Thumb and the Bad Guys

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

Thumb and the Bad Guys — page 7 — Thumb When was the last time the police set foot in our village Last year Yeah Because two policemen on vacation were fishing offshore and needed a place to stay when a storm came up But they were here I mean when was the last time a policeman came here to look for evidence of some crime I will tell you Never But don’t you see That’s what would make New Auckland such a great hiding place We don’t even get television so we can’t watch the news and compare pictures of wanted criminals with new people in our village Thumb almost everyone in our village was born here Some people weren’t born here Like Mr Entwhistle A world-famous writer of children’s books can’t really hide you know What about your dad He’s only been here about four years You’re right I said excitedly Maybe I’m the son of a bad guy and when I discover the secret of Dad’s hidden past I will have to fight an inner struggle between loyalty to family and knowledge of my father’s past cruelty Susan stopped and looked at me She rolled her eyes

Thumb and the Bad Guys — page 8 — Wasn’t that the plot of a movie we saw last month Susan I just think that maybe we should make sure our village really is safe from evil Us Why not Because nothing ever happens here Thumb I know But wouldn’t our lives be a little less boring if we spent just a little time looking for a bad guy Sure we know that nothing ever happens during the daytime But what about at night Night Most criminals work at night right I asked excitedly So if anybody here is doing bad-guy stuff then they probably work at night I stopped and thought for a moment and then whispered We need to stake out the village Stake out this village Nobody even jaywalks here That’s because there aren’t any streets Well nobody would jaywalk if there were streets We know everybody here We know their favorite colors and their hobbies and what books they have on their shelves There are no bad guys living in New Auckland Thumb

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