The Strange Life of Jonas Marks - 1. Chapter 1

My name is Jonas Marks and until about three weeks ago my life was pretty normal. I had just graduated high school and was about to move on with the great adventure called my life. However, I wasn’t aware of how much of my life was going to alter within days of graduation. I guess you can say fate handed me a wakeup call, whether I was ready for it or not.

I spent the Sunday after graduation with some school friends. We hadn’t done much and most left early, wanting to head to the beach. Jenny has been my best friend since second grade and she just wanted to go hang out at the mall. She had already found a summer job at a clothing store there, so she was all smiles talking about how nice it was not having to worry about finding a job. Basically she was grinning from ear to ear and barely able to stand still. She wasn’t thrilled working for a bra shop, but she knew she would need the money for her college come fall.

“So did you find anything yet, Jo?”

“Not yet. I’m looking but we’ve only been out of school three days. Dad hasn’t even had a chance to get on my case about it.”

“Sucks that Bobby’s closed.”

Bobby’s was the local hobby shop. I had been working steadily there five days a week since I was sixteen, but with economy in town the way it was, no one was spending money on baseball cards or models any more. My job dried up when Bobby had to close his shop after twenty years. I’d been saving every paycheck so while I wasn’t thrilled to be without a job I’d already saved some money for college.

“Yeah but he did write me a great letter for another job.”

After wandering around aimlessly I finally dropped Jenny off and headed home to face my old man. Dad could be a pain at times since Mom died. I can’t say we were ever truly close but it would be that afternoon that I finally got to see his true colors. I mean, I can’t say my father just changed that afternoon, it was like I’d lived with blinders on till then. Little did I know how much the television news would end up altering my whole life.

I’d walked in the door and found Dad sitting in front of the five o’clock news. With Dad it wasn’t a habit, it was an experience. He had to find out just what condition the world was really in by what was going on. For him, every report of murder, accident, and theft was proof how the world was going to hell. It would also be the avenue that led to my biggest mistake.

Seeing how Dad was occupied I wandered into the kitchen and started making dinner. It was one of the great things I learned from Mom. She always felt I should know how to do anything and that included cooking. If I hadn’t learned, Dad and I would have starved long ago.

I had just taken the meatloaf out of the oven and was making a salad when Dad wandered into the kitchen.

“Jonas, did you hear what happened in that court case about the gay beating. Such a shame.”

Hearing my father say that ultimately gave me hope. After all those years of being afraid I thought my father had changed his spots. It had been all over the news for the last month and I found it to be really horrific. This little college kid, eighteen, all of five feet two inches, and maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet was beaten up so badly because this dumb jock found out his roommate was gay. The jock stood at six feet two inches and was a solid slab of muscle and stupidity. I kept hoping they were going to throw the book at him. They said the victim lost nearly all sight in his left eye as well as the hearing on that side. It was only the mistake of hearing my father say that it was shame, which gave me the courage to finally come out to him. I should have known better.

I took a deep breath and tossed the tomatoes onto the top of the salad before I walked over to put it on the table. I leaned against the chair and looked my father right in the eye, gathering my courage to go on.

“No. But I have to tell you Dad, I’m so glad to hear you find it’s a shame too.”

“Why?” He asked. There was an odd look on his face. He glanced at the table and then sat down. One thing about my father: nothing ever gets in the way of his appetite.

“Well,” I nearly stopped but took a deep breath. Sometimes you wish you could back up time and fix it. If I could, I never would have finished that sentence as I did. “I’m gay too, Dad. And seeing how you reacted to the news I’m glad I can finally tell you.” I felt so relieved. Sometimes I could be so stupid.

My father sat there very quietly for a few minutes. I kept waiting for him to either jump up and hug me or just yell. But that didn’t happen. I watched as he swallowed the food he had placed in his mouth and then wipe his face with a napkin. Eventually, he got up and faced me. I thought he was taking time to understand and process what that had meant for me to tell him that I was gay. Instead, he walked up to me, looked me straight in the face, and proceeded to punch me so hard in the stomach that I fell immediately onto the kitchen floor.

“I was sorry to see a fine upstanding boy being sent to prison for the next twenty years for hitting a faggot. Guess I failed and raised one myself. You’re now eighteen years old, boy. I expect you packed and out of this house in an hour. I won’t let a piece of trash live in my house with me.”

He stood over me and his face turned red, his eyes bulged, and a vein on his neck looked like it would explode. The look in eyes was of disgust, like some piece of shit had been spread across the floor. I watched his hands curl into fists while I lay there on the floor but then he stretched them and gripped the sides of his pants. For a moment I thought maybe he would get over it and once I could stand we might be able to talk. I was proven wrong a moment later when he looked down at me and spat.

“Goddam faggot!”

