Anatomy of a Girl Gang (9781551525303) (22 page)

The other day, Laura ran up to me all bouncin around with her bubble-wand. She wanted to pet the dog, eh. But her dad caught her by the arm and told her not to ever touch strange dogs without askin their owner if it's okay first. So then she looks up at me with all this watery hope in her eyes and says in her little kid voice, Can I pet your dog? Please?

Sure, I said. Go ahead.

Is she nice?

Yeah, she is. She's really nice.

Okay, she said, and reached out her hand.

And the crazy thing is, Laura will never know who I am, she'll never know about the Black Roses, all we did together, how much we loved her sister, but I will always, always look out for her. Forever.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THANK YOU:
Ben Parker, my first reader and secret weapon; David Chariandy for encouragement and kindness; Dennis E. Bolen for enthusiasm and moral support; Cathleen With for inspiration and conversation; Michael Christie for paving the way and lending me Henry; Gabe Schoenberg and Graffiti Tours New York for the tour and coco helado; Timothy Taylor for “graffiti as gifts”; Michael Chettleburgh for
Young Thugs
, which spawned the idea for this novel; Mark Kingwell for
Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City;
Odd Squad Productions Society; Misha Kleider, Alex Kleider, and Corey Ogilvie for
Streets of Plenty;
Chris Haddock for
Intelligence
(I'm still waiting for Season 3); Paul Schrader; William Monahan; Oliver Stone; Geoff (Tippi) Tomlin-Hood for locals only info, driving me around Strathcona, and always making time to hang when I'm in Vancouver; John Harkin for Vancouver info; Ron Little for car-starting info; everyone who shared their experiences of the street with me; the OGs; my agent, Hilary McMahon; the crew at Arsenal Pulp: Gerilee McBride for the book's design; Susan Safyan for making the editing process painless; Cynara Geissler; Brian Lam; to my family, thanks for being in my corner, especially my parents, John and Jennifer Little; and thank you, Warren, for food, shelter, and TLC, but thanks especially, for being down for life.

GLOSSARY

9: 9 mm gun

24's: 24 inch rims (on cars)

Alouette: Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, a women's maximum security prison

bill: $100 dollar bill

blunt: a cigar that has been emptied of tobacco and filled with marijuana

burners: disposable cell phones

connect: supplier of drugs

cooking: making crack

cop: pick up/buy drugs

deets: details

down: heroin

fiend: a person who craves a drug, e.g., crackfiend; fiending: craving

G: gangster

G-pack: a street-ready package of drugs worth $1,000

gat: gun

ghost car: undercover police car, usually a sedan, easily identified by the lack of hubcaps and a large antennae on the roof

ground-scores: things of value found on the ground; ends of cigarettes, change, lighters, etc.

H: heroin

Hastings shuffle: an erratic style of walking commonly seen in pedestrians on East Hastings Street, often includes arm
flailing, pocket checking, and scratching of the skin, generally brought on by a drug-induced psychosis

hella: to describe a lot of something; similar to “very” or “really”

hotshot: such high purity heroin that a “regular dose” is lethal

hundy: $100

juvie: Juvenile Detention Centre

K: short form for thousand; or Ketamine, a psychoactive drug

key: kilogram

kiff: Second-hand items (usually stolen) that street people sell to make money; watches, jewellery, DVDs, frozen meat, etc.

L.C.: Lucifer's Choice Motorcycle Gang, a (fictional) highly organized and very violent international crime syndicate dealing mainly in narcotics, weapons, human trafficking, racketeering, and illegal gambling operations.

low pro: low profile, undetected

OG: Original Gangster; term of respect for long standing gang member

OPP: Other People's Property; a reference to Naughty by Nature's rap song

Oxy/Oxycontin: a semi-synthetic opiod analgesic prescribed to patients with chronic pain, when crushed up and snorted/injected for street use, it produces a quick and powerful high similar to heroin

PCP: Punjabi Canadian Princess

PoCo: Port Coquitlam, home of pig farmer/ serial killer Robert Pickton

rags: bandanas; often seen worn by gangsters portrayed in the media

re-up: reload supply of drugs for street sales

rig: a needle or syringe used to inject drugs

rock: crack cocaine

Slurrey: derogatory name for Surrey, BC, a suburb of Vancouver notorious for gang violence

sick: awesome, cool, amazing

SRO: Single Room Occupancy apartment

U.P.: Unified Peoples, a (fictional) powerful street gang

Vancouver Special: a term used to characterize a particular style of common, cheap, box-like houses built in Vancouver from 1965–1985

PHOTO BY JOHN HARKIN

ASHLEY LITTLE

studied creative writing at the University of Victoria (BC). Her debut novel,
Prick: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist
(Tightrope Books) was shortlisted for the ReLit Award and has been optioned for a film, for which she is writing the screenplay. She is also the author of the young-adult novel
The New Normal
(Orca Book Publishers). Ashley lives in the Okanagan Valley.

ashleylittle.com