Chapter summary : Caleb with help from Spot Conlon, decimates the baskets. And Caleb gets a role model, aw how cute?
Disclaimer: No, don't own Newsies or any of the characters (except Vivian and Caleb.) One question though.. If you own stock in Disney, you kinda do own newsies then don't you? You just have to share it.
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Scared to death he smiled innocently up at the young man's irritated face.
"Whaddaya doin' with me paper kid?"
"I-" Caleb tried to explain.
"What kid? Sorry fer stealin' me paper…?" He took the tips of his fingers and shoved them in his shoulder "…I don't like stealers."
Caleb stood up in his basket and rubbed his shoulder. He looked the young man over , blue shirt red suspenders, with a bag for carrying newspapers slung across his chest. He would've laughed at the silly bag if it weren't for the situation. Caleb was young, but he was smart enough to know that the young man wasn't really that upset. He was just trying to scare him into never doing that again.
"But sir, I didn't take it! I swear, it fell out of yer bag and smacked me in the face…" He stretched out his arm with the paper in question held in his hand. The newsboy's eyes looked from Caleb to the paper and back to him. Caleb shook his hand urging the boy to take the paper. "…honest." The newsboy grabbed the paper suddenly, and eased in back into his satchel, keeping his eyes on Caleb the whole time.
"So what's yer deal, kid? Livin' on the streets?" The boy suddenly seemed more cheerful now that he had his paper back.
"Nah! I live with my mother." He pointed. The newsboy looked where Caleb had motioned towards a large building entitled 'Telegram Office of New York City', he sighed then asked the tyke another question.
"You do, do ya? Well were is yer mother, then?" He said bending down to talk to Caleb face to face.
Caleb folded his arms and squinted his eyes down at a pebble, not wanting to look the boy in the eyes while he spoke. "Oh that, you see I've lost her." He gingerly lifted his eyes from the ground and looked at the boy, who was laughing.
"Oh.. ya lost her did you?"
"They want to help, but haven't had any luck."
The newsboy tilted his head so he could see the old man speaking to his errand boy again.
"Ha. Well, I think I can do a lot better than that. Say, what's yer name?"
"Caleb Harvey."
"Harvey? Well ,well we got ourselves a liddle English boy do we?"
"No sir…" He shook his head proudly, "…I…" now he puffed out his chest, "…am an Irishman."
The newsboy put his hands to his mouth and gasped.
"You don't say!"
Caleb was glad he impressed the older boy. "Well we have something in common…" started the newsboy, " my good lad…"he gave a big sigh, "…. I am also an Irishman." He finished taking his cap off his head and holding it up to his heart while staring up into the sky. This made Caleb laugh and in return made the older boy smile.
"So Mr. Harvey, that mother of yer's got a name?"
"Yeah, Vivian Harvey."
"Vivian Harvey?" The newsboy seemed in shock. He seemed to be thinking about this for a while until finally he turned to Caleb. He smiled again and said:
"Well, now it looks like we got two things in common."
"What?"
"We are both good friends of your mother."
"I knew you knew her! I thought you did when I first heard you--What's your name?" Caleb asked looking up into his face, no longer afraid of him. Suddenly he realized that this boy was a stranger and he just had told him his name and his mother's too!
"Oh that…"The newsboy laughed sensing his unease. "…my name's Spot Conlon" He reached down and ruffled little Caleb's hair.
"Hungry?" Spot asked.
"Yeah!" His eyes widened.
"Yeah? Well I know a real good place to get somethin' to eat. And maybe we'll have a chance of seeing your mother there too."
"Really, that'd be so great, Spot!"
"Well Moses, let's get you out of this basket."
Spot lifted Caleb out of the basket halfway.
Caleb's boots, that were too big for his small feet, had caught themselves into one of the many holes in the shabby basket. Since neither noticed, Spot proceeded setting him down. At that moment Caleb felt the force on his foot and quickly lost balance. The basket that Caleb had been hiding in was attached at the bottom to a chain that linked to a shoe shining booth that was firmly in place. Not that anyone would want to buy that shabby old basket, but it was the biggest one there ,and probably in the eye of the merchant was the finest of all his inventory.
"Argh!" Caleb fell and had dragged Spot down with him. Spot fell backwards into the other baskets, making them all topple over in a big dusty mess. This caught the merchant's attention.
"Hey! YOUA! YOU KIDS! WHATA ARE YOU DOING!" they saw the merchant fighting his way past the ruins of dust and carcasses of baskets.
The two leapt stealthy to their feet, and started to run.
"Nice going kid!" Spot yelled laughingly.
"Hey! You're the clumsy one!"
Caleb giggled as he eyed the boy running in front of him. Spot's newspaper bag wasn't as funny as he had thought earlier. It was light tan with things written all over it. In fact, Caleb's eyes grew, the sling coming across his back made him look like a , a soldier. A soldier, like in wars, conquering enemies, never afraid of anything, and always saving the day.
Caleb uttered something under breath, "Wow"
Instantly, Spot Conlon was his hero.
*Authors' note : Yay! I finally wrote another chapter, see I was in Ireland, so I couldn't really update it. J Tell me what you think!
