Sydney v1.2

Sydney used to live in Seattle. She used to read tarot cards on the streets. That was what she did for a living. She was a very spiritual person. She got the gift from her father. He used to do the same thing. Until he couldn’t do it anymore and left. He left without telling her.

She was used to him not being home for days on end. She was used to taking care of herself. But after a month of living alone, she realized he was never coming back.

She was only 16 years old. He left her with the house and the truck. The truck was paid off. The house wasn’t. After a while, she was tired of lying to the bank and the police.

She couldn’t pay for the house. Not with the money she made reading tarot cards. So she got into the truck and went looking for her dad. Last she had heard, he went to Texas. So she left Seattle and the house, and with the little money she had, filled the truck with gas and drove to Texas.

When she got there, she found some pushers and pimps who associated with her dad in Seattle. Figuring they would know something about her dad, she lived with them. Started working for them. Making decent money and trying to figure out what happened to her dad. Eventually, after a year or so, they told her he went back to Seattle because he wasn’t welcome in Texas anymore. So she turned a few more tricks, enough to make gas and a few hotel rooms along the way, and drove back to Seattle.

When she got there, her father was nowhere to be found. The bank had foreclosed on the house. She had nowhere to go. So she lived in her truck for a few months, occasionally reading tarot cards and performing some light prostitution just enough to eat. She asked around and figured out her father went to live in Los Angeles.

She lived in her car for another year, cleaning up at local diners and bars, turning tricks and reading tarot cards, until she made enough money to make it to Los Angeles.

When she got here, that’s when she met Jim. He met her at a coffee shop. Trying to get a job. He noticed her right away. Short, rotund, blonde hair, blue eyes, but mainly the desperate look in her eyes.

“Say,” He began, lighting his cigarette. “You want to make some dough.”

She said, “Yes.”

“You’ve turned tricks, right.” He said, with his keen eyes. “Well, this’ll be safer.”

“How’d you know?” She asked embarrassed.

“Don’t be embarrassed.” Jim said reassuringly. “We got to do what we gotta do, ya know.”

She nodded, and sighed. Almost cried.

“Listen. Here’s the address.” He handed her a Glass Stiletto matchbook. “If you wanna try this out, come down tonight, and ask for me. My name is Jim.”

She took the matchbook and said, “Okay.”

He got into his car, took a sip of his coffee, a puff of his cigarette, and drove back to work.

She went to the Glass that night, auditioned, and got hired on the spot.

She worked at the Glass Stiletto a month before I did. She became one of my first friends.

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