Chapter 2: Where the Boys Are...
After his encounter with the pretty, rich girl, Kid Blink easily sold the last of his papers and made his way to Tibby's where he knew he'd eventually meet up with some of the other newsies. Sure enough, when he arrived, Race, Mush, and Boots were already there, enjoying some cold (and on the house) rootbeers.
"Hey Kid," called Mush, patting his best friend on the back as Kid took his seat next to the dark curly-haired boy. "Any luck today?"
"Yeah, I sold 'em all and some rich goil gave me a nickel for just one pape!" The anticipated catcalls and whistles ensued, to which Kid laughed good naturedly and humored his friends by giving them a wicked grin.
"You gonna give her anythin' in return Blink?" cracked Race as Mush snorted into his rootbeer. The boys knew well of Kid Blink's never-ceasing romantic exploits, few of which were actually successful, but most of which resulted in hilarious stories that all of the newsies loved to recount at poker games.
"Nah, not this goil," Kid said heartily. Boots rolled his eyes. "You shoulda seen 'er! She was a real piece o' woik. Lives in one o' dose huge houses over by da' park. Her faddah looked like he was gonna shoot me jus' for sellin' her a pape!"
"Pretty?" asked Mush, his eyes flashing. Mush was the only other boy Kid knew who liked girls as much as he did.
Kid shrugged. "I hardly noticed. It was too damn hot." This brought murmurs of agreement from the other three newsies, and all four of them quieted down to enjoy the rest of their drinks. A moment later, the door chime rang as five more newsies burst in, talking animatedly about the day's events and in anticipation of a cold drink. Among the newcomers was Jack Kelly. He was a year older than Kid and towered over most of the boys who lived in the lodging house. And while Kid and Mush were girl-crazy and occasionally got lucky, Jack was the only one among the bunch who was actually known to have a great deal of success with women. Perhaps this was why he had become the unofficial leader of the Manhattan newsies.
"Hey Cowboy!" called Racetrack gleefully as Jack joined them at the bar. "Guess who met a rich goil today?" Even from outside in the street, the restaurant rang with the laughter of the newsboys from within.
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Lucy didn't want to go to the Horner's house. She despised Robbie's uptight, ultra-conservative parents, his shrew of a sister, and his creepy older brother. If it weren't for the respectability of his family (the ultimate of old money) and their continuing support of Lucy's father's bid for District Attorney of New York City, Lucy was sure her family would have nothing to do with the Horners. But, unfortunately, as she had discovered since moving to the United States, she had very little choice in whose company she frequented.
Life had been so much simpler when she was still living in England with her mother. Her parents had never bothered to divorce, never having had a reason to despite the fact that they couldn't even bare to live on the same continent as each other. Lucy stayed with her mother in Derbyshire while Mr. Morningside chose to reside in New York and build up a career as an attorney. Lucy had barely known her father when, three years before, upon her mother's untimely death, she came to the United States for the first time. Back in England, Mrs. Morningside had given her daughter more liberty than most girl's her age, and Lucy didn't think she would ever want to leave her comfortable country life. But tuberculosis had changed everything. Living in the dirty, crowded streets of New York City was as far from the gentle, lush English countryside as Lucy could imagine.
While her thoughts were engaged by memories of her dead mother and longing of her old life, Lucy suddenly found herself in front of the Horner's apartment, which lay across the park from her house. Taking a deep breath and swallowing her pride, she knocked on the door and rehearsed her excuse.
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After an hour or so of fooling around with his friends, Kid Blink was finally able to quietly excuse himself and sneak away without attracting too much attention. He knew what he was doing wasn't illegal or anything--far from it--but he didn't know what the other newsies would think if they found out where Kid liked to go after work every day. Race, as everyone knew, went to the Sheepshead races every day, Jack liked to see Medda Larkson perform her vaudeville act at Irving Hall, Mush and Skittery often tried to cajole Kid into sneaking into dance halls to meet girls, and the younger kids enjoyed attempting to sneak into the dime museums and Kid Blink liked to go to...the library?
One of the few memories Blink retained of his childhood consisted of lying on the floor of his mother's one room apartment with a kerosene lamp, his nose pressed against a thick volume filled with stories of pirates and adventure, war and intrigue, knights in shining armor and romance (although at the time the romance hadn't excited him nearly as much as did the battle scenes). His family had had barely enough to get by on, but Kid couldn't have cared less as long as he had books with which to pass the time. And it worked for years, until he was nine years old...
