Editor’s Note: Two murders and one disappearance was enough to activate the violent immune system that sleeps within any community with a proper fear of the Lord. The frightened people did all they knew to do. Below is the history of the Hayes’ murders as best I know how to construct it, in the style of the official Vine Histories. Italics mine, all other subjects interviewed by me.
Chapter 1: The Militia of Vine Forms
As the questions over the violent murder of Jacob and Lucas Hayes continued to go unanswered the people of Vine grew restless and wary. Many businesses in the town square put up flyers with slogans like NOT FORGOTTEN and COULD THIS BE YOUR CHILD and SATAN HAS NO HOME HERE. Police held weekly town halls and sermons from the month of September were titled “Comfort and Calm,” “Finding Strength In Gethsemane,” “Redemption After Eden,” and “Milk and Honey.” It is not editorializing to say that the powerful—Elders, the Preachers, police, captains of industry—all wanted to calm things down.
At Bill Jennings’ Let There Be Light store (subtitled: “lamps, lanterns, and home security”), something else was brewing. Weekly meetings of what eventually became the Vine Militia began in Bill’s lamp storeroom after hours.
John Hofsteder
All started one day I was picking up a lamp I’d had Bill up there fixing for me (one of the wires needed resoldering and in my older years I just can’t solder like I used to fingers not steady any more) and anyway got to talking about what a mess this whole business with all the Satanic influence in Vine these days was got to thinking maybe we ought to do something about that ensure justice was served in this world and wondering what we could use our time and talents—at the Church’s Men’s Retreat earlier in the summer we talked about time and talents—how we could use our time and talents to you know serve God clean up Vine a bit ensure justice exists in this sinful world.
Fred Mills
Sure, I was coming out of the liquor store around the corner. Walking back to my car and saw Bill and John in there talking up a storm. But what I couldn’t figure is the CLOSED sign was up. Like, what could Bill and John be talking about, lights on, with the CLOSED sign on the door? So I knocked, held up my case of beer and pointed at it, they said come on in. And, well. They were talking about all that Satanic stuff going on. About what to do about it. I said well. Let me get to the Lord’s work, how can I help?
Bill Jennings
I had not set out to start some kinda group; I did not intend to act like I could kinda do the police’s job for them. We were just kinda talking. Fred brought beer. And then we met up again the next week.
George Dietrich
We wanted to make sure we were doing our part to keep Vine safe. You know, keep Satan out of Vine.
Alice Rollins
At one point—and I was kinda just joking—I said y’all should get patches for your jackets. But John and Fred and them, they were like great idea! Great idea! So I got them little patches and sewed them on their jackets.
Chapter 2: Jared Hayes Becomes Disillusioned With Church
Curfew was still lightly in effect and the militia was forming, but the matter of the murder case remained. New evidence was nonexistent and time was only ferrying the murderer farther away from the act with no repercussions. The Hayes coped in each their way.
Patti Hayes
After police had done what they needed, I wanted to make sure Jacob and Lucas got a proper funeral. Preacher was wonderful, just wonderful. His gentle touch laying the boys’ to rest in the forest—properly—a hand on each of their cheeks, heads haloed by soft moss. I continued to find great comfort in the Church of Vine after Jacob and Lucas’s murder. I did, at least.
Detective
Jared’d call me about once a week. Sometimes more. Always drunk. Once I walked in fields of honeysuckle following the grace of a hawk in a clear sky he’d say, I could hear ice clinking when he set his glass down. Cast I was from this idyllic perch into a lake of aluminum and water mocassin skins. And buddy, it’s lonesome down here. I’d set there in my truck after hours, crack a few beers with him, then drop him off at Gentleman Jim’s before I went home to the wife. Figured the guy could use a friend.
Jared Hayes
A Holy Place. Them up there—sitting comfortable, taken care of. They’re God’s people, the Elders and Preachers and captains of industry. No consecrated crap for me, some loser who fixes cars and loves his family. Look at me right now. I’ll tell you. Look at me. I’ll tell you what God’s promise is. I’ll tell you what settling God’s consecrated land in the New World is. You want the truth of Vine? The truth of all this crap? Buddy. Look at what they did to my sons. And look at what they’re doing now. Not finding my sons’ killer? Not justice? When you look outside at this Militia forming with their big trucks and their little jacket patches, do you see action being taken? Bug up their ass about the Devil they heard of but not the devil amongst themselves. That’s why I’m here, and I don’t care what time it is. That’s why I’m here, that’s why I want another whiskey, and you’re not going to tell me nothing else.
