[Beautiful (The Christmas Gift)]
[by Mondie]
Merry Christmas, everybody.
Disclaimer: No newsies from Disney's wondrous movie belong to me. I'm not getting any money from this. There is no point in suing me. So let's not, eh?
[Chapter One: Walkin' In a Winter Wonderland]
Mush sighed, kicking at an ugly clump of snow. He hated winter. The same emotion was usually carried by the other newsboys, but this year seemed different for them. Headlines had been very well-written the past few weeks, and sales had been up. Mush was the only one who still stayed firmly opposed to the snowy fortress of Mistress Winter. The wind had never blown so bitterly before, and he'd never had icicles dripping from his eyes before, either. It seemed that his feet were connected directly to his heart, and every step he took jerked his beating necessity further to a pulp. He'd never felt this way before, so angry at the world that a permanent sneer distorted his face.
Kid Blink was dead.
It was the first winter since turning six that he'd spent without his best friend at his side. Two weeks had passed since the repulsive circumstance, where a little skirmish between Manhattan and the Bowery had crescendoed to the deaths of seven boys. Six of them had been from the Bowery. Kid Blink had been the only Manhattan boy to not return that night.
Mush didn't sleep in the lodging house anymore. He didn't want to sell papers any longer, and so he hadn't been able to afford Kloppman's steeply rising, now twenty cents per week (as opposed to the fifteen cents per week it had been previously) charge. Gas lights cast a soft glow upon the glistening cobblestones, as if trying to brighten Mush's mood, but they failed. The merriment Kid Blink had always been able to solicit from the winking light caught in ice and the pearls residing in snow now seemed to mock his memory.
Walking softly into Central Park, the only sound the snow compacting beneath the thin soles of his worn boots, Mush lowered his head from the swirling snow which hurtled down from the heavens. Flakes caught upon his eyelashes, so that every time he blinked, a line of diamonds fell and then rose, curtaining his view. The purity and youth reflected in the crystals angered Mush. He stalked, determined to no longer pay attention to the beauty of the harsh reality of Winter, toward the pond. Watching the ice skaters had always been one of Mush's favorite pastimes, and one of the few things that he passionately liked about December.
Lanterns had been set up to fend against the narrowly escaping sunlight, as evening set. Mush sat down on a nearby bench to watch the five teenagers on the ice. The girls wore long skirts and kept their dainty hands warm and dry inside their muffs. There were two boys, who wore heavy coats and thick wool scarves over their faces, so that only their eyes and a tuft of hair were visible. The boys were doing fancy tricks to impress the girls, crossing their legs mid-stride and shifting around so that they could skate backwards. As the boys showed off, the girls shrieked and giggled, their different octaves reminding Mush of church bells.
"Hey!" one of the girls suddenly shouted, her voice deliciously light. Flakes were stuck in her dark brown hair, making it look as if she had a bonnet of a fine white linen on. "Who's ready to go home for some tea?"
"I am!" called back a boy with a shock of red hair sticking out all over the place. "It's sure getting chilly out here." He skated over to the girl and winked at her, pulling her off the ice with him. She giggled, looking up at him in adoration. The lantern light caught in her eyes, turning them to golden pools with unspeakable depth.
The boy with light brown hair similarly latched onto the girl with the straight honey blonde hair, and led her to a bench which sat about five feet away from Mush, where the other couple had already sat down. The four began to pull off their skates, which were just blades connected to a piece of wood that buckled over their normal boots. "Maddy!" called the blonde girl, blowing on her fingers, newly fetched from the oven of her muff, to keep up their temperature. "C'mon!"
One last girl was on the ice, and she seemingly couldn't hear the coaxing plea. Maddy was spinning, lost in her own world, her stride graceful and poise intoxicating. Mush lost interest in the four teenagers now off the ice, but couldn't tear his eyes from this last girl. She had dark brown hair, much like the first girl. It was long and ended in soft curls which peeked out from beneath the scarf she'd tied over the top of her head. Her cloak was dark green satin, and her muff matched. When she twirled, the cloak opened slightly, to reveal a deep pink skirt.
"Maddy!" tried the blonde girl again, this time a little less friendly. "It's co-o-old!"
"Come on," said the boy with the red hair, looking at Maddy in exasperation. "Let's start walking off. She'll follow for sure then." He picked up his skates and one of the lanterns, and walked off slowly, holding the arm of his brunette girl. The other couple shrugged and followed them. Maddy didn't seem to notice their exit, or, if she did, she didn't seem to care. She continued to swirl about the ice, and the snow coming down on Mush no longer seemed ominous and heartless, but rather an accessory to her beauty.
The sun had completely set by now, and as there was only one more lantern to light her way, she came to realize that she was alone. With a bit of a relaxed sigh, she skated to the edge of the pond, and came stomping through the snow to the benches. The skates, which had brought her such a refined elegance upon the ice, now caused her to shuffle along, looking very unsophisticated indeed. She caught sight of Mush, and it seemed to startle her. Then her face broke its frozen mold into a very becoming smile.
"Hi, I'm Madeline," she said, sitting next to him on the bench.
"Yer frien's left," he said bluntly, feeling quite awkward next to such refinement.
"Oh, no, actually. Not really 'friends.' The boy with the brown hair is my older brother, and the girl with hair like mine is my younger sister." She began to unbuckle her skates.
"Oh. I t'ink dey're goin' back ta yer house, then," he said helpfully. He tried not to stare at her, but she was even more beautiful up close. She had a round face, and when she smiled, her cheeks balled up into cheery roses.
