STRIP MAUL

Strip Maul Truth be told. Foreword Sunny small-town June afternoon. Supposed to be a fun evening. 17 years old. Worked on my tan at the lake on my parents’ boat. Slow traffic, a couple minutes late. Suave, debonair, college-educated with a new red Corvette convertible. Hot date or so I thought with a 23-year-old high school teacher and coach…a pro baseball player wanna be. Really, it’s supposed to be a fun evening. Just met the guy at my high school graduation party a few weeks earlier. Told my parents it would be okay. Third date. 25 yards from safety. So short of breath. Another blow so powerful it lifted me out of the seat. Another almost knocked me out of the convertible. Trapped by a lap belt. Fend off the blows with my left arm while reaching for the door lock. Screams that made the neighbors look up. 3rd gear around the corner, Blew through the town’s main stop light. Burning rubber, more screams. Pulled hair. Hard to breathe, can’t get the seat belt open. …I’m so sorry, promise you won’t tell anyone. No one with even the most vivid imagination could make up a story like this. This was my life. It’s simply unbelievable but true. There are good and honorable people, and then there are those who prey on others with depraved indifference… Satan among the living. He may have avoided Vietnam But he will not avoid hell. May God have mercy on his soul. Acknowledgement I speak for all unwilling victims of mind control, physical abuse, and domestic violence. We are responsible for our own actions, and only our own. As God closes one door, we must have the perseverance to walk through the next. Otherwise, these traumas haunt us and define who we were, not the strong survivors we have become. He thinks he’s clever but he is a narcissistic, covert aggressive sociopath with an antisocial personality. He thinks he has fooled everyone but has only fooled himself. He may have gotten away with his actions while on earth, but he will be held accountable. I know his dark secrets and he definitely will not be visiting heaven. Finally, the truth will be told. Preface God bestowed upon me a miracle, what I call a divine intervention. Were it not for the encouragement of my mentor and colleagues, this story would never be told because it was buried in my memory, and ugly memories are best forgotten. The title “Strip Mall” was changed to “Strip Maul” because the court system stripped me of my identity and financial security, and I was mauled repeatedly. The erasing of my life and accomplishments were incrementally planned while I acted as a commercial general contractor of another family-owned business in a strip mall. Thus, Strip Maul. Our society turns a blind eye to the silent pandemic because it happens to someone else. I was the someone else and it’s time we bring this into the open. This book is dedicated as advocacy for silent survivors. The story is 100% true and documented, but the names and locations are figments of my literary imagination and ChatGPT artificial intelligence options. I apologize if there’s a coincidence; it was random and unintentional. Decades later, when least expected, my path crossed again with a remarkable person who asked me on a date, knowing I had been homeless, sleeping on an air mattress, and eating ramen noodles while I juggled my academic schedule. When I wanted to give in to the pressures and give up, he made sure I completed my mission. First, a home and car purchase, the doctoral research dissertation, medical school, marriage, and now the book more than five years in the making. He was the one person who would know about missions because he was a highly decorated helicopter pilot during Vietnam. If he could rescue thousands, survive the battlefield, and live to talk about it, I had to do the same. Opposite ends of my life’s spectrum, deceit versus honor, and honor always wins. Semper Fi – always faithful.