The Smile Brigade

Lyric

You ain't never gonna be strong enough. Trust me. That's the first and last thing goin through a man's mind is how he is stronger than you. Even the skinny ass ones are stronger than they look. So you gotta be ready. They're sizin you up - tryna figure out what it would cost them to get a piece of your ass, whether that's pussy, money, or whatever. You size them niggas up too. You gotta be able to read them. You know how many recruits told me they was with some nigga who wasn't shit in the end? Beat em, raped em, used em up, got em pregnant? Turned nasty, turned rude, turned lazy. Bitch, please. They was like that all along, they just hid it to trick your ass into givin it up. Men don't give a fuck about you after that. They done clocked your ass. Once you had em in your house, it's over. Motherfuckas know exactly how little they need to be nice to you to get what they want. Bitches be beggin for that shit - someone to be nice to them. Tell em they pretty. You know how easy that is? That's why niggas love young bitches. They skinny and pretty, sure, but they kids too, still kids. You know what a kid wants? They wanna make the grown ups happy. They feel guilty doin bad. They don't know how to hide anything. They just wanna be taken care of. That's why they want them young bitches. Young bitches'll do anything, smilin like some fuckin idiot the whole time. Slaves. They don't know any better. They don't know shit. They don't know how to take care of themselves like that. They don't know they own capabilities.

You ever spend time with a kid, they'll do what you tell em to do. If you yell at em, they feel so bad, they get scared, they cry, and then they learn what not to do, what not to say to get in trouble. Men don't want to go after women who know better, who seen the likes of them already so they put em down and chase after the easier ones, the young, stupid ones.

The very first thing you do with recruits is educate em. Tell em what their true power is. Give em back they voices, they choices. Show em their options. They gotta relearn right and wrong - not just in general but for theyselves. We give em what they need: food, a bed, clean water, counseling, lessons, doctorin. If they walk out, we let em. They wanna talk to people, they wanna bring friends, they wanna be alone, it's all good. Our number one priority is lettin em know they safe with us. Safe. We got recruits young as 8, 9 years old been in foster care, been in abusive homes, been bought and sold, been pregnant by they daddies, they uncles, they grandpas.

I had a recruit, call her Lyric cause she love music. Love singin and writin songs. Her dream is to become a famous singer/songwriter. I was in the goddamn hospital emergency room waiting area for another recruit. I seen this girl, she cryin, looked so scared. Some nigga had her by the arm, leadin her around like a motherfuckin dog. She holdin onto her other arm and it is proper fucked up, bent in ways it ain't sposed to be. She don't speak. The whole time it's that motherfucker answerin all the questions, barkin at people, sayin that's his daughter, that's his kid but he won't take his hand off her even though she hurtin. It's how she dressed too. This was October. She wearin tiny shorts, a sleeveless tank top. Gooseflesh all over her skinny ass legs and arms. Her sneakers was too small, worn out. She had plastic barrettes in her braids, them little ones shaped like stars. Way her arm was fucked up, she must've been in so much pain but she ain't say a single word. She don't make a single sound, she ain't even cry.

Hospital workers are mandatory reporters. That means if they sus - some trafficking shit or child abuse, they sposed to call the cops. Don’t matter if they right or wrong or what. If they think it’s possible, they sposed to call them cops. I just remember sittin there, 3 rows back, loud ass waiting room, so many people. Some of em sleeping, some of em bleedin, some of em coughing and coughing and coughing, hackin up nasty shit, and this little girl sat next to this grown ass man who wouldn't give her his hoodie or nothin. Just kept throwin her stank looks, pissed off he had to be there. Everybody just walked on by her, all them nurses, doctors. Busy, busy, and shit.

I clocked em soon as they came in. I'd already had a plan to get her out. Ain't no waitin on one of these hospital people to get they shit together. You gotta create a window of opportunity and move. Assholes like that, they refuse to let them girls out of they sight even for a second. They don't think they gonna run. Nah, they already know they done trained em up good. They know they won't even try but they do know about the mandatory reportin. No tellin when or where somebody gonna have a conscience who can make a call to the cops or some shit. See, you tell em you they dad and it's over. You ain't gotta prove shit. It's a kinda risk for them to even be at the hospital but can't nobody work if they arm is fucked up like that.

Use the surroundings to your advantage. That same loud, crowded, chaotic hospital, there's plenty of opportunity there. You just need a distraction; easy to come by in an emergency department.

The hard part is getting the girl to believe you and come with you quietly. I fuckin hate that that's how it is but it fuckin is. At that moment, you don't know if she gon fight you and run back to her abuser. That motherfucker is all she knows, all she believes. Son of a bitch probably told her that one day someone might try to take her away, that bad people would lie to her and try to kidnap her. You see how them motherfuckas work? They will twist reality so that everything they've done to that girl, everything they do, that's love. That's family. That's normal. Other people are the bad ones, the evil ones. They convince those girls of all manner of backward ass shit so they stay close. So they stay scared and reliant. When you have some shit like that ingrained in you that young, you don't know shit else. You believe it and you believe it hard.

I been in that waiting room for 2 hours myself so I know they ain't goin nowhere a while. I took myself on a little stroll. I got into the elevator with some nurse-types, holdin my head and movin kinda careful. When the one lookin at her phone stepped closer to me to let more people on at the next floor, I unhooked her ID from her pocket. That will get me in just about anywhere I want to be. Used the ID to try a few "Staff Only" doors until I found a room with scrubs in a bin, fish out a pair, throw em on over my clothes, clip on the ID, and walk into an empty patient room, put on a mask, gloves, a hair net. There's a red bin in there for needles and shit, I pop the lid off, grab a needle from it, pocket that. When I get back down to the emergency department, I walk up to them, and tell them to come with me. We go into an empty bay and I tell the girl to sit on the table and the asshole to sit in one of the chairs while I pull the curtain shut. When I have my back to them, my other hand is already in my pocket with the syringe, pullin up air.

I stab that fucker right in the neck and jam my thumb all the way down before he knows what's goin on, my hand over his mouth. I let him slide onto the floor, he's quiet now which is all I need.

Lyric seen so much shit in her life already, she ain't even scream. She just watches us, holdin her bad arm. I can tell she been lookin for a way out. I can see the relief in her big, black eyes. I tell her I'm there to help her and I ask her if she wants to come with me. She just takes my hand with her good one, hops off the table. I yank the motherfucker's hoodie off him and drape it over her, pull off the hospital shit, and we just walk out.

She'd tell me later that son of a bitch was some "cousin". She'd been living with him a while. He and his friends would come to play "secret" games with her even though she ain't want to play them games after the first time because they hurt her real bad. My best guess is she was ten when I got her out. She don't remember much before she went to live with her "cousin". We got her arm reset, patched up in a cast. Put her into a new school 2 states over.

I'm proud as a motherfucker of Lyric. She got a purple belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu, she plays speed chess in the park after school, she sings every chance she gets, and she been askin about when she can go look for that motherfuckin "cousin" of hers.

I told her soon. Real soon.