Chapter Four

Fatal Windows

Author's Note: I promise that this chapter … well, I sure hope it's longer than the last one. I apologize for not updating sooner, I was either too lazy, at dance, at school, or, well, everything else, but here I am again! Theater104: thank you for reviewing, I appreciate it a lot! I really wish that some other people would review too, but hopefully they do with this chapter, and thank you again! The title here is obviously suggesting that I'm about to get … risky. Alright, I'll get on with the story.

The next morning, I had to beg Patch to take me with him to sell papes. He refused every time I asked him for about 15 minutes and finally gave in after my annoying side won him over. We went out to our corner that day, content with everything that was going on since the headlines were wonderful. The papes were selling fast, and the only time I took a break was for lunch. Patch came with me but returned to the corner faster than I did.

When every paper in our hands was gone, I was ready to head home. It was only 2 in the afternoon, and this meant that we had a lot of free time on our hands, but Patch didn't want to leave the corner just yet, because he had told Checkers that he would meet him there. My mind was only on getting out of there, and for some reason, Patch just didn't want to. So I started to hobble across the street, and upon reaching the other side, I heard shouting coming from down the street. Looking for where the source of the shouts were, I spotted a carriage running rampant down the street, the driver holding on for dear life.

I looked over at Patch who was staring at the sight, just staring, and when it started to fly towards him, I yelled at him to move. He didn't, he was paralyzed.

"Patch!" I screamed, "Patch, MOVE!"

He didn't seem to hear me. At the last second, he tried to, but the carriage smashed into the corner, and I watched. He went flying backwards into the window, I saw the carriage push him into it. The window smashed, and he went into the store, the window must have done damage to him, it had to have, but I couldn't believe it. All I could see, again and again in my mind was his body, flying backwards after the carriage hit him. I saw his terrified expression, his face with a scream that never came.

Then, I hobbled as fast as I could back over to the corner, praying that everything was going to be fine and he was going to be alright. I busted into the building where only one other person was, and he was staring at the carriage driver's body, the man was obviously dead. But I saw Patch's body behind a table, and I went as fast as I could to him, to get to him, almost tripping over my crutch.

When I saw him, I couldn't say I wasn't disgusted at all. It was disturbing to see my friend's body lying there, bloody and torn from the glass in it. His face was bloody, a piece of glass had cut his forehead open and he was unconscious by the looks of it. There was a giant gash in his chest and his arms were both torn and bloody, his legs looking similar. I got down beside him, not sure what to do. We needed to get help, but the only other person that was around and alive was the man behind the counter, and he was checking the dead man. I struggled up slowly, then screamed for help, all the while watching Patch breath shallowly. Help didn't come, and neither did the other man, who was calling someone on the phone. I knew he was trying to get help, but I highly doubted that it was for Patch, yet I didn't want to give up hope yet. I couldn't, not when the world seemed to have stopped.

People had gathered around the area staring at the wreckage, and I kept hoping one of them would be a newsie, Checkers or someone, anyone, who would pop up and come help. But even after a large crowd had collected around the corner, no one I knew appeared. I became even more scared and sat down, or more or less flopped down beside Patch, searching for ways to stop the bleeding. Suddenly, someone appeared next to me. It was a ruddy face, blond boy with an upturned nose; I recognized him as Badger, the only newsie I knew that was named after an animal. He was looking more and more concerned by the minute.

"Where's Checkers?" I asked him, trying to stay calm.

"Not heah." was all he said, and I kept quiet. "We'se gotta get 'im outta heah, but you ain't gonna be able ta carry 'im, are ya?"

I shook my head, and he nodded. Then, he stood up and ran.

"Where ya goin'?" I yelled after him, scared.

"Ta get help! Stay dere!" he yelled back, and I looked back down at Patch, who was looking worse by the minute.

Finally, after I sat there for a really long time, wondering how Patch was still breathing, Checkers appeared. The crowd was still there but people had come and taken away the cab driver's body, obviously from the hospital, and everyone else was just standing there. Having lived in the Bronx for a long time I knew that people did this when something bad happened but for some reason I didn't know why they couldn't see me or Patch, or didn't seem to care. No one had called out "There's an injured boy!" or "This boy over here might die, we need help!" because they were all too far away.

Checkers looked more distressed than I had ever seen him. When he finally calmed down enough to speak-as the shock had affected him greatly- he and Badger picked Patch up and I tried to get up, only managing to do so because I was determined to save my best friend. We rushed out of the wreck and it was only then that the crowd took notice of us. A man called something but we were already too far away to hear him and we didn't care. If we had known he was a doctor, it might've changed things.

We ran to the lodging house as fast as was possible and the only person to great us was the houseman, who looked alarmed and rushed into his room to call someone, probably a doctor. They put Patch down on a bed and I pulled a chair up next to him, landing in it with some difficulty as I was breathing heavily and was still worried.

A man appeared several minutes later, a doctor, and all the while Conlon was asking what was wrong from his bed and Checkers barely answering him or speaking to us at all. I didn't want to think about what was going to happen next. The doctor sat, bandaging Patch, but when he came across the gash in the chest, he looked at us with a grim face.

"This….this is his death sentence." he said. "I won't be able to fix that. It's too deep and hit too close to the heart. I can't do anything. I'm sorry, boys."

We sat there in silence as the doctor picked up the rest of his stuff from the floor and stood up.

"He will wake up again. But after that, nothing is…well, the chances aren't very likely that he'll survive." the doctor said, and then left.

Checkers was looking more and more depressed by the minute, and I was in a state of being paralyzed, much like how Patch had been in before the cab ran into the shop. That stupid, stupid cab. What was the world trying to prove anyway? That there was no way of living if you were a newsie, a poor, hopeless boy on the streets, without getting scarred, mentally or physically? I didn't know how to respond to anything anymore.

"Dat doctor didn't wanna help 'im. 'e didn't care!" Checkers yelled all of a sudden. I looked at him, feeling tears enter my eyes.

"Dat ain't true." I said, trying to convince myself that Checkers was wrong. "Dey's doctors, dey ain't supposed ta do dat."

"Yeah, says who?!" said Checkers, looking more and more furious by the minute. "Doctors don't got no feelin' for us newsies, dey don't care at all! We'se jus' a bunch a' dirty street rats dat don' know howse ta stay outta trouble."

"But…." I faltered, then the tears spilled over as I realized Checkers was right. That doctor had never cared about what happened to Patch after he saw the gash. He could've fixed it, but he hadn't even tried.

Then Checkers broke down and cried, though I knew he didn't like to do so a lot, it didn't make him look tough. We all sat there for the longest time, wondering how anything so horrible could happen to someone who didn't deserve it, how someone couldn't give even a cent worth of honesty and caring to save a person's life.

Author's Note: Oh, you thought this chapter was painful? Next chapter is gonna be much worse, I tell you. But don't worry, because I assure you, the world will keep turning even though all my characters probably don't think it will….well, that was chapter four, I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading and please, I beg you, I implore you, to review, review, review, because it makes me write a whole lot more!