Where You Came From in Black and White

Amber had a lot hurt in her life yet she still managed to get up every day and sing for the people at a theme park she worked at. She never let anyone she worked with know about her past. When she left Chicago she thought she could begin with a fresh start.

At night she would dream of demons and crack rocks, fire engines and cops. She dreamed in black and white.

During the day she would go to work. Put on her costume and sing for parents and children. She made them laugh and smile, which made her happy for a while. Then she would go home and look at herself in the mirror. She had gained weight in the year since she had stopped smoking crack and moved from Chicago.

Amber decided to start working out. After a few months of working out she lost the weight she had gained and started to feel better about herself. She started dating the tram conductor from the theme park she worked at and life was getting better.

She decided to take a trip with her new boyfriend to Chicago. She had sworn never to go back to that city, but she wanted to show her new friend her hometown.

They went to Wriggly Field, and Clark St. She showed him the high school where she first learned she had a voice.

The afternoon before they were to leave she took the CTA bus to visit her family without her new friend. She wanted to tell her grandmother that she had become the person she had raised her to be. She also wanted to tell her brother that she didn't hate him for turning her onto crack.

Amber got to the Humboldt Park neighborhood that she grew up in. Some of the old faces she knew had changed, but new ones had taken their place selling dope on the corners.

She hadn't talked to anyone since she left the city over a year before. She walked up the steps of her grandma's apartment building as her brother's friend Marquis was walking out.

"What's up girl? Haven't seen you in a while."

"Not much. You seen my brother around?"

"Yeah, he's chillin' upstairs. Want me to let you in?"

Amber and Marquis walked the stairs up to the third floor apartment. The same graffiti was still on the walls. Marquis knocks on the door and her brother answers with a crack pipe in hand.

"Where you been at sis? Come in."

Amber walks into the apartment. Many of the guys she grew up with are there playing domino.

"Hey baby girl," yells Kid an guy she grew up with who she used to fuck for dope.

She took off her coat and sat down.