PROLOGUE

Danger Zone

Now, please understand this is not just my own narrative (I’m really not that interesting).  You will hear stories of friends, stories of enemies, stories of people I loved, stories of people I hated, stories of those worth forgiving, stories of the worthless unforgiven, stories of people I held close, and the stories of those that fell just out of reach…not close enough.

The history recounted in this novel will take you back to the wild ride that every teen had a ticket to board in 1980-something.  You will travel to heights above the proverbial cloud nine, up…up…up into the heavens; and deep down into depths low enough to feel the fiery flames that flood hell.

For the entirety of my life, I’ve felt some kinda burning, yearning desire to make a difference.  I ask myself daily, “Really J.R.?  What the hell does that even mean?”  In this case, I’m hoping the tales told in the pages you’re turning, or the podcast you’re perusing will have a lasting, lessons-learned impact on all who partake in my poor attempt at a parable.

The episodes chronicled in demented detail found in these subsequent chapters spell out the unbelievably sad but true tragedies that tormented one of the most affluent high schools in Texas.  Growing up in the 80’s, and going to Tom C. Clark High School, in San Antonio, TX (dubbed Clark, TX) was simultaneously:  Like soooo fuckin’ fantastic, and like soooo fuckin’…I don’t know…fucked up!  Even though I lived through it…it took me writing it to fully grasp what the student-body residing in Clark, TX endured during what could only be considered an absolutely dreadful decade.

For many of us still here, and for many that are now gone…our Senior year was amazing in many respects; but as time moved to the right, the year also took on a much less celebratory, and much more somber tone.  Horrific!  Shocking!  Appalling!  Unfortunate and unbelievable!  Exclamations that understate the nightmarish string of events that to this day, continue to haunt our broken hearts. Tragedy struck Clark High School like a contagion pandemic in the late 80’s.  A virus spread, lingered, and infected our easily impressionable, not yet fully developed young minds with deadly symptoms that attacked our scared, sacred souls.