Before I Was Me

Suddenly he pointed the gun at me and said, “Get out!” “What? There could be mountain lions or bears or who knows what else could be out there. Are you crazy?” “I don’t care,” he said. “Get out!” He cocked the pistol and I clearly remember hearing a click. P.B. Castle was born in Arizona but spent much of her childhood in a small village on the ocean in Mexico. There she had a sheltered existence until, at fourteen, she met X, a very cute nineteen year old guy who was seemingly destined to be a success in life. In fact, he was somewhat older than he claimed and intent on bending this beautiful young, only-just-teenaged, girl to his every whim, while her parents, though traditional in their values, did little to protect her. The inevitable ensued: grooming, controlling behavior, marriage, and ever-increasing levels of verbal, emotional and physical abuse until the day he tried to kill her. ‘Before I Was Me’ does not tell an unusual story, but it’s a story unusually well told. And, as P.B. Castle says, “If I was then who I am now, I would never have let him get away with it.”