Cindy bore Jack three children of his own. Twin boys one year after they were married and a girl the following year. Jack treated Shawn with indifference and tolerated him after Cindy threatened to leave him if he didn’t stop abusing Shawn; however, that all changed when Jack hurt his back, lifting an inline six-cylinder engine block on a bet. He was a large man standing six-four and weighing just north of three hundred pounds. Jack was extremely strong, yet by not lifting the engine block properly, Jack damaged muscle tissue and tendons that would take a very long time to heal. He was unable to work steadily, and he began to drink and take prescription painkillers at an alarming rate. He insisted he needed to drink because of the pain. But the truth was altogether different. Before the accident, he was a weekend drunk. And after, he turned it into a full-time job. That’s when he really started to take his anger out on Shawn. He was twelve years old when the beating started in earnest. His mother tried to intervene, and she threatened to leave him, but he did not stop. The beatings were so severe that Jack almost killed him on several occasions. Thankfully, Shawn had a head of granite, and over the years, he became hardened by the blows. He even taunted his stepfather with, “Is that all you got, old man,” after a series of hard punches.

  At sixteen, Shawn took up Tae-Kwon-Do training from his Korean high school gym teacher, who had immigrated to the US just before the Korean War started. He also started working out hard on the weights at the high school gym. Shawn would push himself way past the burning pain deep in his muscles as the lactic acid worked its way out. He was looking forward to the day when he would be able to kick his stepfather’s ass.

  When he turned seventeen, the weight training had done its job, and it was his turn to inflict some pain. On a fall day of his senior year of high school, Shawn came home after school to discover his mother lying on the kitchen floor, unconscious and bleeding from a head wound after a particularly vicious attack by his stepfather. She was barely alive when Shawn found her. Jack was lying on a stained, threadbare sofa, watching television and drinking moonshine. No one else was home at the time.

  From the kitchen, Shawn yelled, “What the hell did you do to my mother, you fucking asshole?” as he picked up his mother and headed for the front door.

  “The bitch has to learn to keep her fucking mouth shut,” was his curt reply.

  As Shawn was heading out the front door, he said in a calm guttural voice, “You just wait right here because when I come back, I’m gonna kick your ass, you son-of-a bitch.”

  Jack got up and shouted, “Oh, you think you’re a man now? Gonna defend the bitches honor! Well, I’ll be right here waiting for you, sunny boy. Oh, bring an ambulance with you because you’ll need it.”

  Shawn placed his mother in the front passenger’s seat of his 56 Chevy two-door hardtop and raced to the hospital. His stepfather had never beaten his mother this badly before, and Shawn was in a rage. An hour later, after he was sure his mother would live, he headed home. Shawn told the staff at the hospital that his mother had been involved in a car accident. He didn’t want the police to question Jack before he had a shot at the bastard. Standing just under five-ten and weighing one seventy-five, Shawn was no match for his stepfather’s size and strength. But Shawn was all muscle and extremely quick. He pulled his Chevy in front of their run-down home, opened the trunk, and grabbed a Louisville slugger baseball bat. He headed for the front door and went after Jack the minute his feet hit the living room floor.

  Shawn Charged with the bat cocked back like he was going to hit a home run, but Jack jumped off the couch quicker than he expected. He started his swing when he was only four feet from his foe. Jack ducked his head and lifted his left arm to block the blow as the bat came crashing down at a forty-five-degree angle, intending to take his head off. Jack’s forearm and shoulder took the brunt of the blow, and then he sent a right cross that landed squarely on the side of Shawn’s head. The blow sent Shawn backward and knocked him to the floor. Jack kicked the cheap coffee table out of his way and delivered his size fourteen boot into the side of Shawn’s ribcage. But just before the crushing impact arrived, Shawn’s head cleared enough to pivot out of the way and sweep his leg. The wrestling maneuver caught Jack’s stationary leg, sending the big man to the floor with a tremendous thud. Shawn was up, quick as a cat. Jack was not.

