Sylvia Vanita Patterson
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The book is based on contemporary relationship fiction and essentially revolves around the main character, Sharise Carter. Sharise is a child psychoanalyst, who works mainly with adolescents with behavioral problems. Two different men, in two different relationships due to their infidelities, have betrayed her, causing her to need therapy herself.
Now she finds herself struggling to remain moral in a world where being virtuous is considered being a fool, and a thing of the past. Sharise struggles to hold on to God and herself as she finds that she’s surrounded by lovers, and friends who seem to think that using and hurting people is the "in" thing to do. After a while, she begins to wonder if she should just live for today, much like everyone else around her is doing, and throw caution to the wind. When one of her friends tells her that it’s no big deal that her man cheated on her, and that she should get over it and give him another chance because he could have done something worse, such as hit her, Sharise falls into despair to think that she’s the only one who sees something wrong with what he did.
Sharise finds herself having restless, sleepless nights, and she is feeling sorry for herself. She has become bitter, paranoid and mistrustful toward men, and fears the right man may come along, and due to her trust issues, he may slip through her fingers. Because of the pain she endured from the two betrayals, she evolves into a woman who wants to give no second chances to anyone and never settle for less. "Never say never," is the lesson she learns as she finds herself back in the arms of one the lovers.
Being a psychoanalyst herself, and absorbed with the problems of others, she doesn’t realize that she’s in need of therapy herself. After some soul searching, she realizes what she must do in order to survive mentally.
This book is emotionally multifaceted, and there is melancholy, rapture, adventure, suspense, humor and tragedy in the experiences of the main character.
Sylvia Patterson was born, raised, and still resides in the Bronx, New York. This is Sylvia’s first work, and she started it, only, because she had heard many stories from an entourage of friends over the years, who were continuously complaining about the constant pain, devastation and destruction, of being involved in relationships that ended with betrayal. She hopes to be inspired to write another one soon.
Sylvia loves to write, and has been doing so since her early days of high school at John F. Kennedy in the Bronx, but has only done so as a form of therapeutic relaxation. It was not her intention to do anything with her manuscript of Twice in One Lifetime, but because various friends had read it over the five years that it sat collecting dust, they pushed her to finally do something with it. It is her wish, that you as the reader, step inside of the main characters, and, if you are of female gender, you are able to relate to the female characters, and if you are of male gender, to put yourself in the shoes of the women as well, and then become men of respect, and dignity, and not men of men.
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR
I’m so kind and so giving
I treat men so good
So why don’t they treat me the way that they should,
I give and I give
So freely from the start
And they take and give nothing and always break my heart,
I’m so helpful when they need me
I go out on a limb
I never ask for much in return from them,
Every time I meet a man
They always run this line
"A good woman such as yourself is so damn hard to find,"
They say, "If I could have a woman,
Who is as good as you,
I’d never mess up, I’d treat her right, and I’d know just what to do"
But I fell for their lines so many times
So listen to my tale
They say all that trash, and they don’t pass the test, in fact, they always fail
So listen all you fellows
And listen to me hard
Be careful what you ask for when you pray to God
Don’t pray for something precious
Lest you know just what to do
Because God just might trip you up and give that gift to you
The moral to this story is
And please do not forget
Be careful what you ask for because you might be blessed with it
So when you get her, treat her right
Or you’ll soon be singing this song:
"Oh where or where is my dream come true, oh where or where has she gone?"
SYLVIA V. PATTERSON
AUTHOR
******
Shut the hell up," Sharise silenced the naked woman, with a crazed yell. "Don't say another word. I don't want to hear your voice." Pushing her hair out of her vision, Sharise felt it moist with sweat despite the cold winter wind that blew outside. "I see you both like to live dangerously huh? Well I got danger for you right here." She waved the gun threateningly in their faces. "Get off of the bed, NOW! G--d---it, and don't let me have to tell y’all again," Sharise said through clenched teeth. The horror-struck couple nearly tripped over each other trying to obey her command.
Every time Sharise raised the gun, they flinched and blocked their faces with their hands as if to ward off a bullet. But she had something better in mind. "I want both of you pieces of trash out of my house now, or I swear, I'll shoot you both where you stand." Trembling, they both started to reach for their clothes. Sharise again lifted the gun and removed the safety. "If either one of you so much as touches a thread on those clothes, you'll be buried in them." Terrence and Vanessa both tilted their heads like confused puppies and then looked at each other in shock as the cold reality of what Sharise meant hit them. "But it’s freezing outside, we need our clothes," they both whined simultaneously. Sharise backed up into the hall in order to give them room to pass her and then ordered them both to walk out of the room in their naked state and down the stairs or she'd shoot them, and suffer the consequences later. Terrified of Sharise’s irrational state of mind, they reluctantly obeyed. She followed behind, them, demanding that they walk faster. Sharise ordered Vanessa to open the front door, and Vanessa, with trembling hands, nervously fumbled with the unfamiliar locks. Terrence turned around, to protest, when he felt the cold air blast his naked body, through the now opened door, but when he did, his nose made physical contact with the barrel of the gun. He immediately changed his mind after seeing the look of loathing on Sharise’s face. As they were moving, too slowly for her, Sharise gave Terrence a brutal push in the back causing him to tumble on top of Vanessa and they both fell to the cobblestone walkway outside of the front door. At first, no one outside saw them because the two ran and hid behind the shrubbery that surrounds the house. Sharise didn't go outside with them; instead, she looked at them through the screen door and threatened to boil water and throw it down on them if they did not leave her property. Terrence looked up at her with a pleading look in his eyes. "Sharise, can I please, at least, have my car keys?" he begged.
"You want your car keys!" Sharise said in disbelief, "Oh, I'll give you your damn car keys, all right, you stupid f---." She ran to her room, retrieved his keys from his pants pocket and then ran back down stairs. Sharise then left her house through the back door and hopped the short fence, into her good friend, and neighbor, Donna's yard. "Thank God Donna's pit bull knows me, and is used to me," she thought. After three knocks, Donna opened her back door, looking at Sharise with surprise. "What's up, Sharise?" Sharise began to wring her hands. "Donna, I need to borrow Killer for a few minutes. Please." Donna gave Sharise a perplexed look. "Damn, Donna, hurry, it's an emergency," Sharise pleaded in an urgency filled voice.
