a whole lot of Truth all at once. (R-rated post)

It is late May in Milwaukee. Custard lines are long with grinning gawky teenagers and gray haired middle aged men imagine they are cowboys every time they crank up their Harleys. Downtown, the gentle zephyrs created when the strong southern winds meet the cold waters of lake Michigan, propel small fluffy white willow seeds upward to the tippy tops of the skyscrapers. And all along North Ave, from the freeway to 47th St, the prostitutes are out.

I awoke panicked in a cold sweat last night. I had seen one particular woman the night before on my way home at about 9pm. She must have been new to this life because she still put effort into her "sexy" outfit. She was wearing a miniskirt, stilletto heals and a tank top. She stood next to a phone booth in front of a boarded up store. It was in the low 50s and she was trying her best to look "alluring" while shivering in the cold. She was really young. The ambient light reflected off of her shiny blue heels. Her awkward pigeon toed posture betrayed that she was in her early teens. She was no woman - she was a kid.

There in the cool night room, a sick feeling crept from my stomache into my chest. I started to quietly weep in my bed. I turned away so my wife wouldn't wake up. Sometimes you can see something and not really see it until a long time later. And when you finally do, you wish you hadn't. This is the first time I have lived in a neighborhood where there are prostitutes. I am not used to it. I hope I don't get used to it.

I was a middle schooler when I first learned about the glamorous world of prostitution. I learned most things from a movie called Pretty Woman. Among the lessons I learned were:

1) Prostitutes look like Julia Roberts.
2) Prostitutes are well paid and 22 years old
3) Men generally fall in love with prostitutes and then lavish them with gifts and love.
4) Prostitutes keep the money they make.
5) Prostitutes make the decision to sell themselves and can decide to change their lives at any point.
6) Prostitutes are drug free

It turns out that these axioms of the sex trade don't really play out in my neighborhood. Perhaps they use a different business model here in Milwaukee.

My friend has started to do a little "recon" in one neighborhood not too far from my own. She says that on one block, there are a group of young girls who charge five-dollars for sex. They are young high-school aged girls. They operate in the mornings because they've found a unique business model. She tells me that suburban businessmen, on their way to work in downtown Milwaukee, stop along the block, pick out a young girl and have sex with them in their car in a vacant lot across the street. The whole process takes only a few minutes. It's like fast food. Most guys get starbucks on the way into the office. A few rape kids and give them a green piece of paper with the Great Emancipator on the front.

I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to. It was a whole lot of truth all at once.