From the Keyboard of B.R. Bates ...

Darlene lived to see her kids grow up. Lived to see her grandchildren, and to enjoy her life. And when she finally passed, it was in the comforting arms of a son who loved her very much. But it almost didn't turn out that way. Darlene knew this guy named Tony, from the different times when she was hanging out on the street. She would see him here and there. They went to some of the same places. The same crack houses and whatever. He was just a guy she met a few years earlier, and she knew his sister, too.  But one day when Darlene and Tony decided to smoke a little crack together, things went sideways.  They were over by the abandoned Monterey Motel in Highland Park, Michigan, near the Howard Johnson's restaurant that used to be there. And it was only due to Darlene's tenacity and the appearance of another guy she knew from the street, that she was saved in this violent encounter. For years, Darlene was thought to be the first person Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins assau...