Chapter 13
"I'm sending you'se three to Manhattan for the weekend." Strike was addressing Luna, Voodoo and I. Things with the Italian gang had escalated over the past month and Strike didn't want the girls to get hurt since they had been taunting us.
"Aw no ya ain't Strike! I can fight bettah than most you'se guys! Lemme stay!" Luna whined.
"No! No ifs ands or—."
"But I have a home to go to! I'm not going to Manhattan." I said, turning around to go home. He caught my wrist.
"OR BUT'S. I don't care. They will find your house and get ya there. I'll have a talk wid yer parents even. You are ALL going to Manhattan to stay with the newsies there. I don't want ta see hide nor tail of ya all weekend, and if I don't see it fit fer you to come home at the end of the weekend, yer stayin there." He crossed his arms over his chest and we were forced to admit defeat.
"I have to tell my parents, so you're going to have to let me go home…"
"Alright, Needles, Dash, you're coming with me to Shasta's place to tell her parents wheah shes off ta." The boys groaned but came along anyway.
Pa hadn't gone through another bout like the one he had had earlier in the month and Mother was relieved. I was too, I hadn't missed a day since then and life around the house was more peaceful. So when Strike, Needles and Dash walked through my door I didn't have to worry about my father attacking them and giving them a nice shiner like he had given Spot for a few days.
They talked it over with my parents, my mother's face growing frightened and Pa just sighing.
Mother pulled me aside. "What kind of business are you getting yourself in? This sounds dangerous to me young lady and I don't like it! I'm letting you go to Manhattan just so you can't get anyone in the family hurt! You watch yourself, if I hear about any more fighting you either leave the newsies or move out!" With that I packed up a few things and disappeared into the night with the boys.
*****
The walk over the Brooklyn Bridge was freezing. The icy wind howled through our jackets and bit at our bare faces. Voodoo didn't even have a jacket so she was borrowing one of the boys' sweaters for the time being. Snow was threatening, as it usually was at this time of the year I figured, but had yet to fall from the sky this week.
"Trick will be waitin fer ya at the other end. He'll take ya to the lodgin house and you'll get some food I suppose. I don't know how they run things in Manhattan." Strike had said before setting us free at the edge of Brooklyn.
"I don't want to go out heah. We'se don't know anyone." Voodoo whined, clinging tightly to her sweater.
"I could take dem stupid buggahs. And how does Strike know dey don't live in Manhattan?" Luna was very bitter she couldn't fight. She was a rough and tough girl, and didn't like to be told what to do, or held back by the likes of Strike.
"I guess he just knows these things. I mean Manhattan hasn't been having problems with them. They have to live in Brooklyn." I hoped they lived in Brooklyn, that we weren't walking straight into a trap, because these guys are nothing like my big brother Aidan. They fought hard and weren't going to let you win. But I hoped that they would leave Brooklyn so that I could live in peace and wouldn't be forced to move out of my home. I couldn't leave the newsies, not now. I had made too many friends, and this was my life for now. I didn't care how 'dangerous' it is at this time, it isn't always this bad. At least its better than dealing with father's alcoholism.
The bridge seemed longer than usual, the wind seemed to rock it back and forth and not many people were out. But we reached the end and there was Trick, wrapped up in an old leather jacket. He waved at us and we did our best to smile against the weather. Snow started to fall again, this time mixed with sleet. The sleet bit through us like needles and made us shiver uncontrollably.
"Welcome to Manhattan, goils. The lodgin house ain't too far from heah. So we won't freeze fer too long." He grinned, and I remembered how nice he had been to me in the past. I was going to enjoy this weekend, even if my other 2 pals with me from Brooklyn weren't.
We arrived on the steps of the lodging house and stepped inside. It was nice and toasty warm and we practically melted into the seats in the bench.
"Kloppman, we'se got these three goils stayin with us from Brooklyn." Trick called to the middle aged man behind the desk by the stairs. The house was similar to our own in Brooklyn, but bigger. There were more newsies here, and there was even a separate lodging house for the girls.
"Just take them over to Julie's place down the street." He barely looked up at us as he continued to look through his ledger.
Trick nodded and asked us if we wanted to go there now or hang out here with the rest of the newsies. We chose to stay and we were lead into a large hall where boys and girls dressed alike were piled over couches and window sills watching the snow fall and playing poker, and just talking. Some people looked up when we entered but most acted as if new people were a normalcy.
"Everyone this is Luna, Shasta and Voodoo. They're from Brooklyn, treat them nice now ya heah?" With that introduction out of the way he left us standing there, not knowing what to do.
We stood there looking like idiots for some time before one of the girls came over to where we stood. She had red hair like me, only much darker. She was joined by another girl around the same age as us with a head of darker brown hair.
"Hey goils, I'se Coppah, and dis heah is July. Why'se you heah in Manhattan instead of stayin home in Brooklyn wheah you belong?" Such a nice warm welcome, too. Luna and I exchanged looks and looked back at the two girls who didn't really seem to want us here.
"We'se in trouble ovah there, not us personally but the whole bunch of newsies. Got some gang on our tail and Strike thinks us safah heah. And dun go givin me no attitude bout how we shouldn't be heah. We dun wanna be heah no more then you want us." Voodoo spoke up. I would have applauded her but I figured now was not the time.
"We'se don't mind that ya heah. Jus dun go around bein all tough and shit. Brooklyn girls and boys are like that." Copper said, a twinkle in her eye. I guess she didn't really mind us, she was trying to be tough like we supposedly were. Brooklyn newsies had that reputation; one of being very rough and tough and mean to handle, but we weren't all that bad. We were just like Manhattan newsies in a way. We just got in more confrontations even though we try to avoid them.
