Time skip! Four years later!

It had been a long four years. I had only spent one year with my uncle Anthony, but I still missed him. On this particular day he hadn't been on my mind as much, but of course, Phillip had to get a job as a jockey. Of course.

The horse racing down in Virginia was pretty close to the horse racing in New York. The rules were all the same at least. But something was always missing from Virginia horse racing. I knew what it was as soon as I realized something else should be there.

The distant shouts I heard should be closer, should be in a different voice. My uncle Anthony wasn't here, shouting out headlines and keeping me close to him. Here, it was just me, Timmy, and Rosie.

Timmy and Rosie were my best friends down here, Timmy was 8 and Rosie was 9. Both of them lived in the same apartment building as me and Phillip, so when I first came here they were the first people I met. Now they went with me to the races when I watched Uncle Phillip.

They knew all about New York.

Timothy became Jumper after the stories I wove for him, and Rosie was shortened to Rose. Now the three of us, Jumper, Rose, and Liza thrived on my stories. I couldn't stop telling them. It was as though if I ran out of stories I could never go back. Rose and Jumper loved hearing them.

So I told them everything.

They got every insignificant detail of every newsie that I had ever known.

Over the last 4 years, I had begun to run dry. Now I was nine years old, taller and barely more defined. My hair was longer, and my skin was tanner.

My thoughts were on the newsies a lot. I never forgot, see. Rose and Jumper would remind me of things sometimes, but I had spent my first few weeks merely bawling, ingraining every detail I could into my mind.

Anthony would be 23 by now, maybe he had made something of himself. The same for Jack, Mush, Blink, and everyone else their age. I often wished I had learned their real names. Les would be a teenager. The same for Boots, Snipes, and Tumbler. I had tried to imagine them older, but always ended up with funny pictures of them distorted and stretched, like taffy.

Virginia was really different from New York, and far away, but I dreamed that the newsies would save me from the constant heat, even in the winter. I would see Spot, Hannah if she still worked at the track, Kloppman if he was still the caretaker. I would see everyone and everything I had missed and take Rose and Jumper with me.

I would see Tumbler again. He would be 11 now, and maybe, if he was lucky, Skittery got him off the streets. If he wasn't lucky, he'd be dead.

That's another thing. I had watched my parents die. When you're little, you can fit into tiny crates while your parents fade away. It was like I could feel their spirits leave me. When I first arrived in Manhattan, I had nightmares all the time, but I eventually calmed down. The first few weeks in Virginia were hell for Phillip. I cried, had nightmares every night, screamed at him for taking me away. But he kept me there.

The memories are all sort of grainy now, it's been so long.

Then it happened. The beautiful, magical happening that happened.

Rose was moving to Albany, New York. Rose was moving to NEW YORK.

I was childish about it. I begged Phillip to let me go, to stay in Manhattan to please please have a heart!

He agreed up to a point. He thought it might be good for me to visit New York, but I wouldn't be staying. He would sent me there with Rose and her parents, and trusted me to get back on my own.

The 'getting back on my own' was a bit unnerving, but I was ready to go back.

It all happened quickly after that decision. I had two days in Manhattan. I had enough money to stay in my old lodging house; hopefully Kloppman was still there. After those two days, I had to return.

Phillip would be meeting me halfway, and take the last two trains home with me. But for the first one I would be alone.

Even that didn't matter. New York was everything now.

So that's how I ended up on a train back to where I came from, to refresh my memories, and make everything a little less fuzzy.

Tell me what you think, did I mess anything up?

Flying out.

Monkey Cerebrum.