Kid shook his head, as if to banish the memory from his mind. He never thought about it anymore, the day his family had been torn apart. It was too painful. No, better to keep his mind filled with happy thoughts of his life now with his friends, his life as a newsie.
Ten minutes later Kid was walking up the steps of the New York Public Library, smoothing his hair and brushing off his clothes. He knew that as long as all he did was sit quietly and read, the librarians wouldn't kick him out, but he was always aware of their penetrating glares when they caught sight of his dirty appearance. The reproachment stopped at glances, but it hurt Kid Blink to know that fellow booklovers would judge him solely based on his appearance. He was also fairly sure that the hoity-toity librarians would probably never give him a library card--he had never even asked--so he did all his reading inside the library. Today, he was nearing the end of what he was positive would be his favorite book of all time, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck's adventures and close shaves with danger sparked Blink's imagination and made him long to travel the Mississippi river, although he didn't see how it could be all that different from the Hudson. After all, a river was a river, right?
After removing his hat and straightening his hair underneath the ties of his eyepatch, Kid entered the library and made his way to the fiction section, to the spot where he always knew where Huck Finn was. He bent down and made to grab for it...and frowned.
He looked up. Yes, this was the fiction section. It hadn't been moved. "T" for Twain, this was exactly where the book should be. This was where it was yesterday! Frustrated, Kid Blink strode to where a dusty looking librarian was straightening a shelf of equally dusty books.
"Why ain't 'Huck Finn' on da shelf where it always is?" he asked. "Did it get moved?" The librarian looked at him like he had just told her he was Teddy Roosevelt.
"If it's not on the shelf," she said slowly in a patronizing voice, "it must have been checked out."
Kid stared. "Checked out? But...I was readin' it!" he protested.
"Well then maybe you should get a library card," the librarian said stuffily before she walked off in the other direction. It took all of Kid's calm not to cry out in frustration. He didn't even know what you needed to get a library card! He was sure you needed an address, some form of identification... No, the library would never give him a card. He would just have to wait until the book came back.
Kid was considerably less cheerful upon leaving the library than he had been when he had arrived. He considered looking for a new book to begin, but he didn't want to start another one when he was so close to finishing Huck Finn. He decided, instead, to take a walk in the park. Central Park at dusk was one of his favorite places to walk, and he knew it might lift his spirits. Though the air was still humid and made his whole body beg for a bath, it wasn't nearly as swelteringly hot as it had been hours earlier. Blink made his way through the park, past bums, upperclass looking couples, and businessmen on their way home from work, to the lake, and he was just about skip a stone across the calm water's surface when he heard a strangely familiar voice.
"Oh you poor thing, don't you have any shoes?" he heard it say gently, and he swung his head around to find the speaker. He saw, to his surprise, a familiar blue dress, and the girl wearing it could only be the girl he had seen earlier. She was speaking to a small child whom Kid recognized occasionally sold newspapers, although usually he just begged for food on the streets. The boy's feet were filthy and raw, and he didn't answer, but just stared up at the girl in wonder.
"Here you are, sweetie, please take this money and buy yourself a pair of shoes." She handed the boy a crisp bill, and Kid couldn't see the number on it, but he did see the boy's eyes widen in delight. Kid hadn't realized it before, but the girl had an English accent.
"Dis is mo' den enough fo' shoes," the child said, as though he were afraid to be holding so much money in his filthy hands.
"Then use the rest to get something to eat," she insisted, closing the boy's hand around the money. With a heart-breaking smile, the boy leapt to his feet and ran off.
"I see you like helpin' people, doncha?"
The girl started at Kid's voice and looked up. After a moment, a smile of recognition lit up her pretty features.
"I try," she said shyly, as though embarrassed to have been found out. "I just couldn't bare the thought of that poor boy trying to make it through the winter without anything to cover his feet."
"That's nice o' you," Kid said evenly, striding toward the girl, "but how da youse know he's gonna spend it on shoes?"
Her smile faltered slightly. "Well, what else would he spend it on?"
Kid chuckled at her naivete. "He might go straight ta the races and bet it on a horse, or maybe he'll go to Coney Island, or to a bar and buy some..."
"But he's just a child!" she protested. Angry red splotches had appeared on her cheeks and Kid could tell that he had gone too far.
"I'm not sayin' he will," he said quickly, "I'm just warnin' you ta be careful. I know that you like givin' money to po' kids. But not all of 'em is trustwoithy."
"Are you?" she challenged him haughtily, hands on her hips.
"Me?" Kid laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm as trustwoithy as dey come! Kid
Blink's my name, anyways."
The girl blinked. "Kid...Blink? That's a name?"
