Highway to Heaven

By Epiphany Z. Crush

Highway to Heaven is a fictitious novel that's centered around the Coppers' and their four children, as they learn to deal with middle/high school obstacles, marital problems, and poverty. This book is filled with love, pain, down south charm, and laughter in the heart of southeast Memphis, Tennessee, where there's never a dull moment. So sit down, fasten your seat belts, and let's cruise along the highway to heaven.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Epiphany Crush
• Release date: Nov 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393424215

Epiphany Z. Crush

      Ever since I was a little girl, I have had a love for words and literature! I have such vivid memories of playing Scrabble and of going to the library to check out tons of books on Saturday mornings. As an adult, I aspire to make both children and adults feel as I still do about books and literacy. I've been writing since age ten- dreaming of one day being able to share my writing with the world. Currently, I have eight published books: The Sky is the Limit (children’s) and Love, Heartbreaks, Epiphanies, and Joy (adult poetry collection), Extra 'Nessa (children's), Wake-up Call (YA novelette), Highway to Heaven (YA novel), Conversations in the Midnight Hour: A Journal with Scriptures of Wisdom and Consolation (YA nonfiction), Life, as Seen Through Her Introverted Eyes: A Collection of Poetry & Prose (YA poetry book), and The Repayment Plan (adult fiction). Paperback copies of my books can be purchased on my website: epiphanysskyanddesign.com. I am the owner of an online bookstore/giftshop. If you want to stay connected with me, please follow me on        

Book preview

PLAYLIST:

Understanding- Xscape

Weak- SWV

We Are the World- U.S.A. For Africa

Joy- Blackstreet

If Loving You is All I Have To Do- Mary J. Blige (feat. K-Ci)

Takin’ It To The Streets- The Doobie Brothers

Let’s Straighten it Out- Latimore

Baby, I’m Scared of You- Womack & Womack

Always On My Mind- SWV

The First Cut is the Deepest- Rod Stewart

Come with Me- Shai

Heaven- BeBe & CeCe Winans

Heaven- Solo

Let’s Start Love Over- Miles Davis

If You Think You’re Lonely Now- K-Ci

Love Under New Management- Miki Howard

Joy- Teddy Pendergrass

Just Once- James Ingram & Quincy Jones

Never Knew Love Like This- Alexander O’Neal (feat. Cherelle)

Where I Wanna Be Boy- Miss Jones

Love Changes- Kashif (feat. Meli’sa)

Regulate- Warren G

Tomorrow- Quincy Jones & Tevin Campbell

Let’s Straighten it Out- Monica

Foe Tha Love of Money- Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

Vindicate Me- Edwin Hawkins

I’m a Player- Too Short

Round and Round- Tevin Campbell

I Seen a Man Die- Scarface

Triflin’- Coko

Love Under New Management- Miss Jones

I’ve Been a Fool For You- Miles Jaye

On Bended Knee- Boyz ll Men

The Way Love Goes- Brian McKnight

No one in the World- Anita Baker

I Can’t Wait a Minute- Hi-Five

Ain’t No Need to Worry- The Winans & Anita Baker

Baby I’m For Real- After 7

Don’t Disturb this Groove- The System

Never Keeping Secrets- Babyface

Thinking About You- Whitney Houston

Roni- Bobby Brown

Make It Last Forever- Keith Sweat

I Like It- Jomanda

CHAPTER ONE

NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN

Karla, didn’t I tell you about polishing your nails in the living room? Look at this mess! There’s a spot on my new carpet.

I didn’t do it. Sheniqua did it.

Sheniqua didn’t do nothin’!  Karla, you better stop saying my name!

Make me!

Yeah, make her! eight-year- old Terrilyn chimed in, siding with fourteen-year-old Karla.

Sheniqua was sitting on the shabby, leather blue sofa in the center of the room. Putting both hands on her hips, Sheniqua arose from the sofa. Diane Copper put her hand on her head, which was pounding tremendously. She knew where this conversation was going- nowhere fast- so she quickly intervened.

All of you shut up! Karla, you go over there by that chair and clean up that mess.

