An Excerpt from the Book

Frankie Bopp Comes Calling

He stood blocking the doorway, probably thinking he looked cool, but to me, with his one leg crossed over the other and his head tilted like that, he looked like he was lying on his side in bed with his head resting on his outstretched arm. He had this crazy, glazed, vacant-eyed look. And his usual leering smile. I knew that he'd come into my apartment for no good reason. I also knew, based on his eyes, that he was high. I didn't know what he was on, but I'd seen enough guys strung out to know that he was on some kind of drug.

"Look, Frankie, I'm in the middle of something here."

"C'mon Andy. You know it ain't a mop you want in your hands." He waggled his eyebrows like he'd said the funniest thing ever. I just continued to look blandly at him.

"I mean, we both know you want to get together with me. I seen how you walk around. I bet you want it. You're begging for it."

He took a couple of steps toward me, and I backed away from him, holding on to the mop. All I could think about was that my son was asleep in the next room. I would have hated for him to have to come into the room and see me being attacked or raped by this guy. I was also worried about what this guy might do to him. My mind was spinning through various scenarios, and the sharp scent of the ammonia in the floor cleaner was piercing through that fog. I did know one thing, I could not let Frankie Bopp know that I was scared; he would take advantage of that fact. I'd learned a lot of lessons in the neighborhood, and one of them was that even if you weren't tough, you had to act tough. Better still, act crazy. The more outrageous your behavior, the more respect you would sometimes get. I also knew that this situation didn't call for that — it simply required me to keep cool. Frankie being high put a different spin on things.

"Frankie, I'm a mess right now. Look at me, all sweaty and everything." I could see Frankie tensing up so I took another tack, "We could go out sometime, but I'd want to get myself all cleaned up and look better for you."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that my across-the-hall neighbor Millie was at her door. I could hear her fumbling with her keys. I breathed an enormous sigh of relief. "Hey, Millie."

Frankie turned around to see who I was talking to. That's when I took a few quick steps and got around him and out the door. To keep the deception going, I said to Millie, "I need to get that sugar from you. Let me help you with those."

I took Millie's grocery bags from her, and ignoring her confused look, I herded her into her apartment and shut the door. I watched through her peephole until Frankie went back down the stairs. I told Millie what had been going on, and asked her for another favor — could I drop Toby by so she could watch him for a few minutes.

For most people, that would have been the end of it. I'd gotten away from Frankie unharmed, and that would be as far as most people would take it. I was smarter than that. Immediately after I'd gotten past Frankie, I'd begun formulating a plan, and with Millie's help, I was about to put it into action. I slipped quietly out of her apartment and back in mine. I checked on Toby and saw that he was still sleeping. Then I stepped out of my clothes, went to the closet, and selected the tightest pair of white jeans I could find and a deeply cut V-neck T-shirt. I put on the highest pair of stiletto-heeled pumps I owned, and rifled through some drawers until I found the switchblade that my brother Frankie had given me to help me protect myself. Not wanting to wake the baby, I changed plans, went back across the hall, and asked Millie if she would come over to watch him. She agreed, and despite the many questions I'm sure she had, followed me back to my apartment without asking me anything.

I took a few seconds to primp with my hair and face and then I headed out. The crowd outside the K of C hall was still as large as before. It was hard for me to spot Frankie Bopp at first, but then I saw him standing in the shadows, leaning with his back and one foot against the wall. He was sipping a beer out of paper bag, and his head was bouncing up and down like it usually was. I made sure to walk as close as possible to the card players and everybody else gathered there. Dressed like I was, it didn't take much more to ensure that every eye was on me, but for added dramatic effect, I gave it my best hip-shaking runway walk and stopped directly in front of Frankie. He squinted up at me, and put the can of beer up to his crooked mouth, running his tongue around the rim.

"So, Frankie, you come up to the apartment?"

"Yeah."

I was glad he admitted that he'd been up there. Point number one established. "What made you think that you could come up?"

Frankie shrugged, still acting as cocky as a crooked-grinned stoner like he was could, "I don't know. I thought that maybe you and me could get together sometime. I was right, wasn't I?"

The card players and spectators started hooting. But I knew that I'd established point number two: I hadn't invited Frankie up. I also knew that the guys I was dealing with wouldn't have believed that Frankie had come up there and tried anything with me if I was dressed like I had been the first time they saw me. According to their way of thinking, a guy would never sexually assault a woman unless she was dressed really sexy and her hair was nice.

I smiled at Frankie and looked around at the crowd. I took a step closer to him, nudged his outstretched knee aside and got so close to him that my breasts were touching him.

"Yeah," Frankie said, louder now, like he was bragging that something had really gone on between us up there. "I really wanted to be with you." He started to shimmy his hips and laugh.

"Well, yeah," I said, "But I didn't invite you in. You kind of startled me." I pressed up against him tighter, reached behind me, and took out the knife. I put the point right up to his neck, pushing it against his skin. A thin stream of blood started to run down his neck.

His eyes bulging, he tried to twist his head away from me. Looking like the shark in Jaws, he says, "Get the fucking switchblade out of my neck." All the guys see what's going on and they jump up and start yelling, "Hey Andy, what's going on?" I said, "You motherfucker. You ever fuckin' come near me again, and I'll kill you. I fuckin' had my son up there. I didn't let you in. You think I'm gonna let you come into my apartment and have sex with me while my kid is up there sleeping, you piece of shit scumbag?"

I was enraged, and I'm glad that Jimmy and Joey Mann pulled me away from him.

"Hey Andy, what's the matter? What's going on?" Now Jimmy and Joey both knew me, knew that I was just a hard-working single mother who didn't want to be bothered. They'd seen me around and seen how I'd just ignored all the guys who were flirting with me whenever I walked past. They knew that I wouldn't have asked this guy up to my place, let alone had sex with him.

"What's the matter, Jimmy? Ask this fucking scumbag what happened. He fucking came up to my apartment while my baby was sleeping and tried to have sex with me, that's what happened."

They turned and looked at Frankie, and it was like he'd suddenly lost every friend he ever had. He was standing there looking all around, trying to stop the bleeding, gulping and starting to mumble. Before he could say much, a couple of the guys grabbed him under the arms and dragged him around back. I later found out that they beat him pretty severely and broke both his legs. As harsh as this sounds to me even now, I didn't really feel that bad about what happened to Frankie. There are just some things a woman knows, and there are some things that I knew based on my experiences growing up on the streets of Brooklyn. I knew that if Millie hadn't come home, Frankie would have raped me. I'd been in enough situations and seen enough guys to know what they were capable of. I also knew that if I had let things stand as I'd left them with Frankie, he would have come after me again at some later point, maybe even that same day.