Author's Note: Dude, if anyone is actually reading this, I applaud you. I would have thought that the nice "character death" warning I stuck in the summary would have scared everyone away. But, it had to be done. And, I will add it here, the rating is for suicide. There, I said it. And, no, before I get the flames, I am not making light of suicide at all. I'm just trying to be realistic. Though, I would appreciate it – if you actually came in here – if you would leave a review. I want to know what any readers think about this short drabble. Thanks.
This piece was written for the Newsies drabble site that I recently opened. (Information can be found in my user profile). The theme, for 1,000 words or less, was smoke. This is my interpretation.
Disclaimer: Jack Kelly is, unfortunately, not my property. He is owned by Disney and appears here because I wanted him to. But I'm not making any money off of him, so it's all good.
--
Cowboy Song
Tears fall
Discard your innocent dreams
Loves fall
They kinda leave you empty
Leaves fall
The seasons pass you by
- Cowboy Song, Faith No More
--
The smoke whirled around him and he barely noticed it at all. He continued to breathe it in, ignoring the burning sensation within his lungs. In a few minutes it would all be over. The dreams he had would have been incinerated by the match he struck with his own hand.
There would be no Santa Fe. When he declined the once in a lifetime offer that the governor gave him, he ultimately waved goodbye to his dream. How naïve and innocent he had been to assume there could be anything more for him than his measly existence in this slum of a City.
There would be no more love for him. Sarah Jacobs was a beautiful young woman and he had been foolish to think that she could ever love him. She played a wicked game with his feelings and let him believe they could be happy. She, at least, was happy. She had married an educated young man a month ago. As a parting gesture, she had even invited him to her wedding.
The room was growing hot but the flames licked at a numb and unfeeling soul. He was not concerned with pain anymore, only time.
He was already pushing nineteen in a world where the most elite white males only were expected to see fifty years. And, quite honestly, he was as far from elite as could be. How many more years did he have? Five? Ten?
There was no other way. In the past year, three of his pals alone had just disappeared. Race, that severe cause of pneumonia came out of nowhere. Boots, struck down in a senseless act of violence and racism. And Spot. Rumors were that the new big shot in Brooklyn had the young leader tossed off the Bridge he favored so much. And, well, rumor or not – Spot hadn't been seen since.
When would it be his turn? He was tired of waiting.
In just a few minutes, the lodging house would be gone.
And so would he.
--
The fire department, still eager to illustrate how efficient they were now that they were a paid unit, fought the blaze before it spread to any neighboring buildings. The damage was minimal, considering, and after a brief inspection, they declared that it only destroyed the second floor of the Newsboys' Lodging House on Duane Street.
The blaze, it was documented in the newspapers the next morning, was started accidentally when the only occupant of the House at the time, an unfortunate orphan called Kelly, fell asleep with a lit cigarette. The sheet he was atop of caught fire immediately and quickly spread through the various blankets and cloths strewn about the bunkroom.
The boy, it continued at the tail end of the article, had died of smoke inhalation before the firefighters even arrived at the House. He was the only victim of the fire.
--
I got my information about life expectancy from infoplease . com; in the year 1900, the average life expectancy for a white male was 48.23. After factoring the environment in which the character lives, I assumed his life expectancy would be severely less.
As for the fire department, I found on the history portion of NYFD's homepage that during 1865-1928, the City was consolidating all of the borough's individual volunteer fire departments into a paid Metropolitan Unit. As the time this short piece takes place the Unit included Richmond, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan.