A Twisted Zion

To a seven-year-old kid from the Bay Area, Hayfork California was the kind of place where a kid’s hope went to die. Watching the miles pass by, Jacob cringed inwardly knowing this they weren’t just passing through this middle of nowhere place on their way to a more civilized destination where stop lights and McDonald’s were plentiful. No, somewhere within this mountainous nightmare was the town of Hayfork which was to be his and his little half-sister and half-brother’s new, “Home.” This was Jacob’s third move in as many years. Each new “Home” being worse than the last. Though Jacob had never seen this new place, not even in a postcard picture, he already knew that if the pattern continued, he would hate Hayfork, California.

Not wanting to draw the attention of his despised, “Step-grandma” in the driver’s seat, Jacob sank further into the backseat and silently cursed his current circumstances. He had already accepted the sad reality that seven-year-olds were left with no choice but to weather the consequences of their parent’s decisions, no matter how stupid those decisions were. To his way of thinking, his mom’s decisions over the last couple of years were Three Stooges level stupid. Still, Jacob had somehow learned to endure each miserable moment brought on by his mom’s increasingly questionable decisions over the last three years. These bad decisions met their pinnacle with her mind bogglingly horrible choice in romantic partner and now new husband.

Though not even gone for a full eight hours, Jacob was already suffering the dull ache of homesickness. Against his will, the scrawny, buck-toothed boy was taken from the comfort and familiarity of his grandma’s house in Santa Clara to be dropped in (from what he could tell) was the middle of freaking nowhere. Jacob was too emotionally exhausted and miserable to even contemplate the full magnitude of just how screwed he was. All he knew was he felt a sense of dread that grew stronger with each passing mile. As they followed Highway 3’s winding course through the ass crack of the Cascade Mountains Jacob could only feel that misery was at the end of this windy, nausea inducing, mountain road.

Now thanks to Brian, his new, “Step-dad,” Hayfork was to be Jacob’s new home. The whole idea of having a step-dad was almost as nauseating as the motion sickness induced by the road they traveled because Jacob considered, Brian Davis to be one of the worst people he’d ever met. From Jacob’s first repugnant encounter, Brian’s dislike for Jacob could be sensed as it oozed from his nicotine-stained pores. A mutual dislike was the only thing Jacob shared with the man. In just the two short years he’d known the man, Jacob had witnessed Brian avoid any kind of work or responsibility. The rarely bathed, pot smoking, leech on his family was happy to let Jacob’s mom work through the end of her last pregnancy while he slept until the late afternoon.

Oh, but Brian had the most divine excuse for his slothfulness. According to his mom Shelly, Brian had a huge heart for the Lord and spent his waking hours, “Witnessing” to those who were trapped in the ways of sin. Jacob couldn’t help but as his grandma would say, “Call bullshit” to Brian doing anything of the sort. After all, a pig who is neck deep in its own shit has no right to tell the other pigs who’re only knee deep they need to get clean. It just didn’t seem likely that a man who did nothing but smoke pot, drink beer, and make children he couldn’t afford could convince anyone of anything let alone turn them from the same sin he himself wallowed in.