"What was that?" I asked suddenly. So much for a nice moment.
"What was what?" asked Jack.
"I heard it. It was...a sound." Glitz replied sounding solemn and mysterious.
"Well, Lord, that clears it up." I giggled. Then I heard it again. The sound was...people? It was a human sound. Like people sneaking around.
I knew the others heard it. I looked nervously to Spot and he pulled me closer, held me tighter.
"It's too late for people to be up right now." concluded Lisa.
I laughed in attempt to break the tension. "It's New York. It's nearly one A.M.. Of course people are up."
David looked from Spot to Jack, then to the nearby alley. He looked at Glitz, Lisa and I and said, "Stay here, be quiet." and started to walk off.
I rolled my eyes at him. Who did he think he was - ordering us girls around like that. "Sir, yes sir." I retorted. He sent me a look that I didn't think David had in him. It was a look of
I saw Lisa turn as white as a sheet, then she passed out right onto the ground. "Dear Lord!" I exclaimed. Glitz and I hurried over to her and lifted her up. "Lisa! LISA!" I hissed. I looked at Glitz and said "I despise being quiet! It's not my strongest subject." She gave a somewhat scared, frazzled smile and turned back to Lisa.
Suddenly I heard a loud crash and silence. I saw Glitz turn almost as white as Lisa had and I felt all the voice and soul drain out of me. Then I saw two very familiar faces. They were the kinds of faces you'd only know from imagining. The Delancey's. I'd never saw them, but I knew. You could tell from the way they smirked at the three of us. (Two and a half...half of Lisa was unconcious and I didn't figure that was going to score any major fighting points.)
***
I laid here in more pain than I ever thought I could have handled. I tried to look around but I couldn't open my left eye. I carefully raised my hand to feel it. I was prepared for the pain i told myself. "Owwwwww!!!!!" I howled. Okay, I wasn't that prepared. I looked around with my good eye I saw Glitz lying on one side of me, asleep in a bed with white sheets. ***A hospital? Where was I? I began to turn my head around when a lady came flying into the room.
"Is everything alright here?" I stared at her for a moment, taking in her features. She was tall and lean and healty, probably young, I'd guess around 29 to 31. She smiled and seemed so pleasant.
"Where am I?" I murmured. My stomach, chest and neck hurt and when I tried to sit up, pain shot through my back and I flinched.
The lady hurried over to me. "No, no, lie down, lie still." She instructed. She looked me over and shook her head. "Do you remember anything that happened last night?"
**Last night. What happened last night? Spot! David, Jack, Glitz, Lisa, Oscar and Morris! The noises, the crash. Oh no! "Where is everyone? Where am I?" I asked softly. It hurt to talk, which made me wonder what all happened last night.
"You don't know about any of it?"
I wanted to smack the lady. Of course I didn't know about any of whatever it was she was talking about. I just woke up from the worst night of my life. But I only shook my head.
"Oh, dear. Well, one of your friends explained everything to the doctor last night." Her voice trailed off. I stared at her. She was going to tell me wasn't she? "Your friend. I believe his name is...Blink Kid...or maybe just Blink. Is that right?" Why on earth was she being so specific? Did that matter? I limply nodded. "Well, I hate for you to find out this way. He passed away this morning, around one thirty A.M.. It seems some young boys were fighting and he tried to help them out. He put up quite a fight to stay and survive, but I suppose it wasn't enough."
I suppose that gave her a reason to be specific. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I felt pain shoot through my entire body of pure shock. Tears shot to my eyes. I began to bawl. I cried so hard that the pain in my left eye became numb. I didn't really know Blink as well as some of the others. But I knew him well enough to know how nice he was. He was always smiling and even though he had the disadvantage of only having one good eye left he didn't let anything like that get him down. He was such a good friend. You could run to him for anything.
The nurse laid a comforting arm around my shoulder and it stung in pain. "Ooh!" I said quietly but forcefully. She received my hint.
"Oh, my! Does that still hurt? I gave you some pain relaxers earlier, but I believe you'll need something stronger, hmm? Well, just a moment." She hurried out of the room.
"Emily?" Someone's voice murmured.
I slowly turned my head to the sound, but I couldn't. "Lisa? Is that you?" My voice seemed stronger.
"Yes." She said quietly.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt as bad too?" I asked worriedly.
"Yeah...what's wrong with you?" I could hear her struggling to fight the pain that came with trying to talk.
"Keep talking. I know it hurts, mine did too. Just keep talking. The pain eases. My back, my shoulders, my head, my legs. Everything about my body hurts. My heart."
"I know your talking the truth, you aren't one to complain. Your heart?"
