King Me
By Lorna Megenity
Lee was running and remembering about how happy he had been when he was “called out” to join “The Club”. For the longest time he had thought the club to be only a rumor. He had heard that if one were called out, then he could not utter a word about it to anyone. Benny, the best and closest friend that he ever had was called out. He had talked about it, but only to Lee.
Lee was desperate to find out the details. So he followed his friend into the woods on the day of the initiation. Benny was let out of a limo at a cabin on stilts in a forest. Lee had parked far away from the large fenced and gated entrance to the cabin. It was 8:30am.
Lee peeked through the fence and got a good eye on what was happening. Benny was just standing there alone. Lee turned around and rested his back on the fence and wondered what Benny had gotten himself into. He didn’t feel good about it.
At 9:00am Lee heard a voice over a bullhorn blare, “You see before yuh five paths.”. Lee turned around and looked through the fence. Just beyond the cabin and spread equidistant from each other were five dirt paths, with many trees and thick brush between each path. Almost like walls. Then the bullhorn boomed, “Choose one and start runnin’. You have a hour head start to get away from us. If we find yuh, we’ll be a hurtin’ yuh.”. Lee saw Benny run down the middle path as fast as he could. Five men walked out of the front door of the cabin. The eldest was chuckling with the others about how the poor fellows always take the middle path. Lee was thinking that he would just have to wait an hour.
After an hour, the five men strode down the stairs from the cabin and to the middle path. They kept walking at a leisurely pace. Lee picked the far left path, and could hear them talking as he walked along side of them out of sight.
The end of each path was a dead end at the same place. All of the paths closed in on each other and let out at a big area that was blocked by a 20 foot hedge. There, Lee saw the five men dislocated both of Benny’s shoulders and laugh as they did it. Benny was a meat cutter, but now a days he was just disabled.
Since then and now, when Lee had been called out, he had been back to this cabin and the grounds memorizing everything about it. The cabin door was always unlocked and there were many antiques in the tiny place along with a bible under a glass box that had an eternally lit lamp shining on it. It was opened to the birth and death records of their family.
Lee got out of the limo and waited the half hour for the bullhorn. “Right on time.”, he thought. He picked the middle path as he had planned. He ran as fast has he could until he was out of sight. Then he went to the backpack he had stashed and put on his rip stop pants and jacket. He started pushing through the thick brush and hedges toward the left and far left paths. He made it to the left one and then pushed through to the far one. He turned and started walking toward the cabin. He took the little path to the right that lead to the water service for the cabin and stood behind the tree with the big crook in it which hid him and gave him a clear picture of the cabin.
After the hour was up, the five men set out down the middle path. Lee waited 20 minutes, until they were out of sight and hearing range. He walked up to the garage in back of the cabin that had a very black BMW parked in it. He took the gallons of charcoal starter that he had stashed there and poured them everywhere in and outside the cabin and deck. He also took the keys to the Beemer that were hanging inside the door. Then Lee lit the newspaper torch he had fashioned and got it burning hot. He threw it up and over onto the deck. The deck started burning fast and the fire moved inside the still open door in no time.
Lee, calmly opened the garage door, and started the BMW. He drove it out of the gate, into town and parked it in front of the general store. Then Lee got out of the car and walked the rest of the way home.
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