Thinking Fast

Thinking Fast

Jimmy watched the group come closer. There was no getting away, they’d seen him, if he ran they would catch him. He wasn’t a strong runner, or strong at many athletics. It was exactly why these guys picked on kids like him. They needed to feel tough and they got that feeling by overpowering the weak. Jimmy’s mind raced to find an out.

“Jimmy.” Reese yelled, he was the unofficial leader of the group. Jimmy instantly realized it was Reese he had to deal with, the others would follow his lead no matter what he did.

“Reese!” Jimmy yelled back, proactively, “Just the person I need.”

“Oh yeah? Why?”

“I heard you were good at figuring stuff out,” Jimmy said walking up, “can you tell me what this is?” And he took a stick drawing a line in the dirt, then added other lines surrounding them with a big circle.

Reese looked at the drawing, “Of course you idiot, that’s a peace sign.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of that, weren’t they popular in the sixties or something? Oh! Hey, wasn’t your grandfather big in that ‘hippy’ movement then?”

Reese looked a little uncomfortable at the turn of conversation, but obviously impressed that Jimmy had heard of his grandfather. “Yeah, he was. Still dresses weird and spouts that flower child junk all the time. It’s weird, but he’s kinda cool.”

“Hey, I’d love to meet him sometime, I write for the school paper, you know, maybe I could do a story about him?”

“Ah, sure… I’ll ask him. Well, we gotta go, see ya.” the group wandered on.

Jimmy watched them walking away, reaching in his pocket for the peace symbol his grandfather had given him years ago. Once again, he thought, those hippies had some really good ideas.