The fall of 1899 was a relatively warm one, evident in the fact that the
Brooklyn newsboys were still jumping off the docks into the East River as
they did in summer, obviously glad it was a Sunday and they had no morning
edition of the newspapers to sell. Hawkin', or shouting, the headlines was
all fine and good, but it was nice to have Sunday mornings to relax.
Theodore Jonathin Williams, or Rico and Annalee Nebraska Browne, nicknamed
Mugger, two Manhattan newsies, shivered as they watched one boy, his lips
blue, climb up a rope ladder and promptly jump back into the frigid waters.
Rico looked up to find Spot in his usual perch on the highest point in
view, and he and Mugger walked up to Spot and promptly spit shook.
Spot Conlon, a small but intimidating boy of about fourteen, was the leader of the Brooklyn newsies. He watched over his newsies like a hawk and had also been watching Rico's black hair coming for the last five minutes. Rico was coming, no doubt, to talk about the territory at the mouth of the Brooklyn Bridge, and whose newsies were allowed to sell their papes there. Spot knew the Manhattan newsies were in somewhat of a slump, and was willing to give up the territory, so he wasn't worried about Rico. What he was worried about was the pretty, short girl Rico was with. She was unfamiliar to him, and anything unfamiliar unsettled him. Spot liked knowing his opponents. She might be helping Rico with his negotiations, and Spot hated negotiating with females, especially pretty ones. They were so... irrational.
"Heya Spot," Rico said calmly, if not friendly.
"Rico. Who's dis ya got heah?" Mugger felt Spot look her up and down, and guiltily admitted to herself that she liked being admired by this powerful, if young, newsie.
"That's none a ya consoin. Yur newsies gotta stop soakin mine. Jus yestaday, I got a kid at the house, bleedin all ova evertin. You gonna-"
"Didja evah stop to tink why dey named it da Brooklyn Bridge?" Spot interrupted.
Rico grunted, and ran a hand through his glossy black curls. If there was one thing he hated, it was being interrupted. It was just plain rude. "Spot my newsies and ya's don care what is called. Dey just wan' make theiah livin, juss like you an me." All this time Mugger was watching them carefully. She had begged to be brought along, and she knew Rico couldn't resist her saying that she respected what he did, and wanted to see how he did it so well. He was male, after all and she knew enough of him to be able to use his ego.
Spot gave Rico his best evil eyes, and in anger, loaded his slingshot and shot a wooden beam about twenty feet away, splintering it. "See dat Rico? Se how easy I could beat ya? So, I's a nice guy. Ise gona let you have da stinkin territory. Jus you keep ya stinkin newsies outta Brooklyn, arite?" Spot was proud of himself. If he was gonna back down, he was gonna do it threatening. It soothed his dignity.
Rico smiled, and led Mugger away from Brooklyn. Once they were on the bridge, Mugger felt safe to ask a few questions of Rico. "Spot Conlon... he could be really dangerous, right?"
"Hope you don' got no friends in Brooklyn. Cause I don't want you goin back," Rico replied, effectively, if indirectly, answering her question.
"He won't try to come hurt us, will he?" Mugger asked, though she meant Spot coming to hurt Rico. She hadn't thought Spot was that dangerous, but she was afraid for Rico. He was her best friend, and she was a good fighter, but she was quite right to believe that she couldn't protect him from Spot and his newsies.
"Naw he woudn' try nothin like dat." I don't think, Rico admitted silently to himself. One never knew what Spot Conlon would do. Rico knew that Spot didn't think much of this territory, but it was risky anyway. Once again, Rico found himself asking what his father would do. Spot often reminded Rico of his father. Brilliant and willing to share his knowledge, but utterly unpredictable and impossible to depend on. Rico's father had left him and his mother when he was six, and his mother died of pneumonia the next winter. He had been a newsie ever since he was seven, but this was his first year of being the leader of Manhattan. Now that he was responsible for all these people he loved, he found himself thinking of his father often, and wondering how he could have left Rico. Rico couldn't bare to think of leaving his beloved newsies unprotected.
