Prologue
G-mama was born in nineteen thirty-nine. At the age of sixty-six she looked every minute of it; but she had young, kind eyes. The best way to describe her aura is ‘She exuded the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.’

Her real name was Gloria Brieman; her street name was Glory. The people she took in called her G-mama. Glory was an ex-prostitute who after thirty years in the life, left the streets and developed a relationship with God. She came to realize that all the trials she had survived in her life would enable her to help others. Her life had a lot of up’s and down’s, she laughed and cried as you will while reading this book.

Every Ghetto has a G-mama, this book will tell you about the one from my neighborhood. We are going to start at the beginning so everyone is clear on how she came to be, and why.

1942 ‘Route 66’ by Nat King Cole’

Father

Harrison Solomon Brieman wished he had not taken that last step. He knew it was too late when he heard the click of the land-mine. Before he could think a bullet struck him in the back. The M-16 fell from his hands to French soil.

His wife; Bernadine’s words echoed in his ears, “Why can’t you stay home and work? I miss you when you are over there fighting the Germans!”

Right now he wondered why he had listened to her. She must have known something in her heart when she woke him in the middle of the night two days before he shipped out to return to duty begging him to stay, “It’s too dangerous, I’m scared you won’t make it back.”

She had been right, now I will never make it home. His children’s faces flashed before his eyes; Harrison Jr., fourteen, Harriet, twelve and Gloria, three.

His spirit left his body with his last breath. Instead of his orb going up to heaven, it floated across the ocean toward Compton, California. He had to see his family.

Halfway across the Atlantic he was joined by his parents and several other loved ones who had passed on before him. “Hello son, we are your welcome committee.”

“Dad, is that you?”

“Yeah son, it’s me. Your mom’s here too.”

“I thought about you and missed you a lot.”

“Every time you thought about us, we were right there with you.”

“I wish I didn’t have to be dead to see you.”

“Son, God has a plan for all of us.”

“Why didn’t you watch over me and warn me before I got killed?”

“We don’t have any control over that, only God knows the time and the place when he will call one of his children home.”

“How is my family going to make it without me?”

“Don’t worry son, it may take some time, but they will be just fine.”

1944 ‘Bernadine’ by Pat Boone

Bad news

A cab pulled up, Gloria watched a man with a lot of shiny buttons and medals on his jacket get out. Bernadine saw him too. She stood up from the sewing table where she was working on a poodle skirt for Harriet.

Two nights before she dreamt that Harrison was sitting on the bed. She felt him shaking her and could smell his essence, “Bernadine I came to say goodbye.” The next morning fully woke she convinced herself that it was just a dream.

The next morning during breakfast Harriet asked, “Mom how long is Daddy staying home this time?”

“What are you talking about girl? Your Daddy’s not here.”

“Mom, I talked to him for a long time last night, he was sitting on the end of my bed.”

Harrison Jr. did not say a word, lest they would know that he was crazy too. He had played chess with his father last night.

Glory heard the word ‘Daddy’ and started calling from her high chair. “Daddy! Want Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!”

Bernadine heard the knock on the door; she put her hand over her heart as if it hurt. “Harriet take Glory and wait in the kitchen until I call you.”

Harrison Jr. came running in from the park. He knew what was happening before the officer spoke, “The United States government regrets to inform you that your husband, Lieutenant Harrison Solomon Brieman was killed in battle while defending his country.”

When the officer left Harrison Jr. walked into the kitchen. Glory looked up from the kitchen floor where she sat confused holding Harriet’s head, “What’s the matter Harry? Why are you cwying?”

Harrison picked Glory up and took Harriet’s hand, they joined Bernadine on the couch. She sat looking at nothing, not saying a word. When Bernadine finally stood up she let out a wail the likes of which they had never heard before.

The neighbors who had been standing outside came into the house. Everyone knew what the officer’s visit meant. There had been so many of these visits that when a cab was engaged by an officer carrying a briefcase at the airport, bus or train station, the driver would ask, “You bringing bad news?”

The driver called in a code along with the address to the dispatcher who notified drivers in the area. They knocked on doors letting the neighbors know to get ready. The war had claimed so many sons and husbands that it was almost a weekly event. The neighbors banded together to offer their assistance and sympathetic shoulders.

After what seemed like a long time of watching peoples mouths move and not comprehending anything they said, Bernadine told the neighbors, “I would like to lie down now.” She slowly walked up the stairs with her best friend Theresa’s assistance and closed the door to her bedroom.

The neighbors took shifts coming to check on her bringing food and drink for the children who just sat in the living room looking lost. Glory was too young to understand what was going on, but she knew it had to be something bad, she had never seen her family so unhappy.

