Purple Rain

Chapter 1: Let's Go Crazy

The innocence of a child can be crucial if you can keep it. I kept my innocence as a normal child should. Yes, I saw things young boys shouldn't see at the age I was, but besides that it was normal. That wasn't the case for my friend Samira. I called her that, but everyone called her Solange. We were just kids when we met, right before starting pre school. It was in the summer. We were so little and her mother and mine were friends. I would go to her house to play or she would come to mine. You could consider us best friends. We would play house, or cops and robbers, tag, race each other. We played it all. We stayed the night at each other's houses until we got older...when she suddenly disappeared. It was strange because when I was little, I always had a feeling that soon she wouldn't be around long, and when she told me she was moving, I remember being sad. I was devastated.

"Prince! Get upstairs now!" My stepfather calling me from the top of the steps brought me out of my gaze into an old scrapbook. I had forgotten I was originally looking for my old notebook that had some songs in it. I closed the scrapbook and threw it back into the box and stuffed it under my bed before going upstairs into the kitchen. Hayward had his arms crossed and was looking sternly at me. "I know you're getting moved in, but there's some ground rules we need to set. First of all, I know you're twenty three now so there's no point in giving you a curfew, but if I get up to go to work and you're just coming in, you're out of this house." I didn't bother saying anything because I knew he was going to continue. "Another thing, no girls over. If I find a girl in that basement, you're out of this house. No drinking, no smoking, clean up your own dishes, do your own laundry, and keep that basement clean." I waited to see if he'd continue, but he was done. "I will." I turned around to go back down to my bedroom and shut the door behind me.

Living back at home was a drag, but I couldn't afford my apartment in Minneapolis anymore. Hopefully my music would take off at some point so I could be back in my own space because I knew I wouldn't last long here. Not with my mother and my stepfather together. Thankfully they both worked, but off on the weekends. That was my best idea to get a band together and get this music going. I kept digging through boxes to find my notebook, but decided to start unpacking the rest of my stuff. I unpacked my bedding first before my clothes. I heard the door open. "Prince, are you down here?" It was my mother this time. "Yeah, Ma. Just unpacking." I heard her steps coming down and I sat on my bed.

"This weekend I want you to spend time with your father." Oh, no. That's the last thing I wanted to do. Especially once he hears I'm back to living here. "Okay. I'm gonna be busy, but I'll see if I can make some time.". That response kept her happy. "Good. You haven't seen him since last Christmas and he's been talking a lot about you at his church." I bit the inside of my lip. My mom glanced at something in one of the boxes before looking at it head on. "Oh, I haven't seen this since you were in school." I stood up to see her walking to the scrap book. The exact one I was just looking at. She was cooing over it. "It's your baby pictures." For some reason I was embarrassed. My mother sat at the end of my bed while I was walking around to find more clothes. "Awww, Prince. Look at you! You're so cute with your knight outfit! I haven't seen these pictures in years!" She was so excited. "Ma..." I said sorting my clothes in my dresser.

I heard the page turn. "Aw! And you and your sister! So adorable you two were." I rolled my eyes. I hadn't heard a page turn for awhile, so I turned around to see her looking at a picture of Samira and I. "Oh, wow. I haven't...seen her since you two were kids." I closed my dresser. "Me either. I haven't heard about her either." I confessed. "Her mother and I were so close until they moved. That was the last I heard about them. It was best for them to move." I realized I had finished unpacking my clothes. "You two were inseparable. Stayed the night with each other and birthday parties. You even caught chicken pox from her." "Ah! Don't remember me of that." I shivered remembering all the boils. I still have a few scars from them too. I scratched my neck remembering the constant itching from them. My mother closed the scrapbook. "Anyway, I came down here to tell you something." "Was it about dad?" I asked, hoping she'd leave soon before I opened my hideaway box. "No, not that...hmm." She looked around as if she'd remember if she saw what she needed to tell me. "Oh! Hayward wants you to get rid of these boxes before the trash comes this Friday." That was doable. "Yeah I can do that." She stood up. "I really want to know what has happened to her now. I wonder if I still have her mother's number...but she could've moved again." I watched Ma leave my room and I tore into the next box to hide away my Hustler and Playboy magazines in my dresser drawers. I even hid the condoms I had just in case I would ever need them down here, but I doubt I would.