Free Get It Girls by Treasure Blue Page A

and breezy night when two female friends were allegedly on their way home from bible study, and it was also then where four neighborhood toughs, also females, ended the short life of Councilman Jonathan Jackson’s daughter, Denise Jackson, twenty.”
    They showed a picture of Denise Jackson, possibly a junior high school photo which made her look much younger and innocent.
    “It was inside here, in the rear of this dimly lit Harlem tenement, where the two girls were dragged into the building at knifepoint, robbed, and ultimately, where Denise Jackson lost her life.”
    The scene switched to the steps of City Hall, where Councilman Jackson stood grim faced before a press conference.
    “My daughter was an innocent victim of a malicious street crime, and I will do everything in my power to bring all defendants to justice for my daughter. Crimes like these are far too common, and the police department must do more to clean up the streets and put criminals like my daughter’s killer away to make our streets safer to walk again. But, I promise you this, I will be right there every day, front row, center to ensure justice is delivered so my daughter’s death won’t be in vain. Thank you.”
    **********
    The next day, all the girls met up in the park on 136th and St. Nicholas by the basketball courts to discuss the case and what they’d said to their lawyers. This was the first time they were all together since getting out of Central Booking, in downtown Manhattan. The park was still empty when everyone finally arrived, so they found a bench in the corner of the park and began to make small talk. It seemed like everyone waited for Vonda to start the real discussion, but she remained silent.
    For the first time since Jessica met Vonda over four years earlier, she saw actual fear in her eyes. Jessica decided to take lead and asked, “So, what went down with your lawyer?”
    Vonda looked up from where she was sitting and shrugged. “He said that we could be sentenced to ten years. That’s all I heard.”
    Jessica stared in her eyes and it was clear that she was afraid.
    Lynn stood up and began pacing. “I can’t do ten years in prison. We didn’t even do anything. Why is this happening to us?” she said, almost hysterically.
    Tiny remained silent and only stared at the ground.
    Vonda stood. “How the fuck could they turn this shit around on us to make it look like we was the ones who was robbing them? It’s just not right.” Jessica watched her friend wipe a tear from the side of her eyes. “I mean, we coming from our prom, our fucking prom and they think we gonna look to rob somebody in our dresses? And why they never found Tay-Tay and the two other girls? That’s some bullshit!”
    Seeing their leader break down caused them all to feel hopeless, so Jessica added, “Don’t worry, though,” she nodded, “all this is going to come out in court and we going to—”
    “Going to what, Jessica?” snapped Tiny, “Going to fucking jail, that’s what gonna happen!” Tiny looked at each of her friends faces and said, “That bitch that you killed, Jessica, is the daughter of a big councilman, a councilman, Jessica. That means he got juice. It ain’t gonna be nothing for them to convict our black asses just for a favor to one of his judge friends, so we fucked.”
    Lynn began to cry louder.
    “No, my lawyer said—”
    Before Jessica could finish, Tiny snapped, “What, your high paid lawyer?” She stared Jessica down. “We got a court appointed lawyer because none of our families is rich like yours, Jessica.”
    Jessica turned and put her head down. “Shit, who knows, your lawyer might cut you a better deal and our asses are fucked, and you was the one who killed her. We didn’t do shit and we still got caught up in the murder charge for just being there.”
    Just hearing Tiny remind her that she actually killed someone made Jessica cringe.
    Vonda had had enough and finally said, “Tiny, we wouldn’t even be