There is a fear unlike any other.... there is a peace that will follow.
Original Story
There is a saying when telling a story that you should begin at the beginning. When I was thirteen years old I had a newspaper route. It was 1972 and I was in the eighth grade living in smoggy southern California beach town of Huntington Beach. Something about newspaper boys you may not realize is that they actually read the news every day. Those years the newspapers were filled with stories of freeway and hillside stranglers, events that were happening nearby, but far from my consciousness as I felt safe in my world. At 13 I was a skinny kid, maybe five foot two and a hundred pounds soaking wet. I have a twin brother and one day we were running late for school and so he hopped on the handlebars to my bicycle and we rode to school. Our journey took us down the street on a busy two lane avenue, we were riding against traffic, and a motorcycle policeman stopped us. He gave us both a ticket! So a few weeks later we had to go to a bicycle safety class taught by a very colorful sergeant with our mother in tow. He made the day one to remember, and I felt that I would be a much better and law abiding rider afterwards....we will hear about the sergeant later... As summer rolled by I departed southern California for a few weeks to be with my dad who had a double wide trailer in Boonville CA. He had divorced my mom years earlier and had a new wife and family, but seeing him and my step brothers and sister was a treat. We were all the same age roughly and we spent the days doing crazy stuff that kids often do, like shaving our heads into Mohawks and exploring the creeks and hills of the rural valley where they lived. One activity that I was introduced to was hitch-hiking. My brothers and I got a ride one time from a cement truck...and the community was very small and everyone knew each other. It was a unique experience that belayed the inherent danger of accepting rides from strangers. A few weeks went by and I was once again back in southern California. My head was shaved short from the summer adventure and I decided that it was hot enough to go to the beach. I managed to get to the beach without any trouble and spent a few hours there but the sun was getting to me and I decided to start walking home. The beach was about five miles from my house and I had gone about half way. The road I was walking on was called Slater Ave. It was only one lane in each direction and the field were filled with tall grass and oil derricks pumping away. As I was walking along a car pulled up and a man who I can describe as middle aged 30ish, a little heavy, but not obese, called out to me...Would you like a ride? he asked...I thought for a second and the sun was really beating down and I made the split second decision to get into the car. It was a two door sedan with bucket seats. There was a center console in the middle and the man asked me my name? {~Survivor~} I replied, How far do you need to go? he asked...I said up the road a little ....and then he asked me to put on my seatbelt in a caring way...so I complied.. The window was down and as we drove along at about 30 mph I was looking at the oil derricks pumping away and not really paying attention to the driver...when I felt something strange...the feeling of someone touching my hand as it rested on the center console. It was an odd sensation...like someone petting a cat...and I turned my head to see the driver. He had pulled his penis from his pants and was starting to masterbate ...and he asked... {~Survivor~} do you want to make five bucks? All you have to do is suck it...and he was grinning a big crazy eyed smile. He kept petting my hand as I was frozen in my seat. I remember looking down at the asphalt rolling by...and thought to myself...how many bones will I break if I jump from this car? I could not look in his direction, he kept petting my hand...and from the corner of my eye I could still see that grin on his face...he was pure evil. There is a fear unlike any other, I was overwhelmed by it....and I knew without a doubt that he was going to force me to do something unnatural and then murder me. Ahead about a hundred yards was a four way stop. As we approached this intersection several(3 total) cars arrived together from three directions..and from the right from behind a hedge appeared a police car. Two officers in uniform were now sitting at the stop sign in their cruiser....and the passenger officer was the very same sergeant that taught the bicycle safety class!! I knew this officer!! I recognized him immediately. The drivers now all were in that frozen space of time when deciding who had the right of way, each not sure who to go....In that instant I had the presence of mind to undo my seat belt, pull the inner door handle and step out of the car as the policemen turned left in front of us and passed the man driving in a wide turn....I said out loud... this is where I get out...and shut the door. The officers now travelling behind and away..and the man sped across the intersection and away to the front... there I was in the middle of the road alone. I immediately raced down the hill and jumped a few neighborhood fences and cutting through several backyards to get to my house, fearing the man would circle the block to find me...I was very shaken...and knew that I had escaped with my life. I think the hardest part of the ordeal was when my parents came home from work a couple of hours later my step father decided that notifying the police would be fruitless. He was a selfish man who never could think that my story to the police might save another childs life, and I never could forgive him for that decision...My mother would divorce him a year later...but.I never got any counseling or therapy afterward...and had to manage the emotional conflict inside. Why had this happened to me? What was the meaning of it? How was I to cope with the bad dreams and the fear and anxiety of living? Not to mention the guilt of having made this error in judgement. Those things took a lifetime to resolve. I truly believed that a miracle had happened...and that is how I had to manage the struggle inside...but I was filled with fear and anger..and it took decades to resolve. Now I have the solemn belief that God puts people in our lives...there is an officer out there that was in the right place and the very instant that I needed him..and he is unknowing of my gratitude..