lucky

by iambe

jo and melanie were fifteen and fourteen, respectively. they lived in a state where the legal age of sexual consent is fourteen, and even that is not enforced: too many of the older men... uh... benefit from our community blinders, for any active steps to be taken. as i write, there hasn't been a rape charge filed in a dozen years, and the one back then was considered successful only in that the young womon wasn't killed by the perpetrator, or his family.

ours is a poverty area with zero jobs, where every fit young man takes flight to opportunity as soon as he is able, but most young womyn are already trapped by the time they reach the age of majority. trapped by marriage, babies, alcoholism, drug addiction, or just plain hopelessness. some stay out of determination to make things better. my roommate, niki, and i - i'm tara - are among the latter.

every year the age of girls roaming the main street of town grows younger. this year the mean age is eleven year olds hanging out, or taking wild car spins, with men who buy them beer or give them cash and cigarettes - and, all too often, the only food many families see. since hanging out means vanishing into the forest just a block beyond the one-road town, you can figure what hanging out is a euphemism for. it's dirt-poor for prostitution.

here, a girl is called lucky when she quickly comes pregnant, so qualifies for state family support benefits. another lucky is her being too young to get pregnant yet.

it wasn't always that way in our culture. we tilled the soil and had plenty, with plenty to share. that was before the factories and hard currency came. salt that wound: the factories then packed off to even cheaper wage regions. we had sexual freedom, and sexual respect. that was before the missionaries came. bitter salt: they stayed, segregated in lush gated communities.

***

jo and melanie are exceptional. jo is mature, dreams of college, and has been the top student in her school’s accelerated learning program. she glows with an optimism transcending local trends. and melanie can hope to escape family pressure to conform, with jo's esteem raising her self-esteem and expectations. in them could be seen our culture's hope for the future.

***

niki and i have lived a precarious life defying community mor é s as the only out-of-the-closet lesbians most here have ever known. if not for our being locals, daughters of friends of our elders, i cannot be sure we would still be alive. As it is, people love us with troubled and puzzled looks in their eyes. one more twisted bit of luck: most have been sure we were a couple, so we weren't quite as endangered as we'd have been if they'd known we were singles.

niki knew jo from a social service program niki ran, and jo attended. i was not really surprised when niki came home from work one day and said, "they're a couple. jo and melanie are together. jo confided that to me today. she said they have to be really careful because their parents would go wild, poor dears. she said it was a relief to talk with me about it."

"i'm happy for them, but they sure do face a hard life. well, who doesn't here? it's great jo has you to turn to."

***

the truck slowed rounding the bend, and a door flew open. i thought i was imagining when i saw a person fly out the door, but then i saw that person roll, jump up and take off running. toward our place. the truck was backing up the road, but the person had ducked into thicket fronting our place.

as i watched, the truck come back our way. i saw the runner pop through the trees. "jo! are you okay? what is happening?!"

"hide me! hurry!" she craned to see the truck's whereabouts, then ducked back behind some shrubs.

after slowly cruising, the truck's wheels screamed as it shot off, back toward town.

"o god! they caught us! they come walking right da fuck into mel's room!CALLED THE COPS ON ME!"

"who's in the truck jo?" she was frantic watching the road, so i shouted, "JO! WHO...IS...IN...THE TRUCK?!"

"my dad! he's going to kill me, i know! you gotta hide me. please! and mel...o god, i know they're beating her right now! i gotta get her outa there!!"

"wait. slow down. look, y'dad's gone for now. come out back and we talk. nik be home soon with news from town. i'm sure everyone there knows what's going on, by now. we'll go check on mel, but right now tell me."

"f'sure they all know! the cops chased me right through town!"

"come on."

when we were sitting safely out of sight of the road, jo started telling. but before long she jumped up and started pacing, almost shouting out the details.

"they gon send me away! they sent me with mom to get my things - to go some juvy place on clipper isle, 'ose fuckahs! shit! if i were a man, we'd be married with babies by now! what's their problem? at least with me mel's got a chance of a life!"

***

"luce, you gotta calm down. y' gon have a stroke!" her face was purple with rage...and alcohol.

"just tell me where they are! jo is my daughter f' chis'sakes! mason's gon find 'em, and he gon kill me with 'em if i don't get them back there fast!"