Bernadine stayed in her room sleeping; when she was not asleep she stared out the big bay window at the California palm trees that lined the streets. ‘Why was the sky so blue?

She clenched Harrison’s dog tags in her hand. Why were those blue jays and red robins flitting around like everything was all right? Why wasn’t it raining to let everyone know that the world was about to come to a hideous end. Life could not go on without her Harrison. Didn’t they know that? For a wonderful man like Harrison to die the way he did, there had to be something terrible on the horizon. God would not let the world stand this way, he just couldn’t let the world continue to exist without him.’

The lieutenant had told her that there was not enough of Harrison left to send home to bury. The day before the wake she got up to ready the house. The neighbors organized the wake and people sat around talking about what a great guy Harrison was.

Harrison’s brother arrived from North Carolina. Some of his military buddies came; most of them were missing limbs or nursing wounds that enabled them to stay home and receive honorable medical discharge from the army, they were no longer able to fight and did not know what they would do with themselves other than go in and out of the Veterans hospitals. They all looked like their spirits had been broken in two.

Bernadine looked at the ten thousand dollar check the government gave her in exchange for her husband and the father of her children. She knew it would not be enough to take care of them forever.

She would have to find work doing the only thing she was qualified for. She was bitter, she was angry; this was not how her life was supposed to go. Her one and only love had died, leaving her with three children to bring up on a meager maids salary of a dollar a day.

Harrison had always said, “No wife of mine is going to work. I bring home the bacon, your job is to stay in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.” She missed the jokes they shared.

Harrison had taken a three month leave to spend time with his family before going back to start another tour in the war. He told the family of his decision to become a career soldier one morning over breakfast. Bernadine had been more than a little salty that day and did not have much to say.

Finally over lunch, he asked, “Something wrong honey?”

She threw down the Dutch cleanser she was using to clean the porcelain sink and let him have it with both barrels, “When I married you I didn’t sign up to have a husband that I only see once in a blue moon. I want a man that I can cuddle up with every night,” she screamed.

“Sugar lump, someone has to protect our country or we could end up back in slavery, or with some Nazi exterminating every person because their eye’s are not blue or their hair is not blonde, or he just decides he doesn’t like them. What if every man decided to stay home? Bernie, I am protecting my family and my country because that is what a man is supposed to do. Please understand, I would feel less than a husband and father if I stayed here and did nothing knowing that the place we call home is in danger.”

Harrison cuddled Bernadine; all she could do was sigh with resignation.

Bernadine knew what was happening with the war, she read the papers and listened to the news. She was proud of her brave husband, but he had done his duty for the country. Eligible men were obligated during war time to stay in for the duration of the war plus six months. Now he wanted to sign up for the next twenty or thirty years.

“Harrison, I just miss you so much. Don’t you think you are pushing it just a little bit? People are dying over there in France. Can’t you just stay home and get a job.”

“You’re supposed to miss me, but you know what?” He playfully wrapped his arms around her and startled tickling her, something he always did when she was upset with him to coax her out of her dark mood.

“After a few more years I will be retired and we can sit home in our rocking chairs, on our front porch together everyday. Then you will be wishing I had somewhere else to be and you know what else?”

“What?”

“I’m here now.”

“Go on now, boy!” she said blushing as he took her hand and led her to the bedroom.

“Left, left, left, right, left, shake that butt from left to right, you bout to have a soldier in yo’ bed tonight.” They both laughed, he was always making up little songs.

In the bedroom Harrison slowly peeled her dress off while taking in every inch of her beautiful ebony skin. He studied the inviting way her cleavage looked in her bra. He replaced his tongue at the spot where his eyes rested deep in her valley.

Bernadine moaned with the electricity of his touch. She sensed rather than felt her dress and apron fall to the floor. He ran his hands between her skin and garter belt and before she knew it her stockings were pooled around her ankles. Her breathing became labored as he sat and pulled her toward him by the elastic of her underwear. He used his teeth to pull them down, lingering in between her V deeply breathing in her fragrance.

“You smell so good to me. Two days before I leave I am going to make love to you every two hours. I don’t want you to wash or bathe afterwards. I want you to wear the same pair of underwear until I leave.”

“Alright,” she laughed, “but can I ask why you want me to do this?”

“I’m going to take them with me, keep ‘em tucked in my helmet, that way at night when I go to sleep I can put my helmet over my face and smell you and think about these times. It’s a way for me to be with you even though we are oceans apart.”

