Copyright ©2020 by Creole Gaudet. All rights reserved.
No part of this chronicle may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system – except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper – without permission in writing from the publisher, Creole Gaudet.
JANUARY 26, 2020
KNOCKOUT SPORTS BAR – NORTHWEST HIGHWAY – 3:30 p.m.
Sway and I had decided to check out Knockout Sports Bar for some eats. I was having the Knockout Burger, and Sway was trying the Uppercut. We’d sat across from each other at a table near the window.
“Where did you get the name Sway?”
“I didn’t like my real name, so I started telling people to call me Sway.”
“What is your real name?”
Sway lowered her head. She smiled… “Sadie.”
“Sadie?”
“Yeah, I was named after my grandmother.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
She looked to me. “Sadie?! You have to ask what’s wrong with that?!”
I laughed. “That’s a beautiful name…if you weren’t a white girl and it was like 1846…and you were a slave on a plantation.”
She pouted. “Oh, stop!”
“I’m just playing. What’s your last name?”
“Persson.”
“Sadie Persson.”
“That’s me.”
“Can I ask you something else? It has nothing to do with your name… If you don’t want to talk about it, I’ll understand.”
“I’ll tell you anything, Andre; whatever you want to know.”
“How exactly did you get caught up with Mandy and Rosebud?”
“Oh… Well, I was working… They came in and were looking all fly, like stars.”
“Where were you working?”
“At Twin Peaks, as a server. Every time I would check on them, Mandy would ask a lot of questions. And when she found out that I wanted to sing, she told me that they had a record label and were looking to sign new talent.”
“You sing?”
“I do a little something.”
“Okay… I want to hear some of that later.”
“I told them that I was just starting out and I needed training, and then Rosebud said that they had all that and a studio I could work out of. He showed me pictures of them popping bottles with Yeezy and Pharrell.”
“Was it in a public place or like a club or something?”
“Yeah.”
“Motherfuckers like that spend all their whore’s money to hang out with celebrities and use that to go back and show how big they are.”
“At the time, I didn’t know that.
“So, I went to the studio and he had his producer playing some of his tracks. But they weren’t good at all.
“I asked Rosebud, and he said that it was just something to see what I had and that he had top-notch producers coming in to see me.
“He told me that I had the look to sell millions. All he needed to do was put a package together and develop me.”
“Did he bring anyone in?”
“Yeah… They were all pretty good and professional, too. He said that we needed to keep working until we came up with a hit, something he could bring to Yeezy or Pharrell. So we were recording all day, every day; even into the night.”
“What happened to your job?”
“He said that I needed to make a decision. If I wanted it, really wanted it, I had to devote one hundred percent.”
“You quit?”
“Yes.”
“How did you support yourself?”
“He took care of everything. He had me stay with Mandy at her place.”
“Where were you staying before?”
“At home. I’m from Lewisville.”
“Everything sounds good so far. What happened?”
“Well, Mandy woke me up one night. She told me that Rosebud was going crazy; that he was pissed off.”
“At you?”
“At everything. He was looking at how much money he was spending and that I was taking way too long to develop, and that he was out of a lot of cash.”
“Ah… Here we go.”
“At first, it was like all I had to do was hang out with Mandy, and she was going to fuck a few guys right quick to get the money for me for Rosebud because she didn’t want me to not realize my dream. She had me as a lookout to make sure the police weren’t riding around and to be there in case one of the tricks started tripping or try not to pay her.”
“She was doing all this for you.”
“Right? So then one day she wasn’t feeling good and was on her period, so she needed me to take her place.
“I told her I wasn’t going to do shit. She had the wrong girl.”
“In comes Rosebud.”
“She texted him and he was like, there in five minutes.”
“Where was this?”
“At the Delux… He came in yelling and throwing me around the room. He beat the shit out of me, Andre. I thought he was going to kill me.
“He was trying to make it seem like I was using him and that he was trying hard to make me a star and that I was ungrateful. He pointed out that even Mandy was doing everything she could for me and that it wasn’t even her fucking dream.
“What’s so messed up is that I knew he was fucking with my head, but I was still buying into it.”
“That’s how they do, Sway.”
“After that it…” Sway stared into nothing. “I was a virgin. I’d never been with a man before. I was saving myself for the right guy, but my very first experience was with a fucking trick. An old, stinky, bearded white meth-head for like eighty fucking dollars. That was all I was worth…”
“Sway… Look at me.” I reached across the table, taking her hand. “I’m going to tell you something and I don’t want you to ever forget it.” She looked me deep in my eyes, never blinking. “You’re still a virgin. What happened to you was not your will. You were a captive. There’s a difference. You were not in control of that situation.
“It’s a new day. This is a new start.”
Creole Gaudet
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