Bridges to Cross

By Schanski Gore-Hemingway

Mia was living life in the shadows of hurt on the south side of Saint Petersburg, Florida. She felt that she was all alone in life besides the love of her Grammy. Ethan was just simply living life. Destined to meet and cross the bridge of life together, the two must learn how to mend bridges before they learn to cross bridges together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483667874

Schanski Gore-Hemingway

Schanski Gore-Hemingway is an inspiring American author. Her interest in books comes from the love of ancient history and the many publications that were provided to her by her mother due to their religious beliefs in her teenage years. Schanski enjoys such authors as Terry McMillian and Dan Brown. She studied at Florida Metropolitan University and Kaplan. She currently resides in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina..

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Copyright © 2013 by Schanski Gore-Hemingway.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 07/16/2013

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Contents

Dedication

Anger Management

All about Ethan

Something about Mia

Think Before You Speak

Nightmares

Breaking Through

Thinking of You

A Mother’s Day Invitation

A New Day

A Bridge to Cross

A Beautiful Surprise

Together

Mother’s Day

Solid Ground

Support

Foundations

Old Friends

Surprises

How to Love

Learning to Dream Again

A Delivery

Destiny

The Climb

Dedication

I want to thank all my friends and family members who helped me to achieve my dreams. I would like to thank Jaime Spivey and Blake Williams for helping me with my book cover. To my granddaughter, Jai’la Emani do not just settle reaching for the stars, because there are footprints on the moon.

Anger Management

Mia sat in the anger management class a bit discouraged because she felt like she did not belong there. She was ordered by a judge to attend. Week after week she sat in class listening to people and the rehearsed lines that made up before they walked into class. Mia was determined to get through the classes and get her certificate. She had gotten comfortable and she was waiting for the next liar to stand up and recite their lie. Just then a younger man stood up and begins to speak. She thought to herself that she had not heard him speak before and she was then anxious to hear his line.

Hello class, my name is Ethan and I was ordered here by Judge Williamson because he believes that I have an anger problem.

Well do you? The instructor asked in a stern voice.

I do not feel that I have anger management problems I feel that I speak my mind and if I get overly excited being a black man some people tend to get scared. Ethan replies.

"Did you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and your upbringing Ethan? The instructor asked in a softer voice.

Well as I said my name is Ethan. I am twenty nine years young. I was raised in a single parent home with my mother. I grew up on the Southside of St. Petersburg in the Jordan Park projects. My mother was not on drugs or alcohol. She worked a full time job at All Children’s hospital as a LPN. As far as I can think back we never was on welfare and there was always a decent meal on the table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am not athletic; never cared to play baseball, football, or basketball. I had a girlfriend who tried to control me with her ghettoism ways and I decided enough was enough. She could not deal with the breakup because she felt that there was someone else. She then called her cousins from Bethel Heights and said I pushed her which was a lie and they tried to jump me. I broke one of their noses while the other cousin was beating me from behind. The three of us ended up in jail and I am the only one who has to come to these classes.

Mia sat there astonished because in four weeks and fifteen different people telling their stories, Ethan was the first one she actually believed. In her mind she was thinking he looked much younger than what he was and he was quite handsome. She loved the fact that he did not talk with too much slang or Ebonics. She could tell he had a proper upbringing.

The instructor begins to ask Ethan questions and Ethan in return was answering the questions. Ethan catches Mia’s attention again with his strong voice and she hears him saying something she was interested in.

I graduated from Gibbs high school and attended the art Institute College. I work at Metro PCS on 34th Street in St. Petersburg. I do not have any children. I never used drugs nor sold them. I play more video games than the law should allow and I am a music lover to the heart. My mother moved to Georgia four years ago to take a better job. Ethan responds to the instructors questions.

You seem to have your life in order Ethan. I applaud you for sharing so much with the class tonight. You seem to have a drive about you that I like. I see that you are anxious to complete the class. I noticed that you kept calling me instructor, my name is MJ Davenport.

