Innocence

The sun bakes down on the little backyard. There is a toolshed shaded by two trees located behind it. Behind the toolshed and tied to the trees is a hammock. Usually, on a sunny day like this, it would be empty, but today a girl of 14 years is napping in it. Her baggy jeans, clunky sneakers, and oversized, striped T-shirt hide her developing figure. Her blond ponytail falls through the hammock and trails the ground where her grey cat bats at it. Her hand almost delicately rests on her cheek and she smiles slightly. She looks innocent except for what she has in her other hand clutched to her blossoming chest. It is a loaded .45 Colt.

"Just a precaution," she always says. "After all, this is L. A." True, Los Angeles is a harsh place and it breeds harsh people. This girl, who is known as Hecate on the street, is one of these harsh people. She has a death's head tattoo on her right shoulder and her striped T-shirt bears her street gang's colors of purple and black. Her pinched, narrow face scrunches up and she yelps as her cat bites and yanks her ponytail. She rises up and rubs her head.

"Stupid cat," she mutters. She checks her watch. "Well, it's good you did wake me up. I gots ta go."

Hecate roughly pats the cat's head and picks up her gun and a brown paper bag. She hides the bag inside an empty, beat-up book bag and yells to her single mother that she is leaving. She skirts around the new Mercedes-Benz she bought for her mother on her way to the bus stop. When she gets on the bus, she notices her "homeys" and sits with them. They recite rap songs and tell stories of "drive-bys" and "takedowns" until they reach the more run-down part of town that is their territory.

Hecate says "ABC ya" to her homeys and then greets another bunch of her homeys. This group is more important to her because it is the leader's group. One young man of 20 years and twice as big as Hecate straightens and tugs up on his pants a little, since they threaten to fall off his hips. He takes Hecate into his arms and kisses her as if he is eating her face. This man is the leader of the whole entire gang and Hecate's lover. He is the one who befriended her two years ago and initiated her into the gang by taking her virginity and then supported her after all the male members had their way with her to finish the initiation. Now Hecate lives for him and the gang.

After breaking off the kiss, the gang leader asks, "You got the stuff?" Hecate nods and gives him the book bag. The gang leader looks through the bag and nods in approval. "Doin' good, girl." He takes a small sample of the book bag's contents and gives the book bag back to Hecate. "Sell the rest."

Hecate takes the book bag and goes to the street corner to wait. Soon people come through the street to buy her wares of marijuana and crack-cocaine. They come from all backgrounds: white, black, Hispanic, Asian; rich, middle class, poor; teen, adult, middle-age; newbie, user, addict. When the customers approach her, Hecate flicks out her gun and tells them to show her their money. When they show the money, Hecate trades the money for her drugs.

After about three hours of selling her wares, Hecate hears gun shots. Some of her homeys are fighting people in red and yellow. She hides behind a trash can and carefully takes aim, killing two of her rivals with her hand pistol. She turns around and sees more red and yellow clad people coming behind her. She yells "Turf war! 186!" and more of her homeys run to her assistance. Fighting and gun shots fill the streets. A few men from both sides fall bleeding in the street. Hecate's lover is one of them, but is too high to know he is shot.

Hecate notices three red/yellows carrying off a girl in black/purple. She skillfully dodges the bullets to get to the alley where her "homegirl" is taken. It's a "gang bang." She picks off one red/yellow on top of her homegirl. She picks off another that rushes her.

The last red/yellow is a female that was going to watch. The female red/yellow attacks Hecate. Hecate knocks her to the ground. Hecate's opponent is someone she knows well. They attend the same classes and even eat lunch together sometimes.

"Don't kill me!" she pleads. "You know me! It's Julie!"

No, Hecate thinks. She might be Julie at school, but now she is just two colors. She is the enemy. Hecate points her .45 Colt at the two colors. She says "shut up, bitch" and pulls the trigger. The girl dies almost instantly from a bullet in her forehead.

The turf war stops as suddenly as it started. Hecate's homeys have won. They celebrate by doing a "beer run," stealing beer from a liquor store and shooting the clerk. They also have to pick a new leader since their current one is now dead in the street. The new leader gets everything the old leader had, including Hecate. After the gang members "jump him in" and brand him, Hecate has sex with him to the enjoyment of the other gang members.

Hecate finally arrives home about twenty minutes after one in the morning. She does not bother to change into the T-shirt she usually sleeps in. She curls up in her bed and cuddles her cat when it jumps in beside her. When she falls asleep, her hand rests on her cheek and she keeps her gun handy. When her mother finds her there the next morning, Hecate will not be in trouble. Her mother will only put the gun on the nightstand and shoo the cat out to let Hecate sleep in peace.

"She's such a good girl," her mother will tell her co-workers. "She always minds me and she's very sweet. She knew we needed a new car and I couldn't afford it. Well, she bought me a Mercedes for my birthday. Now isn't that sweet? It must have taken her forever to scrape together the money.

"The poor thing is so scared of this town that she feels she has to carry a gun with her everywhere. I'm sure it's not loaded. It's just a security blanket for her. But she handles herself well. She's still a virgin, you know. Oh, she's such a sweetie. She couldn't hurt a thing."