Identity Crisis

Chapter 3: Fallout

“Oh man!” I exclaim in disbelief. “What am I even doing?! This is going to get me into some real trouble this time!”

            “What are you talking about, honey?” my mom says as she enters my room.

            “Er... It’s nothing,” I say.

            “You better not have lied to me and skipped school.”

            “I really do feel sick, mom,” I say while faking a stomach-ache. “It must have been something I ate during lunch time.”

            “Okay, then,” she says. “Go to sleep, then. You need rest.”

            “Alright.”          

            “I’ll come by later when diner’s ready.”

            My mom turns off the light and leaves, closing the door behind her.

            Alright! Now, what the hell do I do?!

            I take Dex’s bag from under my bed and strap it on. I open the window and climb onto the small balcony.

            “Alright now,” I say to myself. “Let’s do this.”

            From my balcony I jump onto the one outside my parents’ room. From there, using the flagpole to aid me, I climb to the roof. Once on the roof, I go to one edge to take a running start.

            “This is where it gets tricky,” I say as I start running towards the other edge. “You can do this, Mike!”

            In a split-second I’m on the other edge of the roof and then I jump onto the next house. I land on the balls of my feet and do a quick parkour roll to minimize the damage; all the while making sure the stuff inside the bag is ok. I keep jumping from house to house until I get to the last one of the row. I jump down to the back garden and run towards the fence. Once I jump over the fence, I find myself on the train tracks.

            “It’s been a while since I’ve been here,” I say with nostalgia.

            I follow the train tracks all the way to a boulevard. I turn right and get to a small river that flows through our district. I get to the small bridge used by cyclists and, after making sure I wasn’t followed, I get under it.

            “Now, where could it be?” I say as I search along the brick wall of the bridge for a familiar symbol; the letters U and F combined together to form a crest.

            “Aha!” I say as I find the symbol. “The Urban Freedom emblem endures.”

            I pull out the loose brick under the symbol and put my hand in. I feel around for a bit until my hand touches a small handle. I pull on it until I hear a small “click”. I move backwards a little and a small, rectangular part of the wall falls forward.

            “Jake, you crazy genius!” I exclaim as I remember the time my friend told me about his secret hiding spot. “I never thought I’d use this thing.”

            I place the bag inside the small vault, push the fake wall back up and turn the handle again. I put the brick back in its place and stare at the Urban Freedom emblem for a few minutes. I reminisce about the time when the gang was still together.

            “Back then, things were different. We were just a group of guys having fun. Well, at least at the start anyway. All we did was train martial arts, learn parkour, street dancing and even try to rap. Hahaha! ”