Author's Note: This is a small ficlet that I've had in my head. It's a bit experimental – you'll see the (experimental) format in the next chapter. I don't think I've ever seen one written in such a way before so I thought I would do it. This should only be about 4 or 5 chapters – and most of the chapters will probably be short (not as short as this one, though.)
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Spot Conlon, Jack Kelly or any other character from the 1992 Disney musical, Newsies
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Not Here
Maybe in another time, another place, this might just have worked
But not here.
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Love reckons hours for months, and days for years;
and every little absence is an age.
– John Dryden
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September 1, 1900
It's been exactly one year, to the date, since I last saw him. One year. That's 365 days. 525,600 minutes. 31,536,000 seconds.
And I have way too much time on my hands nowadays. But what do you expect. I spend most of my time sitting atop the docks, watching the ebbs and flows of the East River.
It's been one year since he packed his bag and disappeared. You wouldn't think that a boy as infamous Jack Kelly would be able to vanish but he did. With the blink of an eye, he was gone.
None of the other boys never knew why he left, how he got the money, where he went. Sarah Jacobs, I hear, cried for a week straight when the Walking Mouth broke her the news. From what Boots told me last time he came by Brooklyn, Dave was just as crushed when Jacky left.
But I know. I know why he left.
I have a handful of letters, tucked under my bunk. There's about three or four hidden there, telling me just why he went away.
Because of me…