"Good. Rico?" Mugger had stopped. They were in front of the Manhattan Lodging house. He turned to her, and his chocolatey brown eyes locked with her Caribbean blues. He tucked a strand her brown, paper- straight hair behind her ear.
"Yeah Muggah?"
"Yoah my best friend. So just...be careful, alright?"
Rico pulled her into a hug, and she buried herself in his tall frame. "I's good at dis, remembah? Is gon' be okay. I knew I shoulda nevah taken ya." Rico's heart ached at the way she was scared for him. He vowed right then to never leave his best friend or the other newsies unprotected in any way. They were much too valuable.
The next morning, Rico met Mugger and two of his other best friends, Kid Blink and Mush, at the distribution offices. The four of them decided to sell at their new "territory" just to make sure Spot wouldn't try anything, and after a day with no hitches, except some problems Mugger was having with her skirts ("Ya gotta lose those... how do ya move?" asked Blink), they walked into the little restaurant, Tibby's for dinner at dusk.
Mugger watched Rico as he talked and laughed with Blink, Mush, and Smarts. She couldn't help noticing how relaxed and carefree he looked. And how handsome. She shook the thought from her head. She couldn't fall in love with this kid, he was her best friend. It would be too awkward. And yet she found herself admiring every word he said, and every move he made.
Mugger marveled at how the newsies could be so territorial and ruthless sounding to each other, and then come home to their lodging house and act like there was nothing serious going on. Maybe there was nothing serious going on, and Mugger was just used to her quiet and provided for life at the orphanage, for that is where she had grown up. At fifteen, she felt as though she had been taken care of for too long at the fancy aristocratic orphanage. It was almost like a boarding school, and Annalee, then called by her given name, was going insane until she met Rico. After knowing Rico for the better part of a year, she had, with his help, left the orphanage once and for all. She knew she was leaving behind a potentially prosperous life if she had been adopted or, more likely at her age, asked for her hand in marriage, but the life of the streets had beckoned to her ever since she could remember. How could she resist Rico, who had given her a best friend, a nickname, and freedom?
"Hey! HEY!" Mugger was brought back to the present by the loud, growling voice of the restaurant's owner, Clancey Reide. His crooked back, shaggy gray hair flopping over eyes magnified by his thick glasses, and malicious sounding voice were slightly intimidating to her, but he often wore an atrocious but friendly smile that looked half grimace and the other newsies regarded him as a sort of a grandfather. Rico and the other newsies silenced themselves instantly. The last time Mr. Reide had yelled like this, it was to inform them that their beloved Lodging House proprietor, Mr. Jaspers, had passed away. The newsies looked from one to another, wondering what was the matter. Rico tried to give them all comforting looks while observing the stranger that no one else had seemed to notice.
Mr. Reide was standing as tall as his curved spine would allow, and gestured to a fine looking gentleman beside him. The gentleman's clothes were all impeccably clean, as Rico's clothes usually were, finely tailored, and the absolute pinnacle of fashion at the time. He stood with an elegant air, perfectly still, with his back as straight as a board, the gold chain of a pocket watch glinting in the afternoon sunlight. He would have looked quite stern had it not been for his dancing, sparkling eyes and his warm smile.
"This 'ear is John Will'ms. 'Ees lookin for a boy named Theodore, or Teddy, Jon'thin Will'ms. Teddy, if one of ya newsies is 'im, this is ya father, and he wants to take ya to... Gran' Rapids, is it?"
"Yes sir," the man said crisply.
Reide raised a finger to the air and shouted. "Gran' Rapids! Ta raise ya like 'ee shoulda," Mr. Reide concluded with a nod of his head and, looking winded, sat in a chair and fanned himself. The newsies were shocked at this speech, coming from a man who rarely said more than two words at a time.
