Ameura's Story: How She Chose Life After Death

AMEURA’S STORY How she Chose Life after Death

Copyright © 2011, 2013 by Judy Ingram

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8343-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8345-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8344-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 05/14/2013

Contents

Notes from the author

Readers Credits

Foreward

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Three

I would like to acknowledge a few people, who were instrumental in the birth of

Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my father in heaven for giving me the ability to write, Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death. All the glory goes to God.

I would like to thank Larry Williams, who gently, yet firmly prodded me to finish Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death, because without his constant support,

this book would not have come into fruition.

I thank my family and many friends for reading and encouraging me, especially Caleigh, my teenage grand daughter who insisted Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death was a ‘really good book,’ and banging me on the arm, insisted I hurry up and finish it!

A special thanks goes to author, John Signor, for his editing and Maggie Ingram for her hard work in assisting me.

I’d like to acknowledge my photographer, Karrie Ann, at ‘Living Shasta Photography,’ who took my picture for the back cover.

Finally, I’d like to thank Chad, from Chad Hunt Computers, in Mt Shasta, for keeping my laptop alive. God bless you Chad.

In terms of damage to children and our society, meth is now the most dangerous drug in America. Alberto Gonzalez, US Attorney General.

Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death, is dedicated to Tatanka, my Native American brother. He fought hard to get off drugs…

He forgot that he was powerless, but that God could and would… if He were sought…

May you rest in peace.

Notes from the author

Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death is very explicit and graphic. It involves sex, drugs, suicide, abortion, and other dire issues threatening our children, as well as adults, today.

Some of the commentary concerning residents in a rehabilitation center is very disturbing.

This is not a true story, it is fiction, but some instances in the rehab, Cow Hollow, really happened. Names of people places and things are changed to protect the innocent, and the guilty…

Tatanka, an American Indian to whom this book is dedicated, was a friend of mine at the Hollow. In fact, he encouraged me to finish writing Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death one afternoon as we sat together enjoying the fire in the living room. He loved going out for the firewood, and building fires in the enormous rock fireplace; it made the rehab feel more comfortable and homey.

One bleak night, a few years after getting out of the Hollow, I received an unbelievable phone call. The caller told me that Tatanka had died. I was told that he had been found dead, foaming from the nose and mouth, from an overdose of drugs. The caller had found my phone number in Tatanka’s AA book he had received at the Hollow.

Tatanka had been an accomplished butcher, working for many years at a major grocery chain. He had long, dark brown hair, that flew back when he walked, and dark, chocolate brown eyes that seemed to be burdened with sad memories; but when he smiled his boyish smile, those mysterious eyes lit up like two bright stars in the heavens… You will always be in my heart and a special part of my spirit Tantaka. Until we meet again my brother…

Judy

Readers Credits

One reader exclaimed, "Every parent, teacher and teenager should read

Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death, to learn how to cope with major issues such as suicide, abortion, and drug abuse. This book has solutions!"

Another reader said: Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death was absolutely riveting. I couldn’t put it down! There’s one tragedy after another, yet solutions as well. I like that there are solutions. So many books just have problems without solutions…

And yet another proclaimed: Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death should be in every classroom in America. It reminded me of a mandatory read I had in my school called, The Outsiders

Foreward

Our young people desperately need answers to questions concerning sex, drugs, abortion, and what love really is. This book has some suggestions and some answers.

Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death is about a virginal teenage girl, Ameura, and her boyfriend Vincent, whom she meets in high school. Tragedy strikes when Vincent dies suddenly on prom night. This sends Ameura reeling into a depression that is so debilitating that her doctor prescribes drugs for her. Unknowingly, she becomes addicted to them, and soon begins experimenting with other drugs, finally becoming addicted to crystal meth. This causes her to do things she would never have dreamed of doing in high school, just to get the drug her body now desperately craves; even selling herself on the streets.

Will Ameura be able to get off drugs?

Will she keep the baby she is carrying?

Will the lessons she will learn at the Hollow help her to make the right choices for her life?

Does she ever find true happiness again?

