Chapter 3...The taking of Innocences

I made it to High School and started to come out of my shell. Still the class clown and had meet several new friends, 3 that would become life long....Cheryl Rogers (Davis), Mona Dehart (Mangrum), Becky Davis (Varner) and we were inseparable. Cheryl and I were closer and Becky and Mona were close but we all got along. We would walk to each others house, spend the night and sit up all night long and talk about the boys. One night they had all came to my house and we walked over to Cheryl's through the graveyard. As we were on our way, Becky dared me to go into the Mausoleum, well anything to get a laugh. I did, and they closed the door behind me and it locked. I was locked in for over 3 hours, while they left to go get help! Left me there by myself, I was scared! Mom called the Mayor at 11:30 pm, to find out who took care of the graveyard and he lived in Lafe, Ark. Finally at 1:30 am he showed up to unlock the door. I was constantly doing something that would give someone else a laugh but get me in trouble.

It was the winter of 1974, we had one of the biggest snows Paragould had seen in several years. I had spent the night with Cheryl. I had called home and mom needed me to come home to help her with something but her car was snowed in the drive way and Cheryl's mom was at work, so I told her I would walk home. We only lived about 20 minutes walking distance through the the woods and neighborhoods.

I left Cheryl's house and walked beside the hospital down 9 Th street. A boy I went to school with was riding his new sleigh down the hill. His name was Steve, he stood 6 ft tall and weighed about 200 lbs. and a little on the weird side. He ask me if I wanted to ride the hill with him and I said sure why not. He sat behind me and stirred the sleigh. When we got to almost the bottom of the hill he turned the sleigh into a parked car to keep from landing in a deep ditch. I slammed into the side of the tire and twisted my ankle. He was very sorry but it was the only way he knew to keep us out of the ditch, he offered to walk me home but I said no and he insisted to at least walk me to Seibert's Grocery. As we walked we talked about everything from school, friends, etc. Along the way he picked up a rock and began to toss it in the air and said " In this neighborhood you have to be very careful." I found it strange being we had not heard of anything bad happening in this neighborhood. We got to Siebert's and the store was closed. I began to thank him for walking me this far, but I could make it home from here. He went one way and I went the other. My ankle was pretty swelled up and I was having allot of difficulty walking on it by now. I was about another 10 minutes from the house and it was extremely cold and slick with ice on everything. I crossed over to Kennedy Street and proceeded up the street when suddenly Steve came up behind me wailing the rock he picked up earlier, and began to hit me on the head with it. Striking me over 4 times, and knocking me to the ground. He was trying to remove my clothes, tearing my blouse and hitting me at the same time. I managed to get up somehow and run through a back yard. He got up and started to chase me. I turned to see how far behind me he was and ran in to a clothes line and it knocked me back to the ground. In an instant, he was back on top of me hitting me over and over again in the head with the rock. I never lost conciseness for a moment. Fully aware of what was taking place he pinned me to the snow and raped me. Leaving, he threw the rock into the woods and walked away calmly. Naked, cold, bleeding and hurt, I managed to walk to a house and beat on their glass door. An elderly couple open the door and I fainted . They wrapped me in a blanket and called the police. An ambulance took me to Arkansas hospital and a police officer went to the house to get my mother and sisters and brought them to the hospital. For several hours, doctors and nurses worked on closing the gaping holes in my head and the police stayed with my mom trying to calm her.
After some time the doctors and nurses left my room leaving me alone. Suddenly, Steve walked into the emergency room and into my room. The whole time he was apologizing for what he had done, and me screaming to the top of my lungs. Police, doctors, nurses all rushed back in to find him standing over me sobbing. The police arrested him and took him away.
For several months I couldn't attend school, because the police released him to his father and he started back to school. We went to trial in less than a month after the rape and he was sentenced to 5 years in a mental hospital.

Moral of this Blog: listen to your instincts...