Chapter 3: Rumors Emerge
Some say they heard Jared Hayes, muttering and elbows deep in whiskey, sitting on the most degraded chair from the most forgotten of Gentleman Jim’s corners, admit to killing his sons. Others say they heard it from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone. If pollinated seeds float in the wind over eager fertile soil, there will be growth.
Bartender
We have had a lot of drunks in Gentleman Jim’s over the years. Look, I’ve seen everything. Biggest part of the job is being a sympathetic ear. You listen to the townspeople of Vine? You listen long enough? You’ll hear the rot running underneath Vine like rusty pipes. Something in the soil, in the air from time immemorial. But hey, what do I know? Secondhand info from drunks. Jared Hayes, though—you steel yourself for these people. But that was one of the saddest men I ever knew.
Alice Rollins
You can never really know someone, you know? I had a girlfriend, she’d been dating this guy two years, mild-mannered guy, churchgoing Sundays, lost his job. Started drinking, breakfast beers, whole nine yards. She was so afraid of him. Wouldn’t get in a car with him. He showed up at her work—she was a schoolteacher—he’d just be looking at her across the street while her kids played on the playground. He was so sullen, she said they’d be eating dinner and the air would have one of them thick silences, you know? Like maybe you cut your chicken wrong and the world ends. Eventually he died, hunting accident, I think. You just never really know people. I like to say: a stable job and a loving family, that goes a long way to keep men on the straight and narrow. Because you just never really know.
George Dietrich
Me and Jared Hayes went back a bit, played baseball in school together. Drifted apart the way folks do, nothing personal. He was a quiet type, I remember he liked to read a lot. Always reading books. You don’t see a lot of that around here. Anyway, do I think he killed his kids? One thing about the Devil, you just never know with some people.
Fred Mills
Oh Jared Hayes killed them boys. I know it in my heart. I can just tell with some people.
Bill Jennings
We were in a place, with the Militia, we were starting out, we were feeling good. People seemed to be interested in what we had to say. People seemed like they really wanted to clean up Vine, make it a more Godly place. A more Christ-follower Vine, good Christians who will put on the armor of the Lord and fight the Devil. Let me tell you something: people do not like Satan in this town. People do not cannot will not abide the Devil. If that’s something anyone has a problem with, well, buddy? What are you doing on consecrated land in the first place! You know? Ha! People really liked what we were saying, it was an exciting time. With the Militia. To think, started on a lark in my store—well, Let There Be Light. There you have it. The Lord works in mysterious ways. You can’t always tell what God is doing. That’s why the Lord made light. And we’re bringing it to people. Light.
John Hofsteder
I would not say that the people of Vine were shunning Jared Hayes so to speak but then again I also would not say the women of Vine were exactly knocking on the Hayes’s door with casseroles because sure it is not always for Man to know and for Man to have understanding—in His infinite Wisdom God shields some insights from Man for His and our own good—and the way I see it with Jared Hayes vis a vie whether or not did he kill in cold blood his own two boys perhaps with a Satanic ritual sacrifice thrown in as a cherry on top I will not say one way or the other but I do believe you can just never tell with some people.
Jared Hayes
God ain’t never had a plan for me. Except to suffer. Fine, I’ll suffer. Alone.
Chapter 4: The Battle of Gentleman Jim’s
Even when Militia numbers started to plateau, they enjoyed the vocal support of all of Vine. Exact numbers are hard to calculate, and to be an “active” member was a fluid commitment: could you be available for a Neighborhood Watch patrol shift? Are you coming to the meeting Saturday? Oh thank you for baking a pie for today’s meeting, Mrs. Swanson, very much appreciated. Police communicated and shared information with Militia leaders freely, and all were doing their part to eradicate the influence of Satan from Vine.
Jared Hayes was furniture at Gentleman Jim’s. Patti Hayes kept going to church. Neither of them talked to folks much. At the barest minimum, the Hayes continued sleeping under the same roof.
Fred Mills
After a while, it just didn’t set right with me. You know, we’d go to Jim’s. Share a pitcher, maybe shoot some billiards. It didn’t set right with me that he got to sit in that corner and drink his suffering away while the rest of us knew he was a walking representative of Satan on this earth.
