Agnes experienced many setbacks ranging from rural America to Kenya, Africa. She was one of those persons who didn't seem to be able to get it right. She experiencd anomie when her world crumbled right down around her. She had to struggle with physical ailments, mental anguish, and emotional trauma before she finally chose the right path. And even when she was on the right path, circumstances slam dunked her back to unacceptable behaviors. Agnes acts of kindness and charity far outweighted the immorality she endulged. The lesson the Author hopes each person walks away with after reading this short story is to maintain determination and never give up: Agnes did not give up.

Walk With Me: From the Pasture to the Manor House portrays a fourteen year old African American girl who experienced set backs most of her young life, but she grew into a responsible person, wife, mother, and Christian. She was in one of those awkward situations that many African Americans find themselves: surrounded by much family, but find it difficult, if not impossible, to accumulate societal conditions. On the one hand, she had good role models, a strong mother, loving siblings, but she just could not matriculate her life according their standards. Although she did not rear her only son, she provided for him a model of success because she changed from a selfish, self absorbed, pleasure seeker to a responsible woman and mother. All the characters in this fictional story impacted one way or another Agnes life. Her socialization process was one of many directions: a mother who ruled with brutality and corporal punishment. She was too afraid of loosing her family that she literally drove Agnes away from her. Eugene was impacted by the different bloods: bi-racial blood, African blood, and Native American blood. Especially, when his grandmother often told him he smelled like a dog-like his father's "white" family. Through the processes illness, mixed emotional signals from his grandmother, ridicule from grade school children, it toughended Eugene to scale above all these barriers to become the man he was. The trail that Agnes and Eugene walked was like from an animal pasture where they were surrounded by the stench of urine and manure to a palace of good fragrance and well-being. It is a road that countless thousands of African Americans have travelled, and are travelling every day oftheir lives.

The black church has also intervened between the society and the individual, in order to address specific problems or attain specific objectives. This has been particularly the case where the church has served as a training ground for leaders of the African American community. In addition to providing for (a) goal attainment and (b) a vehicle to implement specific interests, the church has also (c) contributed a latent resource for all kinds of activities covering a wide range of interests, (d) offered germane socialization services, (e) allocated its power and influence to issues identified as critical, (f) aided social interation of either (g) members of the African American community within the community itself or (h) the African American Community, its members and priorities within the majority white community. The African American church has prevailed as all things to all African Americans.

This short story is semi-autobiographical and adventure general fiction. The autobiographical part of this story is not completely accurate according to how these unusual incidents happened. Although they are real, some were the results of dreams, visions, and thought processes. I experienced the majority of these stories, no matter how unreal, over the life course. The adventure general fiction is my way of making sense of the bazaar dreams and happenings. Rather than stop the story where it ended in a dream, I added a fiction component to support the action of the general theme. I titled this story "I Fly" because in my dreams when I was faced with danger: cut, stabbed, shot, drowned, murdered, I always develop the ability to fly and I simply flew away. Although it is not mentioned here, I have landed on board of jet airplanes, ships, and have been suspended in mid air for hours. When I flew in these instances, I felt catheterized. A peaceful tranquility came over me in my sleep and rather than wake up, I sank into a deep sleep. The initial fear I experienced during a fight, disappeared each time I took flight. I have always said that I would have loved to spend my life in the deep jungles of Africa or Brazil on one adventure after another. After reading this book, I hope you will learn that you are a total person: mind, body, and spirit, and all these forces come together to produce a whole you. Don't be afraid to use your dreams, premonitions, and hunches to help you solve problems, arrive at conclusions, and become a changed individual.