The Ghetto Ghosts: Living a Better Story

By Michael H Odom Sr.

Ghetto Ghosts is a book about how life can be at times and how it can be faced and resolved. It is a "wisdom of life" filled book that teaches you how to best live life to its fullest - no matter your background or condition. A book packed with real-life lessons and not just myths or some fairy tale but a book like Ghetto Ghosts interweaves relationships, races, classes, culture, families, and history.

It is the story of five people whose paths crossed at a point in time. Who appeared to be different, but yet very much the same. Ghetto Ghosts addresses more of the psychological and emotional effects of life rather than the physical. It is a story told by five high school students and their journey to a town named Goshen. The lives of each character would involve loss, remorse, and harsh realities of life. They discover that the secret to overcoming the Ghetto's purpose is the proper perspective of the situation with truth and self-introspection. Ghetto Ghosts tells how they developed the ability to move freely in limited space for a limited time before undergoing the re-imagination of their reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664171442

Michael H Odom Sr.

MICHAEL .H. ODOM, whose passion and talent is helping people to recognize their limitless potential has been a life coach for 25 years. After 25 years of coaching, Michael had that ‘physician, heal thyself’ moment. He realized it was time to do and become. This realization would lead him to transition from a very comfortable career to pursue his passion for helping others. As for me, He said, "Coaching/Counseling/Mentoring is my personal approach to discovering and nurturing the unique potential in others.” Michael has given himself to empowering others to achieve their goals by way of understanding their purpose. He believes that life is too short to be unhappy, unsure, or unfulfilled. Hence, is why Ghetto Ghost was written. It is a further expression of Michael’s heart to convey through his writings that we all have a purpose to fulfill and that our goals can be attained. And it’s not how or where you start, but rather, how you finish. After a session of this book, you would surely have learned and developed better ways to handle the issues of life that are standing in the way of your personal goals and success.

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Copyright © 2021 by Michael H. Odom Sr.

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.

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 Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/06/2021

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Dedication

I dedicate this book to the following people and individuals, first to my mother, Emily Edmond-Odom, and father, Jessie Hesel Gaddis. God used you to usher me into this world. I inherited traits from both of you, knowingly and unknowingly. These are the things that shaped my mind and heart and helped me in pursuit of my purpose. Because of my God-given purpose, my path was one of twists and turns, ups and downs, good and bad times, many times disappointing more than I care to remember. But God was working it all together for my good. Mom, your strength, your love for your family, and your kind heart are the base of my foundation as a person and a family man. Dad, even though our relationship was late, it was perfectly timed. Even though it was short, it seems like a lifetime. When I finally met you, I met me.

To Pamela, my wife, friend, and love of my life, you completed me and complimented my becoming. God allowed our paths to cross in August of 1988, and here we are, over thirty years later, more vital than ever, individually and as a couple. Your faith became contagious, and your love and support became the wind beneath my wings. You encourage me to fly beyond my perceived boundaries. I found favor when I found you, and we are amazing individually but unstoppable together. Thank you for believing in me when I didn’t always believe in myself. Let’s continue to grow old together and enjoy the fruit of our labor.

To my three exceptional children, Michael II, Christopher, and Jordan Noelle, I love you guys so much, and I am proud of who you are and who you are becoming. I love you for your uniqueness, your personalities, and for having great character. Your lives and paths are indicative of being our off springs. Exploring uncharted territory, not always going with the crowd or the trend, but carving out new trails and pathways. I share with you three the gift of creativity and the passion for pursuing your dreams. It is up to you to trust God’s voice to lead you when doubt and fear enter. You are never alone, and He will never forsake you. #TheOFactor

To my spiritual father, Bishop Liston Page, Sr. God knew that you would be a vital part of my purpose. Not only did God send me a spiritual father, but He also sent me the one that was perfect for me. You taught me what I could not observe from a male figure growing up, character, integrity, a love for God and His people, and a love for family. You represented a living epistle of God’s Holy Word under all situations and never wavered in your commitment to your calling. Thank you and Mother Hazel Page for the inspiration, the prayers, and the sacrifices you made to help our lives to be worth living.

Contents

Chapter 1:     Welcome to Goshen

Chapter 2:     Freddy and Dez - The Clash of Tudes Part 1

Chapter 3:     Willie and Pete

Chapter 4:     Dual Identity- Worlds separated by a bridge

Chapter 5:     The Gathering at the Gaddis

Chapter 6:     The Gathering at the Gaddis - The Gang is all here.

Chapter 7:     Carpe Diem - Don’t hit snooze

Chapter 8:     The Redemption Song

Chapter 9:     Saving Face and losing everything

Chapter 10:   Life in a blender - Finding my place at the table

Chapter 11:   Whose Report will you believe?

Chapter 12:   The Ghetto Ghost

Chapter 1

Welcome to Goshen

A fter a long tiresome drive that seems as though it would never end in a very uncomfortable moving van, they finally pull up to a house in the middle on Peshine Avenue in a rural town called Goshen. The place was not very appealing and appeared not to have been occupied for some time, but this was the new beginning that Willie’s dad had promised him and his mom. Willie, being the optimist that he was, just smiled as he could just imagine the great possibility of this new life in a new town and that it would be a fresh start for his family. Willie would finally have his own room, and that his dad would have the opportunity to get his courier business off the ground. His mom had already landed several new clients for her tutoring business, and it looked as though they could begin to rebuild their family after so many setbacks and challenges. Even though he had to make new friends and leaving his old childhood friends was disappointing. He was willing to make the sacrifice because he knew what it meant to his parents.

Willie slowly stretched his long legs out of the truck and looked around the neighborhood as the sun beamed on his russet, reddish-brown skin.

As Willie approaches the front of the house, he can hear a noise in the back. As he made his way along the side of the house through the overgrown shrubs, bushes, and piles of unattended trash, he noticed a movement in the bushes next door. Willie was not sure what it might have been, so he grabbed hold of a loose tree branch that had fallen from a rotten tree. As Willie cautiously made his way closer and closer to the noise, he thought this move might have been a mistake. Because his first memory will be that he had to fight off some rabid animal that probably was a part of a pack of wild animals that had made their home in his new house. Perhaps it was a squatter that claimed the house for themselves since it had been left abandoned for such a long time. Just as he moved just about where he identified where the noise was originating from, his mom shouted to the top of her lungs, William Gaddis, Jr. Come help your dad unload this truck!. Willie suddenly lost his balance and tripped over a large object, awkwardly falling to the ground. As he tried to regain his footing, the noise appeared in the person of a scrappy, dirty blond hair kid with ruddy skin and tattered clothing. As they both came face to face with one another, they both yelled out of fear, not knowing what they were encountering at that moment. Willie immediately began to apologize, saying I heard a noise and I wanted to check it out to make sure that it wasn’t a wild animal or squatter that had come on the property.

Before the kid could say anything, someone came running out of the house behind him. The young man was athletically built and tall. He ran towards the two of them at full speed; he was in the sense of rage and urgency. He began to yell, Pete, Pete, "what is going on!" What happened! As Willie started to try and explain his side of the story, the red-faced kid was snorting like a wild boar, with sweat dripping profusely down his face. As he began yelling at Willie, his sweat and spit were drenching all over Willie, What are you doing to my brother? "Why are you on my property?" Come on Pete, we are calling the police on this dude. Willie shouted; there has been an enormous misunderstanding. But the kid insisted, there has not been a misunderstanding; you guys are all the same. Willie called, what guys, man, what are you talking about? I was simply checking out