HEAVEN AND HOPE

Chapter 1: Ocean

On Monday July 4th, 1983 5:38 a.m. Heaven Brown came into the world, her twin sister Hope followed behind her two minutes later. Both sisters had identical small moles on the right side of their cheek, Heaven held a red birth mark on the left side of her upper back. Hope didn't have any special scars doing birth, that was the only way their mother Ocean Brown who was 21 years old could tell her newborn twins apart.

Heaven weighed 7 pounds and 5 ounces, while Hope was a little bit smaller. Looking into her twins eyes with tears Ocean didn't know what the future would hold for her two beautys, let alone herself. Ocean was all beauty and no brains, but she knew how to get what she wanted. Standing at 5'10 and 140 pounds she put you in the mind of a young Beverly Johnson, a true beauty. Her father Curtis Brown told her she wouldn't be good for anything except laying on her back, he said it so much that she actually believed him.

Ocean dropped out of high school her sophomore year, starting sniffing cocaine, and sleeping with married men, her mother Elizabeth Brown prayed and prayed for her child and only daughter, but it seemed her prayers were going unanswered. Ocean grew very resentful and mean towards her loving mother, mostly because of the way she would let her father talk to her, and also because of the things he did to her mother.

Curtis Brown was a hardworking man, he owned his own mechanic shop he built from the ground up and got all the business in the city. He loved drinking and other women a little bit to much though, he felt Elizabeth should stay at home cooking and cleaning and waiting on him, while he bought home the bacon. Curtis loved his wife but he slept with other women, and everyone in the streets of Asbury Park, New Jersey knew about it.

It was a week before Thanksgiving 1985. Ocean and her friends Jahlia, and Erica walked the windy board walk smoking a joint. The twins now two years old were at home with Elizabeth, as they were always while Ocean ran the streets with her friends, when she wasn't sleeping with married men for money. On this particular day the three women walked deep down the cold board walk laughing and talking until "Hey Ocean isn't that your dad" asked Jahlia. Ocean looked over at the man who was sitting on the board walk bench with his hands up the skirt of a younger beautiful white woman. Right there out in the open as if nobody was even there. For sure he was Ocean's father. Ocean stared down at her father with eyes of fire. Thinking to herself the nerves of this motherfucker. The three friends walked on by fast, Curtis was so into what he was doing, he never noticed his daughter and her friends as the woman moaned with pleasure. Ocean's friends patted her on the back. Ocean shrugged it off saying "Every Dog Has His Day" A few hours later that's exactly what would happen a dog would have his day....

Elizabeth Brown was a true christian, she loved the lord and she loved helping others. There wasn't one bad thing that anyone could say about Elizabeth Brown. She met Curtis right after she graduated high school in Freehold, New Jersey. The two fell in love and married. Curtis vowed to always take care of his wife, and he did just that. After he bought them a house in Asbury Park, and started his own mechanic business that's when things slowly beginned to change. He began drinking heavy, though he never let it stop him from taking care of home. Curtis was a mechanic from heaven. He knew everything there was to know about cars, he could fix anything that was wrong. The only problem was, he couldn't keep his dick in his pants. Rumor had it he even had two twin boys back in Freehold by another woman. Elizabeth knew of her husband's infidelity but still went on as if everything was alright.

The couple often argued from time to time about his dick swinging from one cooch to the next, but Elizabeth never once considered leaving Curtis. Some people right in their neighborhood on Embury Avenue felt sorry for Mrs.Brown. Ocean on the other hand was nothing like her mother she was more like her father in more ways then one. Looking just like him, speaking her mind like him, running around like him, etc. Curtis really didn't care much for his daughter he expected more from her than what she was doing with her life. Ocean disrespected her mother for two reasons. She couldn't accept the fact that her mother was a beautiful black woman who would tolerate such shit from the man who was suppose to love her, and of how the way she allowed her father to treat her only daughter. Ocean vowed that she would never ever let a man run over top of her.