Summary: To be a newsie is to be older than you appear, to be a scrounger. To cheat death more than once.
- - - - - - - - Chapter 1
Blink looked up from lying on his bunk bed to find lips hovering above him. They were in a crooked smile, about to descend upon his own. He fully accepted the kiss, hot, steamy, and full of passion.
They both broke away for breath. He glanced up to find a girl, a little short, with flat, grey eyes. And red hair.
He sat up on the edge of his bed. She sat next to him. They continued to kiss, excited at the other's touch. He whispered in her mouth.
"Red. Red. Oh, Red!"
"Blink. Blink?"
He shot up in his bed, hitting his head on the upper bunk. He winced and rubbed the now forming bump.
Mush sat across from him, sleepy but concerned. "You woke me up. Are you ok?"
Blink winced again, rolling into a sitting position on the side of his bed. "Yeah," he whispered. "Why?"
"You were callin' for her again."
Blink sighed and blew a piece of hair from his face. That was the third time this month. "What'm I gonna do?"
Mush had moved to his side now. In a friendly motion, he put his arm around his comrade's shoulders. "You gotta let go. She left. She's gone. Get a grip!"
Blink sighed again. "What was it about her?"
Mush patted him on the back. "Well, might as well get up and dressed. I can hear Kloppy already."
"It's days like this I hate you, Mush."
Mush just grinned and stood up, pulling his suspenders over his lean shoulders as Kloppman slammed the door open and started shouting.
Blink grabbed his clothes and ran into the washroom before everyone else got up and grabbed a shower.
As the water pounded onto his body, he looked at himself in a small mirror on the stall door. He studied the face he saw, wondering about the reality of his dream, trying to determine if what he saw is what pushed her away.
What he did find was that he had black circles under his eyes. His body was gaunt, almost on the edge of skeleton form. The skin was so tightly wrapped to his cheeks that he looked like a walking zombie. His eyes began to give off a dull, grey color. He grinned weakly at that realization. One more thing to remind him of her.
What he found was not comforting.
"Blink! Stop usin' all the hot water!"
Pounding on the other side of the door made him turn off the shower and dress quickly. As soon as the door swung open, another entered, slamming it almost on his heels. He threaded his way through the swarm near the showers and water basins to his bed.
Blink methodically adjusted his eye patch, pulled on his undershirt and shirt, snapped his suspenders over his shoulders, and tugged his hat over his hair. He then slowly made his way downstairs, gripping the handrail.
The newsies quickly exploded from the small Lodging House and swallowed Blink up in them. He soon lost himself humming to their morning beat and even allowed a small smile on his face.
He went straight to the Distribution Center. Food hadn't really been appealing lately. Unless Jack or Mush sat him down with a plate in front of him and wouldn't let him leave until he finished, not much in the way of vittles went down the old gullet.
That's what it was. He felt old. Even though he was only sixteen, he felt sixty. Like he shoulda been dead a long time ago.
The circulation bell rang. Newsies swarmed against the gates. He managed to secure his usual position in line. Jack held his dialogue with Weasel, the newsies started filing through, Blink took a quarter's worth of papers.
He headed out to Strawberry Fields. Mush unofficially decided to sell with him. Blink glared at his friend as he had caught up with him, but Mush pretended not to notice. They sold in silence, hardly talking to each other for the first few hours. Around noon they decided to break.
They sat down with some sandwiches Mush had managed to filch earlier.
"I'm sorry I was kinda harsh this mornin'."
Blink nibbled on his sandwich. It was turkey, cheese, and lettuce on rye. His favorite. He sighed. "It's understandable. Not many people like being woken up earlier than their alarm by a lovesick newsie."
"I understand."
"No you don't. This has never happened to you. So stop being the official know-all on this subject."
There was no note of triumph in Blink's voice as he took a small bite out of the sandwich. He sighed and set the rest on the ground. Standing up and gazing towards the street, he impassively watched as a redheaded girl in newsie clothes headed across the street straight towards them.
Blink's eyes widened. "Mush. Get over here."
Mush quickly obeyed. Blink pointed. "Do you see what I see?"
His friend squinted. "Is that…"
A crash sounded behind them. Both boys jumped and spun.
There, where they had just been sitting, lay an old, rotted tree branch, with at least a three-foot diameter.
"Holy…" Blink breathed.
"We coulda been goners."
They both stared at each other in disbelief. It was a few minutes before Blink turned back to the street to find the redhead.
Nowhere to be found.
Well, it probably wasn't her anyway. What kind of person am I to be so lost over this girl that I jump at every redhead I see? That's crazy. Mush is right. I gotta let go.
- - - - - - - -
"Mush, what do you think about death?"
Mush shrugged as they sat on the fire escape, looking into the night. The street lamps bathed the two boys in a soft light. "That we each have a time, ordained by God, that we're gonna die. I've believed since I was four that Jesus died for me, so I'm going to live with Him in Heaven."
"You're not scared of death?"
Mush grinned. "Why should I be? It's a fact of life. The world has a one hundred percent mortality rate. Plus, I've got a great place to be going."
"What if you're wrong? About heaven, I mean."
"Well, if there is no heaven or hell, what have I got to loose?"
Blink nodded in agreement. "I guess." He sighed. "I mean, when I was six or so, me and me family went to a revival meeting. I got saved there. But…does it still count?"
"'Course."
"Even if I don't live it?"
"I think if you got the desire to live right, and do your best to do so, it still counts. Don't take my word for it, though."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"If you kill yourself, do you still get to go to heaven?"
Mush sighed. "I don't know."
They sat for a few more minutes.
"Tell me about heaven."
"I don't know much. Uhm…there's angels there. And there's no sun."
"Why?"
"God's glory lights it. Uh, there's gonna be a lotta people. At least, their souls."
Blink pondered that for a moment. Almost simultaneously they stood and started into bed. Blink yawned.
"Do you think there's such a thing as ghosts?"
Mush smiled as he climbed in the window. "I don't believe in ghosts. But I sure as hell believe in angels."
- - - - - - - -
Blink walked along State Street, happily munching on an apple he'd filched from a food cart, after selling the next day. Suddenly, he sensed someone beside him. He couldn't see anything out of the corner of his eye, but he stopped to look around anyway.
Nothing. Just the regulars. The street vendors. A few drunks passed out in an alley. A high society couple walking through as quickly as possible, obviously after taking a wrong turn. The woman held tightly to the gentleman's arm as they passed through. A pair of blonde twin girls, about six, giggling and holding hands as they skipped ahead to cross the street. One of them had a jump rope in her hand.
Yer mind is playin' tricks on you, buddy boy. Get a grip! There's a lot of redhead girls who are newsies.
His logic was not comforting whatsoever.
He continued down the street, tossing his apple up and down, every so often taking a bite out of it. It was about half-eaten when a short newsie ran past, knocking into his shoulder and making him drop the apple in the mud.
"Hey!" he yelled, turning around and raising his fist. He just saw the newsie dash around the corner, his hat flying off onto the ground. A flash of red hair showed before the newsie disappeared.
Blink charged down the street, but as he rounded the corner, he stopped.
There was no one there. Not even a glimpse of disturbance.
He looked down to the ground, thinking he was going crazy.
Not quite yet, was the subtle whisper that the grey hat contradicted. He picked it up, sent another glance down the street, and headed back the way he had been going. Just as he neared the intersection, a swarm of people flooded the streets, smacking him flush against the brick wall.
He never learned what the panic was about. All he could see was the jump rope lying in the middle of the street.