"Little Shop of Horror" - Porsche

Ever since I could remember, I knew that the pigment of my skin was enriched with melanin. My parents taught me that I was beautiful and that made me proud to black. My daddy would call me his brown sugar princess, who was in the image and likeness of his beautiful sweet molasses queen, my mom. I also knew that some of the kids in my school were not as brown as me or even brown like me for that matter, but my mom taught me that the skin color of a person didn't matter because what counted was how they treated others. Little did I know, not everyone believed in that philosophy and seeing even a small glimpse of me keeps some people on high alert.

I grew up having friends of all different skin tones from silky ivory to rich sable and all shades in between; when we hung out, we looked like a box of multicultural Crayola crayons. I was what society would call a good kid so it was no surprise that my best friend at the time was Emily Harding, "the girl next door". Emily's skin was vastly lighter than mine, looking similar to that of a porcelain doll. Because of this, we were coined Ebony and Ivory. Her dad was a pastor at a local church that we were members of, so our families were seen everywhere together. If you saw the Hardings, then you saw the Joneses.

On one Autumn afternoon, Emily and I headed to the new ice cream shop in town. We got out of school early because of Parent/Teacher Conference day. Our parents told us that we could go get a snack in town until they arrived at the school at 3 o'clock to meet with our teachers. With two hours to spare, we decided to walk around town for a bit and eat ice cream at Sweet Retreat. As we were walking toward the shop, many shop owners gave us salutations.

"Hey Emily! Hey Porsche!"

"Hey girls!"

One shop owner even began singing Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder's famous song Ebony and Ivory, "Ebony and Ivory! Live together in perfect harmony." Emily and I began to chuckle at his off key singing.

As we approached Sweet Retreat I stopped in the doorway. I began to feel uneasy and my heart started to sink. Emily didn't notice my hesitation because she was too excited to get a scoop of ice cream. "Come on, slow poke! Let's go!" she said as she pulled the big oak door and entered the store.

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