Thanx Anonymous Monk, I studied what you proposed and came up with this:

use Win32::ShellQuote();
use Win32::Process();
my(@Node_Exe_Location) = ['C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe'];
my(@Child_Script_To_Run) = [
    'node',
    'I:\HTTPS\prinet.org\site\assets\javascript\child-module.js'
    ];
Win32::Process::Create(
    $Child_Module,
    Win32::ShellQuote::quote_system_string(@Node_Exe_Location),
    Win32::ShellQuote::quote_system_string(@Child_Script_To_Run),
    0,
    Win32::Process::DETACHED_PROCESS(),
    ".",
    )
or do {
    my($err) = int($!).' '.$!." #### ".int($^E)." $^E  ";
    warn "??? - CreateProcess failed $err ";
    };
[download]

I have tried several variations of single quote, double quote, escaped and non-escaped slashes/back slashes to no avail. The closest I have got is the above code, but I'm getting "??? - CreateProcess failed 0 #### 123 The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect" in the error log. I seriously appreciate your direction, but I'm having trouble understanding the syntax somehow. I'm assuming that "Win32::Process::DETACHED_PROCESS()" is something I wasn't aware of and that is one of the keys to what I'm attempting, but the "Win32::ShellQuote()" is what I'm misunderstanding somehow. Could you enlighten me a wee bit more? Oh, yea, thank you for what you provided, I'm going to keep experimenting here...
-Gary