HAVE TIME MACHINE: WILL SELL PAPES
CHAPTER 7
A few minutes later, the girls found themselves once again outside Tibby's, only this time with Crutchy in tow. Natalie wrinkled her nose a little bit. "Crutchy, do you guys ever eat anywhere else?"
Crutchy gave her a puzzled look. "Why do you ask? Don't you like their food?"
"Well, I'm sure their salad and maybe their roast beef is alright," Natalie said, thinking of the menu they saw on the wall the last time they were there. "It's just that…"
"Just that what?" Crutchy prompted.
"Who wants to eat stuff like Borschf?" Moni answered for her.
"Yeah, I don't even know what Borschf is!" Eronn said.
"And how about Knockwurst?" Liz put in. "I think I know what that is, but I would certainly never eat it!"
"Not to mention the buttered beats!" Eronn told him.
Crutchy wrinkled his brow. "So you girls are saying that you don't like most of the food on the menu?" he asked uncertainly.
Natalie nodded a little sheepishly. "But it's OK," she hastened to add. "We would never ask you to eat somewhere else."
"Yeah," Moni muttered sarcastically. "We'll just eat the same thing every day for the next few days. Just think how fun that will be!"
Crutchy looked even more confused at Moni's remark, so Liz hurriedly suggested that they get inside before all the seats are taken.
When they walked though, there was certainly no danger of all the seats being taken. In one of the nearby booths sat Boots and Specs, no other newsies in sight. The girls and Crutchy walked over to them, asked "Can we sit here?" and then sat before the boys could give them an answer (not that they would have said no).
After Crutchy ordered pork and beans and the girls ordered either the roast beef or the salad, Natalie asked Boots "So how was your day?"
"It was fine," Boots told them. "How about you?"
"It was great!" Natalie told him enthusiastically. She then went on to tell Boots all about her day – taking about fifteen minutes in the process.
By the time she was five minutes into her spiel, the other girls started talking, knowing how Natalie could get when she was started on a subject. "So Specs, how was your day?" Liz asked him.
"Well, it was sort of a bummer because my hair got messed up today. Some old man ruffled my hair after he bought a pape," Specs told them dejectedly, looking at his reflection in a spoon.
Liz and Eronn listened to Specs with disbelief on their faces. Moni however, merely acknowledged what Specs was saying by nodding her head, and then proceeded to tell him that he needed to loosen up. "After all," she told him knowingly, "Most people don't realize this, but hair's natural state is messy. It longs to be messy. Just let it be."
Specs looked at Moni like she had just told him to go cut off his head. Then he quickly turned towards Liz. "How is my hair?" he asked her quietly.
Liz fought hard to keep a serious look on her face. "It looks just fine," she reassured him.
"Sure if you like your hair to look unnatural and unloved," Moni said.
"That means it's perfect, at least if you like your hair neat," Eronn told Specs. "By the way, do you have a girlfriend?" she asked bluntly.
Specs turned bright red. "Wh-why do you want to know?" he asked uncertainly.
"I just know someone who would be perfect for you!" Eronn said.
Specs looked at her warily. "Who?" he asked, glancing at Moni.
"Oh, not Moni," Eronn said, brushing him off. "You don't know her, but she's really sweet."
"Do I know her?" Liz asked.
"Think," Eronn told her. "Who else asks how her hair is all the time?"
"Oh," Liz said knowingly. "Your best friend, Chrissy."
Eronn nodded, but Specs shook his head. "Oh no," he told them. "I saw you singing in the streets after we went to Irving Hall the other night. I don't think I want to date any close friend of yours."
Eronn shrugged. "I think I'm supposed to be insulted," she told Moni and Liz. "Oh well." She shrugged her shoulders. "Your loss," she told Specs.
"Yeah, Chrissy's not at all like Eronn," Liz told him.
"Hey!" Eronn said.
"Hey what?" Natalie asked, finally finishing the lecture she had been giving Boots and hearing the last remark of Eronn's.
Eronn just shook her head. "Don't worry about it."
Natalie shrugged. "I feel like singing," she told them, abruptly changing the subject.
"Why don't we wait until we at least leave the restaurant to sing?" Liz asked her.
Natalie wrinkled her nose. "But I want to sing now," she told Liz plaintively. She thought for a minute and then said, "How about we sing 'King of New York'? That's set in Tibby's, so it's appropriate."
"What?" Crutchy asked, while Specs and Boots also sat around looking confused.
"Natalie!" Liz said in a whisper. "You can't sing that!"
"Why not?" Natalie asked.
"Yeah, why not?" Moni asked, backing Natalie up.
"We're not at that part of the movie yet," Liz said. "Right Eronn?" she said, looking for Eronn's support.
Eronn scooted down low in her seat. "No comment," she said. When Liz gave her a confused look, Eronn whispered, "Remember the first day we sold papes with Blink? I sang King of New York."
"Oh," Liz said. "I don't remember that."
"You were too busy telling people I was mental," Eronn explained helpfully.
"Oh yeah!" Liz said. "But I still don't think the two of them should sing in it in front of the newsies."
"There's only three newsies here!" Natalie protested.
"Let's just sing it Natalie," Moni said.
"Great!"
