It had been a long week. Hell, it had been a long year all together. She never quite
understood why things never seemed to go her way, they just never did. Quite the
opposite, actually, things usually went directly against her. Ever since she was a
kid, living with her mother on the South Side in a small three-room apartmentm
things had always gone wrong for her. Like the time when she was six and learning
how to ride a bike, a large truck had somehow managed to lose all power in its
braking systems and then proceeded to barrel right into her. Nothing ever really
changed. Twenty-three-years-old and living in a two room apartment, on the West
Side now, with two of her friends--one of whose cocaine habit had nearly gotten
them evicted three times already.

And now, this lovely little situation she had gotten herself into. She had been out
of work for weeks now and was quite desperate. The thought of doing this had
never crossed her mind before, but now times were tough, and there seemed no
other way of bettering her situation. Of course, everything had gone terribly
wrong. It was to be expected though. She wondered why she hadn't seen it coming.

Now she was trapped in a one-way side alley by the man she had gone to for help.
He held his arm in front of her, leaning against the wall and looking all-together
imposing, so that there was no percievable way of escaping.

"Great," she thought. "Another catastrophe in the life of Eva Salyer." Then again,
according to this fellow, her name was no longer Eva, but Candy. Apparently that
suited her occupation better. "Think...what am I gonna do to get out of this?"

He smiled a cheap smile at her and chewed on the little, near-disintegrated
toothpick that was dangling from his lips.

"Payment, baby," he purred. "There has always got to be payment. You got the
money you needed, right? I provided for you. Now it's time for you to give me
something in return, don't ya think?" His breath stank of old gin. She concentrated
on his shoulder. It seemed to be the least threatening part of his body at this
moment.

"No one here, baby. Let's go." Of course, there's never anyone around when you
actually need them. Cops always showed up when you were sitting on your front
stoop reading a paper, and harassed you about some robbery that happened three
blocks away. Then someone was there though. A woman, huddled down in her coat,
passed by the opening of the alley, walking with a rather slow gait. She stared
helplessly out at the passer-by, hoping that maybe someone would actually take
the time to help. The woman passed her a fleeting glance back, a distressed and
lonely glance, but continued walking away down the street.

"Damn," she thought. "There goes your last chance. Now it's all up to you, and what
have you ever done right? What have you ever done to help yourself that actually
had a positive outcome? You're screwed for sure. The woman looked like she had
enough problems of her own, of course she wasn't gonna stop and help a whore like
you. Who would? Hell, even I wouldn't help someone like me. I wonder what was
on her mind? Don't think about what's happening, it's not worth the pain. It doesn't
matter anyway; you should be used to this. Was I asking for it? Is this my fault?
Probably. It usually is. Pretend you're in the Bahamas, sitting on the beach and
watching the sunset, sifting sand through your toes. The sun is warm on your skin,
and everything is all right. Everything is fine."


Half-past eight in the evening. Eva lay in the alley, her back up against the cold
brick wall, thinking about nothing in particular. It was all over, time to go back to
the apartment now. Time to go to sleep and then wake up and go out tomorrow to
do everything wrong again. Time to go out and make enough cash to pay the rent
and feed her addictions. There was only time for work and sleep, and just a little
time in between for her to dream. Tomorrow would be no different, nor the day
after that or the day after that. Nothing ever went her way so there was no reason
for her to expect anything different. She had once. She once believed that someday
she might actually make something of herself and send her mother cheques in the
mail for thousands of dollars so she could get a nice house somewhere. Those
hopes had been stepped on and thrown out countless times though. It didn't matter,
she thought, you're a whore, you don't deserve any better.

She lifted herself up off of the ground and started slowly walking home. The
streets were empty. All except for a lone figure coming from the direction of the
train bridges. It was the woman who had passed her before...before it had
happened. When there was still an inkling of hope.

"I don't want her to see me." She ducked back into the alley and waited as the
woman passed by. She had a shaved head and was wearing a small blue work jacket
that was pulled up around her neck and face. She looked lonely. When the woman
had gone from view, Eva came out from the alley and headed out again. The sun
shone its last dying rays of light through the spaces between buildings and a slight
breeze blew trash into tornadoes on the street.