But I didn’t do it! Karla protested.

Did I accuse you? Did I ASK you to tell me what you did not do? I don’t think so. Now go scrub that floor until ALL the nail polish is INVISIBLE.  Sheniqua, the oldest, who was fifteen, began to snicker. And as for you, their mother turned to her and said, I want you to go next door and see if Ms. Lee has any rice.

Nu uh, Mama! I know we ain’t fixinto eat no sausage and rice tonight.

Yes, we are, and guess who’s going to cook it?

No, not me, Sheniqua shook her head no. Mama, I’m sick of rice and butter! Rice and sausage! Every night! Why can’t we be like all the other kids on this block and order a pizza?

’ ’Cuz we ain’t like ALL THE OTHER KIDS on this block and we ain’t got no pizza money! Another thing...until you start working and paying MY bills, I don’t want to hear you talk about the food that I put on this table. Do I make myself clear, Sheniqua Nicole Copper?

Sheniqua did not respond.  She ignored her mother’s question and groaned annoyedly. Then she held out her hand and said, give me the money.

What money?

Mama, that lady gets tired of you begging for food! Man, why don’t you quit tryna work and get on welfare? You ain’t making nothin’ no way!

Diane raised her hand and slapped Sheniqua hard across her face. Sheniqua is always running her stupid mouth, but she don’t know nothing! She thought to herself.

Sheniqua, with tears in her eyes, walked out of the house and slammed the door hard.  On her way out, she screamed, I ain’t gotta take this! I can go stay with Desmond. At least HE can do for me!

Karla had stopped scrubbing the floor to watch her mother and her sister have it out.  Now she was upset with their mother.  She hated it whenever she made Sheniqua mad enough to leave- even if it was just for a day or two. She hated it, because it meant more work for her to do, and more tension in their home. Ms. Copper noticed the glum expression on Karla’s face.

Karla, finish doing what I told you to do, she said with a sigh.

Mama, my stomach’s growling, Terrilyn made known. 

During the showdown between her oldest sister and their mother, she had been sitting at the kitchen table waiting patiently for their mother to bring her a snack.  The previous night Terrilyn had opted out of eating the rice, lima beans, and sausage meal that their mother had prepared.  She was such a picky child with scrawny arms and legs. The breakfast and lunch options at school were not to Terrilyn’s liking either so as usual, she sat after school with intentions on getting full off junk food. Not today, Diane Copper thought to herself. We don’t have any junk food anyway. She glanced at Terrilyn, who was holding onto her stomach tightly as if she were in pain. Her long, beaded hair made a clickety-clack sound as she rocked back and forth in the chair.

Baby, you’re going to eat in a little while. Bridgett!! Bridgett, come here! 

Five minutes later twelve-year-old Bridgett Copper appeared in the tiny den.  She was wearing a tight, gold body dress with black suede platform shoes.  Diane Copper did not recall buying the dress nor the shoes. No, not for a twelve-year-old!  

Bridgett, wait just one minute! Where did you get that nasty dress and those grown woman heels from?

I found them in Sheniqua’s closet, Bridgett admitted.

Did you wear that to school today?

Yes, Ma’am.

Give those nasty hooker clothes to me right now and you go change into something decent.  How old do you think you are? Twenty-five? And after you do that, I want you to go over to Ms. Lee’s and borrow some rice.

Yes, Ma’am, Bridgett said, shamefully leaving the den with her head hung down.

Bridgett! her mother called sharply.

Ma’am? She didn’t even turn around.

Hold your head up. With the little things we got, you still should have some pride somewhere inside of you...’cuz at least we’re survivin’.  It won’t always be like this.  One day you will have nice dresses and shoes.  Bridgett lifted her head a little. Just a little. Wiping away tears, she went into her and Terrilyn’s room to take the outfit off.  Diane stared after Bridget and she thought to herself, Bridgett deserves way more than I can give her.  She thought about how much Bridgett volunteered to assist her with housework and she always did a good job of keeping her room tidy. Oh, how Diane wished that she were able to reward her third oldest daughter with a weekly, monetary allowance.

