Under the Red Velvet Cover
Conquering Victimhood and Breaking the Silence of Abuse, Corruption and Family Secrets – My Life Journey
by
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Lucy’s return to the phone line in
My body exploded with emotion. I felt stunned, shocked, and literally couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“What?” I yelled into the phone. “What do you mean, thrown out?”
Had everything I’d said been discarded like it was trash? Was I nothing but garbage? Did my testimony mean nothing? All of the things I told them about the abuse and torment I had gone through didn’t matter?
With surprise in her tone, Lucy said, “You really didn’t know this?”
I could tell by the change in the sound of her voice she was sincere, which helped to calm me.
“No I didn’t. I was told that my uncle bailed him out of jail and that the courts ordered him to seek counseling or go to jail for life. I was told in lieu of serving time, he would get therapy. Is that not the case?”
I felt as if everything I wanted to believe all of these years was in fact distorted so I could feel as if I had been supported by them. After having Pop arrested, my family did give some lip service to being “proud of me for standing up to him” but the reality was they were all-too-willing to look the other way. I now knew that all of my fears were not fears at all, but instead the reality that my family would stand up for people who were sexual molesters over the children who were screaming out to help stop it. It was only thrown out because of their connections with other corrupt politicians and attorneys.
Lucy repeated that the case had been dismissed. Again, sounding very sympathetic she explained further, “Mr. Garris, give me some time. I’ll go and pull the files on this case. You need to understand that I may not be able to get them today, because these cases usually have about 1,700 pages and are stored in boxes and multiple files. It’s going to be a lot of stuff. Let me see what I can find, and I’ll call you back.”
I slowly lowered myself into my office chair and I turned and looked out at the view through my huge window on the fourteenth floor at the beautiful city that I now considered home. Struggling with being in the body of an adult and feeling like that same violated child I replied to her saying. “No problem,” still trying to process all of it. “I live in
“I don’t want you to have to do that, Mr. Garris, I can mail them to you,” she said politely.
“Thanks, but I really have to see this for myself, and I need to know as soon as possible,” I said, trying to convey my sense of urgency. “Do you think I should leave right now and just pick up the file when I get there?” I spun my chair around and broke my trance from looking at the amazing view. I saw that my car keys were where I always put them on the edge of my desk. I was grabbing for them when she stopped me.
“No sir. Let me see what I can find first. There really is no guarantee that I can even find the files from that long ago.”
“Okay,” I said reluctantly. “Thank you so much. I truly appreciate all your help because I’m so confused now. I just want to find out what happened.”
I dropped the phone into its cradle, feeling I was cutting a vital connection. I really didn’t want to hang up because I felt Lucy had the answers I’d been looking for most of my life. I feared by cutting off that connection I was losing what I needed to finish my story.
I sat at my desk unable to move and emotionless. Staring at the back of my closed office door, looking at my cable gym and its multi-colored cables I had hung up for working out while I was losing focus on conference calls, I realized that what I feared for years was true.
Still, I had a difficult time convincing myself the police would just “throw out the case” after everything I’d told them. The monster had raped me – repeatedly and violently. How could they just throw that out without talking to me first? Who gave the grand jury the right to throw out a case without letting the victim know? Naturally, if I had known anything about the criminal justice system at that time, I would have been aware that their failure to pursue my testimony was a signal that they were not actually investigating my case.
I was furious, hurt, confused, and just plain scared. I had to break my stare, so I stood up and paced in my office, back and forth like a caged animal, waiting for the phone to ring. I kept looking at the phone’s display to be sure I had no missed calls. I checked the volume on the ringer to be sure it was loud enough to be heard easily.
I wanted to move, but I had to stay in place. I had to stay near the phone. My mind replayed my life like a series of video tapes. I could see the scared little boy, hiding in the house, doing everything possible to avoid the old man. No matter what I did, he had an uncanny ability to find me, just like a hunter sighting prey.
The scene moved to a scared little boy, trapped on a boat, with no place to go, no place to hide, feeling blood slowly drip down my leg from being raped, while burns throbbed from being thrown into the boat
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About the Book
Today, I would learn the truth.
An efficient sounding female voice answered the phone, “Dallas County Police Department.”
Where do I begin? What do I say?
“Yes ma'am, I need to speak with someone about a case that's twenty two years old.”
“A case? What type of case?”
“A sexual abuse case.”
With that phone call, successful business executive Grant Garris began a journey through the memory of his shattered childhood; many of the details as painstakingly clear as when they had occurred, as he suffered violent and horrific sexual abuse at the hands of his own grandfather.
In a stark and startling memoir, Garris recounts his early years, offering no protection from the shocking reality that is childhood sexual abuse. Difficult to read and yet impossible to put down, Garris details molestation, the physical torture, and the sadistic mental manipulation that are the all-too-common arsenal of those who harm children - and those who protect them as they harbor a family's dirty secret.
Standing against a monster and refusing to be deterred by the intricate family ties and powerful political connections of a Southern bastion family that threatened to sacrifice their own children to the altar of public image, Garris chose to prevail.
Garris movingly recounts the surprising support system that evolved in his journey, including a seemingly powerless domestic servant, strangers, a fellow survivor named Oprah Winfrey, and a few courageous loved ones, all of whom dropped into his life at precisely the right moment.
Garris' life story is not a narrative of victimhood, nor is it a rosy tale of happy endings tied up in a neat package. Instead, it is the gritty, raw, and sometimes wonderful reality of conquering adversity. This book should be required reading for all who believe it is time to shred the veil of secrecy that protects child molesters.
About the Author
Grant Garris is a survivor of sexual and physical abuse. He spent over eight years completing Under The Red Velvet Cover. Garris completed his undergraduate degree at the
Now a public advocate for diversity and equality, Garris uses his talents to train others by speaking, writing, and serving as a mentor. Acting on his desire to bring his speaking subject matter to a community forum, Garris founded a website called A Village To Raise, www.avillagetoriase.com to serve the communities of adoptive families, special needs children and parents, and non-traditional families.