at her shirt and heard a ripping noise and felt cold air against her abdomen. Her heart raced as she swiveled on the spot and sprayed the can of mace that she had concealed in her hand at the man who now held her shirt in his hand.

“Carlie run!” She heard Sarah shout and she took off toward the car.

When they reached it they threw open the doors, paused only a second to be sure no one was hiding in the backseat and then pealed out of the parking lot.

They rode in silence for a couple of miles until they had both regained some composure.

“Hey, Carlie, are you okay?”

“Yeah he just got my shirt and scared the shit out of me but I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Right after that short guy ripped your shirt the other one tried to grab me but thank God I had the taser, he got a nasty little shock, that’s when I told you to run.”

“Stupid horny bastards.”

“Amen”

When they reached the house Carlie stumbled up the steps of the front porch and staggered down the hall to her small room. She fell onto the bed exhausted, still shaken up from the attack and though they were always prepared for one she had hoped she would never actually ever have to use the mace, and she began to wonder if it was all worth it. Then her thoughts turned to her mother but she fell asleep before her thoughts could get very far.

The next month passed in a slow torturous whirlwind of mornings at school, afternoons working at the hotel, evenings dancing on the pole and sleep-deprived nights. Then, with less than a month till Carlie would walk and get her diploma, she received her graduation tickets. She had only requested two. Knowing that Sarah was the only person who would show up to see her graduate, she gave one of the tickets to her. Then she took then other ticket, went to the local florist and got a bouquet of two dozen roses and headed the train.

When she got off she walked about a mile up the road and turned onto the grassy slope. She walked up the hill, letting her feet carry her up the familiar path and knelt down before a large white tombstone. As was her routine she set down the flowers and then slowly traced the name and inscription upon the tombstone.

“Hey mom,” Carlie whispered. “Sorry it’s been so long, things have been a little crazy recently. But guess what? I’m graduating in about a month, May 19th. And I’m graduating with honors, imagine that, I’m actually smart. Anyway I brought you an invitation. Sarah is going to come and you’re the only other person I really wish would be there. You know I love you, even if you never could love yourself.”

Carlie blew one kiss at the grave stone wishing that she could see her mother again, and wondering why she had done it, why anyone would do it. She would never forget the day she came home to find her mother on the floor. When she found out she had done it to herself Carlie understood just how bad the depression had been. That night Carlie decided that she was not going to be a maid till it killed her as it had her mother. So that night she applied for college and got a job as a stripper to pay for it.

Carlie put in her two weeks notice at the hotel the day she got her graduation tickets. She had never really needed the job, but it provided a little extra cash for savings and gave her a stable work history, for she sure as hell was not going to get a job at Harwitt Publishing Group, her ultimate dream job, with four years of stripping under her work experience.

The last month of school went by in a frenzy. She barely had time to catch her breath before she was walking to pick up her diploma. After the ceremony was over she hurried to find Sarah. She could hardly contain the broad grin the kept creeping its way onto her face. When she finally found Sarah she too had a huge grin on her face.

“I’m so proud of my little Carlie,” she said in a baby voice, but the sentiment behind it was real and powerful.

For a moment Carlie could not speak.

“Thanks for being here Sarah. It means a lot to me.”

“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Now are you ready to go out into the real world and be an adult?”

“Well yeah, but I need a job first.”

“Okay so don’t kill me. This came a few days ago but I figured it would be a perfect graduation present,” Sarah said holding out a large envelope wrapped in hot pink paper.

Carlie grabbed it eying Sarah skeptically. She opened it and saw that the envelope was from Harwitt Publishing Group.

“It’s from Harwitt I can’t believe you! You suck!” She slugged Sarah playfully over the shoulder then proceeded to rip open the envelope.

She pulled out the contents and quickly read over the cover letter, as she read she could not keep the excitement inside.

“I got a job! I’m going to New York!”

“No way, when do you start?”

“In July. I’m going to miss you like crazy.”

“Well, I’ve applied to NYU and I got in, so I’m going to be moving to New York. So what do you say? Roomies?”

“You’re kidding!” Carlie screamed and lunged into Sarah’s arms. She swelled with happiness and thought that nothing could ever beat this.

The next two months past in a blur. Though Carlie was no longer working she was constantly busy with the preparations for her new job and the big move.

Carlie and Sarah moved into their new two-bedroom apartment in New York in late June. They spent two straight weeks moving in, decorating and making the small space their own. On the morning of July 10th Carlie woke up about an hour before the alarm clock went off, too excited to sleep. She lay in bed thinking about the day that lay before her. When she could not lie still any longer she got up and took a long hot shower. When she got out she picked out the new black suit she had just bought and a white blouse and got dressed. Then she applied a light amount of makeup that accentuated her beauty without being overbearing. She stood in front of the mirror and scrutinized her reflection, pleased with what she saw she grabbed her things and headed out the door.

She walked the two blocks to the Harwitt Publishing Group building and paused in front of the large glass front doors. She thought about being left by a father that did not care, being raised by and left behind by a single mother to miserable to live, and about living a life of depravity in order to fight her way through school. As she pushed open the doors she stripped herself of all that had been done and everything that was past for none of it mattered anymore.

She had made it.

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