"Yes. The nurse gave me the news that this morning around one o'clock, one thirty, Blink died." Silence. Dead silence. "Lise?" (authors note: that is really supposed to be Lise, instead of Lisa , Lise being pronounced like "lease" (= )
"I didn't know him very well." She stated quietly, "He seemed very sweet though." She said thoughtfully.
"He was." My voice broke. I felt tears fly to my eyes again.
At that moment, the nurse flew in pushing a large cart filled with injection tubes and other medical tools. "So," she chimed in with her happy tone, "I see your friends awake. Good morning!" I wondered how she could be so happy, when not five minutes she gave word that one of the only real family I had left was dead.
"'Morning." Lisa replied.
"Well, let me properly introduce myself." That didn't suprise me, everything this lady did was proper. "My name's Yvette, and I'm 29 years of age, 30 in November." Boy I was good at guessing, "Would you girls like to tell me about yourself?"
I paused a moment. I waited to see if Lisa would say anything, but I knew she wouldn't. I could feel her eyes on me. "Well," I began. Just how much was I willing to tell this lady? "my name is Emily and I'm 15. Um...I'm a girl newsie and I stay at the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House with Gli-Grace and Lisa. And of course, all the other boy newsies. My mother was Laura Leigh, the actress."
Yvette looked quite suprised to hear this. "Oh, really? Oh my. Well, I declare." She pieced together her thoughts, "I was a large fan of your mother." She smiled thoughtfully, "Everyone was really. She was a wonderful lady." I felt tears spring to my eyes.
"She really was." I said and smiled. I figured Yvette may be a little ditzy sometimes, but she was a fan of my mothers, and that made her alright with me.
Yvette turned to Lisa. "What about you?"
"Mm, yes, well, my name is Lisa and I'm also 15. I was staying at the orphanage before I met Emily, with my sister, Grace." Sister? Grace was Lisa's **sister? Why didn't they tell me that? I suppose I never asked.
"You never told me that!" I interrupted.
"I know. I'm sorry. It never came up. Please don't be angry." She pleaded.
"I'm not. Continue, with your story. It's alright."
"Okay. Well, anyway, Grace and I lived at the orphanage. When you live at the orphanage you must work in the factory. But knowing how horrible that would have been we never put our name on the assignment list when we were enrolled at the orphanage. Instead of working at the factory, Grace and I became newsies. Just yesterday, however, we met Emily and she offered to let us stay at the lodging house."
"That was sweet of you." Yvette told me and smiled sweetly at me.
I nodded and returned her smile.
"Miss Hodson?" came a voice outside the hospital room.
"Oh, there's your doctor." Yvette told me. "Please, excuse me for a moment."
I nodded and Lisa responded with an "okay".
"Lise?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't mean to darken the situation any more than it already is, but..."
"What?"
"How are we going to pay the doctor bill?" It got really quiet.
"I don't know."
"Me either."
"Is Grace still asleep?"
I looked over to my side with my good eye. "Yeah." Then I looked again. "Wait, no she isn't. Grace?"
Grace turned over on her side to face me. Obviously she hadn't been banged up the way we had. "I'm awake. I was listening to your stories."
"Alrighty, girls," came Yvette's voice, "the doctors here to check you out."
"Hello, ladies." Came the same male voice we heard from outside the room a few minutes earlier. It was firm but gentle as well and very soothing. I looked up. My eyes wandered to a very handsome, tall man in a white coat.
"Hello." Lisa, Grace and I chorused.
"My name is Dr. Peterson. I'll be with you for the next week or so." He walked over to Grace. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm alright. The left side of my chest hurts though."
"Okay. Yes, I thought it would. We looked at it last night, and two ribs on your left side are broke, one is cracked. But they will heal quickly and there's nothing to worry about. No intestinal damage was done."
Grace breathed a sigh of relief, then bit her lip. "Ow." She whispered.
"Dr. Peterson?" I asked.
He walked over to my bed. "Yes, er...Emily?" he responded glancing down at the bracelet which read my name.
"When are we able to go home?"
"Hmm, well. I suppose you can each go home when your done healing. I would think Grace will be the last to go."
"Me?" She squeaked.
"Yes. Any broken bones take alot of extra time to heal. Ribs however cannot be put into a cast and its hard to tell just when they are done and completely healed." Dr. Peterson explained.
"Oh. Well how long will I be here?" She asked.
"Probably around two weeks longer."
"Two weeks? You mean I won't leave until...two Mondays from now?" She asked counting in her head.
"Yes, that's right."
"Oh, Lord..." her voice trailed off.
