Juicy

House Of The Rising Sun

Toni-

"How long has she been here?" I ask as I walk into the jazz club I sometimes came to when I needed a break from everything. "Three hours, she hasn't touched a drink though she has just been sitting there looking at the stage" the manager answers and I nod my head before heading towards Alice sitting at one of the tables by herself.

After getting the call from Jill I left the party to come find her and Janet promised to bring Caleb, Chloe, and Halle back to my place after the party as to not ruin their night either. That was nearly two hours ago about the amount of time it had taken me to find Alice until the manager who is an old friend, fuck buddy, decided to call me and tell me that she is here.

I sit down across from her quietly and she doesn't acknowledge me so I simply turn to watch the singer also. "Do you remember when Tina and David took us to our first jazz club?" She asks after about ten minutes of silence. She never referred to our parents by the title given to them when they had us, it has always been Tina and David she says they wasn't deserving of anything more...sometimes I agree with her.

"It was my fifteenth birthday and I was wearing this white dress that Tina has just sewn. She made you a matching one because you always wanted to dress up like me" she continues and I nod though she wouldn't notice sense she is still looking at the stage. But I do remember that night it was actually one of my better memories of my childhood.

"There was a singer up here who I couldn't get out of my head for the longest and that night, as David ripped my dress off of me and stuffed parts of it in my mouth to keep me quiet, I heard her song...can you sing it with me?" She asks finally looking at me and I blink away the tears that have gathered into my eyes. I remember wanting to wear our matching dresses nearly everyday and begging Alice until she snapped on me one day saying she don't want to match with a little kid. I was hurt at the time but now I know why she couldn't wear the dress.

I quickly signal the manager over and whisper in her about Alice's request and she nods before stepping away. "Let's go" I say standing up and heading to the stage. Chattering is all around as I sit behind the piano they have onstage and I inhale deeply as I stroke over the keys I haven't touched in a long time. I hear Alice moving across the stage to come stand right in the center and I look to see if she is ready before hitting the first key silencing the crowd. And then she opens her mouth...

"There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl
And God I know I'm one..."

Flashbacks of growing up in our house hits me like a fist, the yelling my father did when things didn't go his way.

"My mother was a tailor,
Sewed my new blue jeans,
My father was a gamblin' man,
Down, way down in New Orleans..."

He would come home in the middle of the night from gambling smelling of sweat and cigarettes to me. But my mother always picked up another scent. Perfume that she couldn't wear because of her allergies.

"Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase, and a trunk,
And the only time he is satisfied,
Is when he's gone and drunk, oh yeah!"

"Let's go shopping sweet little!" Is what he would say to me. I could smell the liquor on his breathe as he picked me up into his arms and spun me around. My mother would then come in and snatch me out of his arms, "you are drunk David you are not taking my baby anywhere with you!" She yelled and he stared at her with them cold eyes.

"Now run and tell your children,
Not to do what I have done,
Don't spend your life in sin and misery,
In the house of rising sun..."

"Don't ever let a man or woman hit you, you hear me Michelle?" My mother tells me and I nod, my medicine that I have to take making my head dizzy. "I want you to watch over your sister okay, she is going to need you" she says as I blink up at her from my bed. Need me for what? I want to ask so bad but I am falling closer and closer to sleep. "I love you so much my sweet girl" she says before kissing my forehead and leaving out of the room. BAM! Is all I hear next before closing my eyes...

"There is a house in New Orleans,
They call the rising sun, yeah,
And it's filled with a plenty of poor girls,
And lord!
I know I'm one..."

I play the closing notes as bringing the song to an end before looking towards Alice who is looking back at me. I see the pain in her eyes, the years of trauma, the war that I always felt but hid below the surface. But she has always showed hers. She walked with grief hanging on her back while I ran from mines in a way. I failed my mother...

This is actually a cover song by Alice Smith, who plays Alice in my book she is an amazing singer so please check out her music but make sure you listen to this one so y'all can get a feel of the vibe in this chapter.