"Oh, I know," she said. "They usually end up leaving me here. I'll tell you something," she said confidentially, and leaned closer to him. Her breath made clouds rise, with finesse, to the sky. "There is nothing I like more in the whole world than skating." She leaned back, as if satisfied that this was a very good secret. "Do you skate?"
Mush shook his head. "Don' know how," he mumbled. Then he brightened. "I love ta watch it, though."
"Hmm. Well, perhaps I'll have to teach you how, then," she smiled. "Where do you live? Close by?"
Mush had been contemplating spending the night on this very bench, so he allowed himself a wry smile. "Yeah, purddy close," he agreed.
"You're lucky," she sighed. "I'm going to have quite a walk ahead of me, because I'm sure they've taken the carriage and left by now. Amanda gets so cold." She rolled her eyes at Amanda's lack of strength against Winter's angry wrath. "And we've only got two horses this year, both of which are used for the carriage, so I can't even ride one out here myself." She stood and walked a few feet away, fetching the last lantern. She looped her arm through the iron ring that topped it, then draped her ice skates, buckled together into a bit of a sling, over top of that. She then hurriedly shoved her hands back into their muff. "How about we walk together, at least as far as your house?"
Mush stood as well. "I'll jus' walk ya home, Madeline," he answered. "Da city ain' no place fer a goil ta walk t'rough alone."
She smiled at him. "Why, thank you, …" She trailed off. "I didn't catch your name?"
Mush stared at her for a moment. "Dat's not impor'ant," he answered, feeling foolish. He was, under no circumstances, going to tell her that he was called 'Mush.'
Madeline looked startled at this answer. "Why, of course it's important! How will I know what to call you?"
Mush shrugged. "Make somethin' up, I s'pose."
She laughed. "You're an odd fellow, I must say. How about…" She surveyed him for a moment, then nodded to herself and began walking off. Mush had to rush to catch up to her sure strides. When she was sure he'd caught up, she turned to him with her large smile. "I'm going to call you Beautiful."
Mush nearly laughed aloud; somehow, Beautiful was hardly better than Mush. He choked back his laughter and picked up his pace. "Fine."
"Really?" Her face lit up. "That's the first time anyone's ever let me call them that…"
He laughed this time, unable to keep it in. "Oh, you call people by dis partic'lar nickname often?"
She stopped at the entrance of Central Park. The street lamps flooded their soft yellow light upon her features, making her gray eyes dance. "No," she answered softly. "Only when they really are beautiful."
Mush felt a bit of a blush crossing his cheek, and turned swiftly and, this time, led her away. Much of the rest of the walk to her house was in amiable chatter, with silent snow compounding heavy upon their shoulders.
Outside a tavern, the bartender was shouting loudly at a figure slumped into a snowdrift. "Stay outta me bar, ya heah me?" His brandished arm shook, trembling along with his heavy Irish accent.
Mush recognized the drunk man, and had to smile. Mike. He was always getting thrown out of bars; usually they let him stay far later, though. The tavern owner let out an exaggerated noise of complaint, then stormed back into the bar, slamming the heavy door behind him.
"Hey, you!" Mike slurred, struggling to sit up. He pointed a finger at Mush. "Where's… where's yer friend? Blondie?"
Mush felt a lump tighten in his throat, and, horrified, he hurried to steer Madeline clear of Mike. Mike continued screaming at Mush, asking him where 'Blondie' was. The rest of the walk to Madeline's was in silence. Mush's thoughts were heavy with the absence of 'Blondie,' or Kid Blink, and wondering how he could have gone so long with worrying only about Madeline and not the fact that Kid Blink wasn't here anymore. He felt horribly guilty. He could practically sense Kid Blink looking down from heaven, shaking his head in wonder that after just a few short weeks, Mush was back to chasing skirts and had already forgotten the memory of the friend he'd loved as a brother.
Mush was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he was three houses past Madeline's before he realized that she'd stopped. He jogged back to her, his heart heavy.
"Do you still want to learn how to ice skate, Beautiful?" Madeline asked, a bit dully. It was only then that Mush realized that she too had fallen silent after Mike's outlandish outburst.
"Yeah, that'd be nice," Mush said, trying to sound excited. "T'anks fer doin' this fer me."
"Oh, it's my pleasure!" Madeline answered, sounding a bit more upbeat. "Where's your house? So I can call on you the next time we go skating?"
"I'll be at da park," Mush answered. He gave a huge smile. "I always am in da winteh."
She looked a bit suspicious, but shrugged it off. She bit her lower lip. The silence between them seemed to stretch forever. Mush shoved his freezing cold hands into his pockets, shifting his weight from his heels to the balls of his feet.
"Well, then," Mush said, giving her a bit of a smile. He wondered if his bench would still be vacant when he returned to the park.
"Yeah," she said, averting her eyes from his gaze. Then, in a single, slick move, she moved forward and kissed his cheek lightly. Giving a bit of an uneasy giggle, she then moved to enter the gate separating the street from her house.
"Night, Madeline," he called, a large grin darting upon his lips. He turned to leave.
"Beautiful?" Her uncertain tone made him turn back to look at her. She shrugged at her own bravado, then squared her shoulders. "About Blondie… is she pretty?"
Mush looked confused for a moment, then gave an unbelieving snort of laughter. "Maddy, Blondie… he's my brother."
"Oh!" She looked taken aback. "Well, then."
"G'night, Maddy."
"Good night, Beautiful."
On the way back to Central Park, Mush made certain to punch Mike extra-hard on the shoulder. Somehow, he thought Kid Blink would have approved. He'd always hated being called Blondie.
Sleigh bells ring; are ya listenin'?
In the lane, snow is glistenin'
A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight
Walkin' in a winter wonderland