The Nightmare Begins to Take Shape

That I was not being shown the Trinity parsonage just didn’t make sense. As Nate, Don and I “sealed the deal” at the Blueberry Hill, I became uncharacteristically assertive and pushed the issue. Don said that he would notify John Cox that Nate and I would be by the next morning to walk through. As Nate and I pulled up to the northeast corner of Del Rey and Lindell, John was sitting on a ratty sofa that was on the front porch. Nate muttered something to the effect that this is where Cox was known to spend all of his time (apparently explaining why he was never in his office) and for me to go ahead and look through the house while he discussed the impending changes with John. Several of the Cox family members were there, and all of them were openly hostile about having me look through their quarters. A couple of the adult sons who were residing there closed themselves in their bedrooms, and Mrs. Cox basically showed me the living room and the kitchen. An engine was broken down in the living room where the carpet was soaked with motor oil, and everything that I was able to see was in a state of utter disrepair. The discussion between Nate and John was growing heated, and it seemed best to just leave the premises. Again, it seemed curious to me that Nate had not gone inside the house with me, and my opportunity to express my concerns about the state of the parsonage was quashed as Nate informed me that he had a “VIP” to pick up on our way to the airport for my departure. As the two of them chatted in the front seat, I sat in the back seat and mulled over all that had transpired in the last 48 hours. Paramount for me was to ensure that Mary, Rachel and Rebecca would never have to see the parsonage in the condition I had seen it. My first item of business upon my return to Oakland was to fire off a letter to Preston Howard, an attorney and chairperson of the S-PRC, informing him that I required his assurance that the parsonage would meet conference standards by the time we arrived in July.