Thank you MJ for the kind words and yes I am eager to finish this class and get back to my day to day life.

Mia sat back and stared at Ethan for about thirty five seconds and then looked away. She thought that he was mighty open toward the class. She figured to herself that Ethan might have had problems and needed someone to talk to. The anger management classes were a gateway for him to air out his problems.

Excuse me Mia; I have noticed that you look a little uneasy today. Is there something on your mind? MJ asked.

I was taking in what Ethan had said. It was intense and attention-grabbing. I found myself actually drawn into to his passionate plea for help. Mia responded.

Ethan looked a bit mystified to hear Mia’s response about him.

Tell us a bit about yourself Mia. You have come to several classes and still we know little about you. MJ said.

Mia stood up and looked around the class. She noticed Ethan starring waiting to hear what she had to say. She then proceeded to speak, My name is Mia. I am twenty seven years old and I live in Child’s Park. I grew up with my grandmother and my mother. I graduated from Boca Ciega high school and attended Eckerd College. I work in Tyrone Square Mall in a retail store. I do not have any children, but I have helped raise my brother’s children. My father died when my mother was six months pregnant with me. I hate going around my father’s family because when I was around five or six his mother would look and me and start to cry because I looked so much like him. Other than that I cannot think of much more to say.

Why were you ordered to anger management Mia? MJ asked.

She looked at MJ and frowned. She did not expect to share so much information. She took a deep breath and replies, Similar to Ethan it has to do with an ex-lover. I wanted to spend some time with my cousins which were guys and go to The Last Damn Show to see Future. My boyfriend claimed he had to work and apparently he thought that I had to work as well. I walk up in Tropicana Fields and low and behold who was sitting three rows down from me with some female with blue and purple hair. I want to steal one of Ethan’s words right now. He walks up to go to the bathroom and sees me staring at him and he shows off his ghettoism ways when he sees me sitting there with my cousin who looks like Lil’ Wayne. He goes off calling me every name in the book and when security came and we explained what was going on he puts us on the first row. My ex-boyfriend decides to wait for us after the show and all hell breaks loose when his little dirty foot girlfriend starts popping off in the mouth. So I popped her in the mouth after she spit on me. Raekwon, who is my ex-boyfriend, thought it was funny so I went off on him. We had been together for a bit over a year and I guess I was done with him. My cousins did not want to fight Raekwon but he tried to tussle with me. My two cousins restrained him while I walked away, but while walking away he informed me that Rainbow Brite was pregnant and she swung at me. Needless to say after I put her on her back I ended up in the back of St. Pete’s finest car and my cousins came to bond me out of 49th Street jail.

If you don’t mind me asking Mia, where is Raekwon now? MJ slowly and sympathetically asks.

The last I heard he was in Orient Road jail for possession with intent to sell, delivery of drugs, and obtaining property by false pretense. He tried to call me several times from Orient Road asking for money to put on his books. I told him not to call my phone and to call his baby momma with his jailhouse drama.

She then sat down and felt as if a weight had been lifted off of her chest. Mia had a lot of hate and hurt built up inside of her from her childhood. She had always felt like the world was on her shoulders.

Several other clients stood up and spoke in their behalf. They shared stories about their lives the same way Ethan and Mia had. Mia was actually starting to believe some of the stories she heard. She felt that Ethan had broken her silence in the glass house she was living in and she started to believe in others.

Well thank you for sharing in group time tonight everybody. I actually feel we have had several breakthroughs today. MJ says to the class.

MJ stood there and look as if she was pleased with the progress she had just witnessed. She then goes on to say; "In this class we have to go through stages. The first is to recognize stress and after you recognize the stress you have to learn how to reduce the stress before it turns into anger. The second is to develop empathy which means learning to see things from the perspective of others. The third would be to respond instead of react. There are eight stages in all, but we are running out of time today. I would like to emphasis on number seven which is forgive, but don’t forget. People can and