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    Raising Heaven
    Raising Heaven
    Raising Heaven
    Ebook67 pages46 minutes

    Raising Heaven

    By Patrick Jones

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Deja's mom has never been there when Deja needed her. She's lied, run off, and gotten into trouble with the law more times than anyone can count. She always promises to change―and always breaks those promises.

    Now―seventeen years after Deja was born in prison―her mom is back behind bars and having another baby. Deja agrees to raise baby Heaven until her mother returns home. She's determined to give Heaven the loving family life Deja never had.

    But being a substitute parent is harder than Deja expected. She'll need help from her friends, her grandmother, and even the mother she stopped trusting a long time ago. And she hopes that maybe―just maybe―she can keep her promises to Heaven.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLerner Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2015
    ISBN9781467776967
    Raising Heaven
    Author

    Patrick Jones

    Patrick Jones lives in Minneapolis and is the author of many novels including the Support and Defend series. A former librarian, Jones received lifetime achievement awards from the American Library Association and the Catholic Library Association.

    Read more from Patrick Jones

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      Book preview

      Raising Heaven - Patrick Jones

      —P.J.

      1

      SIXTEEN WEEKS BEFORE DUE DATE

      I was born in prison.

      Well, that’s not honest. They released Mom for the day, took her to a county hospital in cuffs, and with two guards watching, the docs cut me out of her. That was seventeen years ago.

      Now, she’s back inside, this time in the county workhouse doing a year straight time for violating her parole—again—and drug charges—again—and she’s pregnant—again. She’s been pregnant a bunch of times between me and my half-sister who’ll be born in a few months. Some she got rid of, a couple she had, but most never made it. The county took me from her soon after I was born, but Grams got custody, unlike my half-sibs who came later. They’re in foster care or adopted, but still among the millions of people in Houston. I don’t see much of ’em and that’s OK with me. We got different dads, and I don’t really feel attached to them.

      But the one on the way—she’s different. I’m gonna help raise this one. Since Mom’s only doing a year, it’s not enough time to lose her parental rights. She’ll have the baby at the county hospital, they’ll bring it home to Grams, and we’ll take care of her until Mom’s home in six months.

      And this time Mom says she’s getting clean and staying clean. This time she says she’s going to be a good mom. This time she says everything’s going to be different.

      Nothing we ain’t heard before. I think that’s what breaks Grams’s back: not raising me, not taking Mom in when she’s out, not working hard for hardly any money. What breaks Grams is Mom breaking her promises. If Mom would say, I’m an addict, I’m gonna use, then she’d accept that: that’s who you are. We don’t like it, but we get it. Instead, every time Mom comes out, it’s all about getting clean and starting over and working the program. But they’re all just words.

      Used to be every time Mom broke a promise, it broke my heart a little bit more. But now I got no trust left to shatter, no hopes to be crushed. That’s for little kids, and I ain’t been one of those for a long time. Mom stole my childhood along with all the money, drugs, cars, and jewelry she took.

      I can’t get that back, but I can get the next best thing. I can make sure this baby’s life don’t turn out like mine. I’ll raise up a sweet child the right way, and unlike Mom, I won’t break my promises.

      2

      TWELVE WEEKS BEFORE DUE DATE

      My cousin Malik, who came here after Katrina, has this bit about Houston whenever he meets somebody who’s just moved here. He says, I know I’m going to Heaven ’cos I spend my time in Hell. Then he asks the person, You know the difference between Hell and Houston? And the person says I don’t know and then Malik says, Hell’s got less people and a better climate! Most people laugh. Until they’ve been here awhile. Then it ain’t funny, especially in summer, like now.

      Me and Malik are walking home together after school—late, ’cos he had an Honor Society meeting. While I was waiting for him, I looked up baby names online. I keep a list of names on my phone. Whenever I find a name I like, it goes on the list. Now, I run a few of ’em by Malik while we walk.

      That’s nice, he says every time I read one off for him. He knows Mom’s letting me pick the name for her new baby ’cos I’m gonna be taking care of her. Malik is gonna help out too, but he don’t get a vote on the name.

      It’s a long walk home. We live in the Fifth Ward. You know you’re getting close

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