Hey guys, I hope you all had a good Holiday Season. I know I did, cause I finally got my new computer. YAY!

I'm thanking all of those who have reviewed, and I'm not going to answer any from the last chapter. Cause I seem to have forgotten what you all said, and because I wanted a fresh start.

Now, I must warn all of you. This chapter, is kind of a tear jerker. I was tearing up as I wrote it. So be prepared.

Its just way too hot out here for a girl to be digging a five foot hole. Hmmm...I'm gonna have to ask Mr. Piglet if I can get some kind of raise for the work I'm doing...Oh wait, I don't even get paid. Ha!

As I pull another shovel full of dirt out of my hole and onto the ledge, I think about all that's happened over the week since Spot's been here.

Well...He got here...He claimed to have gotten here by a Shooting Star, and finally confessed that he was the one who made a wish for us Three Musketeers to go back into the 1900's. Turns out that he also got blaimed for some kind of theft and murder. Did anybody else notice that all our bodies went on killing sprees, except Spots cause he just arrived. I wonder what his body is doing back in the 1900's.Anyways... He caused a ruckus in the Mess hall when one of the 'B' tent boys was stealing looks my way. He 'accidentaly' hit Mr. Piglet in the head with one of those nasty tortillas. I slapped him upside the head for messing with Twitch while he was...twitching? And my tent mates have also got most of that body undug.

Oh, and we found out where Spot was supposed to be sleeping...With Squid. I laughed so hard when Mr. Pendenski gave out that information an hour after I had chased Spot out of the tent.

Squid didn't seem to see the humor in it, and tried to make Spot sleep on the floor. That didn't go over so well. The poor boy. Spot not Squid. Spot was offended that someone was trying to make him sleep on the floor. Or well, at least he was pretending to be offended. I felt so sorry for Spot, that I let him sleep with me on my cot. And that was his plan all along. That ass.

And now, I'm in a hole that's three feet deep and I'm sweating like no other. I groan as I shove my shovel into the dirt. This thing I'm digging with is getting to heavy for my liking. I wonder if Spot will dig my hole for me. I glance over the top of my hole, barely being able to see the top of Spots head over his own hole. He ran his arm across his forehead, wiping the sweat off with his forearm. Nah...I don't think I'll ask him, he's got his own problems. Well, at least he's actually able to get out of his own hole without help.

My gaze swept across the other boys, and over to where ZigZag was digging in the hole with the body. I don't know why they didn't just go and tell Mr. Ignore Me, or Mr. Piglet that there was a body out in the desert. They might have gotten pretty interested in it and might have dug it up themselves. Or, they could have fainted at the sight of a dead body. I didn't faint the first time I saw it. I mean, who would? There wasn't any flesh left on the bones, because it had probably been out here for hundreds of years. The hair and nails were disinegrating when I took my first glance at it. And I haven't seen it since I yelled at X-Ray. I did not want to be the one who was yelled at when Mr. Sir finally took notice to them digging in the same whole for a whole week now.

I sighed and starting digging again, thoughts of the body disappearing from my head.

And hour later, after I had finished lunch and was about to jump in my hole was when ZigZag called out.

"I got the body undug. And Boy, does this thing look cool. It must be from like, hundreds of years ago."

Everyone jumped out of their own holes and ran over to the body hole. Spot looked confused. Nobody's told him about the body yet. No wonder he didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about when the boys were getting ready for bed. I take his arm and start leading him towards the other boys.

"Battery found a body the day you showed up while he was digging. He came up out of his hole, screaming his head off. I finally got out of mine and went to see what was wrong with him. Turns out that his shovel his something in the dirt, he moved the dirt aside with his hands, and he came face to face with a skull."

I told him the rest, and a look of understanding came up.

I pushed Twitch to the side a little, to let me and Spot in next to the hole. I looked down and couldn't help but think that this body was familiar.

Dark gray pants, light gray shirt, black vest which was covered in dried sand. The body was wearing worn out black boots, and I could immediately tell it was male by the way the skeleton was dressed.

