“I can’t do this anymore Finley,”

“In life you have to do things you don’t want to do, Johny. It’s called being extrasupertive”

It was 3:00, the final day of the month. My second year in the factory.  I had finally accepted the distressing circumstances of what my life had become. On the other hand, my best friend Johny just couldn’t catch a break. The masters always yelling at him, giving him the toughest assignments out of everyone in the factory. While you could call it unfair, Johny does everything in his power to gain a bad reputation around the place. And for me...don’t even start. By the end of my 13 hour work period, I am dripping in sweat from head to toe unable to walk. 6 hours for week...for a measly 2 dollars! Unreal right? Well that’s not even the worse part, everyone around the factory hates me, just for being friends with Johnny.

“This time I’m serious, I’m done.” The words of Johnny complaining usually roll right over my head. But something about the way he said it this time was just different. Even though, he would say things like this everyday, I was convinced today was different.

“Okay bud--” Time stopped on a dime, I was tugged by the shirt, flown in the air as I was spinning the large cotton gin, and landed on the ground with a thump. “Why would you do that, we’re not ditching the factory, we’ll be killed.” What happened next is hard to explain, I don’t know if it was the look he gave me or the tear that shed from his eye. But something just told me that Johny needed help. I realized that all his tough acting was just an illusion. Johny’s circumstances were intolerable, and I had to get him out of here. I didn’t say a word, I just took his hand, as we tiptoed to the door without making a peep.

“What, this can’t be right?” Johny said. “We’ve waited two years and all we had to do to escape the place was walk out the door!” It really was astonishing how stupid the masters were.

“Well just know that tomorrow we’re gonna take a real beating, so lets make the most of this.” It was a weird feeling, the feeling of being free, the feeling I hadn’t felt in years. And then Johny said it.

“You know Finley, those stupid masters only pay us 2$ a week.”

“Yeah, obviously I know that bud”

“Well...there is an easier way to make money you know.” Johnny had always been trouble. He knew that I knew exactly what he was thinking. “I have heard stories of a huge mansion a few blocks from here.” To keep it simple, Johnny's idea was to rob the place.

“Hey! What are you kids doing!” My heart dropped to my stomach. Not like this, I thought. I took Johnny by the arm, planted my foot, then bolted down the street like I was being chased by a lion. And we didn’t stop. We ran for what felt like hours. We ran until the sky was no longer blue. We ran until there were no more buildings left in sight. We ran until the gigantic, dazzling construction piece came into sight. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The enticing garden in front of the glamourous brick walls extending for what seemed like forever filled with great, colossal windows on either side. I noticed a smirk on Johnny's face and I already knew what he was thinking so I spoke first.

“You would have to be psychotic to try to rob this place.” Johny didn’t say a word, he just stared dumbfounded at the tremendous piece of architecture that lay before us. Then his head began to shake.

“No Finley, you’re wrong. You’re the one who’s psychotic. Your psychotic to let those masters treat you like a slave. You’re psychotic for not doing anything about it. So if you want to leave, then I’ll go alone. I’m done letting people try to control my life.” the words hit me like a bullet to the chest. I never knew this side of him. But the fact of the matter was that he was right. Maybe robbing the house wasn’t moral but I had let people boss me around and treat me like a slave up all my life, and I think we had both had enough. Without even thinking, I grabbed his hand and started sprinting to the great wooden door like it was the finish line of a marathon.

With a failed attempt to be quiet, Johny slowly gripped the golden door handle and twisted it to the left. As he pulled the handle towards us, all you could hear was a loud irritating screech. He managed to get it all the way open though and we entered the house with a thump and another failed attempt to keep the noise down.

“Shut up there could be someone in here,” I whispered.

“You’re the one talking!” We stayed low and walked down the amazing hallway covered with beautiful murals and paintings. The roof what seemed like hundreds of feet in the air. We kept walking until we came to a right turn and saw two tall, cleancut men blabbering about who knows what at the kitchen table.

Johnny and I were frozen. We had no idea how to react. It was as if we were watching a movie. Two men, the owners of a huge house couldn’t be any more stupid! Two little kids were trying to rob their house and they didn’t even notice.

That’s when one of the men  said “Forget get it, I’m getting a cup of tea, want one?” He stood up from the table and began to turn in our direction. We were toast. We pivoted 180 degrees on a dime and attempted to sprint out of the place. That's when my left foot wouldn’t move forward. My shoelace was under Johny’s foot and I was sent flying through the air taking Johny with me and we both hit the ground with a huge thump. Astonishingly, both the men simply stared at us. After a few moments, one broke the silence.

“Hello kids, my name is John Locke,” he claimed boldy, sounding like a military general.  “And what brings you here today”

“I...uh, we...uh...I don’t know, sorry.”

“You don’t know why you’re here, and how could that be.” The stupidity of this man was really getting to me. I didn’t say a word.  “My beloved colleague, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and I were actually just having a debate when you guys decided to arrive. Maybe you can give us your opinions if you’d like. Johnny and I exchanged puzzled looks.

“And what is that you two are arguing about?” asked Johnny.

“I don’t know how much education you kids have on government but you can consider now to be a chance to have a say. Anyways, Rousseau and I have always agreed on a simple idea, that power should be separated between different groups Three per se. These groups would discuss ideas, and the two groups that had the same idea, would be the idea put into place. So simply put, majority rules.”

Rousseau chipped in, “But today, I met a man, a very wise man, a man who changed me actually. What this man believed was that that if one man lead the country, less people would feel the need for power. For example, with 3 groups as the organization for our government, too many people would feel the need to make decisions and it would only lead to arguments and chaos. The reason one person running the government has never worked out in the past is because it has never been the truly right person. From now on, the person should be elected by the people, the right man will be in charge!”

“Now kids, it's your turn, who should run the government? One man, or three groups, it’s a very important decision.” Who were these men? What did I get myself into? And then Johny broke the silence.

“Well, I’ll give you my opinion. You guys are both wrong. 3 groups all discussing the same ideas would lead to chaos, and 1 man would be even worse. So here’s your compromise. The concept of 3 groups isn’t a bad idea. However, the 3 groups can’t have the same job, they all need to have rights to different parts of the government. Each group can be called a branch. One can create laws, one can enforce laws, and the other can interpret them.”

“What a fascinating idea, you know, Jean Jaques, how does it sound if we use that idea for the actual US government?” No way, this couldn’t be real.

“Now that I think about it, the idea’s not too shabby. We can call it seperation of the United States government.”

“Or we could just call it separation of powers, it has a better ring to it.”

…

Who knew where we would go from here. But at the end of the day, did it really matter? The bottom line is, because I finally decided to go out there and do something with my life, I managed--or Johnny and I managed to change the real U.S. government. So even if we’d be killed tomorrow I would be dying free and dying with my best friend.