Chapter 2: The Second Team Member

Jasper sets out to recruit his three best friends to his cause, starting with the closest yet most elusive of the bunch.

I woke up the next morning, just slightly past the crack of dawn. To prepare for my departure, I crammed so much clothing and toiletries into the biggest suitcase I owned that I could barely zip it shut. However, just as I was approaching the stairs, I decided to halt and reenter my bedroom. I picked up a ten-year-old photograph of my mom off my chifforobe, gently wiping away the dust that had collected on it. I stared deeply into her mahogany eyes with a sigh.

Don't worry, Mom. He won't be in office any longer. Not if I have anything to say about it, I thought, before slipping the picture out of its frame and tucking it into the pocket of my trench-coat.

Dad watched me through the wide-open front door as I hauled my luggage into the trunk of my tan, solar-powered station wagon. I ran up to hug him tightly for what could've possibly been the last time.

"Alright, son," he said after we withdrew. "Make sure to stay safe out there."

"I'll try!" I called back as I entered the car.

We waved at each other one last time before I drove off, rounding the corner at the end of our street and exiting his line of sight.

I already had a plan in mind for how exactly I would recruit my friends to join the rebellion, and Tequila was going to be the first one I'd talk to. I would've chosen to recruit Second first, seeing how I had a tighter bond with him compared to the others, but I didn't have a clue where he lived. Last I checked, I knew Tequila lived in Phoenix, Arizona, not far from the college we both went to. Her parents were close acquaintances of mine, so if I couldn't find her right away, they'd most likely know where she was.

The drive from Augusta to Phoenix took about forty-two hours. And seeing how my car didn't run on gas, that time increment was considerably more accurate than it would've been in the 2010s. Even so, I still needed to stop in order to eat and sleep once in a while, though my own sheer will and a lot of caffeine pills prevented me from stopping too often.

I passed through the Midwest region around the trip's halfway point. It was late at night as I pulled over at Al's Italian Beef, in a less crowded part of Chicago. The smell of the Illinois staple immediately permeated my nose as I stepped in, and I could feel saliva quickly pooling in my mouth, threatening to spill out. I was so hungry that I could've easily let my own starvation cloud my judgement, ordering two au jus-soaked foot-longs with extra peppers and an extra-large cheese fries, but instead I restrained myself. Even if I didn't restrain myself, it's not like my actions would bite me in the a*s later. Nowadays, processed byproducts were illegal, so fast food was no longer the poison that it used to be back in the 2010s.

When I stepped up to the counter, I lost my train of thought as I noticed the young African-American man who stood behind the cash register.

"Wait a minute... Second?" I asked, my tone hesitant as I cocked an eyebrow.

The man adopted the same stupefied facial expression as I did.

"Jasper?" he asked in shock.

"Yup, that's me," I replied.

The both of us started to laugh excitedly, before giving each other a bro-hug as best we could from opposite sides of the counter.

"Good to see you again! How've you been?" Second asked with a grin.

"I think the question is where have you been," I replied. "Seriously, right after college, you practically vanished! None of us have seen or heard from you in ten years!"

"Yeah, about that..." Second began, before cutting himself off and briefly checking behind him. "Y'know what? It's getting late. I'll get us something to eat, and we'll talk in a bit. I'll even put it on the house."

"Sounds good to me." I shrugged. At this point in history, money had lost a fraction of its value, so being given something on the house wasn't quite as big of a deal as it used to be.

A good ten minutes later, Second closed down the restaurant for the night and brought out our food. We lounged in the front seats of my car, each of us gorging on a footlong Italian beef sandwich and a 32oz. Dr. Pepper, all the while sharing an extra-large fries.

"So, Second," I started, swallowing my bite of food before I continued to speak. "You said you were gonna explain why you went off the grid after graduation?"

"Oh, right," Second replied. "Well, all I needed was some time to think about my life moving forward. What exactly I would do now that the law wasn't on my side."

