Latoya Giles
Bio
I'm just a single mom tryna make it. Come with me on my journey through life in writing... "A dream deferred is not a dream denied"... "Life is not a crystal stair..."
Stories (81/0)
Lost and Found
Dear Journal, It has been many clicks of the light switch. So many, that I have lost count. The switching of the big light is how I know that a day has passed: the light will switch on, and the shuffle of feet, both with shoes on and shoes off, begins. This "dance", I call it, lasts for some time. I see the feet. I can hear the footsteps. I can also hear the television being turned on. I hear the door open and close. I almost can't remember the feel of the wind all around me. How I miss it so much. The is switched off. I no longer see the feet with or without shoes shuffling around. The sound of those very feet shuffling gets further and further away until I can no longer hear it. The television has now been turned off. The room is empty. The room is quiet. The day has come to an end. It has to have been months gone by since I have ended up here. I remember it like it was just yesterday: It was Shelly's birthday. John had surprised her with reservations at the La Che'. La Che' is the fanciest restaurant in town. You have to make a reservation a whole month in advance. John tried really hard. He loves Shelly so much. He planned everything down to the last detail. That's where I came in, since I am a 24 Karat gold and 1.5 karat diamond pendant. I have been in the family for many years. I was passed down 3 generations so far. Shelly is pregnant right now. If the baby is a girl, I will (if I am ever found, that is) go to her on her 16th birthday. Sandra's mom bought me in 1900 as a gift for Marlena's sweet 16. Marlena gifted me to Mildred when she turned 16, then Mildred gave me to Shelly and now I sit under the couch. "ACHOO!" The dust is building up. I kick myself for forgetting how many light switches there are left before dusting day. I pray often that the day comes soon. Anyway, Shelly and John go to dinner as planned. It all was very nice. John even had the pianist play Shelly's favorite song and say "happy birthday" to her. Shelly cried. I did too honestly. John has always been an absolute sweetheart. After dinner, we get in the car and go home. Everything is normal. Shelly and John go into the house. They decide to sit down on the couch for a bit and have a glass of wine. That's when it happened: the clasp on the chain Shelly put me on, broke! The lifeless chain and I fell to the floor with barely an audible thud. That one glass of wine became almost 4. John and Shelly are now intoxicated it seems. They head to their bedroom. I assumed they passed out because I didn't hear any noise or movement for quite some time. I didn't panic because I had landed in plain sight on the floor. I figured it was just a matter of time before one of them picked me up. I was wrong. The sweeping robot was left on overnight. Thank goodness it couldn't suck me up. As fate would have it, it pushed me under the couch and out of sight. That is where I was then, and where I still am today. I heard Shelly asking about me. She reached under the here more than once. Sadly, she did not reach far enough. I was quite literally at her fingertips. What is it that people say? "So close, yet so far away." I know it's something like that. Another switching off of the light. Another day lost in the space under the couch has come to an end. Something will happen. Shelly or John will find me soon. They simply MUST! Well, until next time my dear journal. I will end my entry here...
By Latoya Giles 5 months ago in Fiction
I See Clowns...
I am a millennial. For reference, a millennial is a person born between 1981 and 1996. There are many things that our generation has lived through that generation Z and the current generation (gen X) either do not remember or do not know about. Let's go back to the early 2000s, shall we? It was an interesting time to be alive, cell phone use was on the rise. Apple gave us the iPod and the iPhone and changed how we listened to music. No more did we have to download music from LimeWire or carry our compact disk players in our pockets and walk a certain way so the song wouldn't skip too much. Pagers were on their way out. Only doctors or street pharmacists had them mostly. Caller ID was now a service that came standard instead of having to pay a separate fee for it. So many new technologies and different ways to seemingly improve one's life.
By Latoya Giles 5 months ago in History
Ascension
A lot can happen in one day, let alone in one year. The year 2023 was a very difficult one. It was most certainly a year full of trials, tribulations, lessons and loss. I am a single mother of two. I have two daughters. I became a mother at the age of twenty. I actually ended up walking across the stage at 5 months pregnant with my oldest daughter. I waddled across that stage proudly! Ten years later, I was surprised with my youngest daughter. Nice gap, huh?
By Latoya Giles 5 months ago in Motivation
SingleMomChronicles
I am now going into the later part of my twenties. I have a little girl that I have been raising alone. Her father blamed me for the dissolution of our relationship. It had nothing to do with his excessive drinking. It had nothing to do with his infidelity. It had nothing to do with him staying out all night or sometimes being gone for days at a time. I was supposed to just stick it out and let him get it all out of his system and wait for him to be ready to settle down. I'm sure he would've settled down eventually, right? Seriously, what in the world? Who the heck is doing that?
By Latoya Giles 11 months ago in Chapters
Trilogy of My life...
I have always loved to read. I have loved books since I learned to read. Reading allows me to be completely immersed in another world. When I am reading, I imagine the setting, the characters and the things they say and do. It is my favorite thing to do outside of writing. I will never forget a particular series of book that I read some years ago. I have actually read it again and listened to it on audiobook. It is a set of three books. The first one is God Don't Like Ugly. The second book is God STILL Don't Like Ugly. The last book is God Don't Play. The series focuses on a little black girl. The reader follows her through life across the three novels. The girl ends up fatherless and being raised by a struggling single mother. This is the first thing i can relate to here: being a struggling single mother. The father leaves the family because he falls in love with a white woman. Her race important because this was during the time that interracial couples were taboo, even outlawed in some places. The father is the breadwinner for the family. They were already poor with him working, so when he left, things got worse very fast.
By Latoya Giles 11 months ago in BookClub
ThatWriterGirl
How many times have said I love to read, or I love to write? Probably too many to count honestly. I was called a "nerd" when I was in school. I loved to do schoolwork. I loved (and still love actually) anything that had to do with reading or writing. It was a treat when I got to do both! I know. With all that being said, I have been writing for a long time. I say that a lot here too, lol. What was my first piece? Well, which first are we talking about exactly? Do you mean my first poem? Perhaps, we are talking about my first short story. Maybe my first published work. I do suppose though, if either of those things are what was meant, it would have been specifically stated, right? So, my first work ever it is! That really takes me back. I started seriously writing in high school. I mostly wrote poetry then. The poems I would write were all based on my life events and situations. Whatever I was going through or feeling in that moment went into a poem. I saved them all. I have a box that I keep them in. I go back to read them from time to time. It is such a stroll down memory lane. Not all the memories are good though. Some of the poems are painful. Some poems are sad, others are angry. I wish I had dated them all. Only some have a date. Since I wrote them though, I immediately know the situation that was occurring during whatever poem I am reading: break-ups, friend fights, drama from school or work. I have come a long way. When I say that, I mean I have come a long way mentally, physically, emotionally and as a writer.
By Latoya Giles 11 months ago in Writers
The New Human Resources
Netflix is a streaming service that provides its customers with an abundance of original content. Under the "adult animation" tab is a show: Human Resources. Once you get past the grossness, the situations are relatable. The first few episodes touch on post-partum depression, infidelity and alcoholism. Worth a watch...18+
By Latoya Giles 11 months ago in Critique
