Story Writing Debate

Saturday, 11 o’clock sharp. Dock number five next to barge seven. Even though I didn’t exactly have my nerves about me at the time, I could still remember the whole conversation nearly verbatim. My memory was just that good at times.I still remember when Jimmy and I first became friends quite vividly. It was in the first grade at lunchtime. I’d forgotten my lunch at home so I tried to steal Jimmy’s cookie right off his tray. Well, let’s just say I wasn’t exactly as guileful as I imagined myself being; he spotted me immediately and curled his tiny fist and socked me right in the eye. I retaliated, and soon we were on the floor wrestling until a teacher broke us up and sent us both to the principle’s office. And we’ve been best friends ever since.What, that doesn’t sound like the story of two people becoming friends? What can I say, we were weird kids.Now here we were, nearly ten years later, both of us in high school. I’d like to think we’ve matured a lot since then, but we’re still dumb enough to get wrapped up in situations like this.Honestly, it wouldn’t have been hard to just pretend like we’d never found that phone or that body, and not even bother showing up at those docks at 11 o’clock sharp. For me, anyway. It was Jimmy, of course, who insisted on going."Think of it like an adventure," he had said. "Like one of those books you read, but not so boring."Well, apparently that snide remark had been enough to convince me because there I was, standing at the docks a few minutes before 11, gnawing at my fingernails that were already too short to scratch a lotto ticket.Sometimes, I really wish I’d tried to steal a cookie from someone else’s tray. It wasn’t that I disliked Jimmy or even disliked hanging out with him; I just wished his idea of fun and mine overlapped a bit more. What’s wrong with sitting at home and playing video games every once in a while?"Hey, you still got that guy’s badge?" Jimmy asked, and my thoughts were derailed."Yeah," I said after a moment, then showed it to him.The thing was still as mysterious as when we first found it in the coat pocket of that guy Anthony. It was a golden thing with an unusual emblem depicting the head of some snarling beast (a wolf, I think). It definitely wasn’t a police badge or anything like that; whoever these guys were, they were most likely on the opposite side of the law."You ready for this?" he asked."I think so," I said, but I was sure it sounded unconvincing. "I mean, I don’t know, Jimmy. What if they’re dangerous? What if they know we’re not the guys we’re supposed to be?""Relax, will you? You think I came unprepared?"Yes, I thought, but didn’t say it aloud."Don’t worry, I brought something just in case," he said, patting the pocket of his jacket. “Look, there they are.” And with that, he took the lead toward three distant silhouettes near the end of the dock."Howdy, boys," Jimmy greeted them.These were three of the buffest guys I’d ever seen in my life, and the shortest among them (the one in the middle) stood a foot taller than us both. Whatever Jimmy had in that jacket pocket of his had better be a gun, and even then it didn’t seem likely to help.For a moment, they just stared at us, then the middle one spoke. "You got a badge or not?""Course I do," Jimmy said, sounding rather insulted, then he flashed them the wolf emblem."Terry said you’d be young, but I didn’t expect a kid." Then he eyed me. “And I didn’t expect two kids. You got a badge, too?”Jimmy spoke up before I could answer. "He’s a newbie," he said. "There was some kind of mix-up with his badge so he doesn’t have one yet.""I’m afraid I can’t do business with someone who doesn’t have a badge," he said, "unless the unit approves it. I’ll just call it in." He took out a phone and started dialing.I looked at Jimmy, the expression on my face undoubtedly one of fear. For a moment Jimmy just looked back at me; it seemed like he was considering what to do; wait and continue to play it cool or take action.He chose action, and suddenly revealed the thing he had been concealing in his jacket pocket. My eyes widened when I saw it; now that I could see it definitely wasn’t a gun, I wished again it had been.Jimmy, I thought, are you nuts?