D.M.S.R. (BOOK 1) || PRN

(18) Purple Rain

June 26, 1984
Los Angeles, California

I talk a lot about the way Purple Rain changed things, I know I do. I don't want that to cast the idea that it changed everything over night, not on my end at least. The change was gradual... Although much like any other gradual change, the change was more evident in some circumstances as compared to others. Purple Rain's premiere was one of those times. I had no idea what I was in for. Nobody did, really.

We were in Los Angeles once again! It was Aaliyah's first time, making that moment of travel particularly special. The main reason to be there was attending the premiere although we surely found a way to sprinkle in multiple other avenues of fun. Alexis had already been after she visited the city as a child going to Disneyland. It gave us the upper hand to surprise Aaliyah with the details of the experience. I needed to show her traveling was not what Uncle Dorian made it out to be, especially after he went to her for Prince's number. I knew her mindset had been jaded by him.

What went down when I got back home from Minnesota was a complete mess that should have been avoided and sure as hell could have been avoided. All hell broke loose. I didn't think it would have blown up the way it did. My first stop was going home to see Eddie, just like I promised from Prince's house when I called home. The signs of hell were there and I missed off of them. I'm still fighting that guilt today. I can recall it as if it happened this morning. I walked in and nobody was home at my parents' house. Eddie was running a god damn muck in there! All the sugar in the world and all of the junk you can imagine. He had it all! I walked around surveying the house. There was not a single sign of my parents' existence. You would have thought he was one of those runaway kids living on coke and gummy bears.

I took Eddie and told him that he'd be staying with me until my parents got their shit together. I meant that. I'd never known them to be absent parents so it was quite absurd. I figured they were both busy with work but even after giving them an excuse, that wasn't cutting it for me. I'll be dammed if they neglect him. I meant that then and I mean it now. Just as I was taking him with me, my mother waltzed in the house. I blinked and she was asking a million questions. When'd I get back? Where are we going? Why am I so angry? Oh, now you give a damn? That's nice, I thought. It could not believe her. We got into a big ass fight. One of my main questions I asked was where the hell was my father.

And then she changed the entire course of our relationship. She changed it forever.

My mother slapped me. Actually, she slapped the shit out of me. Black mothers really don't play and it wasn't the first time she'd hit me but that was the extreme. I not only had no clue what I did to deserve it but I was an adult, a grown ass woman who got slapped across the face by her mother for no reason. I couldn't believe it. I stopped speaking to her after that. I talked to Eddie all of the time but my mother? I wanted nothing to do with her. I started picking him up from school and taking him back to my house since my mother spontaneously did not come home until it was damn near midnight. Nobody knew where my father was but her. Aaliyah didn't even seem care. She was too busy chasing a relationship that certainly was not meant to be.