GRoOvY!

By: Coneflower

Crutchy stood in front of the mirror one morning getting ready. Usually he'd put on his vest and turn his cap to the side, but today something was different. Something so different that all the newsies in the washroom stared at him dazed and confused. Crutchy turned to them and smile. "Heya fellows!" He was always cheerful. Maybe that's why the 'change' was best fitted for his personality. "Whatcha starin' at?"
Jack came out of the trance. "Oh uh…nuttin'. Jist got shocked for a second." He went back to washing his face off. All the other newsies did the same. Crutchy just grinned and slipped his love beads around his neck.
It was time to leave to go buy their papes. All the guys flowed down the stairs as usual. Kloppman was standing there telling them to stay out of trouble and don't lie. Crutchy was the last to come down. He waved 'bye' to Kloppman who was too surprised to see the friendly, always neat newsie dressed in yellow and green stripped pants and a tie-die shirt that read, "Love is the ultimate trip". Along with that attire was the love beads. Kloppman shook himself and assumed he was only seeing things.
"Hey Crutchy, look at dis!" Mush pointed to a story in the newspaper. "Dat's gonna be a good headline taday, huh?"
Crutchy shook his head. "Yeah, it's groovy, man! I really dig it!"
Mush scratched his head. What the heck was his friend saying? Crutchy hobbled up to the counter to get his papers.
Morris nudged Oscar. "Hey, what da heck is he dressed as?"
Oscar laughed. "I don't know, but we musta hit him pretty hard when we beat him up!"
"Here's your papes, Crutchy" Weasel said, not looking up.
"Thanks, man." Crutchy stuck a red daisy on the counter. Where the daisy came from, no body knew.
Weasel looked up. "And this is here why?"
"Jist a thank you for your grooviness!" With that, Crutchy hobbled away leaving everyone just plain scared now.

"Hey Jack, this has been a great day for selling!" David said, as him and Jack walked to Tibbys.
"Yeah! Makes da brain woik a little less." Oh yeah, just what you need - David remarked to himself.
All the sudden, they could ear to a familiar voice singing in the gates of Central Park.
David looked around. "Isn't that Crutchy's voice?"
"Yeah, it's comin' from Central Park." Jack started for the entrance. There, sitting on the grass indian style, was Crutchy with a circle of followers. "Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, gonna love one another…" him and his circle sang. Most of them were his age. The crowd that had gathered to watch this alien display were horrified. One woman fainted.
Crutchy jumped up ((as fast as he could…lol)). "Come on, everybody join in!" He started passing out flowers to everyone. "Peace, love, and understanding! It's all you need! Stop the war! Save the rain forest!"
"Uh…Jack…what do we do?" David asked.
"I don't know, but I'm official scared of Crutchy" he replied.
Crutchy made his way over to them. "Heya Jack! Dave! Join my rally, man! It's groovy! Here's a flower." He gave them each a follow. "Now everybody sing with me! Come on people now, smile on your brothers…"
Jack and David blinked then turned running, but David stopped them. "Is this our solution to the problem, Jack? Are we just going to let Crutchy do all those weird things?"
Jack looked around nervous afraid that Crutchy may have followed them. "Yeah."
David nodded. "Okay." And they keep on running hearing faint sounds of something about passing around a pipe.

Epilogue…

Crutchy started a rally against the war in Cuba. They didn't get far though. He was arrested for disturbing the peace. Soon after that he was pardoned though and Joseph Pulitzer joined in on the love feast of trying to spread "Peace, Love, and Understanding". Even though Crutchy's acts died out over the years, his love beads made him a ton of money making him a millionaire letting him leave the rest of his life to saving the rain forest and all that junk even though the rain forest hadn't even started to disappear yet. So, yeah, wasn't all this GRoOvY?!