“Uhm, Uhm, Mr. Brieman, you are so nasty. That sounds kinky to me; but what you want you know you can get.” She unbuttoned his shirt and he lay back on the bed so that she could pull the legs of his pants revealing his muscled thighs and calves. She threw the pants to the other side of the room. She grabbed his underwear and yanked them down freeing nine inches of thick manhood that slapped back against his navel. She loved looking at his bronze body, the way his legs, arms and chest rippled when he moved aroused her.

“What are you staring at Mrs. Brieman?”

“My beautiful husband,” She lay down on him and teased the hair on his chest with her teeth, biting just enough to pull the curled hairs straight, before traveling to his nipple which grew taut and firm under her tongue.

He started to moan and cupped her cheeks in his hand rubbing the throbbing vein on the underside of his penis against her moistness; she moaned louder.

“Baby don’t tease me too much. I’m liable to release this pressure too fast.” He lifted her up so that he could see between her legs. He loved to look at her down there. A few minutes ago her clit was a third of the size it was now. He loved the fact that he was the first and only man she had ever been with. He felt like royalty ruling over his kingdom; her body. He had taken his time fine-tuning her like a car engine. They had explored every inch of one another.

He took her labia in between his thumb and forefingers and pulled her up his chest until she rested on his tongue. She was so hot and wet and tasted so good. He stuck his tongue inside of her and sucked the juices out, then he nibbled at the hard knot between her lips before beating it hard and fast with the lizard that was his tongue.

“Oh Harrison, that feels so…. So….So…. Good.”

He looked up into her face as her eyes rolled back in her head. Her body jerked against his mouth and she fell against the headboard. She was as limp as a rag doll. He lifted her by the waist and moved her prone on the bed, straddled over her and watched as his manhood disappeared into her mouth.

“Uhmm, Uhmm, she moaned with his penis deep in her throat where the vibrations on his head made him grow longer. She had definitely taken instruction well, she knew how to pull everything out of him and when he tried to stop so that he would not ejaculate in her mouth she grabbed his thigh, digging her nails into his muscle with the other hand she put her index finger on his anus with just enough pressure that he was unable to move.

“Wait baby, I don’t want to come yet.”

Bernadine ignored his plea, her head was deep in the pillow as he squirted the hot acidic juice down her throat and she swallowed as he throbbed against her teeth. He tried to pull away and she plunged her finger inside of him and massaged his prostrate from inside.

This was something new, he wanted to ask where she had learned to do this but he could not speak, he was so sensitive that he wanted to scream like a woman, to his amazement he was actually stiffening again.

“Do you like that?” she asked as she let him go and flipped him onto his back and climbed on top of his shaft.

“Yea… Yea… Yea…”

“Then tell me you like it. What’s the matter the big strong soldier can’t talk? Cat got your tongue?” She laughed as she pushed on, riding him hard.

She was laughing, but the truth was he couldn’t talk. He felt like the back of his head was going to come off. He had always waited in between at least fifteen minutes before he could go again, but this new technique made him feel sensations he did not know he was capable of and she was riding him as if he was a stallion. “Well, giddy yup damn it,” he thought.

Bernadine had definitely flipped the script on him. Theresa who was her best friend and lived two doors down the street had given her some pointers. Theresa had one of those hot-blooded Hispanic men and shared things with her that she had never dreamed of. She even showed her some pictures and used a banana to show her how to take him deep in her throat without gagging.

Harrison had always been the teacher, but he discovered that he liked her taking the lead. He felt her walls squeezing and throbbing. When he looked in her face there was defiance there. She was cuming like a freight train, yet she was not stopping. Before she had to wait before resuming, come to think about it, she had never had two orgasms in one session, but here she was going for number three. He had to admit she had his motor running; going so fast that he was about to explode again.

Bernadine lay there triumphant, her toes curling and uncurling. She could still hear the roar from his orgasm. She felt powerful. She felt like she was the boss. Yeah that’s it, he was always the boss, not that she was complaining because he always satisfied her, but today they had reached a new plateau.

“As soon as I catch my breath and get me some water,” He was trying to speak and catch his breath at the same time, his chest heaving; “You are going to tell me where you learned all this new stuff,” he said pointing a finger at her.

Bernadine giggled and rose to get a cool wash clothe and some water. By the time she returned Harrison was fast asleep. She lay down next to him, as she slept she felt a fluttering in her abdomen and a smile turned up the corners of her mouth. A silvery light sprinkled inside of her like glitter leaving a tiny miraculous gift in her womb.

Bernie stayed in bed until she heard the kids coming in from school, as usual their voices woke Glory from her nap. She put a smock on and went to see about their snack and getting dinner started.