Reclamation

Part One

 

By way of intro, this story of mine doesn't have chapters, so I'm just going to make artificial breaks in spots that I think make some sort of sense.  I'm open to any kind of input (be kind to me!), but I'm specifically keen to hear predictions for future events.  I'm curious as to whether my readers can guess what I'm doing.  So any comments on what you think is going to happen next is appreciated!

Jack and Rosalie Aman were the proud parents of twin boys.  They adored the children.  Their home was full of photos of the boys as they grew from newborn infants to teetering toddlers to rambunctious children.  Titus and Theo entered kindergarten at their family’s school, Aman Academy, and immediately became the stars of the school.  They were in the same classes from the start, beloved by their teachers and other staff, and got along well with the other children. 

Titus, the older brother, was a little wild—talkative and assertive, but charismatic enough to cover up his domineering and self-centered tendencies with both the adults and children.  His classmates looked up to him, and followed his guidance without question.

Theo was more reserved, happy to always be at his big brother’s side, but never quite able to imitate his twin’s magnetism.  He had plenty of friends, but every once in a while, the other children to tease him and remark how much better Titus was in comparison.  Theo bore the teasing as well as any young child can, but Titus never stood for it.  Anytime he heard of such things being tossed about a classroom, lunchroom, or playground, he corrected the perpetrators, with words and fists.  His actions would get him sent to the principal’s office, but since Jack was the principal, and he was as eager to see his youngest son defended as Titus was, no serious punishment was enacted.

So went the first five years of school for the boys, who were as close as twins are expected to be, despite their difference in standing in their microcosm of society known as elementary school.  They were happy, and their family was close.  All of that changed when they entered fifth grade.  To their dismay, they discovered the summer they turned ten that they had been assigned different teachers for their new school year.

Titus took the change better than Theo did.  Being as popular as he was, it didn’t take him long to feel comfortable where he was.  Theo had not only lost his best friend but his only protector against the more mean-spirited children.  The cases of bullying grew more frequent, and so did the instances of Titus fighting.  As a result, some children got their older siblings involved, and the young boy found his opponents were suddenly bigger than he was.  Yet he fought on in spite of this.

Throughout the year, Titus grew more hardened.  His fights extended beyond the back of the school to the home, where his mother and father tried their best to keep him from using his brute strength to speak for him.  He was adamant that he had no choice.  Even when Theo tried to get him to stop, Titus refused.  He was angry his twin seemed so ungrateful for his protection, and his anger scared Theo.

All while the fight against the bullies escalated, Theo had cowered.  He didn’t know what to do.  He was grateful that Titus was willing to put so much at risk for him, but he didn’t want to see his brother hurt, and he certainly didn’t like making his brother mad for asking him to stop.  By the end of the year, he was at his wits’ end.  However, Titus resolved the issue for him.  He left home.

Titus allowed the fighting to go to his head.  After a while, the goal of victory was not to provide a safe school experience for his brother, but to feel the rush of winning.  A simple and common mistake that changed his direction forever.  At the beginning of the summer after their fifth-grade year, Titus had caught on to his opponent’s strategy of enlisting the help of the bigger and stronger, and he finally adopted it.  He turned to a friend from class who he knew ran with some boys in middle school.  At first, everything seemed perfect—his side was winning, and his opponents were on the run.  He learned soon that his gambit had come with a price.

The boys who had fought for him started demanding his help in return for their services.  At first, it seemed only logical.  After all, when Titus wanted candy, he paid for it with money; when he wanted help, it only followed that he should pay for it.  But his new comrades didn’t want money, they wanted an extra set of hands.  In the beginning, it was just carrying some bags from one place to another.  Not hard at all.  There was only one rule to this job—never look in the bag.  Titus could do that, and he did.  He successfully transported quite a few bags for his friends, and they were pleased, which made him happy.  In contrast, his parents were not pleased, and the fights at home continued.  Theo was distant and scared of him, his mother cried all the time about how she had done something wrong in raising him, and his father would shout from the second Titus would return home until dinnertime.

So Titus started to avoid returning home.  He started staying out later and later to avoid more scoldings.  He began slipping in after dinner was over, then staying away until his brother was already in bed.  His parents still managed to catch him, though, and by the end of the summer he was staying out all night.  His parents were worried, but not surprised.  They were even less surprised when, just before the start of his sixth-grade year, Titus disappeared entirely.

