When Hustles Flow pt 1

The security guards patted her down and checked her purse before she entered the building. She walked down a narrow hallway painted a red-burgandyish color which seemed to have some gold glitter thrown over it. Straight ahead is a man behind a dingy glass window.

Door man: “Its $5 tonight pretty lady,” he says.

Connie Sledman had never been inside of a strip club before tonight. She stood 5’7, caramel toned, long silky dark black hair, she was half black, half phllipino, coke bottle, and muscle tone framed from all the running and working out she would do. Connie was born in Queens, New York but didn’t live their long enough to remember it. In her mind she was born and raised in North East Washington, D.C., 1414 Channing Street, graduated from Howard University with a B.A. in Education. Her father Michael, was the black side of her, a police officer and her mother, Trudy, was fillipino, a teacher in the D.C. public school system. Life growing up was average for her, what child wouldn’t dream of having a police officer as a dad and a teacher as a mom. She turned just turned 24, two months ago, April 25th. Now standing in the glittery hallway, staring at the man behind the dingy glass, she paused for a moment to brace herself, skeptical of what she might see as she turns the next corner.

Connie (in thought): “Ok Connie, remember you are a Keyboarding Teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS and you have a 6 year old son named Jonathan, just the fact that you are standing here about to enter “The Penthouse” must be some conflict of interest or an unethical thing to do” she said to herself.

“The Penthouse” is a well known strip club on Georgia Avenue NW. It was about 10 minutes from Channing Street, she had passed it many times driving here and there on a daily basis but never paid attention to it until she is at the point where she needs to make some money. Teachers are offered the opportunity to have money taken out of their check and placed into a holding account until the summer came. This was not a benefit for her because Connie needed all of her paychecks in her pocket every two weeks. She had to keep up her new apartment in Takoma Park and pay for daycare for her son.

Door man: “It’s $5 young, you try’na go in a’what?” the man said.

His voice broke her thoughts, she looked him in the eye, smirked, threw her long beautiful hair over her right shoulder and said

Connie: “yeah sweets, I’m going in but I am here to inquire about a bartending position, not to take advantage of the scenery.”

Door man: “Oh, aight, hold on a sec.”

 The guy disappears from behind the dingy glass, gets down off of his seat and exits the tiny booth. To Connie’s right is the door way which was opened and uncovered.

Door man: “Right this way,”

he says as he extends his hand to welcome her through the door. She followed behind this 5’10, 250 pound, stalky built, dark-skinned brother as he led the way, to her it was like he was escorting her to the dark side.

Door man: “It is the beginning of the night, so not much is going on right now”

he explained looking back at her as she followed him into the club.  Now in front of the bar areas he says...

Door man:  “By the way my name is KJ,”

 He gives her a glance from head to toe. but she is not paying him any attention. She didn't even notice he was talking to her, because she was busy analyzing the club set-up imagining what it would look like with naked women dancing on the poles. KJ yells back to the bar manager...

“Hey Kee Kee, this beautiful young lady would like to inquire about a bartending position,”

Narrator: he shouted over the music as he approached the bar.

Kee Kee: “Ok baby, pick a table and have a seat I will be with you in a minute,”

she shouts to Connie while stocking the alcohol display and checking to make sure everything is ready for the club. As Connie sat at the closest table she could find she looked back at the bar area and saw KJ winking his eye, leaning over the bar and mumbling to Kee Kee, “Her body is nice, maybe if she can’t bartend she can be my private dancer.” Laughing off what just happened she pulled out her bartending resume. She had just gotten her license about two weeks ago. The public school year has just ended and the summer has just begun.

The credit union she banked with would allow teachers to get a cash advance between paychecks, as long as your check was they received their checks by direct deposit. It was $400 to go to bartending school, the course was 8 hours long for a week. The $400 included instruction, the study guide and the certificate. Connie didn’t have $400 at one time to give, she would have asked her parents but they have always been such hardworking people that they would have immediately labeled her as irresponsible for not having money saved up for the summer and now that she was finally out on her own she did not want to listen to a speech about how she should have been saving money. Being that the credit union allowed account holders to complete cash advance requests over the internet, she went for it, knowing that there would not be a check deposited for about another 3 months. She is a smart girl, in the comment section of the cash advance application she put the next date she would be getting paid would be in September.

The bank granted her the advance within 24hours without noticing her comment. She new that it would come back to bite her, but Connie was the kind of women that lived for today. Looking over her bartending resume she was confident in getting the position but skeptical about working in a strip club. Her resume was filled with fake past bartending positions and her friends were the references she listed as managers. She didn’t care who she had to con at his point, banks, bar managers, whoever as long as she could make some money. She took a deep breath and started to observe the place. The bar manager seemed to be taking forever.

Connie was anticipating one of the strippers walking out half naked with stretch marks, wearing ten inch heels and smelling like cigarettes, but it was 9:00pm and none of that was going on. “Hi, baby, sorry I took so long to get over here, I am Kee Kee, the bar manager.” “Hi, I am Connie Sledman.” It is weird trying to have an interview shouting over music Connie thought to herself but what the heck, she needed to make some money, no time for formalities. “Ok, Connie, so this is your resume? So I see you have your bartender’s license?” “Yes, and I have done lots of bartending at house parties and at a few bars as you will see on my resume.” Completely ignoring the experience on the resume Kee Kee says “So you have your license that’s great, I will pass your resume to the owner and he will give you a call.” “Ok, thank you,” they shook hands and Connie exited the building. Getting into her candy apple red 2000 Honda Accord she drove off. As soon as she got to the Carry Out about a block away her cell phone rang. “Ah, Connie, this is Kee Kee, from “The Penthouse” Mr. Ketch wants to know if you can come back to speak with him now. “Sure,” she quickly made a U-Turn in the middle of Georgia Ave and speeded back to the strip club.......