Woohoo! No school today!

Review Responses:

lucykeeven7: Yes! It's such a random detail, but it's great for Specs' character, and I needed to expand upon it. Thanks! Kath is completely done with those two hooligans.

JustVildaPotter: Newsies is always more important than sleep. Haha, yeah, both halves of Spromeo still need to figure themselves out. That'll come later, don't you worry. The way you correctly identified that tap solo translation: ZAAAAA! WELL DONE!

Shoutout to isntthatagreatname for following and favoriting this! Welcome to the party!

Now, on we go!

Chapter 49- Elmer

Sunday, September 19, 1999, 4:30 p.m.

There was an alarming amount of people gathered in Elmer's hospital room the third time he woke up. The first time, hours before, there had only been his sister and two other nuns, standing over him singing hymns. Understandable, as he'd probably looked almost dead, but waking up to this sight immediately soared to the top of Elmer's most unpleasant situations list. He could imagine nothing more awkward than being a person surrounded by a group of extremely religious people, while not feeling comfortable with any particular religion himself. Needless to say, there was a reason Elmer avoided attending church, and this was it. But he could never admit his iffy feelings to anyone, particularly his family members. So, to avoid interacting with the nuns, Elmer had closed his eyes and pretended to have never stirred. Oddly, he had quickly fallen back asleep.

The second time he'd woken up, almost all of his other siblings had been there to visit him. They had brought lunch with them, and Elmer, despite his splitting headache, was none too keen to refuse food. The youngest of his older brothers, Emil, had brought along a newspaper as well. That day's headline, at least where The New York Sun was concerned, was in support of the newsies' strike. Elmer had yelled and punched the air in triumph, only to instantly regret doing so, as the action and sound had worsened his headache. Following that short burst of excitement, Elmer had listened to his siblings' overlapping conversations without adding much himself. As the hours passed by, he had begun to wonder where his friends were, and why none of them had come to visit him yet. That wondering had been quickly overshadowed, however, by his desire to sleep, and he had instead started wishing for his siblings to leave, or simply that they would shut up. The more they talked, the more he'd longed for their departure. But they had kept on bombarding him with questions and praise, both of which he was normally fine with, having become accustomed to such things as the youngest of nine. Even so, he'd dearly wanted some time alone, so he could try and make sense of everything that had happened the day before.

Try as he might, Elmer couldn't seem to piece together all that had happened. Sniper, Tommy Boy, and Blink had shown up and betrayed the strike, then Sniper had started arguing with Finch, and Blink with Mush, and then... What? What had happened after that? The arrival of Sniper and the others was as far as he could remember, but there must have been something more, since he had ended up unconscious. But what had led to that?

Elmer had closed his eyes, attempting to recall more. And evidently, that simple motion had been enough indication for his siblings to realize he was tired, and they had all trickled out of the room while Elmer laid back down. Henry would know, he had decided, feeling tiredness come over him again. He was good at remembering things. That was how come he could hold grudges so well. Elmer's only talents were school-related; he was probably going to go to MIT and become an engineer, just like the rest of his older brothers...

He had drifted off with that thought, but now he was awake again. Crowded in his room were the nuns and his siblings, as well as his oldest sister Hannah, who he saw far too often anyway, with her being his principal and all. Mike and Ike, the twins, were backed up against the wall of his room, book-ending Romeo, whose head was wrapped in a bandage. But standing in the doorway, directly in Elmer's line of sight, were the only people of consequence: Jojo, Buttons, and most importantly, Henry.

Thank goodness, his best friend was here. He could finally get some answers. Elmer requested of his sister Roza, standing nearest him, that everyone but his friends leave the room. She relayed the message to the crowd, and within seconds, all the people who were not newsies had cleared out.

"You're alive!" Henry exclaimed, running over to wrap his arms around his friend once there was room for him to move.

Elmer laughed. When they had finished hugging- which was rather awkward given the fact that he sat in a bed while Henry stood- he lightly punched his best friend on the shoulder. "Of course I'm alive."

Scrunching up his eyebrows, Henry asked, "Huh?"

That had been a straightforward joke, so there was no reason for Henry to be confused. Maybe Elmer had slurred his words together without realizing it. His brain was still a bit hazy from whatever medications the hospital had given him. Rather than repeat the joke, he gave Henry a thumbs-up. The other boy nodded, but Elmer caught him exchanging a worried look with Jojo as he stepped back.

