One Star

A likely story

I was far from new to this recovery thing, but my drug use had once again brought me to a new low this last time. Out of desperation I reached out to a friend and fellow member of my 12-step group who recommended a new sponsor for me with 25+ years off of alcohol and other substances. My long-time friend in recovery Maggie recommended this fellow Seth who I had never even heard or seen at a meeting. I’m 62 years old and still shy like a 10-year old boy, so I sent a text message to this stranger Seth rather than call him. He actually called back and even over the phone I could tell right away that Seth was one of those super gregarious, risk-taker Tony Robbins types, pretty much my exact opposite. But he helped me and for the first time in long time I felt like maybe there was still some hope of recovery for old Jerry. 

After a couple awkward but hopeful phone calls we planned a ski outing at our local mountain to get to know each other a bit better. Seth was at least ten years younger than me and skied aggressively fast, seeking out the challenging terrain. I wanted to stick to predictable intermediate groomers, being constantly worried that a fall might leave me injured and unable to carry my backpack through the Colorado mountains this summer. The thought of not being able to take my long, usually solo, backpacking trips was probably the only thing that kept me from giving up on life entirely at the end of my last ugly binge. Still Seth and I had a fun morning skiing together and he suggested we take advantage of our multi-mountain ski passes by planning a trip to Jackson Hole. Sure, some day, maybe, I thought. “Next week” insisted Seth. I thought what the fuck is this guy thinking, it’s February and I have accounting work that’s past due, like always. But I agreed, thinking that would be the end of it. 

Sure enough though, Seth was picking me up the next week in his Jeep and we were off to Wyoming. We had nice weather and a fun road trip up to Jackson. I found that Seth had a knack for being enthusiastically flirtatious with just about every female he met, in every gas station, convenience store or diner we stopped at, and he always seemed to pull it off. Meanwhile I’m mostly terrified of just about any woman of any age. 

The next day skiing at Jackson Hole was fun but the terrain was much more fitting to Seth’s style than mine. He of course had to ski down the infamous Corbet’s Couloir while I did the solo ride of shame back down the tram to the base. We shared our lunch table with a carousel of interesting folks, one of whom told us about the time he mentored a bookseller named Jeff from Seattle during the early days of the internet. Somewhere along the way we both realized we didn’t have to be back at work for a couple more days, and decided why not drive another six hours to Big Sky tomorrow? Seth’s happy-go-lucky vibe was wearing off on me, and I was really enjoying our little adventure away from the shire. And for once drugs were the furthest thing from my mind. 

That night Seth wanted to show me around the cool little ski town of Jackson. We ended up getting stuck in the snow at the local ski area in the evening. He drove uphill on a side road along the base area, and neither of us realized until it was too late that this was a seasonal road. Almost immediately the front end sunk in the soft snow. 

I offered to call my AAA service for help, and after four or five hours of waiting and many follow up calls with the dispatcher at Jonny’s Towing, Jonny finally showed up to tell that us that AAA won’t cover the tow and that he needed $700 to tow us less than 50 feet. I was ready to acquiesce to Jonny’s demand, but Seth immediately replied with an indignant, “fuck that!”. Then almost like an act of God we saw this stocky fellow waddle up to a snow groomer that was parked nearby and start it up. Ever the charmer, Seth asked jovial Randy if he could help and they tied Seth’s tow rope to the plow blade. With a quick and easy tug Randy got the Jeep to firmer ground and Seth happily offered him a couple $20’s for his effort. We triumphantly drove off talking all kinds of shit about that shady Jonny. We didn’t realize at the time that Jonny was hanging around just out of site. He was calling his sheriff buddies to come and demand the vehicle be towed by Jonny or impounded, just as we pulled off.

In all my calls to Jonny’s office, his assistant Monica came across as a really decent human trying to help, but she was reluctant to cross Jonny. I had the sense that she was unhappy in her circumstance and welcomed the chance to talk to someone, anyone. Maybe she was trying to get up the courage to reach out for help. I wondered how a nice lady like Monica would be working for such an asshole, but had no idea about the dark and tragic story surrounding their relationship. 

I drove back to the motel, as Seth insisted he had to immediately post a bad Google review about our experience. “Take that, JONNY!” declared Seth after posting his one star review of Jonny’s Towing. Neither of us noticed that an angry Jonny was following us with bad intentions.

We found a decent spot for dinner, but were way more impressed by our devilish redheaded server Bella than the Mexican food. She had that twenty-something, looking for adventure disposition and had certainly found it with Seth! They quickly discovered they shared a Denver connection, where Seth had grown up and spent most his adult life. Bella had just returned home to Jackson for the ski season after working the summer as a cocktail waitress in Denver’s notorious enclave of Glendale. Bella was pretty obviously interested. But let’s face it, just about every woman we encountered on this trip seemed smitten by Seth’s charmingly bold presentation. She not so subtly jotted her number on Seth’s credit card receipt. We had no idea at the time that Bella is Randy’s wild and rebellious little sister.

