Beneath a mat of short blonde hair, dark roots try to hide. When the car passes a tattoo parlor on Broadway, Sunny hikes up her red T-shirt to reveal her belly button. The pierced skin has yet to heal. Like Sunny, it lies there like a delicate wound pleading for attention. While most of Knoxville looks the other way, Sunny and the city's shifting pack of street prostitutes buckle under the weight of narcotics addiction.
Prostitution is just one part of their daily collapse.
There are drug and alcohol programs for those in the junkie set, but nothing specifically aimed at pulling prostitutes off the street. One day soon, however, Knoxville could offer prostitutes like Sunny a way out. If a newly-formed task force has its way, local prostitutes will have a place to go for treatment instead of tricks. They'll be able to leave their humiliating life for a new home, where each can start the day from someplace besides the bottom. The Program Judge Chuck Cerny doesn't know Sunny, but from his perch on the bench in General Sessions Court, he's often introduced to women like her.