PICTURE DAY FOR JIMMY by J.Y


	Today was picture day at school for Jimmy.  He was so excited 
that he woke up an hour before school started.  Jimmy's mother was in 
the kitchen making breakfast.  She served him a bowl of cereal called 
"Infrared Zap ‘o' Pops."


	"My, Jimmy, you do eat a lot for an 8-year-old," said Jimmy's 
mother.

	Jimmy was so excited he could hardly sit in his chair as he 
ate.  He checked the calendar as he had so many times before: "January 
8, 2019."  In the margin Jimmy had scrawled "Picture Day!"

	Jimmy shouted as his mother combed his hair.  "Mommy, today is 
picture day!  I can't wait to go to school!"

	"Yes, I know," his mother replied.  "But look.  It's raining 
outside.  Don't forget to bring take your umbrella or you'll mess up 
your hair."  She stared out the window at the dark, smoggy street.  "Oh, 
and Jimmy, remember to take your pistol too.  Yesterday you forgot to 
take it with you."

	"Aw, mom," sighed Jimmy.  "No one in my class brings their 
pistols to school anymore."   He drew a heavy, battered gun from his 
backpack.  "Besides, mine's so old.  Everyone else has these cool 
Zap ‘o' Tron automatics.  But I'm stuck with an old Daisy .38 caliber 
hand-me-down from Freddy."  He rolled the thick barrel between his 
fingers.

	"Oh?" said Jimmy's mother.  "I'll have you know that pistol has 
saved Freddy's life in the war hundreds of times."

	Jimmy sighed again.  "But that was in the 90's," he said.  "No 
one has to manually reload anymore.  And nobody uses Daisy guns anymore."
	
	"Now Jimmy," replied his mother.  "You know that just because 
Zap ‘o' Trons are ‘cool' doesn't mean that they're any better that your 
Daisy."  She buttoned Jimmy's jacket and tied his shoelaces to get him 
ready for school.  "Besides, we can't always afford name-brand pistols 
with Daddy working at the plasma-filter station in Chicago."

	"Yeah, yeah."  Jimmy put his pistol back into his backpack and 
ran through the door and through the rain to the street corner just as 
the hoverbus arrived.  "Bye mom!"  He stepped into the floating bus.

	"Bye, Jimmy!  Have a good day at school!" Jimmy's mother waved, 
then stopped.  She stooped over and picked up the umbrella.
	"Dang it, he forgot his umbrella again," she said.



copyright 1998 J.Y.