"Check his pockets, maybe there's something interesting in them," X-ray said, kneeling down for a closer look.

ZigZag nodded and bent down over the skeleton. He checked the vest pockets first, then moved onto the pants pockets. After checking the right one and finding nothing, he moved to the left one, only to come up with an envelope. And a recognizable red handkerchief. Us Musketeers and Spot gasped. I jumped down into the hole and took the red cloth from ZigZag. Then taking the letter, I opened it and read it. I didn't bother reading it out loud, cause only the four of us who gasped would understand it.

Dear Spot Conlon,

Ya know, it's kinda funny to be writing to a person who could be dead right about now. We never did find out where you disappeared to. After Ma vanished with Lover and Monkey, you seemed to be out of it. You never smirked like you used to, or get it Smirkier like Ma always used to say. Most of us noticed that you never laughed, never smiled, you didn't even yell at that Sandy girl when she flirted like crazy with you because Ma was gone. You just walked away whenever one of used tried to cheer you up. And then you just disappeared one night. You had spent the night over in Manhatten, and the next morning, it was like you were never even there. Your bed wasn't slept in, your stuff was gone. You just seemed to...Vanish. Just like Ma and our other two friends.

After a year, we finally figured out that you wouldn't be returning. Race happened to win some big money before our three friends disappeared, but after you left, he really won some big money. We still saw him, but he had money for things we never even dreamed of. He bought us lunch at Tibby's, got us new clothes. He acted like the Racetrack we've always known. He kept gambling down at the tracks, won a lot of card games...He was murdered exactly a year after you vanished. The murderer killed him and took his money. The last thing I remember Race saying to me was, 'I wish Spot were here so I could buy him some new clothes, cause God only knows he's needed new ones for years. I bet he never even noticed that his pants were too short for him.'

If you can remember Ember, the kid who always annoyed you to all hell because you thought he was taking over Ma's brain, he grew up. He fell in love at sixteen, was married a year later. A few years after that, that boy had his own kid to take care of. It was a little girl, and they named her Jet after Ma. I haven't seen him in a few years but I heard that he was a big shot News reporter for the World Newspaper. His daughter was a Newsie for a while, taking after Ember, but then left for school and got an education. I heard that his wife died not too long ago from a disease that nobody's heard of.

All the other Newsies grew up. They became big shot everythings. Reporters, Laywers, Teachers, Singers. That last one was reffered to Mush and Kid Blink. They've been working with Medda for a few years now, singing and dancing in the theatre. You know how they've always wanted to do that.

And I'm guessing that your wondering about me now. Well...I finally made it to Santa Fe. I bought myself a ticket to New Mexico as soon as I had enough money. I stayed with an old couple who took me in out of the kindness of their hearts. They left me their ranch in their will. And I was soon running it after a year and a half of living with them. I'm tellin ya Spot, this is what I had always wanted to do. This is what I had always dreamed of. But it wasn't enough. I had this feeling that kept pushing me towards Texas. So I left my ranch in the care of one of my trusted neighbors one morning, and left to take care of this feeling. It took weeks just to get there, and finally when I did arrive, I couldn't survive. My horse died after a few days of not having any food or water in the hot desert, and I was not far behind. So here I am, writing a letter to a friend who might be deceased. I'm pretty close to that myself. And I don't mind. I found where that feeling was leading me. It was leading me to you, I just know it. I don't know, but if you ever did find Ma when you disappeared after her, tell her that before Racetrack died, he told me that he wanted the clothes back that she never returned. And also those French Fries that she ate.

I'm gonna miss ya Buddy. Maybe I'll see ya in Heaven, and you'll be playin poker with Race.

Love, Your friend Jack "Cowboy" Kelly.

That was all it took, hearing about Ember, Racetrack being murdered, having a kid named after me, Jack going to Texas following a feeling, and Racetrack making a comment on the clothes I never returned and the French Fries I stole from him and ate. I burst into tears. And all because of a Letter that wasn't even addressed to me from Jack Kelly...That Ass.