Money was tight. It had been this way ever since her husband Winston had walked out of Diane and their children’s lives. Money had been tight for a long time though- even before Winston had abandoned his family, but now the Copper family was really, financially, in between a rock and a hard place. This was not the first time that Winston had walked away, but Diane was set on it being his last. 5792 Pickers Way Apt. 102 was not a revolving door, and it was time that she made that clear to both him and Sheniqua. It was not fair! It was not fair to Diane nor to her other children, because every time Winston or Sheniqua ran away, it was she who had to answer all the questions from her other three daughters. Just like it was she who lost so much sleep due to her worrying about their well-being. She would never let anyone know that though.

Almost six months. That is how long Winston had been gone. This was the longest that he had stayed away.  Yes, it had been Diane who had told him to pack and leave in the first place, but this long absence had not been her expected outcome. All she had wanted was for Winston to get up off the sofa and get a REAL job!  It was not like he did not know that something had to be done on his end to bring more income into their home. After all, his at home television repair business was far from booming.

Sixteen years ago, when their love was new, things had been different. When Diane met Winston, he had been working out of a shop in Orange Mound, not far from their present home. The building was not huge, but it was decent AND he owned it. Diane would never forget that twinkle in Winston’s brown eyes and his infectious laugh that lit up that place. He had gone above and beyond to make sure that all his customers’ needs were met. Winston was laidback and very down-to-earth...a real people person.

He had worked extremely hard to take care of Diane and their bun in the oven- Sheniqua. He had always worked hard even before the two of them became an item. That had been one of the things Diane had admired most about Winston- his strong work ethic. He could spend hours working on televisions and VCRs and he would never seem to get tired. Deadlines had meant everything to him, and he always had his customers’ electronics on time, as promised. What Winston did not finish at his shop, he would bring home to repair just to make sure he would not miss his deadline. Diane had often stood in awe- near the doorway that led to their hallway. She had stood there watching her husband work in the den late at night. Sometimes it would be 3 a.m., but Winston would be still alert, whistling, trying to sing, or shouting at the television screen as if one of the players on the Dallas Cowboys team could hear him commanding them. He always recorded their games on their VCR, and he would watch them over and over. He would do all those things while working on televisions and more. He worked so well and fast with his hands.

Diane never knew what drove Winston. He was like the energizer bunny that kept going and going. She loved it, but something had changed about him after he had gotten Diane pregnant with Karla. That was when he had started drinking more. Next came Bridgett. He drank even more and had begun to stay out late, but he still had been functional. He had managed to still bring home the bacon. By the time Terrilyn had come along in 1986, Winston had become a hot, stinking, slurring mess who had lost his building for his business. As a result, he had to start working from their apartment, and Diane had gone out and found a janitorial job. Most of Winston’s paychecks had pretty much gone to the liquor store, and he had been in too deep-cash loans here and there! The Coppers would have gotten evicted from their home if Winston had not sold the building.

Diane had not been too mad about Winston losing his building though, because that meant that he would be able to see the girls off to school. It had worked out, as Winston had been home every day when they had come home from school. Besides, Winston had been good at what he did, so Diane had believed him when he said that his business would be better than ever. Diane had believed that Winston’s electronic repair business was going to one day take them out of Orange Mound and into the suburbs- despite the fact he had taken a big loss. She also had believed him when he had promised her that he would stop drinking and he would go back to the old Winston- the one who had swept her off her feet in 1978. The committed Winston who had left Yolanda Grier for her. If Diane had known this would have been her fate, she would have never ever given him the time of day! She would’ve told him to go back to Yolanda, but four babies later, she felt like it was too late to leave Winston, who always told her during his drunken moments, that no other man would want a woman with four kids. Diane had sacrificed so many years with him, and she had nothing to show for it. Nothing! She was trapped indeed.  

