THE DECADE OF SORROW - Chapter 3

In the years that followed, I had tried to forge ahead....renew my life and reinvent who I was. I returned to college....Boise State University in the State of Idaho.....my place of birth. As it were, I was only 1 year from completing my BA degree when I was appointed an officer of the realm. Now was a good time to complete what I had started many years earlier. So it was that my life returned for several years, back to where it had started. I tried to put what had happened to me at the academy in the most remote part of my being. And for a time.....I was able to forget my troubles...as my studies took my full attention. In those few years I had developed a sense and style of writing...as I had sought to improve my skills in this area. So impressed was the head professor of the English department with my emerging skills.....he had taken a personal interest in my work and wanted me to study under his
guidance as an apprentice. As I think of it now....I should have accepted his gracious offer.....but fate would have none of that.
During this time of enlightenment....my persecution by the empire continued with verocity as their long arm reached into my private life and affairs. They were without mercy, or compassion.....as I was hounded by the war machine they had unleashed years before. I was to find out the devious nature of the enemy once again.

As it was....I had been informed that I could claim college credit for the courses I completed at the Academy....nearly 28 semester hours worth. I had applied to the university for those credits. I was soon to discover that the university had other motives....as they refused to allow me a single credit for the courses I had taken. Not a single one. I was confused and sought to find the reason behind it. My repeated attempts to uncover the truth were met with stiff resistance from the office of the registrar. For weeks, I could not even view my own student file. Then one day....a new registrar was working and had apparently not been briefed as had the others.
So it was she agreed to bring my file out....so that I could read it.
I was soon to be shocked once again. For inside were 2 letters from the academy....sent 2 months apart....detailing what courses I had completed. All seemed to be in order on the first letter....very neutral it was. Then for some inexplicable reason....a second nearly identical letter arrived...2 months after. Whereas, the first letter was what I would have expected them to receive.....the second was certainly not. Identical in every detail....save one. Under the previously empty "remarks" heading.....the academy had informed my university of my problems at that training center.....and that I was still under investigation. In addition.....the academy advised my university not to allow any credits. A recommendation they followed without question. Not once was I ever contacted to allow me to refute the disclosure. Again...another violation of the settlement agreement. Other areas of my academic life were affected by this wonton disregard for my rights. As such, I was never allowed to hold student government posts....as I had applied....nor was I ever to to be hired in the work-study program. Not to mention that there was little doubt that my advisor...program head and dean had been briefed and my stature within the community declined. The empire was not going to be satisfied until every facit of my life was under scrutiny and scorn. It was a sad day when I knew there was no where to hide to find sanctuary and peace......or escape from the retribution of the empire. Indeed....there reach was long....and malice great.

To what effect did this have....well... I finally completed the graduation requirements despite the interference of the government. With that, I returned to Los Angeles....as the war of persecution was not soon to end. It was then that fate took another turn.....and threw my life into more chaos. By the strangest of coincidence......I had volunteered to be an inspector at my polling station for the 1996 presidential election. It was to last all day and well into the night. So here I was....just a block from my apartment.....manning a polling station, while the masses voted. Unknown to me...at that same time.....my father was just 2 people out from casting his vote at the polling station near his house. It was then that fate struck him down. As he prepared to enter the booth....he turned blue....as he suffered a major heart attack. The place was filled with people as he lay on the floor...paramedics desparately trying to save his life....using the defibrillator time and time again. To no avail....as he died where he fell. The twist of irony of that moment....where we were miles apart....yet both in a polling place at the same time, for the same election, on the same day. I was not to discover his passing until very late at night...when I returned from counting the ballots. My cousin had waited up for me. So again fate had thrown another burden and sorrow my way...as it steeped itself upon the many that were already there. I mourned the loss of my father for many months thereafter....as the empire was relentless in its pursuit of my ruin. I could have resigned myself to failure in the face of the onslaught that fate had thrown my way. But I stood firm and continued to fight against the might of the empire....as if I were on the last crusade. But again....there was more pain to come.

It was not even a year later that I received a call from an old friend of mine. One who I had attended the academy with. He brought news of which I found most distressing. With that...he asked if I was aware that our old instructor at the academy had died. I asked which one.... and was shocked to hear that it was my favorite, Billie Moxley. She was as a friend to me...willing to talk and listen. I had sought her counsel a number of times as I struggled to get through that academy. At this....I was told that she had been shot to death in her home on St. Simon Island some time in 1994. Several suspects had entered her home and pumped 4 rounds into her at close range. The motive was unknown...the suspects a mystery. And so it was that I had to bear the burden of yet another loss. Within the span of a few short years....I had lost my career, lost my love, lost my father and lost a friend. And woe and trouble did follow in my footsteps....as the war dragged on.

To be continued................