He laughed. "Yeah, you can prolly guess hows I got it too," he said, gesturing to the eyepatch. After a moment, this produced a smile out of his listener, and Kid was relieved.
"Well my name is Lucy Morningside," she said, once again shy, "though nothing about my appearance can give you any hint to its origin."
Five minutes later Lucy and Kid were walking through the park, though anyone watching them might have thought they were simply two strangers heading in the same direction. They hardly spoke, though Kid kept stealing glances in Lucy's direction, trying to catch another glimpse at her face. He couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed how pretty she was. He supposed, after some thought, that she had the sort of face that didn't immediately grab one's attention, and only after having had time to contemplate it for some time did one begin to appreciate its beauty. Her skin was a pretty peaches and cream complexion that is common in English girls. He didn't think that a fleck of dirt could ever have rested on her smooth face. Wide, deep blue eyes sparkled under a shade of thick lashes and a puckish, upturned nose made her look younger than he now supposed she was. She must have been at least his age. And though he now found her to be very attractive, he knew that the way she wore her strawberry blond hair, more red than gold, loose and hanging in soft waves down her back, was hardly fashionable. All in all, he found her to be the most intriguing specimen of the female sex he had ever encountered.
Lucy, meanwhile, was undergoing a fierce battle of curiosity over conscience in her brain. Her upbringing and breeding screamed at her to tell the impertinent young man to leave her alone, though he was doing nothing to bother her besides walk beside her. Her personality and heart, however, urged her to talk to the strangely attractive blond boy, and it was this voice that eventually won out.
"Do you often walk in the park in the evenings?" she asked hesitantly. She saw out of the corner of her eye a look of brief surprise on his face at being directly addressed. "I don't think I've seen you here before."
"Nah, usually I'm in da...er, I got other plans," he said carefully, not yet ready to divulge his guilty secret to a complete stranger. "How about you? Don't seem like somethin' a goil like you should be doin' alone at this time o' night."
"Usually I'm, uh, accompanied," Lucy said awkwardly. She blushed as Kid glanced at her slyly.
"You gotta boyfriend?" he teased.
"No! Er, well, sort of." Lucy looked away, afraid that she was talking too familiarly with Kid Blink. After all, she had only just met him, and he was only a newsie. Why should she be sharing intimate details of her life with him? Luckily, Kid didn't pursue the subject any further, and instead smiled smugly and walked silently a little further away from Lucy. She was pretty, he thought to himself, but definitely an upper-class snob, even if she does give a lot of charity. Finally, the pair reached the entrance of the park and began to move in their separate directions. Kid hesitated. Should he be a gentleman and offer to walk her home? Or would she just think he was being inappropriate? It was hard to know with rich dames. But, he thought, it was worth a try.
"Will you be aright walkin' home by yourself?" he asked. "It's gettin' late..."
"It's all right," she said quickly, though not rudely, almost as though she were afraid that if she didn't decline immediately she might accept his offer. "Don't worry about me, it's not too far and I need to hurry."
"Don't wanna be late fa' dinner?" Kid said, feeling stupid but gallant.
"Yes, well, Father's giving a dinner party and..." Lucy faltered, feeling bad about flaunting her wealth in front of a streetkid. But if Kid felt any resentment to her, he didn't show it.
"Sounds like loads o' fun," Kid laughed, winking.
"It will be frightfully boring, but I can't miss it," she muttered, straightening her gloves.
"You should come hang wid the boys," Kid blurted out before he could stop himself. "The newsies, I mean," he said quicky at her confused look. "They's a lot mo' fun than some fancy party."
"Thanks, but I can't," Lucy said in a small voice, not even sure if Kid Blink had been joking. She turned to leave, stopped, and turned her head around to look back at him. "I walk in the park nearly every day at this time," she said quickly, and before she could say anything else, she picked up her skirt and fled in the opposite direction.
Kid stood dumbstruck. What had just happened? Had he really just walked through Central Park with the richest girl who had ever bought a paper from him? Had he really had the nerve to ask her to come back to the Lodging House with him? And had she really just done what he thought she had done?
No, she couldn't have. A girl like that would never ask a street rat like him to go for a walk in the park. He was out of his mind. She was probably just trying to be polite, or maybe he had gone too far when he mentioned the other newsies and she had panicked. Whatever it was, it did no good to linger on it. He would probably never run into her again; what were the odds of meeting up with the same girl a third time? Kid pushed the idea, as well as the vision of her sparkling blue eyes, out of his mind, stuffed his hands in his pockets and began to make his way back to the Lodging House.