Whatever. Elmer slid the newspaper off his bedside table and spread it across his lap. "Is someone going to explain how we made headlines, or what?"

No one responded to his question, aside from head tilts and confused expressions, but when Romeo noticed the paper and jumped up, exclaiming, "Why didn'tcha tell me we made da front page?" Buttons was quick to launch into an explanation.

"Kath an' her reporter friend worked their magic. Unfortunately, The Sun was the only pape that got ta run an article 'bout us, but it's still somethin'."

Jostling with Romeo for the paper, Elmer scanned the big picture below the bolded headline, in search of himself within the group photo. When he'd been located, he cried out in disappointment, "My eyes are closed! Why did they print that photo?"

"What ta the who now?" said Romeo.

Unsure why no one seemed able to comprehend a word he said, Elmer pointed harshly at the tiny black-and-white version of himself. It took Romeo a moment to follow his finger, but once he located mini-Elmer, Romeo nudged the real Elmer, teasing, "Ha, yer eyes're closed!"

"That's what I said," Elmer told him.

Romeo didn't reply; he looked up at Buttons instead. "So what else is new?"

For some reason, Buttons' eyes flicked toward Elmer before they responded, "Well, it turns out Kath is Pulitzer's daughter."

"Shocker," the twin Elmer was fifty percent sure was Ike said sarcastically.

"Neva' would a' seen that coming," the other twin- possibly Mike- concurred.

Romeo realized, "So that's why Pulitzer got so worked up 'bout that article on her..."

"Nepotism strikes again!" Elmer cheered, then added, "Hey, that would make a good headline."

His words were once again met with silence, before Jojo said, "Um, yeah. Yay for nepotism." It sounded almost as if "nepotism" was the only word they had understood.

After a moment of awkwardness in which Elmer watched Jojo quizzically, Buttons continued his explanation. "So we got our headline, but Pulitzer shut down all the otha' papes, an' Jack's missin', so no one know what we're gonna do now."

"Wait, Jack's missing?" Elmer asked, "Since when?"

No answer.

"Youse still haven't found Jack?" Romeo rolled his eyes. "Dude, he can't be that hard ta find. Ya jus' gotta follow the sound a' singin' about Santa Fe."

Everyone chuckled at that, except for Elmer and Henry. The former, because he was growing irritated at the lack of response to his questions, and the latter because he was preoccupied with staring at his best friend, his forehead creased with worry.

"What are you looking at?" Elmer snapped at him, ticked off by the concerned expression.

"What?" Henry backed up, distress still obvious on his face. "I don't-"

"Never mind." If he wasn't going to explain what the hell was happening, Elmer wasn't going to talk to him. To make this clear, he turned his gaze away.

"Seriously though," Ike was saying, "it ain't like the Cowboy ta be this unavailable."

"It's real strange," Mike put in. "So who's leadin' us now? Smalls?"

"Nah," replied Buttons, "Davey and Race."

Sounding highly troubled for the fate of the newsies under the leadership of the aforementioned pair, Romeo wondered, "What about Specs?"

"He didn't want the job," answered Jojo. At some point in the conversation, they had wrapped an arm around Henry, and Henry had since laid his head on their shoulder. That was unusual, but as Elmer thought it over, he realized a relationship between those two wouldn't be entirely out of the question.

Grinning to himself at the sight, Elmer nudged Romeo, who had just cried out, "Was there no one else?" While Buttons snorted, Romeo turned to Elmer. "What's up, gibberish boy?"

Gibberish boy? What did that mean? Ignoring these questions, Elmer gestured toward Jojo and Henry. To his relief, a grin spread across the younger boy's face as he took in the closeness that had been brought to his attention.

"Hey Mike," Romeo called, smiling at Henry and Jojo. "Is coffee an' sandwiches a good combination?"

"I dunno," Mike was a bit slow on the uptake. "Henry's the authority on food."

Romeo sighed. "Henry, do you like coffee?"

"What kind a' question is that?" Henry responded, lifting his head to give everyone else an expression that implied the answer was obvious.

"Where's the best coffee place in New York, then?"

"Uh... I only eva' get it from Jojo... what're ya grinnin' so widely for?"

"I think ya know."

"No, I really don't."

"Bet Jojo does."

They scoffed and removed their arm from Henry's shoulder. "Romeo, don't try implyin' nothin'. We're just friends."

"Please," remarked Romeo, not on board with Jojo's insistence. "We all know Henry loooves you!" The others- besides Henry- burst into laughter, while Jojo's cheeks colored.

