Track 3: "Natalie"     

Sade "Maureen" Style — Intimate Jazz-Soul Portrait

Verse 1: I was twenty years old and running From a courtroom, from a sentence, from myself I left my name behind in St. Louis And became somebody else They called me Natalie in California I answered to it like it was real But you can change your name and keep your wounds And that's exactly how it feels

Pre-Chorus: Every knock on the door was a reckoning Every siren said they found you I was so busy running from the law I didn't notice what the running did to me

Chorus: Natalie wasn't free She was just further from the truth I thought if I outran my name I could outrun my proof But shame doesn't need your address It moves when you move Natalie wasn't free She was just lost in the running Lost in the running

Verse 2: I told myself nobody's really hurting That I deserved the things I couldn't earn A high school dropout chasing Chanel Calling destruction ambition Too young to know the difference Too proud to stop and learn The handcuffs came quiet On a Tuesday afternoon The U.S. Marshals said excuse me ma'am And the fantasy was through

Pre-Chorus: Humiliated on an airplane Cargo instead of human A marshal leaned in and told me quiet This isn't the end of your story I didn't know those words were prophecy I was too ashamed to receive them

Chorus: Natalie wasn't free She was just further from the truth I thought if I outran my name I could outrun my proof But shame doesn't need your address It moves when you move Natalie wasn't free She was just lost in the running Lost in the running

Bridge: Marianna, Florida September 19, 1995 I stopped running And something strange happened I started to come alive They gave me a tool room And a bed to make with precision And for the first time in my life I learned what it meant to be trusted Even after everything I'd done Someone trusted me And that was the beginning

Final Chorus (Slower, building): Leslie wasn't lost She was waiting underneath I had to stop running Natalie To finally find me Shame doesn't disappear It transforms when you face it I laid down the alias And picked up my real name Leslie I came back to Leslie

Outro (Spoken): I spent thirty years performing success So no one would look close enough To find the girl who ran But she wasn't something to outrun She was something to go back for Her name was Leslie And she deserved to come home