Jonny waited near our motel, fuming after one of his wrecker buddies had called to let him know about his one star Google rating. The next morning as we pulled out early to drive to Big Sky, another tow driver was waiting on the street and pulled in behind our Jeep. Then Seth and I went on to have a simply fabulous day skiing at Big Sky. I took my shift to drive back home as we reminisced about what an awesome day we’d had. 

At the bottom of the pass as we returned towards Jackson, a wrecker pulled in behind us. Our concern grew as we saw wrecker after wrecker begin to follow. Suddenly both lanes ahead of us were blocked by parked wreckers and I had no choice but to pull over. Seth tried calling 911 as a tattooed, chain-smoking Roseanne lookalike jumped out of her rig and walked towards us, cheerily answering her cell phone, “911 dispatch, what’s your emergency?”. In a panic, Seth sent Bella a text message for help. 

Bella banged furiously on Randy’s door and showed him Seth’s message, and they both knew what it meant. Randy didn’t yet realize we were the same clueless tourists he had rescued the night before. Bella sped to Jonny’s shop and pleaded with Monica to reveal where Jonny had us cornered. Bella confronted Monica that now is the time to claim her chance for a better life. Randy and Bella then raced off and pulled into the excavation company yard, where several loaders, backhoes, and even a dozer had been stored for the winter season. 

The wrecker gang maniacally enjoyed an impromptu round-up in the snow, trying to run us over as Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” blared from Jonny’s cab.  Jonny reached out his window to thrash us with chains from his wrecker. He screamed out over and over again, “One star? You mother fuckers tryin’ to one-star me in MY COUNTY? HA! One-star this, bitches!”

Seth and I were quickly encircled by the wreckers. Jonny jumped out of his rig as he and his buddies all started swinging tow chains. Then they chained us back-to-back and Jonny lifted us on his wrecker hook. “I’ll take it from here fellas”, said Jonny with some satisfaction. He then slowly and methodically began to beat us with his chain as we dangled from the boom. The other wreckers peeled off, hootin’ & hollerin’. Seth and I of course yelled and blamed each other for our predicament.  “You and your fucking one star Google review!”, I screamed at Seth. “Your fucking AAA got us in this mess” he shouted back. Then a front-end loader appeared, almost out of nowhere, and Randy jumped out to confront Jonny. They began to fight, and Randy was able to muscle the chain away from Jonny. Bella used the distraction to lower the wrecker boom and free us from the tow hook. Then Jonny pulled out a pistol, as more heavy equipment began to roll over the horizon. Jonny panicked and jumped in his wrecker as the ensemble of excavation vehicles surrounded him. 

Bella and Seth embraced, and Randy walked over to quietly explain to me all about the tow wrecker gang that controlled their county. Randy told of Jonny’s history of abuse towards women, bordering on human trafficking with drugs and prostitution in the mix, and Monica was his latest hostage project. The rear left fenders of all the Wrecking Crew’s rigs featured a dripping blood “W” as a background to a wrecker silhouette. That bloody letter inspired the gang’s moniker, the Dubs. The Dubs control this part of Wyoming like a biker gang, dividing up territory and resorting to any means to keep competitors out and price gouging high. They are known for their tactics of violence and intimidation, with the support of local law enforcement. Sheriffs pull over tourists, impounding vehicles to extort high towing fees and earn their percentage.  There is an unspoken suspicion that the tow business serves as a front to more profitable meth distribution. 

Meanwhile Monica ran into the local diner after having riled up the town folks overnight to finally stand up against the Dubs. The mob followed her in and they converged en masse on the Dubs gang, as they sat at their usual table with a few sheriffs in uniform, drinking coffee and Bud Light after another all-nighter of Dubs shenanigans.

As the sun began to rise, the equipment operators slowly fell into formation and began to crush Jonny inside his wrecker from all sides in an act of defiance against the Dubs gang. Seth and Bella looked on from a bluff above with amusement and dreamy eyes towards each other as Jonny’s wrecker was being masterfully sculpted into the shape of a big metal single star. Jonny screamed for mercy as his body slowly compressed tighter and tighter inside his wrecker, then a dangling limb hit the replay button on “Stranglehold”. That star remains there today, as a monument to the people of Jackson who rose up to fight the tyranny of the Dubs gang and bad customer service.

Seth was more than a bit annoyed when I pulled up behind Bella and him in the Jeep. “Come on man, I have to work tonight, we have to go NOW!” I demanded. We were back on each other’s nerves once again, battered, bruised, and sleepless after our adventure as we began the long drive home. We gave each other the silent treatment, and after I took a wrong turn we somehow ended up on a dirt road deep in Brown’s Park. Neither of us had a cell signal to navigate us out and we had both forgotten to get gas during our childish feud. The Jeep defroster didn’t work so we had to drive with the heat off and windows down to avoid fogging the windshield. The light snow got heavier and blew across the road as it quickly turned into an almost white-out blizzard. There were deer everywhere and I hit the gas in frustration as I tried to split the gap between two of them in the middle of the road. Seth grabbed the wheel, and as we wrestled for control of the Jeep we ended up off the road in a ditch as the engine died. Then from the darkness behind us a distant pair of headlights emerged, in the silhouette of a wrecker…