Rico sat rigid as Mr. Williams' gray eyes flitted about the room, settling on each silent boy for a moment, and lingering on Mush, a beautiful quadroon, and Snaps, a mulatto boy. For a moment Rico wondered if this man, who claimed to be his father, was possibly a democrat from the south, the way he looked as if he were measuring up the dark boys. Rico looked self consciously down at his dark, Puerto Rican skin. Rico looked mulatto because he had the features of a white man and the caramel color of his Puerto Rican mother. Of course, that would be why this man was looking at the dark ones. He thanked the good Lord that he was in a shadow, and that the sun was to his back. The elegant man Rico could not think of as his father would not be able to see him. No newsie knew that his real name was Theodore Jonathin Williams, and therefore could not give him up. Rico had not heard the name in so long, he even wondered if he was mistaken.
Mugger was looking at Rico, staring at him without moving. She alone had seen him freeze when the man's name was mentioned. He had composed himself before Mush and Blink turned to ask him if he knew the boy this man was looking for. She was the only one, besides Rico, who had made the connection between the man's seeming interest in the dark boys, and Rico's caramel skin, black curls, and long eyelashes. He did indeed have the exquisite beauty of a mulatto or quadroon, and though she knew him to be Puerto Rican, this man seemed to be looking for someone with dark skin, and she knew Williams wouldn't be able to see Rico. When Mugger started asking him questions with her eyes, as she and Rico had often done in the past, Rico thought about disappearing into the gathering darkness, but how would that look? An evidently rich man comes looking for someone he seems to think is a newsie, and the leader of the newsies slips out? No, as a leader, Rico couldn't leave his newsies. He therefore settled on mimicking the look of bemused interest on the other boys' faces. He dismissed this so-called gentleman, and returned to the Lodging house with Mush, Blink, and Mugger.
The next day, Tuesday, Rico woke before the sun came up after a troubled sleep. Across the bunk room, he saw that Mugger was up too, and wondered what was troubling her. He had worried about her knowing more than the other newsies. She seemed to pick up more about him than the guys, perhaps because she was a female, maybe simply because he told her more. This caused some anxiety within him. Although he didn't believe it to be a good thing, he knew all too well the truth of the phrase "ignorance is bliss." For a minute or two, he lay on his bunk silently, and watched her get up, her long white nightgown billowing and flowing in the faint breeze, walk to the window, and sit on a chest of drawers, looking out onto the rapidly lightening street below. He got to his feet as silently as he could, and tiptoed to where she was standing. When he was about three feet behind him, she spoke.
"Rico, do you know the man at the restaurant yesterday?" She asked, startling Rico so he slipped on Smarts' pants and went flailing into the wall. Mugger collapsed into hysterical giggles, despite the seriousness of the mood ten seconds earlier. She and Rico crept down the stairs so they wouldn't wake anyone and burst into full fledged laughter when they reached the common room. When they had composed themselves, Mugger sat on the second stair, and Rico sat one above her, and started playing with her smooth hair, stroking and braiding it, running his fingers through it. It was a favorite spot of theirs since Mugger had moved into the lodging house, and they had shared many a discussion there, often accompanied by raging arguments ending in playful fighting.
"Muggah, ya got da most pretty haiah I's eva seen," Rico said, overtly.
"Thank you. Rico?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you know that man at Tibby's? Mr. Williams?" Mugger turned to him, to find him staring at her as if he was an adult who didn't want to tell a child about some horrible fact of life, such as death. She stood up. "You do don't you? Rico, you can tell me anything, you know that? Why- "
"Wha makes ya think I knows him, eh? You don' know me. Nobody knows me," Rico said, and stood up and left. Mugger walked purposefully after him.
"Rico! You can't jus leave me like that! Cause that's what makes me think you knows him! You's avoidin da topic and I can't stand it, Rico!" They were outside and halfway down the block by now, and Rico stopped, and spun on his heel.
