Thumb and the Bad Guys

Thumb and the Bad Guys — page 3 — There was a small cooler in the plane just big enough for four tubs of ice cream Max always brought one tub of chocolate one vanilla one cherry and one milk-free sorbet None of the village refrigerators could keep ice cream cold enough so all four tubs were devoured Thursday night just as the movie started We also ate about ten pounds of popcorn So you knew it was Velma I asked as Susan and I walked out the door It was spring and starting to stay light later I could still see traces of pink in the clouds above the mountains Of course I knew silly said Susan as we ambled along the wooden sidewalk How Susan shrugged I am a woman she replied softly Women can always tell when another woman is evil Susan was the same age as me twelve It seemed to me that she wasn’t quite a woman yet but I didn’t say that Instead I said You know what I don’t understand I know many things you don’t understand Thumb I probably know more about what you don’t understand than you will ever understand

Thumb and the Bad Guys — page 4 — Hey why the insult Susan sighed and shook her head It wasn’t an insult It was a fact Just tell me what you don’t understand this time and maybe I can help Okay here’s the thing Every week at least two of the movies we watch have characters who are definitely bad guys right What do you mean by bad guys You know people who break the law and try to get away and don’t really care if other people get hurt Men women who are not very nice Sure Movies have bad guys in them And none of those movies would be very interesting if there weren’t bad guys right Susan thought for a moment Some movies aren’t very interesting even with bad guys Yeah but without bad guys they’d just be movies about people taking plane rides and going to work and mowing their lawns and hugging their kids None of us would go see them even if there was free ice cream and popcorn and nothing much else to do most nights except count stars Susan laughed Movies aren’t about real life Thumb

Thumb and the Bad Guys — page 5 — They exaggerate life I know But movie bad guys are sort of good because without them we’d all be bored I guess I’m wondering if real life can be more exciting when there are bad guys around I mean without bad guys Harry Potter books would just be stories about school Susan stopped so I stopped too She folded her arms and stared at me Have you always been this strange Thumb I think so I said seriously But here’s the really strange part What You’re starting to make sense I nodded Have you ever seen a bad person Susan Of course not We live in a village with mountains behind us and the ocean in front of us We live on a beach with no roads and no bad guys But good people do bad things I said quickly Little Liam broke Annie’s kitchen window with a rock last year Yeah but he didn’t mean to He was throwing a rock to me because he thought it was the perfect skipping rock It was a good skipping rock too It was so good that it sort of

Thumb and the Bad Guys — page 6 — curved when he threw it and broke Annie’s window But Little Liam didn’t run away like a bad guy He ran to Annie’s house and knocked on the door to make sure she was all right But what if there is a bad guy living here What if some really bad person has decided that New Auckland is the perfect hiding place What if somebody we know and trust only lives here so that nobody from his hidden past will see him walking down a city street and turn him into the police for a huge reward Susan sighed First she said holding up two fingers bad guys can be girls Second she said holding up one finger wasn’t hiding out in a small town the plot of one of last week’s movies Susan always held up the wrong number of fingers when she said a number She started doing it as a joke just to see if anybody would notice but after everyone had noticed she kept doing it anyway We started walking again but slowly so we wouldn’t reach my house before we’d finished our little argument So what It could happen And nobody here would even think to investigate

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