Rocket wasn't her real name ya see... I never know'd her real name, ever'one jus' called her Rocket. I remember the first time we met, way back when we was kids. The very first thing that stood out about Rocket was her hair. She had the longest hair I'd ever seen in my whole life. It was chestnut brown and hung down past her bum. Tessa'd sit and brush it every morning after breakfast and then she'd put it in one big long braid right down the centre o' Rocket's back. When Rocket would run (and she was always runnin') that braid would whip around like a big length o' rope... an if it'd hit ya, it'd hurt like a bee sting. The other thing people always noticed was Rocket's eyes. She had real pretty brown eyes, big and bright and sparkly like she was always just about ta start crying, even when she was smiling.

When we met we was both living in the trailer park but she tol' me all about how she used to live in foster homes (she never know'd her real folks). It was bad ... seemed like all those foster people was just in for the money! She got pass around a lot cuz she was 'troubled' or so the agency people said. Rocket hated all those foster people so when she was jus' eleven years ol' she run away and started livin' on the street. She didn't talk so much about that tho' ... I think some bad shi... I mean 'stuff' happened, and she didn't wanna talk about it. Poor kid never had any luck...

Then came Tessa... she was like... I dunno... sorta like her mom I guess. The way Rocket used to tell it, Tessa was a sweet angel back then. Tessa found Rocket in a dumpster... just starvin' to death. Tessa took one look in that dumpster and just reached in an plucked Rocket out and that was that. Tessa took her back to the trailer park, got her fed and took care o' her like she was her own. From then on they was like a pair o' aces. They was always together.

Rocket used to love the trailer and the folks in the trailer park. Old Jim across the way used to read to her before he got the palsy and couldn't hold the books no more, and Audee May used to watch her when Tessa was working (when she had a job).

I always liked Tessa, but that woman could not hold a job. She had been a real beauty when she was young, she used to love to tell how she posed for Playboy magazine when Heffner was just starting out. Ever'time she told it the year always seemed to change but she swore it happened.

Tessa always loved little kids. Not like that you pervo! She jus' liked little kids better than adults. She could trust 'em y'know? I guess Tessa was kind o' like a big kid herself... she and Rocket used to go down and jump in the Goodwill bin and play dress-up in all the funky old cloths... they was always doing shi... I mean 'stuff' like that. Rocket tol' me that one day she wanted to paint a picture and they didn't have no brushes, so Tessa cut a lock off her own hair off and stuck it on a pencil for her to paint with. I tell ya, ain't no one never done nothin' like that for me...

But the best thing Tessa ever did for Rocket was not send her to school. Now I know that sounds bad... but school and Rocket just didn't go together. See, cuz she was always being pass around so much and not eatin' right, Rocket was always real small. She was only four an a half feet tall when she was sixteen for Christ sake. On top o' that she was way behind ever'one her own age school-wise so other kids always made fun o' her. She tol' Tessa she wasn't gonna go to no school and Tessa just said fine. That's how she was see... real easy to get along with.

After that, every day for Rocket was like Christmas... she would get up real early and run down the street in her nightgown with no shoes or socks on and go to 853 Walden Avenue. You know that big ol' house across from the school? Ain't no one lived there for as long as I been alive. She'd climb up to the second floor and look out the dirty cracked window pane, watching all the little kids go to class. She thought it was hi-freekin-larious! She'd laugh at them kids when the bell rang and they all had to run to line up outside the door. "Buncha Freekin' Sheep" she'd say, and laugh and laugh.

That big ol' house was her playhouse an she used to take me up there sometimes an show me all her best stuff. She had wonder woman comic books an' a big silver switch blade an' Camel Lite cigarettes. She used to smoke up there all the time, it's a miracle she didn't burn that place down! We even practiced kissing up there to see what it was like but mostly we jus' giggled cuz it felt weird.

Anyway, that all stopped when she met Jessie and fell in love. Jessie was a good lookin' guy alright, tall an' thin with long blond hair an' he could charm the pants off a nun. He jus' walked into the trailer park one day and him and Rocket was together from then on.

Tessa didn't like it...he was seventeen and Rocket was only fourteen and Tessa said Rocket should find a guy her own age but she didn't listen. Jessie would come into the park and sit on the lawn chair in front of Tessa's trailer 'till Rocket came outside and she would just hang on him like a coat on a hook. She tol' me they was gonna get married but they had to wait until she was eighteen cuz Tessa wouldn't sign the permission paper.

Ever'thing changed then... she and Tessa started fightin' all the time and Rocket started spending every day at 853 Walden Street with Jessie (he was squattin' there). Every night Tessa'd go down there and drag her back and there'd be a huge fight until finally the park manager, Mr. Cox called the cops and Jessie got arrested.

Well Rocket begged Tessa not to press charges and promised to cool it so Jessie got out and everything seemed to calm down.

Anyhoo, not long after that Jessie's mom died. She was pretty old, like she had Jessie late I guess, and she was an alky so it wasn't no big surprise. She lived over on Glenview Road in a run down two story colonial that she had chopped up and turned into a flop house and when she died she left it to Jessie. Well right after the funeral he tossed all the bums an druggies out and moved in... he said it was all part of the plan.

That's when Charlie showed up. Charlie Hoskins was a little man with a big car. He was only about five foot four and was shaped like a potato standin' on toothpicks. He had a big balding head with a greasy black comb-over and stunk of Hai Karate aftershave. He was gross! Worst thing about him though was he thought he was so much better than all o' us. He went to some fancy school out east and he used talk all hoity toity using words like 'Thou' and 'Egad!' He rolled into the trailer park in a huge dark green Caprice Classic smokin' a cigar and Tessa was practically drooling like a dog. They started going out steady and since Tessa was never around Rocket started seein' Jessie again and everyone was happy... kinda. But y'know what happened? Yup, Rocket got knocked up... and guess what? Tessa wasn't even mad. It was the weirdest thing. Jessie told Rocket that he had a plan and not to worry but Tessa took Rocket down to the Planned Parenthood place and got her fixed up with a 'bortion and that was that... crazy!

