To say that the last few weeks have been a blur for Viviana would be an understatement. After the death of her crew leader, she had bounced around, sticking with some of her former crew members before finally finding a home in Black Bottom. Vivian's lineage, other than a short stint in New York, had all called Detroit home. While relatively new to these shores, those that came before her had worked hard to prove their worth and had instilled in her the same ethics.

The world in which they chose to live was a brutal one - it was either kill or be killed. The number of funerals she had attended after the most recent war was a testament to this. She had gone to as many as she could, not only to those of fallen crew members but to those of allies from Detroit and New York. While it had taken an emotional toll, it had also added a new, colder, side to her personality. What she had only read in her mother's and grandmother's journals she had now witnessed with her own eyes.

Today, Viviana walked the streets, seeing things just a little differently than she had in the past. She had never been one to give street speeches, though she would often listen to those that she happened to stumble across and maybe she would provide input, if the topic managed to stir her.

Many topics seemed to come up over and over again, ongoing questions that would never really achieve an answer. And it seemed that today she would ask one of her own. Finding a corner to stand in, Vivana took a long drag on the cigarette she held between her fingers before coming forward to speak.

“My family’s line is relatively new to these shores – I am only the 4^th generation to walk these streets. I know many who can trace their lineage back to the greatest leaders of our times and their family history speaks for itself. But I would like to know what keeps the new ones here?

For me, it was my mother’s dedication to her crew leader. My mother would never have worked so hard for someone she didn’t respect, so it was an honor to step into her shoes. But I’d like to ask others, to see your mother, father, and grandparents taken out, what made you get into the same line of work?”

Viviana looked into the crowd, waiting to see what responses she would get. 

Lefty was heading back to his sorry excuse for an apartment after a rather productive day of skulduggery. Moving with the crowd he was just about to turn the corner when he noticed a rather pensive looking woman, a cigarette burning in her hand. Looking a little closer he could see she was about to say something to the crowd. Just as Lefty had made that deduction the woman took a long drag from her cigarette and came a few steps forward, a somewhat cold look in her eyes that left a taste of cold steel in his mouth for some bizarre reason.

Feeling rather unsettled and listening to the woman's questions had made him remember his own parents, his grandparents had died a few years before he was born, a sour mood coming over him.

'Loyalty huh? The only thing Pop was ever loyal to was the next bottle.' Lefty thought darkly, giving a soft grunt. 'Drove Mum right away, leaving me to deal with his sorry ass. All I came here for was to get away. That and cold, hard cash.'

An image of him sitting around a table with a few other people suddenly flashed before his eyes. Laughing, drinking and playing cards, he hadn't had many of those kinds of nights before coming here. Then he thought of the day when he was asked to come work with the crew he had been doing a few jobs for on a more permanent basis, receiving a slap on the back when he agreed.

'I guess I found something better,' an odd feeling settling in his stomach following that thought. 'I've never really been part of something before.. No sense in letting her know that though.'

Lefty looked at the, admittedly rather striking, woman. "I'm just here for the booze lady!" he proclaimed with a small smile on his face.

I don't know if you wanted me to answer this or not.  You see, my family line isn't all that new to these streets.  In fact, I'm closer to the 40th generation of my family on these shores than I am to the 4th generation, but I do know what keeps me coming back for more.  

It's the people.  The leaders, the thugs, and everybody in between.  It's all those who work hard to make these streets what they are.  

Looks to the sky.

And them up there.  Gods, ancestors, Everybody who has come before us who have paved the way.  For them I come back too.  

Points over to the business districts in Detroit and Chicago.

And I come for the businesses, the places I can go to hang out with friends and family.

I really come back to enjoy my Chocolate Cake.  You know, that reward you get at the end of a hard day's work.  Whether it be a person, a thing, or an idea, it's your delicous Chocolate Cake, and it goes great with milk.

Kid stops to reflect on the question posed.

"New"  is tantamount opinion. 

Have you seen WiggleFanGirl4Lyfe?  Hell what woman what not come back to that man?