Choose to Be Free

By Kathrine (Phillip's) Taylor

This is a true story of how a beautiful black girl lived the good life, worked hard, made a living for herself, and took care of her son. Life is nice when you make it nice, and on the other hand, it could not be so nice when you make the wrong decisions. Things made a unanimous turn when I had gotten involved in crazy relationships, then came the drugs, gangsters, criminal activity, and the street life that led to years of incarceration. Her life was spiraling downhill until God set her free. That is completely free. That girl is me. This book will capture your mind and, hopefully to some, change your life forever; so sit back and enjoy this mind-blowing experience (Galatians 5:1).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781644924709

Book preview

Chapter 1

1988

The Simple Life

Life was good. I was residing in Hemet, California. I was working as an assistant manager at Sears & Roebuck. I had been living here for a little while, but things happened previously that I would like to share with you. I had just came back from the store, and my son was telling me, Mom, I’m hungry.

I said, Okay, babe. Give Mommy a chance, and she’ll fix her baby something to eat. My son was such a wonderful son of three years. Then his father and I had a selected means of character, so we decided to go our own separate ways. He was a momma’s boy. I assumed, and I was too much of a realistic, independent-type of a person to deal with a spoiled cry baby of a man. So I made due without him and was doing fine.

This was a beautiful day in July, a little warm, but I was happy with my little boy and making a living for myself and too calm and cool to deal with an unreasonable individual at this time. But life goes on. I worked hard and maintained a healthy lifestyle. Relationships were still kind of new to me, so I tended to think rationally. Hey, if you’re not happy, why even try? Cause it would never turn out right; and for my son’s sake, I had to do the right thing. Anyway, all I needed was the air that I breathed and time. Life was good. I worked full time at Sears & Roebuck for five years along with the army reserve, so I was stacked. I owned two cars, a convertible T-R7. It was a classic back then. That was a real beauty. And I also owned a Buick Le sabre 1980. Anyway, I considered myself blessed and intact. It was the weekend. This was the time my son and I spent bonding, laughing, and playing. Even with his father not in my life, it was all good.

My son of three was a cute little devil and just a good boy. I love my son. Darren is his name. I even found myself going back to church, living the good life; so after three years went by, things went smooth, so I decided to date again. I would say years went by, and I decided to date again; so I was up in Riverside, at my mom’s house, and across the street from her house was a nice park, Paterson park as a matter of fact. Yeah, my mom was doing well, also a missionary at the church. And her house had apartments connected in the back, and she managed those. Sometimes things got tight in our family, but we made it. So as I was swinging my son on the swing, a cute light-skinned bowlegged guy walked up. He said, Hello, beautiful. I responded with a hello. He said, Is this your son?

I said, Yes. He was a cutie. At that time, my son screamed something, but I ignored it. I was too interested in this hunk in front of me. He had a long ponytail all the way down his back. He looked like a star. I liked this. Anyway, he continued his Mack, and I responded. This went on for about twenty minutes until it came down to him asking me for my phone number. He came to see me a week later, and we began to date. A week after that, we made a commitment, and we’d been together for about five months. He even cut his hair when I asked him to because I mentioned, If we go into this relationship, start it right. And I figured, going to church with me every now and then would hurt him. Oh yeah, his name was Eric by the way. He was a slicker, and we hooked up and returned phone numbers. We dated for a while for about three months until I decided to invite him over to my place. He seemed interested and very caring and kind.

Our personalities just blended, so we kicked it perfectly. He was always making me laugh, always sharp, always bringing me gifts, and sexy lingerie. I really liked him. He drove a BMW and kept hundred dollar bills in his shoes at all times, at least four hundred in each shoe. Right away, we hit it off. We hit it off fine. Like I said, we had this instant communication with our eyes. It was like love at first sight. We began to see each other and dated for about three months; and when I said we hit it off, we hit it off—we hit it off, especially after I let him hit it. He went head over heels.

Always when he came over, he just smiled. I liked the way he smiled at me. The thing was he still lived with his mom and dad who owned a ranch in Pedley, California, with several houses, and horses on the property. He had been telling me he wanted me to meet them someday. I talked to his mom briefly on the phone, but that was it; and I was cool with that. We had planned to get together the next day, and he wanted to take me and my son somewhere; so I said, Okay, Eric. What time? He said that he would call me the next day and let me know. He did, and we made arrangements for about noon. The next day, he drove up in a new car a Firebird 1983, and it was only 1985. So I considered it a new car he was rolling in. And those rims cost five hundred dollars apiece. Eric, darling, this is a tight ride. How can you afford this? And I knew his father and he owned horses and had rodeos in Los Angeles somewhere; but this was an expensive car.

He said, You like it?

I said, I love it, but I said how can you afford this?

He said, You know I’m a horse trainer. I guess you’re a raised Hugh! He kissed me on my lips and said, We’ve been chilling for months now, and I want you to be my wife.

My heart fluttered, Eric.

He said, What?

I said, Are you serious?

He said, I’m serious as a heart attack. Where is Darren?

I said, Right over there in the playground. Lock up the house. I want to take you home to meet my parents. What’s happening now? Was this guy really for real? I do confess that we were attracted to each other, and we had a very good connection; but to go to his parents, was he serious? Really? all I could do was give it a benefit of the doubt and go with the flow; so off to his parents’ house we went. My son seemed to be excited to be riding in this zoom mobile. To see him happy made me happy. I could see Eric live the fancy fast life. Like I said, he dressed to the tee and kept me dressed to the tee, silk and alligator, something I could very well get acquainted to. So things where pretty tight between him and I. It even had gotten to the point to where he and I decided to go out to fancy places together like seafood and lobster days and plenty of champagne celebrating a new bomb relationship together. We sometimes just chilled together and talk, and he would ask me questions like where did you get all this good looks from; and I would say where did you get yours from sexy, and we even got so close. I figured God was so good. We needed to go to church and get God’s blessings on this. And days