Honey has worked as a prostitute in Kings Cross for fifteen years. She's thirty years old. The very first thing she told me was that she came from a respectable home.
"I landed in the Cross young. And quickly met a much older guy. We split up now ... it was hard to get away from him. He's abusive. By the time I was twenty-two, we had three sons together."
Her face lights up when she talks of her boys, who live with one of her sisters in suburban north-western Sydney. She bought her eldest an iPad but he told her it got confiscated. I said it must be hard for her to have no say in their discipline and upbringing. She agreed.
"But I see them every few weeks. It's really good that they're all together."
Honey doesn't have a pimp, just works for herself. She's been beaten up, spat on, robbed. She charges extra for "heavy" stuff. She's addicted to heroin and cocaine and shoots up multiple times a day. We sat in McDonalds and she talked so openly, with not a trace of shame or fear. I asked if she thought she could ever get clean. She doesn't think so.
"I was once, for about three and a half-years while I was having my boys."
Honey wishes the Cross was more like how it used to be. She misses the camaraderie and community feel it used to have.
"These days girls just turn on each other. You do a client, walk down an alley and get robbed by 'em. It's bullshit."
Some streets are darker than others. As we walked outside together I tell her that it was a pleasure to meet her, that she's got a beautiful heart. And I'll be thinking about her for a long time. She smiled, and swished her long brown hair in time to the rhythm of her knee-high leopard-print boots.
"Plenty of girls have gone hard from doing this. I haven't. I never will."
And she walked away.
EDITED: My friend Kit just asked me if I told Honey it was possible to get clean. I did ... I absolutely did, but didn't want to sit there sounding preachy. I believe that anybody addicted to drugs or alcohol can get clean. (It doesn't mean they will. And it doesn't mean it's easy.)
Friday Street Talk is an unfolding art project. I'm so grateful and blown away that people say yes to talking with me, trusting me with some snippets of who they are.
Previous Street talks:
1. Noelene the Young
2. Megan the Mouse
3. Harpal the Australian
4. Darren the Artist
5. Jo the Interesting
6. John the Telstra Guy
7. Michael the Photographer
8. Peg the Lady
9. Jeff the Preacher Man
10. Andres the Cobbler
"I landed in the Cross young. And quickly met a much older guy. We split up now ... it was hard to get away from him. He's abusive. By the time I was twenty-two, we had three sons together."
Her face lights up when she talks of her boys, who live with one of her sisters in suburban north-western Sydney. She bought her eldest an iPad but he told her it got confiscated. I said it must be hard for her to have no say in their discipline and upbringing. She agreed.
"But I see them every few weeks. It's really good that they're all together."
Honey doesn't have a pimp, just works for herself. She's been beaten up, spat on, robbed. She charges extra for "heavy" stuff. She's addicted to heroin and cocaine and shoots up multiple times a day. We sat in McDonalds and she talked so openly, with not a trace of shame or fear. I asked if she thought she could ever get clean. She doesn't think so.
"I was once, for about three and a half-years while I was having my boys."
Honey wishes the Cross was more like how it used to be. She misses the camaraderie and community feel it used to have.
"These days girls just turn on each other. You do a client, walk down an alley and get robbed by 'em. It's bullshit."
Some streets are darker than others. As we walked outside together I tell her that it was a pleasure to meet her, that she's got a beautiful heart. And I'll be thinking about her for a long time. She smiled, and swished her long brown hair in time to the rhythm of her knee-high leopard-print boots.
"Plenty of girls have gone hard from doing this. I haven't. I never will."
And she walked away.
EDITED: My friend Kit just asked me if I told Honey it was possible to get clean. I did ... I absolutely did, but didn't want to sit there sounding preachy. I believe that anybody addicted to drugs or alcohol can get clean. (It doesn't mean they will. And it doesn't mean it's easy.)
Friday Street Talk is an unfolding art project. I'm so grateful and blown away that people say yes to talking with me, trusting me with some snippets of who they are.
Previous Street talks:
1. Noelene the Young
2. Megan the Mouse
3. Harpal the Australian
4. Darren the Artist
5. Jo the Interesting
6. John the Telstra Guy
7. Michael the Photographer
8. Peg the Lady
9. Jeff the Preacher Man
10. Andres the Cobbler
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Write to be understood, speak to be heard. - Lawrence Powell