Lenny Greenman / Stephen Melillo
Seventeen-year-old Stephen Rinaldi was a highly dedicated, abnormally skilled, confused and powerful boy on the precipice of manhood. He was a proficient killer who had hired himself to crush a wrong. Literal and internal, Stephen stepped into a ring with powerful, politically connected enemies. No training, no prayers, no prior life-experience had prepared him. Told by his student and friend, Lenny Greenman, Only for Now s a fast-paced action-adventure that recounts how one individual took a beating in every way a person might, yet stood tall in a world that tried to kick him in another direction. During the divorce of his parents, bitter backstabbing betrayals, the ridicule of buddies who once called him a friend and the unexplained and hurtful end of his first love, Stephen leaves home for his first year at college. Exceptionally skilled in the Chinese martial art, he inadvertently challenges another kung fu teacher named Yang. Frank Yang and his school of more than 125 become adversaries on a distant college campus far from home. Stephen’s life literally goes into a ring, a struggle inside and out, between turning the other cheek and fighting back… hard. In Only for Now, one person collides with formidable foes and literally goes undercover, but in the end, Stephen Rinaldi emerges as a real-to-life Hero. Life is short but wide. Only for Now stands as a lasting testament to those who believe that growing up need not mean giving in.