Eronn opened her mouth to ask if she could sing it too, but Liz silenced her with a reprimanding look. Eronn slid back down her seat again.
Natalie and Moni jumped out of the booth and started singing:
A pair of new shoes with matching laces,
A permanent box at the Sheepshead races,
A
porcelain tub with boilin' water,
A Saturday night with the mayor's daughter!
With this verse they started out really quietly, snapping their fingers á la West Side Story. As the verse went on they got louder and louder until…
Look at me I'm the king of New York
Suddenly I'm respectable
Starin' right at 'cha
Lousy with stature
…they jumped onto nearby chairs, waving their arms above their heads as they sang at the top of their lungs.
Nobbin' with all
the muckety-mucks,
I'm blowin' my dough and goin'
deluxe.
And there I be - ain't I
pretty?
It's my city,
I'm the king of New York!
At this point Eronn couldn't stand it any longer. She gave Liz a small "sorry," and went off to join the singing.
A corduroy suit with fitted knickers,
A mezzanine seat to see the flickers,
Havana cigars that
cost a quarter,
An editor's desk for the star reporter!
At this verse Eronn and Natalie sat in chairs and leaned back, as Moni pushed them forward from the back. Except she "accidentally" let go of Natalie's chair and sent her sprawling backwards. Luckily Natalie was so wrapped up in the song that she barely noticed and just got up and continued singing.
Tip your hat
He's the king of New York
Eronn and Natalie took the above lines while Moni took the ones below. Actually, Eronn started singing Moni's lines with her, but she got a pinch on her arm and decided to stick to the newsie's lines.
How 'bout that!
I'm the king of New York
In nothing flat
He'll be covering Brooklyn to Trenton
Our man Denton
Makin' a headline
out of a hunch
Protecting the weak
And payin' for lunch
When I'm at bat
Strong men crumble
Proud yet humble
I'm (He's) the king of New York
At the end of this verse Moni graciously allowed Natalie and Eronn to sing the last two lines with her.
I gotta be either dead or dreamin'
Cause look at that paper with my face beamin'
Tomorrow they may wrap fishes in it
But I was a star for one whole minute!
At this point the girls realized that Crutchy, Specs and Boots were bobbing their heads along with the girl's singing. So Natalie grabbed Crutchy, Moni grabbed Specs and Eronn grabbed Boots, making them get up and dance too. On the side of the restaurant the cook and the waiter were watching, so they motioned them over too. Pretty soon they had a whole bunch of people dancing in the middle of Tibby's.
Startin' now
I'm the king of New York
Ain't' ya
heard?
I'm the king of New York
Holy cow
It's a miracle
Pulitzer's cryin'
Weasel, he's dyin'
While they were singing this verse and the rest of the people were dancing, Blink, Mush, Snoody and Skittery entered the restaurant and watched them, looks of confusion on their faces. "Are they doing this again?" Mush asked with a whine.
Flashpots are shootin' bright as the sun
I'm one highfalutin' son-of-a-gun
Don't ask me how
Fortune found me
Fate just crowned me
I'm the king of New York
Look and see
Once a piker
Now a striker
I'm the king of New York
Victory!
Front page story
Guts and glory
I'm the king of New York!
They finished up the song with a big bang, and Crutchy, Boots, Specs and the restaurant workers began applauding. "That was so much fun!" Boots was saying, while Specs was just looking shocked that he had actually gotten up and danced in a public place.
"What the hell was that?" Blink asked them. Specs immediately dived back to the booth where Liz was sitting by himself, his face as red as a tomato. The waiter and the cook scurried back to their work, and Crutchy looked just a little embarrassed. Boots, however, was still smiling joyfully.
"We were dancing!" he told the older boys happily.
"Sure," they told him, turning away and sitting down near Liz and Specs. "This is how you spend your days now?" Blink asked Specs, who turned even redder, if that was possible.
"We forced him into it," Natalie told him as she and Moni and Eronn headed back to their seats as well.
"Yeah, he thinks we're idiots," Moni told them, "but we don't give a damn." The boys all gasped. "What?" Moni asked, for once at a loss as to what she said that was so shocking to them.
"You said damn!" Boots said, admiration in his voice. "We've never head a girl curse before!"
The girls nearly laughed out loud, but their food came at that very moment. The newsies who had just arrived ordered their food as the girls started eating. They scarfed their food down, then jumped out of their chairs. "We'll see you guys later!" Liz told them.
"Where are you going?" Boots asked, while Crutchy looked hurt at the fact that Natalie was leaving.
"We're just going to do some exploring, alright? We'll be back before dark, I promise," Natalie told him soothingly. And with that, the girls walked out the door.
Once they were outside in the bright sun, they looked both ways, trying to figure out what would be the best path to take. "So, does anybody know how to get to Brooklyn?" Eronn asked.
The girls shook their heads, but Liz walked up to a passerby and asked for directions. These being obtained, the girls headed to the right, made about two more turns and then were in sight of the Bridge.
"Brooklyn, here we come!" Moni said with relish.
TBC…
AN: Ooh, what will happen in Brooklyn? Wouldn't you like to know? OK, actually, I have no idea what's going to happen right now. So any suggestions would be appreciated. And thanks to all my reviewers!