Heaven's Gate

By Sonia Perrier

Victoria day dreams daily about entering Heaven's Gate. Being poor and darkskin may stop her dreams from coming true, but could her destiny be tied to a stranger she sees through her window? As Victoria embarks on a journey to expand her world, she will find out why the Lord works in mysterious ways.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9780359485383

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Heaven's Gate

Heaven's Gate

Copyright © 2019 by Sonia Perrier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Disclaimer

All the material contained in this book is provided for educational and informational purposes only. No responsibility can be taken for any results or outcomes resulting from the use of this material.

While every attempt has been made to provide information that is both accurate and effective, the author does not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or use/misuse of this information.

Acknowledgements

To the bravest sickle cell warrior, I know, My Nessa. Your strength inspires me. Also, to my team at St. Mary’s, thank you for your ears and your time. Look what your support helped to create.

1

Victoria perched herself by the window sill in her favorite spot. It was one of the cooler days in August. She was content with the gentle breeze that rustled the green leaves on all the trees, making its way through the window. The soothing relief of the breeze gave her a much-needed break from the wretched NYC humid air. In her living room, she could have a view of the entire neighborhood. It was the only great part about living in a cramped two-bedroom apartment she shared with her mother Denise and her younger brother Marquis. Being on the tenth and final floor of Hella Haze Projects gave her a bird’s eye view of everything. She saw the corner stores on each block, the scattered trees around the neighborhood and the big MTA buses that cut the cars off on the streets. For entertainment on boring days, her and Marquis would pretend to be satellites making an orbit around the living room. When Marquis said, beep, beep, beep, she would hit the red beam focus on innocent bystanders by throwing small red pebbles through the window. The pedestrians would look around, then finally look up. Immediately, they would hit the floor and laugh like mischievous hyenas.

Her favorite stakeout was watching Heaven’s gate community. Just like the name says, it was a gated community with mansions as big as the ones Jesus promised in heaven. Victoria kept her eyes and dreams on the only vacant house in Heaven’s gate.

If only I could live there with my family. Life would be perfect. She sighed with a closed fist to her plump cheek as she admired some children playing in the community pool. It was a pool built for Heaven’s gate members only. No one could enter Heaven’s gate without permission or a pass from a resident. Pushing her head through the window, she dashed her troubled thoughts aside and enjoyed the feel of the cool breeze dancing on her face.

Victoria, you still have chores to do in this house, her mother’s yell broke her trance. Victoria’s head bounced back to the center of the living room trying to figure out where the scream originated from. She concluded that it came from the space barely big enough to breath into, also known as their hallway.

I’m coming ma! She squeaked back. Just before reality whisked her away, she saw a U-Haul truck pulling into Heaven’s gate. Panic and disappointment struck her frozen, as she watched the truck pull into the only unoccupied house in the vicinity. She pushed her head further out the window to observe more. She anxiously watched as movers started opening the truck doors and unloading its contents. They were wheeling furniture on carts and hurriedly moving up and down the driveway, quickly filling up the emptiness. A white Mercedes jeep came to join the movers not long after. To Victoria’s surprise, a black family jumped out of the vehicle. She was sure that more than ninety percent of Heaven’s gate community did not have her skin color. From her view, she spotted a mom, a dad and a young girl who seems to look like their daughter. Judging from the two high puffs tightly bunned to the girl’s head, maybe she was her own age.

Victoria Burns! Do I have to speak to you again? A now frustrated Denise yelled from the other side of the living room. Investigating the dream stealers had Victoria so caught up, she didn’t hear her mother’s stealthy long legs creeping up on her. Ugh. Sorry mom. Victoria couldn’t look up at her mother. She was trying her best to hold her emotions together before Denise would suspect anything. I’ll get to it right now, she said with her head hung lower. She made a weak attempt to walk away.

Denise knew that look. Victoria had anguish written all over her face. It gave her away. She stopped her before she could leave the room. Her mother walked over to the spot she once sat