ATTENTION: This is a VERY important and detailed chapter with plenty of advanced language. Please, for your own safety, do not read in a rushed environment or attempt to skim through the long parts. It will be detrimental in your understanding of this book. DO NOT RUSH…or do. I don't really care, I mean, it's a free country. Do what you want. I just hope you enjoy this chapter. :)
"Ruby!" Crutchy yelled, "Wait up!" he ran as fast as he could on his crutch and without crashing into pedestrians.
"Ruby, we've got like ten minutes!" he shouted to the red-headed girl who immediately stopped running.
Crutchy finally caught up to her, panting.
"Well then why am I running?" she asked to no one in particular.
Crutchy set a hand on her shoulder, "What are you running from?" he silently praised himself for being so clever.
"We're only trying to help you." he pressed.
She sharply turned to him, "I don't need help. I'm not weak. I can do this on my own. I don't need to be carried."
Crutchy chuckled and held up his crutch in front of her face. "Forget who you're talking to?"
Ruby blushed and fell silent. Crutchy seized this opportunity to pull her to a fruit stand. He traded with a particularly plump merchant for an orange.
"Here." he said, brandishing it at Ruby.
She quirked an eyebrow, "That's an orange."
Crutchy rolled his eyes and began to peel it, "I'm aware."
"Are you going to eat it?"
"No," He tore off the last of the peel, "you are." He shoved the fruit in her face again.
"I don't like oranges." She crossed her arms.
"Eat this fruit or I will shove it down your throat." Crutchy warned in an eerily calm manner.
Ruby raised her eyebrows, he was serious about this! His normally overly cheerful demeanor was gone and replaced by a serious expression. To be honest, it shook her more than it should have.
"Fine." she said decidedly, seeing that he would never give up. She plucked the orange from his hand and took a small bite.
Immediately her body reminded herself of how long it had been since she ate. Bite after bite, she ate the fruit within moments. Crutchy watched on with a successful smirk. "Like it?" he asked proudly.
Ruby rolled her eyes, a smile still showing, and began to walk. Crutchy, with his signature grin, followed closely.
Feeling brave, Crutchy, after a few minutes of walking, leaned down next to her ear and said, "You know, that's not the proper way to eat an orange."
Upon hearing this, Ruby rolled her eyes, "Oh really? Then how, my good sir, does one eat an orange properly?" She asked in a mock posh voice.
He laughed and replied, "Why, you take each section apart and eat them one at a time!"
"It's a free country!"
"Not anymore, I bought it!"
"You bought it?" Ruby quirked an eyebrow.
"This morning."
"Why?
"So that I could make the orange law!"
"You bought the country just to make me eat an orange your way?"
"Tsk, tsk! It's not MY way! It's the AMERICAN way!"
They both erupted into laughter, frightening the perplexed citizens passing them.
After a moment Crutchy scratched the back of his neck, "Hey Ruby, I'm sorry about before with the buying the orange and everything...I shouldn't have done that."
Ruby smiled softy and put a hand on his shoulder, "You're fine, Crutch. I was just being stubborn. I haven't ever had anyone care about me or anything." She looked away, blushing furiously.
"Hey, that's not true! You got Anna and Alice- you're their whole world!" Crutchy pressed.
Ruby fought the blush creeping up her cheeks, "Well, it wasn't always that way, you know."
Crutchy turned his head, was she finally opening up to him? "Yeah?"
"Yeah." she looked at her feet.
"What happened?" he insisted.
She exhaled sharply, if I told you that, I'd have to tell you my life story."
"Only if you want to." Said Crutchy, not wanting to push her too far.
Ruby took a deep breath, "Well, they're not my real nieces. I adopted them."
Crutchy's face scrunched up in confusion, "Why would you-"
"Nope," Ruby cut him off, "Wait until I'm done."
Crutchy nodded; eager to know more about the blue-eyed mystery beside him.
"Well, I was cold and alone on the streets of New York City..."
**Flashback**
A wind whistled, giving pause to the ever growing silence.
The streets of Manhattan were just as empty as they were dirty, with the exception of one girl. Ruby Eliza Darthins.
The small, scruffy girl had unimaginably red hair, but the dirt was so embedded, her hair appeared blackish brown. Her ripped and torn clothes were a small comfort against the harsh cold biting at her exposed skin. Despite her appearance, the girl had a full stomach, the profits of being a master pickpocket. Her pockets jingled with years' worth of savings, she was prepared to buy a ticket to anywhere but New York.
