Life’s Tiers: A Collection of Short Stories

By Renee

This is a collection short stories for rainy afternoons. It is about a young black girl’s life brought up in the heart of Washington, DC. As you read through the different tiers of her life in the late 1950s through 1990s, your mind will race back to your own childhood and make you laugh and sometimes cry. It is a quick read for your family and friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781524563783

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by By: Renee.

ISBN:                Softcover                978-1-5245-6379-0

                          eBook                     978-1-5245-6378-3

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.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769; King James Bible Online, 2016. www.kingjamesbibleonline.org.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 11/23/2016

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CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

1     MUD ON MY NEW RED COAT

2     LITTLE WANDA

3     THE SEDUCTION OF A MINOR

4     MY FRIEND KENE

5     ANNA

6     MAMA I’M PREGNANT

7     THE DEBT I CAN NOT REPAY

8     THE ADJUSTMENT

9     THE LATE MRS. GOLDSTEIN

10   TRAVELING WITH J.M.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my spouse, my lover, and best friend. Thank you for putting up with me for the past twenty seven years. That took a lot of guts! For putting up with me staying up late at night to write these stories. I love you!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First to my Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ who is the author and the finisher of my faith. Thanks for all of the love and support that you have shown. I see your handy work though out my life.

PREFACE

My mother was upset with me for letting all the skeletons out the closet. I said to her What must I do wait until I am dead and gone and then hope that someone finds this book and has it printed. I told her I am sorry, but God is in charge now! He did call me to proclaim His freedom for all who would accept HIS SON, not only to preach the Good News, but to have a hind in setting those captives free."

Yes, I know that Jesus freed us 2,000 years ago, but some sheep are so weighted down that they can’t or don’t feel worthy to be saved. I must go get them too before it is too late! I don’t have timed to be all caught up in emotions, people are dying and going to spend eternity in hell! Years from now no one will even remember your little issues.

As my pastor would say This thing is bigger than you, and it is bigger than me. We must be about God’s work.

You see, I was a mess. I had an unholy itch that was driving me farther from the truth. And don’t be trying to figure out what it was. Just fill in the blanks with your name and problem(s). Whether you care to admit it or not, there are some things wrong with you too.

Just as there is freedom from the Law of Sin and Death, there is also restoration. Unlike the prodigal son, the children of today have their fathers listed as missing in action. There is no one but JESUS waiting for them. And without someone to light the way they will miss it.

Another pearl of wisdom from my pastor was: Drop The Rocks! He told me this story: "If you pick up a rock each time you have a problem eventually you will have a load too heavy too carry. So you collapse under the pressure. Others parts you by because they are carrying their own bags of rocks, and they can’t handle theirs either. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just drop the rocks, shake the dust off, and go on down the road singing praises to our King?

I say to you today, ‘Just let it go!

INTRODUCTION

I am a walking, living, and breathing testimony. Now I can’t tell you what I don’t know, so here are just the facts… I can only share with you my little piece of the puzzle. 1. God is the owner of the Puzzle and the table it is sitting on; in fact He owns everything there is! 2. The Key is Obedience. With each act of obedience you get another piece of the puzzle.

I know you are wondering how you get to be Obedient? Well I am going to tell you. First you have to confess you faith in Him (God) and His son (Jesus). Now that wasn’t so hard? That was so easy even Ray Charles could see that.

Now I know someone is asking… What’s FAITH? Well I am going to tell you. Faith is just believing in something that has not happen yet, or someone (Jesus) whom you have not met face to face. For example: If I say I called my mother today, you would have no problem believing me, would you? NO!

I didn’t think so. Everyone has to have or had a mother. Right! Most of us know what a telephone is. So it stands to reason that it could have happened. See that’s faith in action. Faith is an ACTION word. It means you have to do something! You are going to use your body, spirit, and soul (mind) in order to see the puzzle unfold. By using all three parts you can submit to God in a Christ-like way. When you submit to God you make Him happy. Submission is another key word. God has set all kinds of laws in place. Laws are rules to live by. They keep us safe from all hurt, harm, and danger as we play out the game of life.

I introduce some of you to a new word: CHRIST. Some of you are thinking that Christ was Jesus’ last name. Well that’s not true. No! No!

Christ simply means the Anointed One!

Usually when you anoint someone you pour oil over them. To the point, it’s like trying to separate the water from the wet. You can’t!

In this particular case God pours out His Holy Spirit on Jesus.

The Holy Spirit gave Him power to do the job that God Called him to do which are to REDEEM, RESTORE, and REST (see Jer.6:16)?

Now run along and go play. Come back when you can handle some more. Forgive me for speaking to you like you were a child but you are. You are a King’s Kid! And before too long you will start to act like one. There is a difference in a Kings Kid and one of the World. They don’t have to say a word. You just know there is something about them.

Another KEY: They act like their daddy!

I hope my short stories will bless your soul as much as it did mine to tell them. My subject matter is for Young Adults to those in their Winter Season.

MUD ON MY NEW RED COAT

Mom brought me a new red coat with black trim. It was for church. I was around 7 years old at the time. We went to my aunt’s house for a visit in the country. It had rained on the way. The road to my aunt’s house was just off the main road that was a blacktop surface. So the road that lead around her home and up the hill to my grandfather’s house was made of dirt and gravel. When we got out of the car, I fell in the mud, down the grassy slope out back of my aunt’s house. My father had me by my hand. He thought he had me tight, but the weight of my fat stocky body was much more than he could carry with his left hand. He was caring my sister in his right arm. He did not mean to let me fall. He had both arms full. I was on one side and my sibling on the other. My mother thought he did it out of spite. No matter what my father did it was always the wrong thing. My mother always saw herself as superior to him because she had a good government job as a secretary and he was just a grease monkey an auto mechanic. Then came the fight! It lasted days; it went on throughout the night. In fact, the fights went on for years.

You see my mom was the warrior type. She was a strong black woman, a red-bone from Va. She refused to let a man beat her for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then it happen. She had all she could take. And she snatched up her two babies and ran for the gate. When the smoke cleared, and the judge was done. Divorce, was the outcome.

My father’s last words to me, as I begged him to stay. I want to stay; but, your mom wants her way. There went my so-called happy family,