"Speaking of Brooklyn boys, how's Spot Conlon Luna?" The one called July said. I figured they would know who Luna was, her being one of the older newsies by a couple years over me.
"He's jus fine July. And no he still ain't interested in ya." July frowned at her and headed back to the table of boys she had been sitting with.
"Come on and join us. We'se ain't doin much but chattin." Copper turned and followed July and we just followed not really knowing anyone else.
"You know a few of the Manhattan crowd Luna?" I asked.
"I knows July and a couple of the boys but I don't get ovah heah much, or I try not to anyway." The table of boys greeted us and I recognized Cowboy from the poker game. I had seen him a couple times in Brooklyn since then but we had never really talked. We knew each other by sight and that was good enough for me.
We sat and listened to them talk. They're discussions were more along the line of gambling, not quite like what our discussions were about back in Brooklyn, but soon they tripped into the territory of the gang fights in our neck of the woods.
"So goils, we need the inside scoop. What the hell is goin on ovah there that made Strike send ya heah?" This was Race speaking, the short little Italian gambler that probably wouldn't grow to be much taller.
"What's theah to tell? We'se got a gang on our tail that won't leave us alone. They're beatin the shit out of our guys and we can't seem to get rid of em. And Strike won't let us fight like we should. He thinks its too dangerous fer us goils to be theah. So hes sent us heah." Luna really wanted to fight, but she was also a little bitter, like some of the Brooklyn newsies, about the fact that Manhattan wasn't helping us get rid of the gang.
We continued to talk about that situation, some of the boys saying they'd help if it got worse, but right now Trick didn't want any unnecessary trouble. Which was reasonable I suppose, but some of our best fighters had gone down. They would fight again, but Strike needed them now. Needles had gotten a nasty blow to the head that has had him in bed for the past week and Joker and Flash are still on the road to recovery. Joker won't be in shape to help out much, since he's got some broken bones but he's been keeping everyone's spirits up with jokes and stories.
The night was coming to an end and Luna, Voodoo and I headed over to the girls lodging house across the street. It was filled with girls, many more than Brooklyn had gotten. Girls of all ages, in as rugged shape as some of the guys, crowded the banisters ready to make their way upstairs. But once we walked in they wanted to hear all about the fights and what they were like. In all reality, these girls were just as much girly girls at heart as they were trying to be boys in this business. They sat eagerly around us as we each told our stories of what it was like living in fear of our lives. It reminded me of my childhood girl friends at home in Ireland. We'd spend nights talking about the boys in our town and which we thought we would end up marrying, or what the latest gossip was.
Soon they got tired of it, and the woman named Julie came over to us. "Well welcome to Manhattan's only goils lodging house! My names Julie, but when I was a newsie dey all called me Pheonix. So call me Nixy please! Now I'll need yer names, yer ages and some wages fer me bunks." She wrote down our information and took our money and lead us upstairs to one of the bunk rooms. There were 3, mostly full except for the last one. The rooms were like the ones in Brooklyn, only slightly smaller. It was in better shape however. At home, the bunk rooms' windows were full of cracks and the pipes leaked, so not only would you freeze during the winter time, but you would be wet as well if someone decided to wash their faces during the middle of the night, sending water through the pipes over the sleeping boys heads.
Not only was our house old and diminishing, the girls also lived with the boys. The girls were somewhat down the hall but since there were only four of us, we had the room to ourselves, but that would soon change if any more boys joined up. The boys rooms were full, overly so, but not enough extras were around to open up a new lodging house, so the beds in our room would be filled by boys. The other girl named Clover lived there sporadically but I think she quit a couple weeks ago when the fighting got too much for her. I usually didn't stay the night at the lodging house, but the past month with the fighting as bad as its been, I've been forced to spend some nights curled up under thin sheets hoping my jacket would keep me from freezing over the night. We took sheets off the other beds just to keep warm, and stole towels from the boys bathroom. The boys were freezing also, but they had more body weight on them, unlike us girls who were very thin. I wasn't as thin as Voodoo or Luna, but that was because I had homecooked meals at home most nights.
I took the bunk underneath another girl with red hair, and as soon as I sat down, the girl leaned her head over. "Hi! I'se Firecracker, you are Shasta huh? Brooklyn must be so exciting right now! Fighting and all that shit! You should be fighting!" Man could she talk a lot. "Why ain't you fightin? Goils should fight, dats what I say."
"Shut up Fire, leave the poor girl alone. She's been forced out of her own home, and she didn't come heah to have you remind her she can't be dere." Another girl from a few bunks down called out. Fire just pouted.
"I was jus bein friendly is all." She rolled over on her side so I couldn't see her anymore but I still spoke to her.
"It's alright Firecracker, I don't mind. Strike won't let us fight, that's why me, Luna and Voodoo are here." The bed groaned above me and her head popped back over the side, a crooked smile on her face. She was younger than me I supposed, and probably as fiery as her name and hair suggested.
"If I was you'se I woulda fought Strike to lemme fight!" She lied back down so I couldn't see her face. The younger newsies I have found, especially in Manhattan, seem to think fighting is just for fun. Sure in Brooklyn, before the gang fights, boys like Dash or Needles lived for the fight. Now that the fighting was getting pretty serious and it wasn't a joking matter anymore and even the best fighters didn't want to fight anymore.
Strike once told a bunch of us on one of our last meetings on top of the roof under the stars before the snow came, that when we got older we'd understand that fighting wasn't worth it, that it caused more problems than solved them. When we got older we'd understand that life is worth more than a few bloody knuckles.