Daddy's Little Mistress

Chapter 18

An overweight African- American police officer released my handcuffs only to shove me in a jail cell with four other women- not girls- women. Yes, ladies and gentlemen I was in big girl prison.

"People like you are the reason why society looks down on black people!" The officer said after slamming the bar shut.

He walked away still mumbling insults under his breath.

"Damn, who ate his cookie?" I asked myself.

I turned around and looked up at the giants and found them already staring back down at me like a pack of wolves who'd just spotted a baby dear in the winter woods.

Yum?

"What's this little puta looking at?" A thick Hispanic woman with a heavy accent and a granite expression asked her crew. "You wanna knuckle sandwich, baby?"

I shook my head no quickly. The lady was probably only three inches taller than me, but I still didn't want to mess with her. She had tattoos and piercings scattered all over her dark bruised body, and the only place that was clearly visible on her face were her eyes. And I'm sure if she had the choice to pierce those too she'd had no problem doing so. Both sides of her head were shaved bald so that a mohawk only three centimeters wide ran along her shiny scalp. I winced at the large nose ring dangling from the middle of her nostrils as she spoke.

"Oh, Lord", I shrieked internally..."I never thought I'd seen the day where I'd meet someone that looked worse than Chris Andersen from the Miami Heat. I mean- at least Chris Andersen looked sexy with it! On the other hand, this lady was just...ew".

"Oye...that's that little b***h we saw last time on Telemondo, Catalina!" She said to a much taller and thinner, but muscular lady sitting on the edge of the brown bench that desperately cried for repainting.

Catalina's orange jump suit lingered around her waist so that her white undershirt was visible. Her right arm was all inked up so I couldn't tell if they were all separate or just one whole tattoo. She only had one tattoo on her left arm which her sleeve covered. She looked more like a man as she sat with her legs open and her back facing me letting her elbows rested on her thighs. Her long strawberry blonde hair was braided back in small tight cornrolls with colored rubber bands securing the ends. Her sculpted back mussels flexed as she rose her cigarette to her lips and released the vapor ever so carefree. If you'd asked me, she looked more like a black girl stuck in a white girl's body...like Eminem, or more like the typical lesbian basketball player at your high school that every other girl has it bad for.

Catalina was the only who didn't try to harass me when I came in so when she turned around I showed my appreciation with a small and timid smile.

She didn't smile back but instead stared me down with her baby blue eyes looking quite irritated making my little smile vanish. She turned back around and went back to smoking her cigar as if looking at me was a waste of her time.

"Catalina, aren't you ganna come and show this spoiled little b***h who's boss?" Another woman that I hadn't notice until now asked.

Catalina just stayed in the same position and said, "Leave her alone."

"What happened chicka?" The women with the mohawk asked, "aren't you in the mood to beat ass?"

"Leave her!" I said. The alpha woman spoke and without having to turn back around, the wolves stepped back sparing the little fawn.

In every jail there was a boss and I could tell that was exactly what Catalina was. But why was she trying to protect me? Maybe she was one of those convicts who only did crimes if they had to but always got mistaken for the ones who did it just for the sickening pleasure...which was what I was...right?

"Sit your ass down." Catalina ordered.

She didn't have to look at me for me to realize that I was the one she was talking to. I strolled to the bench scared for my life and sat down quietly as if it was fragile.

"What the f**k you doing here?" She interrogated.

"Oh...I thought you told me to sit down-"

"I know. I did. I said what the f**k are you doing behind these damn bars." She emphasized cutting me off.

"Oh, um...I got arrested." I said.

She turned around and gave me a deserving look that said, "b***h, are you retarded?"

Well, duh Lyrika, if you're in jail of course you got arrested.

"Oh, um, I think I killed somebody." I said hopefully answering her question.

"You think you killed somebody?" She asked in confusion.

"I don't know if she's dead. They said she is but I don't think getting hit in the head with a crow bar can kill you." I said confidently.

She tilted her head slowly and stared at me blankly. I noticed that the other women were doing the same except for the one with the mohawk, who was looking at me like I was a complete i***t.

"What?" I wondered lost.

"Why did you do that?" She asked snapping out of her mood.

"She sold a picture of me to Teen Q and made it look like I was stripping or something." I explained.

"Why were you even naked?" Catalina asked.

"She took off my clothes." I answered.

"And you let her?" They all asked in unison.

"I didn't know. I wasn't even conscious. She beat me up and when I passed out she took off my clothes and had people staring at me on the floor like I was stripping." I informed them.

"Look girl", Catalina said, "You chose to be in this situation right now."

"No. She started it first-"

"Girl, listen to me", Catalina interrupted, "You could have handled the situation another way! Stupid little drama like that isn't worth anyone's life. And you're not even ashamed of yourself...you walk around with your chin up like everything you do is right. You're one of those girls who think that the world revolves around them just because they're beautiful. They blame their failures on other people because they're too prideful to admit that they're wrong. Well, honey let me tell you something, pretty or not, you're still going to have to face the consequences just like everyone else. In life, it's not your looks that makes you valuable, it's what's up here!" Tapping her finger on the side of her head she added, "And this...and this...and this right here is what you're missing!"

I lowered my head as I felt my cheeks heating up.

"Uh-uh...it's too late for all that now", Catalina said, "You can be as pretty, rich, and famous as a Beyonce, but if this is the attitude you choose to live with, then you're just as basic and ugly as a hoe."

My vision was starting to get blurry. Catalina was right...how did she know all of these things? And if she knew all of these things...why was she in here?

"I've been in this f*****g jail for ten f*****g years! Ten f*****g years! And I ain't never done a crime that I ain't had to do." Catalina continued, "The only reason why I sold dope was 'cause I was trying to hustle...trying to make enough money to go to college so I can get my life together and get my daughter back. They took my f*****g daughter away from me. And when they took my daughter...they took my life."

Her expression softened and for the first time, she looked like a...woman.

"And that change me..." She said, "it made me tougher, it made me change the way I look, act, and the way I see people."

"my- my mother gave me away when I was five and-and th-this why, I am the way I am be-because I miss, her, an-and she didn't love me s-so, she gave me away." I sobbed and was surprised that Catalina even understood what I was saying.

The next thing I knew, the back of her hand was flying across my face. I held my cheeks realizing that I'd just been slapped. I've never been slapped in my life.

"Your mother didn't give you away child! You were taken away from her, she had no choice. And the least you could do for her is make her proud but instead your on TV making a fool of yourself!" Catalina yelled.

Just then, the same police officer that had put me in here walked back in the room with a clipboard in one hand and a key chain full of mystery keys in the other.

"Uh, Lyrika Pickford?" He said looking up from his clipboard.

"Yes?" I stood up wiping the rest of my tears.

"Your dad is here to bail you out." The officer said.

I couldn't help but been down and slip my arms around Catalina. She hugged me back and it felt great to be hugged again. It seemed like ever since I was adopted I've never been hugged.

"I want you to have this..." She said slipping her necklace off and handling it to me.

I opened my hands and she laid it in my palm. I walked off to where the officer was standing with the bars opened. After I got out he locked it again and continued muttering insults to me as he lead me to the registration area. On my way out I looked back to see if Catalina was looking so I could wave goodbye but she wasn't. Instead she was in a deep conversation with the other women who were looking very interested.

I started wondering what they were talking about. As Catalina made hand gestures the tattoo on her left arm started revealing itself. It was a picture of two hands with a baby sleeping on it. Under the tattoo, written in bright red ink, read "Lyrika".