CHAPTER TWO

NAÏVE BLACK SHEEP 

When Sheniqua first met Desmond, it was the second day of school in August. She had been walking home from Hamilton High one day, and she was switching hard in a pair of Daisy Dukes. Desmond had caught sight of her hips moving from left to right. He had slowed down in his luxurious, champagne Cadillac, and asked to get her phone number. Less than a week later, Desmond told her that he loved her. No one had ever told Sheniqua those three words before. All she heard had home was I hate you. Those are the three words that Sheniqua was used to hearing, because Diane told often said them to her whenever Winston Copper was not around to be her punching bag. So, hearing those three sweet words... I love you ... from Desmond, had given Sheniqua a wonderful feeling, and she had decided that she wanted to be with him forever.

That Thursday night, Sheniqua had spent hours walking around in search of Desmond, but she had not been able to find him.  She stared down at her worn, pink, slip-on, jelly shoes that did not offer much walking support. The vamp area of the too little shoe was broken; her hot-pink polished big toe had pushed it to the limit, and it now stuck out of the shoe. Sheniqua’s feet hurt badly, and she was getting tired emotionally and physically. Her cheek still stung from her mother’s hand.

Hey, what time is it? she stopped to ask a random woman who had been walking in front of her on the street. Within seconds, Sheniqua regretted doing so.  The woman flung a long, blonde wig in her face as she spun around, and pointed a six-inch, yellow-polished nail at her.   

What time is it? The woman mimicked her.

She was close enough that Sheniqua could smell the liquor on her breath. Although Sheniqua’s 5’9, slender frame loomed over the woman, she was afraid because never before had she seen such a mean-looking woman! Sheniqua thought her mother was mean, but nothing like this scary woman. Sheniqua took a few steps back, because she did not know what to expect from this drunken stranger. The woman must have recognized fear in Sheniqua’s big, round eyes, because she threw her head back and laughed, revealing a gold tooth that glistened in the dark.

It’s TIME for ‘lil fast tailed girls to be in bed! I hope you don’t think you takin’ none of MY jobs tonight. In her drunken state, she sized Sheniqua up and down. You still wet behind the ears. Hmph! They may lay you, but they ‘shol ain’t gone pay you!

The woman shoved past Sheniqua, intentionally stepped on her foot, and then she left her standing on the sidewalk, trying to figure out what she had been talking about.    

A shiny, red Buick pulled up and the woman stumbled in with a car full of people who were blasting loud music. The tinted windows were rolled down, so Sheniqua peered in.  There were at least four men and one other woman. The other woman was busy in the backseat, kissing a man who from the back- resembled Desmond. Could it be him? Sheniqua thought to herself. Then she quickly dismissed that thought, telling herself that Desmond was dedicated to her. He only has eyes for me. As the car sped off, the drunken woman glared at the clueless girl, and then the window rolled up.   

Sheniqua still had no idea what time it was nor did she know where Desmond was. She stood confused in the dark, wondering what to do next.

Where are you when I really need you? She thought out loud.

She wished Desmond would come rescue her from having to make so many decisions on her own.  At home, her mother made all the decisions, but they were stupid decisions in Sheniqua’s opinion.  Stupid decisions like choosing to cook rice and sausage almost every night, stupid decisions like getting knocked up by a lazy man who she had stolen from another woman.  Of course, it was her- Sheniqua- who had been the product of the stupid decision, the reason why Diane had married Winston Copper. No, Sheniqua did not understand how her mother could have been stupid enough to marry a lazy man who refused to work a full-time job or extra hours. She silently held this grudge against her mother- angry that she had gotten pregnant by a man unwilling to take care of his wife and four children. Maybe if her mother had been smart and married a hardworking man, their family would not be living in the worst part of Orange Mound. If her mother had not fallen for Winston, maybe they would be eating pizza, shrimp, and steak every night for dinner instead of rice and sausage. Maybe if her mother had never laid eyes on Winston...     