The police searched, and the Amans worried, and Theo cried.  Sixth grade was a hard year for him.  The bullying of elementary school was a thing of the past, thanks to Titus’s crusade, but he was now so alone.  Not only did his not have his twin, but the other children were nearly afraid of him.  It took him the better part of the year to make a friend in his class, and it took through the end of the following summer to feel okay enough to enjoy the company of his peers.  He entered his seventh-grade year much happier than he had his sixth, and over time his reputation as a cheerful and intelligent boy attracted him other cheerful and intelligent friends.

Out of the blue, in the middle of that year, Theo got a visit from his brother.  Titus made his appearance along the route the two used to take to walk home after school.  Theo came upon him shortly after a turn off of campus, sitting on the step of townhouse that was for sale.  He stopped abruptly, not sure that he was really seeing what he thought he was.

Titus noticed him and rose, smiling a little, like he was hoping for a happy reunion but wasn’t anticipating it.  “Hey,” he said.

For a moment, Theo just kept staring.  His brother looked ragged and thin.  He wore only a threadbare sweater and some jeans, both of which were dirty and sporting holes.  He looked like he hadn’t washed or combed his hair in a while, though he had somehow managed to bleach it until it was nearly yellow.  He had pierced one of his ears for some reason.  All in all, he looked like an average teenaged thug.

Finally, Theo said, “Titus, what are you doing here?”

“I came to see you, stupid,” Titus answered, laughing.  “I came to see how you were doing.  I can’t stay long, though.  I don’t want them to notice I’m gone.”

Theo knew who Titus meant when he said “they.”  He meant his gang—his new family.  Any happiness Theo felt that Titus had wanted to see him at last vanished when he realized that his twin’s priorities hadn’t changed.  His temper started to climb.

“What, embarrassed to be seen with your kid brother?” he spat.

Titus looked at him in surprise.  “What?” he breathed.  “No, that’s not—”

“Why did you even come back if you were just going to keep running with those criminals?”

Now Titus was getting upset.  “Because I missed you, Theo.  Now I’m starting to wonder why.”

“Yeah, I bet you have plenty of friends to replace me, huh?  Guys who are cooler, who you can score with—”

“I don’t use drugs, man!” Titus interjected angrily.

“Right, I forgot—you just traffic them.”  Theo glared at the other boy who had once been his mirror and had become his inverse.  “How does it feel, supporting the city’s crime?  Knowing that you’re working to get all kinds of kids hooked on drugs?  You’re just creating a whole network of you—middle-school delinquents and society’s rejects!”

Titus turned away for a moment, and when he turned back, his face was dark and hard.  “After everything I did for you, after everything—you completely disown me when I choose a different life than you?  Than the one Dad wanted for us?  Just because I didn’t want to be like him doesn’t make me a bad person!”

“No, but being a felon does!”

Titus screamed wordlessly.  “Forget this!  Forget you!  You’re just like them!  Fine, if you don’t want me around, then I won’t come back!”  He suddenly threw something at the corner of the house next to them, then ran off across the street and ducked into an alley and out of sight.

Looking to where the object had landed, Theo saw it was a brown lunch sack.  Theo’s first thought was that whatever was in that bag was probably illegal, but it occurred to him that Titus wouldn’t have deliberately thrown something like that way.  So he bent down to examine its contents.  Inside were some packages of Theo’s favorite candies.  He flashed back to a time when the two of them would stop by a convenience store on their way home from school to sneak some candy before dinner.  He realized Titus had been trying, probably, to recreate those times today.

The thought made Theo very sad and very angry.  Titus wouldn’t have to recreate them if he had just never left.  They could be walking home together now, on their way to buy some.  Theo was furious.  He rose again and kicked the bag as hard as he could.  It hit the wall of the house again, bounced off, and sent the candies all over the sidewalk.  Theo ran away as quickly as he could, before anyone could accuse him of littering.

Titus’s words ran through Theo’s head over and over.  Clearly, Titus thought that he had picked the better lifestyle, because it offered him freedom from responsibility and conventions.  But Theo knew better.  He knew that gangs were dangerous, and that a respectable life, like the one the Amans led, would ultimately put him ahead in society.  He became determined to prove it.  He dreamed of one day running into his brother again—in this fantasy, they were adults, and Theo was decked out in an expensive suit, looking suave and successful, and Titus was obviously homeless and alone.  Adult Theo would have the satisfaction of hearing his brother say that Jack and Theo had been right all along—Titus was wrong.  This fantasy became Theo’s dream, and he poured himself into making it a reality.