Over the next few months Jessie was always at the house on Glenview, fixin' it up and such... and there was always people over there, pretty girls and men came and went and Rocket was kinda left on the sidelines. But he kept on tellin' her he had a plan and whatever the plan was it seemed to be working cuz all of a sudden he had lots of money. He bought a Corvette Stingray and he and Rocket would drive up an down Main Street every Saturday night with the windows down an the music blarin'... I think that was the happiest I'd ever seen Rocket since we was little. She'd just lean back in the leather seat with her foot stuck out the window and her eyes closed smiling like nobody's business.

Things was going good for Tessa too... word got out that Charlie had come out on the right end o' some deal and, now that he was set, he was fixin' ta ask Tessa to get married. She got wind o' it o' course (that always happens in a small town) and she was way up on cloud nine. She let Jessie come back around the trailer park then and he and Charlie even seemed to be gettin' along.

An' then, right there in the middle of all that happiness, it happened. Rocket an' Tessa had the biggest, meanest, nastiest fight I have ever had the displeasure to witness. No one even knew what it was about! The screamin' started sometime aroun' eleven at night and Rocket came outta the trailer like she was shot out a cannon! She was hot as hell and screamin' like a crazy woman. Tessa come out right after her holdin' a little pistol and tellin' Rocket to leave an' never come back! Well Rocket pulled out that big silver switch blade and I was sure someone was gonna die.

Old Mr. Cox call the cops, but before they got there Jessie showed up in his 'vette an' told Rocket ta get the Hell in before she got arrested. Well she got in alright but first she picked up a big rock... one of the ones painted white along the edge o' the road y'know ... an' she threw it right at Tessa! Well Tessa got out o' the way and then Jessie was peeling outta there with Rocket half hangin' out o' the car and Tessa chasin' after wavin' that gun in the air!

By the time the cops showed up ever'one was back in their trailers mindin' they own business cuz around these parts the only thing worse than a cop is a snitch.

Well after that no one saw Rocket for a long time. Ever'one knew where she was mind you... right up there in that big ol' house on Walden Avenue. Oh, Jessie tried to get her to come and live at his place but by then pretty much ever'one knew he was runnin' a brothel over there, with underaged girls and all, and Rocket sure as hellfire wasn't gonna be part o' that.

Charlie on the other hand, was all too happy to move right into the trailer with Tessa and start makin' plans. Turned out he never did like Rocket none and now that she an' Tessa were on the outs he was making his play. He told Tessa that he heard Jessie had a buncha cash locked up in a safe in that house on Glenview Road an' it would be sweet justice if they went right up there and cleaned him out. Especially since Charlie had it on good authority that Jessie's 'big plan' was ta get Rocket working in the brothel. Well Tessa said she could care less about Rocket cuz she was an ungrateful little slut and it would serve her right.

Meanwhile Rocket and Jessie were doin' some plannin' o' they own. Like I said in a small town nothing stays a secret for very long and Rocket soon got wind o' what Charlie and Tessa had in mind. She run to Jessie right away and spilled the beans.

It was Saturday August fifth when the whole thing went down. There was a big party at the house on Glenview Road like always. Lotsa girls on the front porch, talkin' ta dirty old men and horny young boys and then leadin' 'em inside and upstairs to get what they come for... Jessie was down in the basement where he kept his office but since it was Saturday night he an' Rocket was headin' out to go cruise the strip in his 'Vette like they always did.

Charlie had figured that was the best time to get into the house. Jessie would be gone and the noise from upstairs meant no one would hear 'em break in. Him an' Tessa parked the big green Caprice Classic in the back alley an' waited. About ten o'clock Jessie and Rocket came out and jumped in the 'Vette... Jessie burned rubber at the curb like he always did and they was gone.

Charlie and Tessa snuck 'round the back, busted the door open with a crowbar easy as pie and went inside. They made their way down the stairs and along the short hallway to Jessie's office and crept inside. Charlie shut the door and started looking for the safe in the dark... when all of a sudden the light snapped on.

Jessie and Rocket were standing right in the room with them and Jessie had a big nickel plated handgun pointed right at Charlie.

Charlie opened up his frog mouth, probably to say 'Egad!', but before he could make a sound... Bang! He hit the floor like a big ol' greasy, cigar chewin' sack o' shi...uh stuff. Jesse looked around all confused cuz he hadn't fired his gun. He turned to say something to Rocket but then he realized he had a switchblade in his back and he was dead too.

Rocket took out a napkin and wiped his blood off o' the blade of her knife and Tessa put her gun back in her purse and the two o' them smiled at each other kinda surprised that their plan had worked.

Turned out that Charlie was right, Jessie had a whole bunch o' cash in that safe and since he and Tessa had got hitched she had full access to everything in his bank account as well, which was no small potatoes.

She paid me and my boyfriend two thousand bucks for getting in the 'Vette that night and pretending to be Rocket and Jessie. We used the money to get the hell outta town and headed up north before she changed her mind about leavin' witnesses alive.

So that's what happened... the last I heard Tessa was runnin' the brothel an' pretty much owned the town. As for Rocket... well she's still in the basement with Jessie and Charlie... buried in a shallow grave with the last thing Tessa ever gave her... a bullet in the back o' her skull.

Poor kid never did have any luck.