CHAPTER 1
Shawna Johnson was 14 years old when the state social worker gave her to her aunt and uncle to raise. They were her nearest family after her mama got careless selling crack cocaine and was sent upriver for 10 years to the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. Nobody knew her daddy. He was just another paying man in the parade of paying men Shawna’s mama had entertained over the years. It wasn’t much of a home being raised by an addicted New Orleans prostitute, but that’s all Shawna had before she was made to live with Althea Johnson and Leroy Brown.
There wasn’t much remarkable about Shawna. She was average height, with light brown skin and dark brown hair. She was a bit doughy in weight, preferring sitting and resting over activity or sport. She seldom had new clothes and what she wore was plain in style and color. Shawna was a little below average in intelligence. She did not make any special effort to keep up in school. She wasn’t a particularly popular girl, and she didn’t have a boyfriend. What she liked most of all was looking at the pictures of celebrities in the magazines her mama brought home, keeping her diary, and doing her fingernails. Shawna had strong nails. She grew them long and she loved to keep them colorfully painted with her mama’s many polishes.
Althea Johnson worked days as a maid in a French Quarter hotel. Leroy Brown worked the evening shift washing dishes in a tourist restaurant. They’d been married five years and were childless because Althea was barren. They met and fell in love in the Caliope, a massive housing project where the government concentrated folks too poor to afford an apartment or home of their own. Althea and Leroy got married and dropped out of high school together. They avoided the street lifestyle and played it straight. They had minimum wage jobs and, by working together, they managed to move up from the project to a rented raised shotgun house in Treme within walking distance of their jobs in the Quarter. It had been decades since the landlord had made any repairs to the place. Most of the paint had peeled away, and the slate roof leaked when it rained. Rats chewed a hole in the floor behind the toilet and they sometimes crawled into the house. When Shawna was moved into the moldy front room, her clothes were brought in two plastic garbage bags. The social worker had the used furniture store deliver a single bed and an old dresser. Althea Johnson signed the paperwork to get some food stamps, health insurance, and a little cash each month for taking care of Shawna. It wasn’t much of a home but it was better than Shawna had.
Early one morning Althea Johnson arose for work. She woke Shawna up for school and then left. Shawna slipped to the kitchen in the back of the house and poured herself a bowl of cold cereal and milk. As she ate she decided she didn’t feel like going to school that day. She’d stay home and watch TV instead. But Leroy Brown wasn’t up yet, so Shawna put the empty bowl in the sink and quietly made her way back through his room to her bed in the front room. Soon she was fast asleep.
She woke as Leroy was pulling her sheet off her. He was naked and leaning over her when she opened her eyes. “You gonna enjoy this,” was all he said.
Before she understood what was about to happen, and before she could move, Leroy laid himself on top of her. He was much bigger and stronger than Shawna. He pinned her to the bed.
Shawna was shocked and alarmed. Never had anything like this happened to her. She did not cry out because she knew Althea wasn’t home to hear her.
Leroy put his left arm across her shoulders, holding Shawna down as his right hand pulled her T-shirt up. When he exposed her young breasts he leaned down and began kissing them. Shawna clenched her fists and brought them up to the sides of Leroy’s head. She thought maybe about hitting him, or raking him with her fingernails, but she was so scared at what he might do to her that she did nothing but lay there.
After a few moments of this, Leroy’s right hand found the top edge of Shawna’s panties. He tugged them down off her butt and then, by shifting his weight to his left arm, he pulled them down Shawna’s legs and off her feet. He then laid back on top of her, still kissing her breasts.
Instinctively Shawna knew what Leroy planned to do next. But she was so frightened that all she could do was lower her hands from his head to the mattress, stiffly extending her fingers. She pressed down hard as though she could push up through Leroy, but she could not budge him.
Leroy reached under Shawna’s knees and pulled them up. He fell between her legs, his weight shifting to her pelvis. Shawna, petrified, laid still.
Then Leroy fumbled between his legs to rub himself on Shawna’s crotch. She held her breath, screaming in her mind but not making a sound.
Leroy removed his hand and thrust hard, tearing open Shawna’s tightness. Pain seared her mind. She rolled her head back, chin pointing up. Tears began to flow from Shawna’s eyes. Her thighs squeezed him tightly as if to draw him out, but Leroy would not budge. He began to pump inside her dryness. The pain was sharp and terrible. Shawna began to sob.
Leroy paid her no mind. Soon he began to pant. His breaths became shorter and shallower. Through her pain and tears Shawna could smell his sweat. Then Leroy groaned, and a wetness flooded Shawna.
Leroy got up and left, saying nothing.
Shawna, still crying, curled up on her side and covered herself with her sheet. She was sore and scared. She was ashamed she had not fought back, but she was afraid of what would have happened had she struggled. She was afraid of telling Althea because she didn’t know what Althea might do. Or what Leroy might do. She had no other place to go.
Shawna was alone and she cried. She wasn’t safe anymore.