Sheniqua yawned. She was tired of thinking about her mother’s stupid decisions and the way things could have turned out much better for their family if her mother had been wiser. Sheniqua was also tired of wondering about where Desmond could be, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not stop thinking about him. She thought about how all his friends had pretended to not know where he was. They had stared back at her with blank expressions. Now Sheniqua had nowhere to go. Well, she could always go home, but she knew all too well how that would end. Besides, her mother already told her the last time she ran away that if she ever did it again, she would ground her for two years. Since Sheniqua did not want to go home, she found an alley further down the busy street.  She found a spot that was not being occupied by anyone.  Then, she took off her navy blue and gray cheerleader jacket and used it as a blanket as she crouched down in a corner that smelled like a mixture of urine, smoke, and vomit. It was there where Sheniqua ate half of a Snicker candy bar and called it dinner. She had to save the other half for breakfast. For the first time in Sheniqua’s life, she was going to bed with a growling stomach, but she was too head strung to do what she knew she needed to do. Instead, she lay in the smoky, urine-filled alley among the other homeless occupants.   

The next day was Friday, but Sheniqua was very feeble and could not remember which day of the week it was. The only days that stood out were those where she knew she was going to spend time with Desmond. She was supposed to be at school on this breezy October day, but school was the last place she wanted to be. What would Mr. Thomas say if she showed up the fourth day this week with no biology homework?  Surely, he would embarrass her again in front of the whole class and he would probably give her after school detention too. Sheniqua had no time for staying after school nor for picking up trash. She barely liked staying for cheerleading practice now that Desmond was in her world. School was becoming more and more pointless to Sheniqua, who would rather ride around all day with Desmond as he made his rounds throughout Memphis, Tennessee. He always stopped and bought her a Big Mac and fries from McDonald’s.

She thought she knew it all, but the truth is that she did not know much about street life nor did she know who Desmond really was. She had no idea what was being distributed all those days when she skipped school to ride around with him. All she saw was money being exchanged from hand to hand, and most of the time Desmond would pass it to Sheniqua as if she were his little secretary or his accountant.

Sheniqua had never seen so much money before! Desmond did lots of business with women who stood around the streets of Lamar and Airways. They were mostly rough-looking, half-way dressed, tired, smoking women with bags underneath their eyes. Sometimes Desmond had to leave Sheniqua in his car while he went into some of the cheap, run-down motels that surrounded that area. According to Desmond, so many people owed him money that he had loaned them. He told Sheniqua that was why everyday he had to get what was his- so that one day he could have enough money to take Sheniqua far away from the hood. She clung to his every word, envisioning better days.

Sheniqua thought Demond was the coolest brother she knew- way better than those boring, broke, and immature high school boys. It made her feel like somebody big- riding next to her man and holding his bankroll. Sometimes he would put his arm around her as they rode down the street, with their windows down, bumping Bone-Thugs-and-Harmony’s For the Love of Money. That was his favorite song. He smoked to it. His head bobbed to it. He lived by it. He played the song so much that even when Sheniqua was at school, it stayed on her mind.

What Sheniqua’s teachers said often went right over her head. Oh, how she wished she could be with Desmond every day and never have to go back to school! In her opinion, the breaks were not long enough, and school was for L-7s. That is what Desmond and his friends always said, forming an L with one hand and a seven with their other hand.

What’s an L-7? Sheniqua had asked the first time she heard one of them use that term. The guys had all laughed then explained that it meant a square or a lame, uncool person. It was not surprising that neither Desmond nor any of his friends had graduated from high school. Birds of a feather flock together, as all of them lacked vision and none of them thought they were smart enough to ever become successful.

Now her grumbling stomach was calling her attention back to her current dilemma. She sat up, looked around the stinking alley, and she frowned. No way was she going to sleep here another night. Most of the time when she ran away from home, she would go to her friend Deja’s house. Deja lived in the Mahogany Lake Apartments too. As a matter of fact, she lived on the third floor in the same building as the Copper family, with her exceedingly young-looking mother and grandmother. Deja’s grandmother could have passed for her mother while Deja’s mother looked more like her big sister. Sheniqua thought about the first time she met their family.

IT WAS 1993... ONE year ago... when they were freshmen. Deja had invited Sheniqua over to watch The Five Heartbeats movie, and her mother order pizza for the girls. After Deja’s mother and grandmother walked away from her bedroom door, where they greeted her for the first time, Sheniqua exclaimed, Deja, how do your mother and your grandmother look so young?!

Deja shrugged her shoulders and