"Muggah. Ya can't know.... Juss... I don' know what he wants, and untill I find out I can' tell nobody da things I know," Rico immediatly regretted even telling her that he knew something, though he knew she knew. It seemed better to let things be left unspoken. But now she knew. He grabbed her hand and led her down an alley. They found a pile of canvas bags and he gestured to them. "Make yaself comf'table. Is a long story." Mugger flopped down on the bags, and didn't say a word. She knew that he would just have to tell her, and if she talked, he might decide she didn't need to know. Rico may have been her best friend, but he was still the leader of Manhattan, and he was still a male, and she used what she knew about leaders and men to her advantage.
"You know dat when I was a kid, me dad left me muddah, right? Well, we neva knew where he went, or what he did and I hasn't seen 'im since. But 'is name was John Williams, an' I was named aftah 'im. Me name, me real name, is Theodore Jonathin Williams. Don't tell nobody dat eithah." Mugger couldn't be too surprised at this, as she had already guessed it. Rico continued on, pacing the alley before her.
"See, it seems I'd be pleased to see 'im afta all dese yeahs, but I don' trust him 's far 's I can throw 'im. Me fadda was a good man, taught me good things. Honah. Chivalry. I even remember 'im tryin to tell me 'bout some politics and science, literature... but Ise no scholah and I was on'y six. The thing is, if 'ee was such a good man, why did he leave me an me muddah? Me muddah was a goahgeous thing, at least da way I seen 'er. But I don't remember nothin, really. Why now? Why does this man, who abandoned me all dese yeahs wanna talk to me now? I juss don't trust 'im. And 'ow'd 'e git to be so rich? We was dirt poor... I rememba dat. I remember me mudder begging him not to make me work in the factory weah 'e did. But I's completely oblivious to an'thing else tha' happened. I don' know me fadda. I should meet 'im right? But Muggah, da thing is, I's happy in dis life. I love livin like this. I don' want nothin to change."
Mugger sat for a moment waiting for him to continue if he wanted to, and when he didn't, she got up and hugged him. He hugged her back affectionately, then flopped down onto the bags. All she could think of to answer his questions would be to see his father. She still didn't understand exactly why he didn't want to see his father. She would have given anything to at least meet her father. As much as Mugger was curious as to what Rico was hiding from her, because she knew there was something, she didn't press him. He had already told her more than he had ever told anyone, maybe even more than he had previously admitted to himself.
"I think..." Mugger started, then stopped. She was staring at Rico. Suddenly she was overcome with emotion. Suddenly, she forgot about not hurting his feelings and thought about what would be best for him. "Rico!" she almost whined. "You have to go see your father. If you don't, you'll be left wondering your whole life, like you are now. You'll nevah know. What if he just wants to give you money? Or a house? You could live in a house! You know he's rich. He could- you could..." Mugger had to take a deep breath before she continued. She really didn't want to bring this to his attention. She didn't want to say this so much, that she stood up straight, concentrating on losing her 'New Yawk' accent she had half- aquired from living with the newsies. This was coming from the well-raised and educated Annalee, not street-wise Mugger. "Rico, you're seventeen. You are a smart, handsome, honorable young man, and if your father wants to give you a home, a secure life, and maybe even, maybe even," she faltered here, knowing that the one thing Rico wanted more than anything in the world was to go to school. "Maybe, he'll want to teach you. You could go to college, Rico! I know you're smart enough you just..." Rico had turned away when she said this. She didn't notice or care, but tears were coming to her eyes. The way she saw it, Rico absolutely had to go see his father. It could be the beginning of the life he always wanted. He had risen as high as he could being a newsie. It was time for him to grow up, this could be his one oppourtunity to become Theodore Jonathin Williams and leave Rico on the street. In her head, she knew this was right, but in her heart, she cried out for him not to leave her.
Rico stood facing away from Mugger, his fists clenched. She didn't understand, he thought. She didn't understand that he couldn't leave his newsies, couldn't leave her. It wasn't the life he was afraid to leave behind... God knows Rico would have been happy to spend the rest of his life studying everything and anything that came across his path. He was afraid to leave the newsies. Naive and optimistic Mush needed a big brother, Kid Blink, hyper and irrational needed a mentor, Snaps needed a teacher, and Smarts needed a listener. Mugger needed him. He couldn't leave all of these people high and dry.