Her only tie to remain in the city was the ruby necklace her father currently possessed. He had used it for years to convince Ruby to steal for him and endure his torture.
As a young girl, he taught he how to properly steal from others, no matter who they were, as long as they had money. Ruby, however, had the advantage of size, stealth, and an unsuspicious demeanor. Soon enough, Ruby became the sole thief of the two-person household. For a while, she was happy, but as she worked harder and harder, more money became meaningless and disposable. Her father, bored and never willing to work, spent all his time at a bar downtown. Ruby soon discovered the monster that resided inside her father.
The young girl would thieve and prepare the meals, all the while silently praying her father would sober up for once. But alas, the grief-stricken man had never had the chance to grieve or blame anyone for the loss of his beloved wife. Now, there was the girl who killed her with her very birth. She didn't matter to him in his drunken stupor; she was merely the physical representation of all the problems in his life. And she accepted it in hopes she would eventually be gifted with the last remaining part of her mother, the ruby necklace.
That is, until she was ten years old.
Her father had come home early with a knife he had taken off a man in the bar with intent to kill the person who killed his wife. For hours, Ruby hidden between rooms, praying for her father to pass out so she could finally leave. During the adrenaline rushed sequence, she'd given up the impossible dream of regaining her mother's necklace, the only thing she ever wanted, other than her father's love.
Later, her father collapsed on the den floor and Ruby left the house she had never truly called home.
Now, three years later, Ruby Darthins was prepared to face him and get back the precious item, now a thirteen year old with maturity beyond her years.
She weaved in and out of streets, careful not to run into anyone.
Pausing outside an apartment complex, Ruby scanned the area trying to remember how to reenter her old place. She had been living outside the city for years so she wouldn't run into her father accidentally.
Left or right? She asked herself, Or forward or back?
She sighed; there were just too many streets that all looked exactly the same. There was no way she'd find him in one night.
"GET OUTTA HERE ALREADY!" shouted a gruff, troll-like voice from beside Ruby. She jumped; all her nerves on edge as she was hit by something very large and heavy. Sprawled out on the concrete and sore, it took a minute for the adolescent girl to regain her balance.
"Mama!" two small female voices called out as a door slammed.
Ruby looked to see the figure still on the ground, having no energy to move even slightly. It was a woman wrapped tightly in shabbily-made quilts, shivering and frail, she appeared to have an almost grey tint to her sickly skin. Her dirty blonde hair was filthy and stringy, having fallen under the list of unnecessary wastes of money.
"Girls." She whispered hoarsely before having a coughing fit, sending her body into violent convulsions. Two identical small girls in dirty dresses rushed to her side, tears streaming down their cheeks.
Ruby stood on the street, petrified, she'd never come across such a sickly person. She'd hardly come across anyone other than her father.
The fragile woman turned to Ruby and reached out a shaking hand to her, "Please." She begged with a hardly discernible voice.
Ruby's eyes went as wide as saucers, her automatic reaction was to grab hold of the woman's hand and kneel to her side. She felt the coldness and grime in the woman's hand and felt an involuntary shiver.
"Please take care of my children." The woman begged, "Bring them to the care of the nuns at Mary Magdalene's Church." She strained out.
Ruby racked her brain for the right words. Nothing had ever been asked of her, she was seen only as a nuisance everywhere she went. Now, two live human beings were being placed in her care, even temporarily, this was a huge responsibility! She didn't Loading... know how to care for anyone, she couldn't sustain life! She had only just met this woman; Ruby didn't owe her any sort of favor.
And yet, "Of course." Ruby found herself saying.
Both girls looked at their new nanny, "Who are you?" they asked simultaneously. Their mother turned her head to the girls and began to cry, outpouring the tears she'd been holding in for so long.
"She's your new aunt." The sickly woman turned her weak head to Ruby, "Stay strong for my daughters." Ruby nodded numbly, words of promise and faith passed unspoken through the women.
"My girls," she laid a hand on each of their cheeks, "never weep for me. I shall see you again one day, in a better place." And with that, her last breath escaped her lips, eyes still open.
As the girls began to sob hysterically, clinging on to their mother for dear life, Ruby shed a few tears and gently closed the eyes of the deceased mother.
I never even knew her name, thought Ruby glumly. Respectfully, she removed her beloved coat and placed it over the woman.
The night was spent with both girls, still unidentified to Ruby, crying themselves to sleep, clutching their new aunt as she tried to calm them down.
To be continued