The Initiate

Short Papers Competition 2009 © 2010 Internet Lodge and the author Paper 21/2009 Title The Initiate Author Bro Kerry LeBoutillier – Australia Bang! I jumped. I was blindfolded, dressed like the village idiot with one and a half pairs of slippers on. A rope was wound around my neck. I stood wondering if the stories about the goats were true. Disembodied voices began muttering words that sounded like English, but to no vocabulary I had ever heard. I tried hard to piece them together. Before I could do so, someone grabbed me by the arm and I was ushered through the doors. “As this is a prick to your flesh…” What was that? Something sticking into my chest. I tried again to digest what was happening. But I was kneeling. An even more sepulchral voice was intoning something to me in Pidgin. I was up again and walking, being led around and around. I was disoriented. Someone took my arm and I was hitting someone else on the shoulder. More gibberish. Then I was kneeling again. The questions in my head were pushing their way forward.
“What’s going on?” “You will now repeat after me…” I repeated what I heard. Did I just hear that right? They want me to swear that I’ll have my throat cut and my tongue torn out. Where is this going?
Someone whispers in my ear. “Light.”
“I don’t smoke. Oh, sorry.” I repeat the word. “Light.”
The blindfold is whipped off and I start blinking in the glare. Then I am staring at swords which are pointed rather menacingly at me. This cannot be real. But then I notice that the eyes connected to the swords are not so threatening. They gaze down at me with benign warmth. One of the sword handlers must be ninety if he is a day. He looks as if he is having trouble holding it. Then they’re gone and there is just hands left reaching out.
A few more words and then, “Thank you, Brethren.” The mass of faces and their hands just melt away. I can see now, but before I get a chance to take it all in, I am off again. I am standing up the front.
Someone comes to stand in front of me. I hear him tell me he is going to tell me the secrets. “At last. This is what I came for.” My ears are suffering from the strain. I am about to find out those salacious secrets that everyone assures me are at the heart of Freemasonry.
“You put your hands this way…”. And “When you address the Worshipful Master…” Then “I was taught to be cautious…”. A few more times round with more Gobbledegook at various places and it was over. I was at last dressed in the beautiful suit and crisp shirt that my wife had spent so long choosing on my behalf.
Short Papers Competition 2009 © 2010 Internet Lodge and the author There were hand shakes all round.
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
“Well done.”
“Thanks.” And so on. Later that night I was laying in my bed thinking about the evening.
“Well what happened?” demanded the Keeper of the Keys. “I haven’t got the faintest idea.” And sleep soon followed.