JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS

As Ben lay there in his semi-conscious state, his body racked with pain from head to toe, the intensely bright light that hung above him seemed to bore itself into his very soul. It happened so quickly and without warning causing him to catapult over the handlebars of his bicycle coming to a bone-crushing heap at the side of the road. He’d only caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of an object being thrown before it clocked him to the side of his head leaving him with clouded thoughts of WHY ME?! An angry familiar voice by the gurney where he lay in the emergency room muttered a vivid threat through gritted teeth, “When I get ahold of that kid, I’ll beat the living tar out of him!” “No you won’t son, you’re not that kind of boy.” For Ben Okura, being Japanese American took on a whole new meaning as he was to become one of the homeland’s first civilian casualties of World War II. Ben didn’t know it yet; but, at that moment, he’d already started down an unimaginable darkened road filled with intrigue, danger, and adventure to places he’d never been. He would have to settle up with fate and meet his destiny.