Simply Cheris. . .

Aretha smiled slightly as Shun and Drea walked into the kitchen. She’d seen that kiss and wasn’t happy about it. Aretha knew two things about military men, they’d break your heart or they were loyal but would still break your heart with loneliness. She didn’t want Drea to latch on to Shun, a guy she just hours ago couldn’t remember, and get her heart broken. Her daughter had dealt with enough sadness and heartbreak. Losing Quincy McClain had been so hard on Drea and Aretha. He had been a man who loved his wife and daughter. He’d been near perfect in Aretha’s eyes and a hero to his young daughter. A training exercise at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina changed their lives forever. Quincy, an instructor with the 82 nd Airborne Division had taught thousands of privates to jump, but on June 14, 1994, something went terribly wrong and Quincy’s chute malfunctioned. Drea had been inconsolable and spent most of that summer in and out of the hospital. She had to be home schooled f...

When Drea and her mother finally made it home to Elmore, South Carolina, she couldn’t help but think that after a year in Atlanta, she was in store for a summer that would consist of watching grass grow. After dropping her bags in her room, which now seemed smaller than ever, Drea stripped down to a pair of cut-off shorts and pulled on a faded purple tee shirt with Prince’s face plastered across the her chest. Today, she’d just lounge around and do nothing. It was hard to party and maintain good grades. She’d done pretty well for a freshman experiencing freedom for the first time. While she’d made two good friends at school, Shannon Kelly and Zahra Brown, she couldn’t wait to see Yashira McIntyre and Tracy Davenport, her best friends since middle school. They’d decided to go to school in South Carolina, Yashira at Claflin in Orangeburg and Tracy at Wofford in Spartanburg. Drea had wanted to get away from what she was familiar with. After all, as a journalist, she’d be traveling the wo...

It was 1995, Drea McClain had just finished her first year at Spelman College and wasn’t happy about having to return to her small South Carolina hometown. She wanted to stay in Atlanta, get a job and go to summer school. Anything to avoid going home where there was a curfew and endless days of boredom. “So,” her mother, Aretha McClain, asked as they rode down I-20, “how was school?” “It was amazing,” she replied with a smile. Aretha nodded. “I can tell, so proud of that 3.5 GPA. But I know you were having a good time in between studying.” Drea shrugged; definitely not ready to tell her mother about her clubbing adventures, her fling with the captain of the Morehouse College football team and her flirtation with alcohol. “Kind of,” she finally said. Aretha snorted. “All I have to say is be careful. Atlanta is a big city and I’m sure the people there would love to take advantage of you. But, you’ve always made smart decisions. You do use a condom every time you have sex, right...