The Smallest Rebellion

The Smallest Rebellion

“Okay, listen everyone!” Jimmy strained to make himself heard over the commotion. Clapping his hands briskly, he raised his voice. “Hey, I said quiet down!”

Slowly, the noise began to subside as the poking and prodding diminished and friends sat alongside friends, turning expectant faces towards the front of the room. Jimmy waited patiently until the last member was finally seated and the silence began to take on an air of tense expectation.

Surveying the sea of faces, Jimmy picked out the ones likely to be the hardest to convince and gave them extra attention, mentally making notes. “You all know why we’re here today. Things have gotten worse; especially so since Galloway has come. It never was great, but at least it was okay. Not anymore! The rules are too hard, it’s not right and it’s not fair!”

A chorus of “Yeahs” and “that’s rights” rang from the listeners, some of them shaking their fists, some waving their arms forcefully.

Before the noise got more unruly than necessary, Jimmy held up his hand to quiet them down. “I LIKED it here!” he said with a slight smile, “Well, I used to like it here. I didn't want it to change. I think you guys are the best in the world and I just want you, ALL of US, to be treated with a little more respect. We do have rights!”

“Heck yeah!” Rang forth from the group, many of them stood and shook their fists and waved their arms again.

Jimmy paused, looking around the crowded room he let the cheers grow, waiting just long enough for it to threaten to build into a frenzy before holding up his hand for silence once again. Jimmy was trying extra hard to choose his words carefully, suffering from a slight speech impediment, he was used to speaking slowly and carefully whenever he was trying to make an important point.

“Before Galloway,” he said, “things around here were great. We didn’t have to work as hard, our afternoons were fun, we got extras more often and we didn't have so much down time. We got to do more of the things WE liked to do!”

“Yeah, that’s right!” The chorus rang back. “It’s not fair now! Nothing is fair anymore!”

“We ARE going to do something about it!” Jimmy strained to make his voice as thunderous as he could. “It's not FAIR! We gotta make them change it back, we CAN make a diffewence.. difference!”

“Yes we can!” The crowd, not noticing his slip, thundered back, their fists and hands waving furiously.

“What are we going to do?” Jimmy shouted.

“Make a diffewence!” The roar came back.

“When are we going to do it?” Jimmy’s face was red with passion.

“Wight now!” They shouted.

“You bet we are!” Jimmy shouted around the angry smile on his glowing face. “We’re going to show them. We’ll show HER!”

Just then, Mickey gave a whistle from his post by the door. “Shhhhhh, I can heah huh coming!” He called out in a stage whisper. “Evwyone scattouh!”

Everyone flew into a scatter, quickly dropping onto the small throw rugs around the room.

The door creaked open slowly and Mrs. Galloway, returning from the lounge, stepped into the room. Quietly surveying the apparently sleeping pre-schoolers, she gave a small sigh and sat down at her desk. “That’s funny,” she whispered softly, “I could have sworn I heard someone playing in here during quiet time.”

The children lay quietly, nap time would soon be over.