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  "Get up, you bastard," Shawn yelled.

  Jack just laughed, "Look how's callin' me a bastard; who the hell's your daddy, boy?"

  "Fuck you. Get up and fight."

  Jack rose slowly and shook his head from side to side while his eyes bore into his stepson.

  "Now I'm gonna put some hurt on you, boy!"

  Shawn didn't reply.

  Jack rose and rushed Shawn. He was intent on connecting with another haymaker. Yet to Shawn, his stepfather seemed like he was moving in slow motion. Shawn easily sidestepped the rushing bull and connected with a hard left below Jack's heart. The blow stunned him. As Jack turned to face Shawn again, he was hit by another blow. This time, a hard right connected to the left side of Jacks's head and just below his eye. Jack tried to spin to his right, but Shawn's left fist caught him in the ribcage again. This was instantly followed up with a hard kick to his kidney.

  Jack doubled over in pain, and Shawn sent a crushing right, left combination to the big man’s chin. Jack felt his legs give out, and he fell to his knees. Shawn didn’t wait for a standing eight count. He whipped his right leg in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree spinning hook kick that connected on the left side of Jack’s head just below his ear.

  Lucky for Jack, he didn’t have far to fall. Like a giant oak tree having been cut by the lumberjack’s ax, Jack swayed a bit before he came crashing down. He was out cold before he hit the floor.

  *****

  In the aftermath, Jack Thomas was sent to jail for battery. Cindy filed for divorce and was granted a restraining order when Jack was released from jail a short time later. After high school, Shawn joined the US Army with few other options open to him. He was an excellent student, but it was a moot point without the means to pay for college.

  *****

  On a hot summer night before the divorce was final, Jack watched the family home from a distance from his old Dodge pickup truck. At two in the morning, he cut the back screen door and slid open the cheap door hasp. All the bedrooms in the old home were upstairs except for Cindy’s. With no air conditioning, Jack could hear the fan running on high as he slowly entered his former bedroom on the main floor. Cindy was sleeping on her side, away from the door, as Jack approached the bed. He pulled back the light sheet covering his wife, then grabbed her shoulder and rolled her face up. Startled, Cindy started to scream; however, it was cut off by Jack’s powerful hands around her throat. Weighing only one hundred and ten pounds, Cindy was petite and no match for the intruder. She tried hitting and kicking the man, but he was too strong. Without the breath of life, her struggle slowly faded. Moments later, Cindy’s spirit left her body, and she joined her sister in death.

  Jack finally relinquished his grip. Then he slowly turned and walked out of the bedroom. When Jack got to the stairway, he listened for any movement upstairs. After hearing nothing, he quietly left his former home for the last time. He then got into his truck and headed for the border of Tennessee, just a few short miles away.

  *****

  Shawn returned home from Fort Bragg for his mother's funeral. He was inconsolable and riddled with guilt for leaving his mother. He reasoned that his mother would still be alive if he hadn't left. Jack was the only suspect. The police searched the three-state area but found no trace of Jack Thomas or his pickup truck.

  With friends and family gathered around the gravesite, Shawn laid flowers on his mother's casket and said goodbye. He wasn't aware of the horrors of her childhood, only the abuse at the hands of her husband. Shawn and his brothers and sister hugged each other and cried for the loss of their mother. As he walked away from her grave, Shawn vowed that he would find and kill his stepfather if it was the last thing he ever did. He only hoped that he would find Jack before the police did.

  After the family had left the gravesite, Shawn’s father finally approached Cindy’s grave, and he also placed a bouquet of flowers on her casket. He knelt down and prayed for the woman that he never stopped loving. He had caved into his father’s wishes, and now he regretted it with all his heart.

  As the car carrying the family pulled away, Shawn looked back and noticed a broad-shouldered man in an expensive-looking business suit approaching his mother’s grave with flowers in his hand. He had never seen the man before and wondered who he was.