Taylor. My Name's James Taylor

V

        I woke up the next day with my face in an ocean of slob. I had apparently come home and collapsed on my bed fully clothed. The Sun was shining brightly in through my curtains which I've started to always keep closed. I rolled out off my bed and went to open the curtains today, thinking about Leaderdude and Rockjaw from the previous night. And I smiled at the memory of finally giving Johann what he deserved. I froze in front of my window. How come I remember that? How come I didn't wake up dizzy and with a major headache? And why didn't I punch that stupid football player sooner?! Just thinking about it gave me a new sense of freedom and power. And whether it came from the freedom, power, or alcohol, I knew that I needed to take a shower as soon as possible.

After I got out of the shower, I decided to do something that I had rarely done before. Work out. A smart person would have taken their shower after they had gotten all sweaty from exercising. Well, I'm just not that person. I put on a pair of tennis shoes and basketball shorts and went downstairs to the workout room. I don't actually know where the rest of my family is and I don't really care. I decide to start with the bench pressing, then move to the treadmill, and finish up with ab work. I set the weight to two hundred pounds and started my reps. I did this everyday for a month. When school started back, I would leave the back door unlocked, leave like I was going to school, wait for everyone else to leave, then come back in and work out. By the time a month had passed, I was easily doing three times the weight and reps I had started with. I still haven't had any association with anyone else. A time or two my parents would order me to get out of my room but I would just ignore them and work out in my room some more. I probably would have continued with my routine if it hadn't been for a note I happened to find while going through my clothes. It was the note I had wrote to myself about my encounter with Leaderdude and Rockjaw. I decided that I would take them up on their offer.

            Twenty five pounds. That's how much weight I had gained in the past month and it was all muscle mass. It was another Friday night and I put on my all black attire again, except this time I brought my leather jacket and newly bought pocketknife. I made it to the alleyway quicker the second time and stood right on the line, halfway between the light and halfway between the darkness.

"We thought you weren't ever gonna show up, Taylor." Leaderdude's voice said out of the shadows.

"I'm here now. There were some things that I needed to take care of first." I responded still not stepping completely in the shadows.

"Well, if you've finished all of your unfinished business, we'll be happy to accept you as part of our family. That is if you pass a test first."

"I'm up to the challenge."

"Just know now though; if you take another step, you've made your decision and there's no turning back or wimping out."

This was the decision that I knew I'd have to make, sooner or later. Step back into the light of the streets, or take a step forward into the darkness of the alley? I don't think that it had actually ever been a choice. My mind was made as soon as I walked out of my front door. I stepped forward with a small smile growing on my face.

I was following Rockjaw and Leaderdude through a cemetery for my acceptance test. The rest of the gang stayed behind and the only instruction I got was to follow them and to not speak for the remainder of the test. I had no idea what the actually test was, but I wasn't about to ask. We had gone deep into the cemetery that was twice as large as the average cemetery. Leaderdude and Rockjaw stopped in front of a grave without any engravings but the letters LC on it. I had no idea what it meant but it obviously meant something important. I didn't know what I was supposed to do until Rockjaw handed me a shovel that I had no idea he was caring and pointed to the grave. Did he actually expect me to dig up a dead person? I believe they did because they again pointed to the grave and turned around and left me there holding a shovel and standing next to an old grave. I made the choice to join the gang and said I was up for the challenge and if that meant to dig up a grave, then I guess that I should start digging.

 I don't know how long I dug but it felt like forever. I wasn't tired or anything just bored and confused. I didn't know what I might find down in this grave but it apparently meant something. I kept digging and digging until I was standing in an eight foot deep hole. I started to get the impression that this was just an empty grave and they just wanted me to dig in it for their amusement and was about to give up as the shovel finally hit something that wasn't dirt. I got down on my knees and started to dig it up with my hands. Scraping back dirt from the object beneath me and excited to find out what all this hard work had accomplished. I pulled up a small, brown, wooden box. It really didn't look like much and it was smaller than one of my shoes. I undid the latch on the box and saw a single folded sheet of paper. I pulled it out and read it.

Libero Cohors

If you have found this paper you must be truly dedicated to the fairness of life. The Libero Cohors is a secret society of dedicated people working in unison to bring the unfairness and unjustness to an end. If you are reading this paper right now, consider yourself a part of this century old society. Remember that this is a secret society that must never be spoken of outside of the LC family. As every newcomer must do, write your name on the back of this paper with a dash next to it and bury back in the ground deeper than you found it, then climb out of the grave and fill it back in.

Welcome to the family.

After reading the paper I felt as if I had a sense of belonging in the world. I was officially a part of a century long society. I carefully folded the paper back up and did exactly what the instructions asked. It seemed to take less time refilling the grave than it did to dig into it and I know that the next person would just have to dig deeper than I did. I was covered in sweat and dirt by the time the grave was neatly refilled. I don't know why I did but I looked up at the tombstone again. It no longer said LC. It had four words and a number on it. James Taylor-Postero Princeps, 15. And I felt like, deep down, that I had actually just filled in my own grave and that James Taylor, is no more.