The important issues I touch on in Ameura’s Story How she Chose Life after Death are at an epidemic proportion in our country today. I offer solutions to these and other problems targeting our young people. For instance, another monumental problem in the lives of some of our young girls is: sometimes they do not receive the affection they need and deserve from their fathers, or other influential men in their lives. So, often, they turn to young men for the love and attention they so desperately crave. Unfortunately, this usually brings disastrous results for both the girl and boy. This is boldly scrutinized in my book.

Chapter

One

I t was finally the night of the senior prom. Vincent was returning to Ameura’s house with her gorgeous, sea green corsage that he’d accidentally left at home on the kitchen table. As he drove along, she was the only thing on his mind, and like a slide show, thoughts clicked from one image of her to the next.

Big dummy, he thought, how could you have forgotten her corsage? Man, she sure looked gorgeous in her new prom dress. I hope she likes the place I’m taking her for dinner. One of these day’s I’m going to marry her…First a few years of college and then…

He was thinking of her as he turned onto the street she lived, when out of nowhere a speeding pick-up truck ran the stop sign and slammed into the driver’s side of his car. Vincent was killed instantly.

The collision made a horrific noise, as if a plane had flown into a glass building. It reverberated through the still night, quelling all other night sounds.

Ameura was in her bedroom looking in the mirror making sure once again, that she looked just right. Her window was open letting in the soft night breeze, when suddenly she heard this thunderous collision, followed by a silence that magnified a thousand times. Somehow she knew without a doubt, that it was her Vincent.

For a moment she couldn’t move, and then as if wakening from a trance, every nerve in her body fired to the disaster that was unfolding. Leaping off and toppling her chair, she took the stairs as if she were flying; then slamming the screen door behind her, she jumped off the front porch and ran towards the wreck on the corner. She was biting her fist so hard it bled.

At the end of her block, she saw steam coming out from under the pleated hood of a truck that had slammed into a car she recognized immediately.

Her father, Dan, followed quickly behind, while her mother Molly ran back inside to call 911.

Vincent’s car was almost unrecognizable. It had been shoved sideways by a truck, across the street, up and over the curb, and finally crumpled against an ancient maple tree that stood on the corner.

Ameura was running so fast that as she reached the accident, her hands slammed into both sides of the window where Vincent’s head and face had shattered it. She slunk to her knees, as all that was recognizable was the color of his hair… and blood; there was so much blood.

Because the driver’s side was smashed up against the tree, and the pick-up was shoved into the car like a sandwich, it was impossible to get the door opened.

The boy who had been driving the pick-up staggered over to her. He had a small cut on his head, but that was his only injury. He reeked of beer and something else… There was no way of knowing then that this boy would also be the death of her someday…

Ameura, feeling as if all the blood was draining from her, was shaking violently and screaming. She began to slug the boy in the chest, and he just stood there and took it until the police handcuffed him and took him away.

She doubled over in pain screaming, NO! NO! NO! NO! Oh my God! Noooo! and then she began to collapse. Her father caught her up just in time, and gently lifted her into his arms to carry her home.

More sirens, heard faintly in the distance became stronger, but Ameura was not aware of them; she had blessedly passed out.

Chapter

Two

I n the comfortable darkness that enveloped her, Ameura was remembering how she and Vincent met. They were both in high school, and she was just coming in from jogging the track several times. She’d been glancing over her shoulder waving to her friend Rachael, when oomph! She ran smack dab into the cutest guy in school, knocking them both down. Her long red hair, which had been tied back in a pony tail, was now falling down around her sweaty, blotched face, and she kept rubbing her arm across her nose because it was running from so much exertion.

They were both a bit stunned as they looked at each other, and then Vincent started laughing.

Ameura’s head was spinning… What the…who… Oh My Gosh, nooo, not him… could I look any worse when running into ‘THE ‘ Vincent Valmont.

She was still trying to find her voice when she started laughing too, because that’s what she did when she got a little hysterical. Her thoughts were as jumbled as her legs as she just sort of stared at him, frozen for the moment. She noticed that his eyes were the color of the lake she and her folks had gone to in the mountains this last summer, and his hair that curled around his ears, looked as if it had been streaked by the sun, all blond and brown at the same time and… hey…wait a minute… he was laughing at her!

Vincent jumped