Minor characters povs: Oliver - a boy in Dodger's gang
Disclaimer: I don't own Oliver (book or musical), but I do own this character, sort of.
Hungry. Feels like your stomach's bubbling and clenching at the same time, like Him grabbing a bottle of beer till the hand turns white, the beer foaming and popping. I tried beer a few days last. It's good enough – warm in your mouth, even tho it's so sour I had to spit it out soon's I got it in. Everyone laughed, but Nancy half-smiled and gave me a piece of bread. She's a good 'un, that lady. She allus says she's no lady, mostly when Fagin's trying to sweet-talk her and He's around…but I think she is one. She's too nice not to be. I saw when they brung that kid in – the littl'un, ill-lookin' and even smaller'n me, staring around with giant eyes - Nancy took care of im. I wish she was around now – maybe she'd've brought somethin' to eat. Usually we'd go out an' "pick a pocket or two," like Fagin says, but these last days we've had to stay low. That littl'un got 'imself caught – heard they're took 'im to jail an're on the lookout for the rest of us. He didn't snitch on us, I figure – don't know if he can talk, just look all scared. But the mark, old Mr. Stop-thief in the brown coat, he said somethin' about the rest of us. The littl'un, heard 'e ended up with someone called Brownbow, or somethin' – some've said it's the guy who caught 'im, but that can't be true. We was tryin' to steal from him – no, he wouldn't take any of us in. The high-up don't care about us 'cept as thieves, they wanna make sure nothin' of theirs ends up with us. The littl'un's alright, tho, I'm pretty sure. I'd know if he wasn't, I think. The Dodger leads us and everything, but I'm kinda the one who knows where we all are. Don't know why, really – just is that way. Charley's been cursin' about the kid, tryin' to sound tough I guess, he isn't good for much else. I'm kinda sore about the littl'un getting us into this and all, but not much – he's one of us, we let 'im join an' all. Just hope I can get out an' get some food. There's somethin' at the doorway – maybe it's Dodger, brought us somethin' or other. I'm gonna go see.
