Book Description
Chloe loves to listen to music, but when the music starts listening to her, she begins to wonder.
Try as she might, she can’t dismiss the strange things happening in her life as mere coincidence. Could some spirit be trying to send her a message?
She tries to live a normal life as a student at California State University, but the more she tries, the more bizarre her life becomes.
From the moment Chloe consults a Candomblé priestess to find out what’s what, the events in her life spin from uncanny to numinous. As her visions become more corporeal, Chloe gets literally swept out of her 21st-century Los Angeles world in the stormy vortex of Oya, the African Orisha of the wind. Oya takes Chloe on a journey through time that throws her into the world of Ayodele, her 19th-century ancestor on a Virginia tobacco plantation. Both women share dreams of achieving more in life than is expected of them as women and as African Americans. At the Crossroads, they must decide which costs more, struggling to fulfill their dreams or letting them die—and which price are they willing to pay.
Uncover the secrets of Tomorrow's Temple
What You'll Experience in this novel
the story lets you delve into a mysterious world where love, fear, desire, and uncertainty collide. As you read you can enjoy an emotional connection to Chloe while she struggles to understand the mysterious forces entering her life and decide what they mean for her future.
Exzerpt from Tomorrow's Temple
“Go two blocks and turn right,” said her GPS.
“Get a good education so you can get a good job,” said her mother.
“Never date a man who can’t give you his phone number. He might be married,” said her best friend.
“Take the core classes first and then the electives,” said her academic advisor.
Chloe shook her head. She had no taste for the blue pill, but everyone thought it was their business to try jamming it down her throat — even inanimate talking machines. She went three blocks and turned left.
The machine adjusted to her new position. “Go one block and turn left.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Downtown Los Angeles didn’t offer too many scenic routes, but she could smell the pizza that boasted of being made with New York City tap water wafting down Sixth Street — a street she wasn’t supposed to be on. It wasn’t on the itinerary mapped out by the global satellite. She savored the smell and didn’t care.
She crossed Broadway and hooked a left on Los Angeles. A Greyhound bus nearly swiped her on its way to its terminal.
Okay, time to pay attention, she thought. Look out for pedestrians. Look out for other cars. Look out for traffic lights, stop signs, and don’t miss my turnoff. So much energy expended just to get to school. And the reward, her mother assured her, would be a job working for someone else. Some ache inside told Chloe she was born for more. None of her advisors had a clue about what was going on inside her. Everyone wanted to play it safe. Whatever happened to the “Give me liberty or give me death” mentality? Chloe didn’t know anyone like that. She knew only the common-sense folks. She knew only this centrifugal directive away from her center — away from her dreams. She turned on the radio. Maybe some Old School would help her get to that center. Billy Paul startled her. This is your life you’re living. My life? Living for what? For whom? She maneuvered her car to the turnoff for Cal State University. Chloe mused at all the students scurrying about campus. They were of all kinds. Some were mainstream-looking Blacks, Whites, Asians, and Latinos. Some looked like they came from somewhere with a name she didn’t know. And some sported dreadlocks. Oh my God. They let you wear dreads here? Maybe there’s hope. She saw herself joining the stream, one among thousands in this surging crowd. Her stomach lurched at the thought of joining any crowd, but she had no time to let it settle before she had to find a place to park. She found the visitors’ parking lot, and then consulted a map for directions to the administration building. This wasn’t the tallest building on campus, but it was the most imposing, with its several offices sprawled out helter-skelter around a central courtyard. The offices seemed to have nothing to do with one another. An ugly iron fence kept students from walking on a strip of grass in front of the building. Chloe wondered if that were why Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, because they wouldn’t stop walking on the grass.
Note from Author Rhonda Denise Johnson
One of the ideas that sparked Tomorrow's Temple is the myth that hurricanes are the spirits of slaves who jumped ship during the middle passage to escape being eaten, which is what many Africans thought would happen.