Walter Polk
We knew we were doing what’s right. When you begin from the premise: protect children? When your starting point is: preserve childhood? When your starting point is: protecting the most unprotected? Well right off the bat you’re starting from a place of righteousness.
John Hofsteder
One night man I looked over there and Jared’s all—man he’s got his chin on the bar watching the whiskey come out of its little pourer that they have at bars man this thin little line of amber crashing over a couple ice cubes—in that moment I became very aware of a smell of sulfur kind that make your face scrunch up and your head give a little twitch man and later the Bartender would tell me they’d had some sorta issue with the graywater drainage pipe but man I swear—sulfur right?—man that’s Satan’s scent! Fires. Of. Gehenna. So I’m smelling this funky just godawful sulfur smell and I’m looking over at Jared Hayes’s chin on the bar and that amber whiskey falling like the creek on the mountain and man I just decide right then and there man I’m not putting up with it.
Bill Jennings
You know after all that time we still held Militia meetings at my store? It was kinda like known, you know, kinda like implied, you know—“Hey, see you at Let There Be Light on Saturday!”—you know? For years! That was nice. I was proud of that.
Walter Smith
Hofsteder and I had been drinking at different tables but I saw him stood up and thought well now hang on. Let me go see what’s happening with my friend John.
George Dietrich
Hofsteder stood up and I says to him I says “Johnny, I just got a fresh pitcher.” But his glass was half-full still. So I guess we were going to talk to Jared then.
Bartender
I knew the second they ordered that fresh pitcher. Not the first fight we’ve had here at Gentleman Jim’s. We’re prepared for this stuff.
Detective
Call came through that the fight had broken out and, well, hell. I was almost there anyways, except I was clocked out. I wanted to help Jared, though. Not, like, fight for him. But I guess at that point I considered him a friend. Everyone told all their versions of what was said and who hit who and that’s all fine. Go ask them about it. All I know is no one was hurt but Jared, who had a couple of shiners and a bloody lip but not much more than that. How the fight got broken up I don’t know but honestly I expected worse. By the time I got there, old boys were back in their seats.
Bartender
We were prepared.
Walter Polk
Well, I pushed him. I’ll cop to that. But then I didn’t really feel like fighting anymore.
George Dietrich
I said my peace to him. Sure, popped him in the mouth. Just the one punch, though. After that, I didn’t really feel like fighting anymore.
John Hofsteder
Well man how do you say I guess I was worked up clocked him a couple times clocked him good too and then there was this great dissolving—that’s the only way I can think to explain it like putting extra sugar in tea I felt uh compelled to return to my seat and had a fine evening for the rest wasn’t so much concerned with whatever it was Jared Hayes was getting up to.
Detective
I escorted Jared out of the bar, but didn’t take him home. We drove out to the lake with a 12-pack and chucked our empties across the water to see if they’d shatter on one of the little reedy islands out there. No luck. Look: I wasn’t happy, either. I felt for Jared Hayes.
Patti Hayes
I seen what happened to him when I got to make my coffee the next morning. This poor, poor man. I still love him, somewhere.
Bartender
I can’t say more than we were prepared.
Chapter 5: Begin to look into the abyss
Preacher
Nowadays, can we even trust our neighbors? In the old days, you didn’t have to lock your car. You didn’t have to lock your house. In the old days, folks were folks and we were fine. Nowadays, all this hatred and fear and paranoia. Nowadays, we let kids wear earrings and listen to outsider music. Why, back in the old days, we didn’t need much more than a can to kick down the road. In the old days, Vine was quiet, holy. Nowadays, do we even believe we are chosen by God? If not that, then what are we?
Detective
Whiskey. Imagine you are running through the woods on a night after a rain. Wood damp and rotting. Whiskey. Dirt full of worms, worms always springing up after rain, it smells like the air should be colder. Whiskey. No I say from my barstool under a thumbnail moon the angels will not descend to our aid. Smell of iron. Whiskey. How many paces from the trail? Imagine the dragging, bleeding. In this hour of night blood becomes holy. What can we see through the honeysuckle leaves? Whiskey. In this hour of night. Whiskey.
The People of Vine
We believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. And in Jesus Christ, God’s only son, our Savior. We believe God chose the Hebrews and led them out of Egypt to the Promised Land and in the same fashion called us, the residents of Vine and our ancestors, to live in the Holy consecrated land of Vine. We believe this land a gift from God and our charge to subdue and have dominion over it in the name of the Lord. We believe we are commanded to live humbly and serve God.