"Y'know," reasoned Ike, "now that ya mention it, that sexual tension is easy ta see."

Henry's face reddened as well, either from anger or embarrassment, Elmer wasn't sure which. He scooted away from Jojo, protesting, "No, this is bogus!"

That fooled no one. Elmer smirked at his best friend, teasing, "Haven't you noticed you get all your coffee for free?"

"Shut up! I don't even know what yer sayin'!" With that, Henry stalked out of the room, leaving Jojo to chase after him.

For a moment, Buttons stood, staring at the other boys. Then Romeo stated, "Oops," and everyone in the group exploded into laughter again, including Buttons.

"Didja see Jojo's face?" They exclaimed, clutching their stomach. "Ya got 'em good, Ro!"

Elmer sang, "Henry and Jojo, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

The laughter died out as speedily as it had arrived. Continuing to smile widely, Romeo admitted, "We can't understand a word you's sayin', El."

"What do you mean?"

"Dude, speak English," instructed Ike, though he clearly hadn't understood Elmer's question.

"I am speaking-" And as he spoke the phrase, it clicked. All of a sudden, Elmer noticed what he hadn't been paying any mind to before that moment: the syllables coming out of his mouth, and indeed all the words he had said so far that day, were all in Polish. Earlier, with his siblings, the distinction had been less obvious. Around them, he switched languages so often it was instinctive. One tongue or another, his siblings could always understand him. But his friends weren't so skilled.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Elmer asked, trying his hardest to think English, hoping doing so would incite a lingual switch. From the muddled expressions worn by his friends, he could see he'd hoped wrong. He proceeded to shout, "Come on!" in an extremely irritated tone, so that the inflection might get the message across, which succeeded.

"Are ya tryin' ta speak English?" At the question, Elmer shot Mike such a glare that the boy tried to scoot back in his chair, resulting in his head knocking against the wall when the chair failed to move.

"That's freaky," Romeo voiced his opinion that nobody wanted to know. "How can you try ta speak one language, an' end up speakin' somethin' completely different?"

Elmer answered with "Hell if I know," but of course no one understood.

"Ya did hit yer head pretty hard yesterday," suggested Buttons. "That could've messed somethin' up." Seeing Elmer engage himself in worried lip biting, they quickly tacked on, "But I'm sure you'll get back ta normal in no time. It'll jus' take a little while ta figure stuff out again."

A little while could be anytime from now until the next year. Elmer didn't have that kind of time, not when his friends were busy protesting. He wanted to be outside, involved in the fight for their rights, not inside sitting idly by as he waited to reap the rewards of the strike effort.

"That's not fair!" He complained, waving the newspaper to illustrate his point. "What about the strike?"

Somehow, Buttons correctly deduced the question, and willingly provided a response. "You ain't the only person who's gonna sit out the rest a' the strike. Like I said before, we got no clue where Jack is, an' then there's Crutchie-"

"Crutchie?" Thank goodness names translated in every language.

Romeo jumped into the conversation as well, asking more or less the same question, but with embellishments. "Yeah, what's up with Crutchie?"

"That's an excellent question," Buttons answered, in a tone that suggested he was not going elaborate. "Look, all ya need ta know is nobody's seen or heard from him fer several hours. But I'm sure he's fine."

"Right," said Ike, laying on the sarcasm again, "because that makes sense."

"He's prob'ly wherever Jack-" Mike started, but Buttons interrupted.

"I know! We already figured that out a million times ova'. All we can do now is wait."

He was correct, in more ways than one. The first way being, evidently, that the newsies would have to wait for Crutchie to contact them, if trying things the other way around had failed. And Elmer would have just as much waiting to do. Waiting for his English-speaking capabilities to come back. For Henry to speak to him again, once everything worked itself out. For the efforts of his striking friends to pay off, without his help. The rest of the newsies might be down on their luck, but at least they could be understood.

Because, as Elmer was being forced to learn, a person's voice was nothing if there was no one around with the ability to hear it.

I really like this chapter. It's the first from Elmer's viewpoint, and I got to experiment with the effects of a brain injury. I hope you enjoyed!

If you're a fan of In The Heights, and you caught the reference in this chapter, you deserve pastrami on rye with a sour pickle. (If this doesn't apply to you, you can have your face on a wooden nickel instead.)

Please review, it's guaranteed to make my day.

See you again this weekend, when it's sad chapter time!