"Really?" I asked, my tone a combination of confusion and understanding.

"Yeah. Because I can say this for sure: this is not the life I wanted to live," Second replied. "I wanted to be a doctor, or better yet a surgeon. Hell, I even have a Ph.D! But because of those stupid laws, I'm stuck living like this! My job is boring, my income is average, and right now I feel like I'm living in the 1960s!"

"I feel you, dude," I replied.

"No, you don't!" Second snapped. "When you entered the restaurant, did you ever stop to notice how every single staff member in there was of minority descent? And how most of them were black?"

I briefly thought back to the few minutes I spent inside the establishment, remembering exactly what he was talking about.

"Yeah," I replied.

"And since all black people and most minorities have black hair and brown eyes, we're pretty much all stuck in the same place," Second explained. "Our dumbass president essentially brought back the Jim Crow policies, even if he didn't mean to!"

My only response was a look of shock.

"You're damn right that's a bad thing. Honestly, Jasper, I can't keep living like this!" Second finished with a sigh of frustration.

"Yeah, well my life hasn't been that much better. I'm stuck working a printing press from nine to five for an average salary, and because of the constantly fluctuating taxes, I can't afford my own place and am thus stuck living with my dad," I explained after a few seconds. "I can only assume you know what happened to my mom."

"How could I not? It was all over the news. Truly sorry for your loss, by the way," Second sighed. "Heh, I wish I had parents to live with. Mom's become more and more unbearable over the years with her constant drinking and swearing, and Dad's... well, he's uh..."

"Wait a minute. You don't mean... ?" I nearly choked on the last bite of my sandwich. "He's... ?!"

"What, you didn't know that? He's been dead for the past seventeen years," Second replied.

"Since freshman year of high school?" I asked in disbelief. "Dude, how come you never told me? Cause around that time, you just came back to school like nothing happened. I could tell something was up, but you kept lying about it. All you said was that you were out of town. You didn't mention anything about death."

"That's because I didn't think anyone would believe me," Second replied defensively. "You want the truth? Fine. My dad used to practice voodoo a lot, and he even owned an emporium on Bourbon Street. I'm assuming you know where that is?"

I nodded.

"Apparently he was acting all superstitious and stuff because he was scarred by the loss of his dad. But eventually one night, his entire establishment went down in flames with him inside it. And for about a week before that, he was in a panic because of his deal with the underworld being in jeopardy or some s**t like that," Second explained. "You can probably see why I didn't think you'd believe me."

"Well what if I told you that I did believe you?" I asked.

"Wait, you... you do?" Second asked in disbelief.

"Sure. So what if I don't believe in voodoo? There are plenty of people who do! And who am I to judge them?" I replied.

"Thanks, man. It really means a lot." Second placed a hand on my shoulder. "You have no idea how good it feels to get that off my chest after seventeen years."

"Well I'm glad I could help with that," I replied. "Now what say you help me out with something? I'm planning on starting a rebellion against this unjust political system, and I figured a good start would be to recruit my closest friends. I was going to find Tequila first, but I just happened to stumble across you along the way."

"You don't even need to ask twice," Second replied. "It'd be nice to catch up with the gang after a full decade, and maybe share my new phone number. And it wouldn't hurt to make my voice heard for once in my life."

"Well then, you're hired!" I chuckled as we shook hands.

"Great! I'll call my manager to see if I can get some time off. He's usually up until about one in the morning, doing who knows what. It shouldn't take too long," Second replied.

"And if he says no?" I asked.

"Then I'll just quit my job. Sometimes you gotta make sacrifices to get what you want, and what I want is the repeal of all these unfair policies," Second said, his tone marred with determination.

"Sounds like a plan," I replied. "So how about you go and do that, and we'll head out tomorrow?"

Second just gave me a thumbs up and stepped out of the car to call his boss. Finally, I'd made some progress on my mission. And much more quickly than I thought too.