I lay there breathing heavy and trying hard not to cry. From my place on the floor I could see the cracks in the tiles across the kitchen floor. I wasn’t so hurt that I couldn’t move. It was more the shock that he could get physical with me. Once I could stand up I shuffled down the hall to my bedroom. I looked around and realized I had a hell of a lot of stuff in my room. Granted I had been planning to pack a good part of it up when I moved to a dorm this fall, but to pack the room up in less than hour? There wasn’t a snow ball’s chance in hell of that happening. My father had to be kidding, right? I sat down on my bed and cried. I probably would have gone out to talk to him if he hadn’t screamed down the hall a few minutes later.

“Faggot, you have 34 minutes left to pack and get the fuck out of here. Anything you leave behind I’m giving the fuck away. I don’t want a trace left of you left in my home. As of this moment, so help me God, I have no son. If you aren’t packed up and out of here in that time, I’ll have the cops toss your ass out. Move you little bitch! You don’t have time to waste.”

Each word was like a sledge hammer to my heart – and they hurt more than the punch he had given me just minutes earlier, but it did finally bring me out of my stupor and got my ass moving. I opened drawers and tossed clothes into the duffle bag my mom bought me years ago when I went to wrestling camp. When I nearly emptied the dresser I quickly slid down the hall and grabbed a garbage bag for the few shirts and things in my closet. I barely looked as I tossed dress shirts, jackets, and hoodies into the bag. I stopped and took a moment to look around my room. The walls were painted a deep sea blue and there was the height chart my mother made showing how I grew up till she passed away. I wanted to sit down and cry again but knew there wasn’t time. In fact I didn’t have time to pack up my cds, DVDs, or much of anything else. I knew I was going to lose my x-box but better that then whatever Dad had in mind for me if I missed his dead line. I grabbed my phone, my iPod, and the only picture I had of my mother. It was a picture of the two of us on my fourteenth birthday, a year before breast cancer took her. My father might be disowning me but he couldn’t take her memories from me.

I figured I wasn’t going to take any chances. I opened up the bedroom window and tossed the garbage bag and duffle bag out onto the lawn. I considered climbing out after them but I’d left my car keys on the kitchen counter when I had come home. As quietly as possible I slipped down the hall and back into the kitchen. I noticed Dad had finished his meal and mine still sat on my plate. I sure as hell wasn’t going to take the time to eat. I hope he enjoyed it because the man could barely make coffee and I sure as hell wouldn’t be cooking for him ever again. I grabbed my keys and took a last look around, sort of saying my goodbyes to the life I had here.

I slipped out the back door like a thief in the night. I ran around to the side of the house where my stuff was and grabbed both bags. I had a whole three minutes left as I put my stuff in my car. Lucky for me it was really my car. I had bought the car with the a combination of what I saved from Bobby’s, a weekend job cutting grass or digging out snow, and working for Jenny’s mom when she needed an extra waiter for her catering business. With the money I made from them I paid for everything including insurance. So I had wheels, some of my stuff, and no where to call home. It was already dark by the time I pulled out my father’s driveway and headed to the school yard a few blocks away.

After I pulled in I didn’t know what the hell to do at first. I began to phone friends and felt really embarrassed to have to keep explaining to everyone that I was thrown out of the house and had nowhere to go. Unfortunately no one was offering me a place to crash. I was really desperate when I finally called Jenny and she answered her phone.

“Jenny,” my voice wavered, forcing me to swallow, “thank God you picked up.”

“Sure, what’s wrong Jo? You sound strange.”

“My father just threw me out.”

“What?” Her voice rose several octaves. “Oh shit! You told him?”

“Yeah. He was talking about the case on the news and how he was sorry to hear about it. I though he meant for the kid who was beaten up. I was wrong.” The last words came out almost a sob.

“You swore you wouldn’t tell him till you were done with school. Fuck. Where are you staying?”

“I … I don’t know,” even I could hear I was on the verge of crying. Yeah really manly, I know. Thank god for friends.

“Stop crying and get your ass over here. I’ll tell Mom what’s going on. You know she won’t let you go homeless. You might have to sleep on the couch in the family room though. The twins are going to love having you around.”

Jenny’s brothers were thirteen year old fraternal twins. I could deal with Kyle and John. They were pretty cool for squirts.

“Thanks. I’ll be right over.”

“Did you eat yet?”

“No.”

“Good. Stop and pick up a pizza. Mom made liver and you’re my excuse to get out of it. I’ll pay. Consider it the final celebration of me getting a job.”

A smile creased my face for the first time since I’d told my father the truth. Jen’s been my best friend forever, but never as good a friend as at that moment. As crazy as the last few hours had been, I had no way of knowing the next day would get even stranger. I wasn’t really worried about tomorrow, however, right then I needed to get a pizza.