Rico tried to rationalize himself. The truth was, he'd like to see his father. He just wondered if his father would approve of him being a newsie, living on a dime a day, sometimes having a home, sometimes not, sometimes eating, sometimes not. It wasn't a very noble way to live.
And, he told himself, seeing his father didn't necesarily mean that he couldn't be a newsie anymore. He would just talk to him, right? He turned back towards Mugger, who was standing with silent tears flowing down her cheeks. He pulled her into a hug, and sat down with her next to him on the canvas bags.
"Muggah," he said, stroking her hair. "Yoah right. Yoah so right, an' I don't wanna belie' it. I don' wanna leave you and me newises. Yous all need me. We need eachotha. But Muggah, yoah right. I gotta go at least tawk to 'im." At this, Mugger shook with a single sob. "But Muggah, just cause I talk to 'im don't mean I's just gonna leave ya."
Mugger looked up at him and locked her eyes to his. "I love you, Rico." She put her head back down on his chest as his breath caught in his throat. Neither of them actually admitted that they saw each other as more than best friends, but Rico did answer her.
"I love you too, Muggah. And I'll nevah stop. Nevah."
Rico and Mugger cleaned themselves up and trekked back to the lodging house. As they neared it, they were bombarded with questions. Where were they, what were they doing, why were they gone, why did they not tell anyone.... Rico and Mugger just said that they had just taken a walk and got back later than they had thought. The newsies just shrugged it off, each making a mental note that Rico and Mugger were a couple. It was strange that the newsies realized this before Rico and Mugger themselves.
Over the next couple of days, Rico and Mugger, going by their given names, Annalee and Teddy, did a fair bit of spying, researching, and threatening to get the information that John Williams was staying at the Waldorf Hotel, looking for his son. He had become rich working in the lumber industry in Grand Rapids, a small town in Michigan that was rapidly growing. People knew when John Williams was in town, but in New York City, he was not well known, and it tood Mugger and Rico almost a week to find this information out. They were doing this after they sold the morning edition of the papers every day, and it was getting to be a choice: they either slept at the lodging house or ate dinner. They were just not making enough money. When they finally found Williams, it was almost November, and the weather was getting cold.
Mugger shivered, wrapped up in her skirts, a jacket, and a couple of Rico's shirts. They were walking in silence towards the Waldorf Hotel so that Rico could meet his father. Rico had scoured the lodging house and put together a rather sharp looking suit, made up of donations by the other newsies. The newsies were rather confused about their sometimes-absent leader, but they trusted and supported him, and their faith in him made the fact that Rico may have to leave them even harder to bear.
They stopped in front of the immensly elaborate and resplendant hotel and Rico, who was usually the most beautiful, tallest, strongest, and most respected, felt shadowed next to this extravagance of great splendor. He marveled at how Mugger still seemed to glow next to all of these beautiful people, and was more than a little surprised when she kissed him on the cheek. "Go. I'll be waitin' here for ya. I won' move an inch, take as long as ya like."
"Ya sure ya don' wan' come with me?"
"I can't. You hafta meet ya fahtha alone. Go!" She gave him a glorious smile. Rico walked into the hotel feeling glad that Mugger had confidence in him.
He did his best to imitate the aristocracy. He held his head up and walked at a steady pace. He thought about speaking like a gentlemen, like Mugger spoke when he first met her. All too soon, he was standing in front of the door to room 203. He held up his fist to knock on the door and it opened in front of his face. There stood John Williams, in all his glory. He seemed to be going somewhere important, for he was all dressed up. He looked like a magnificent king or something of the sort to Rico, who suddenly thought proudly, This dazzling man is MY father.
"Can I help you?" Williams looked Rico up and down, and looked a bit interested. No doubt that over the last few days, he was looking at every dark boy he saw, looking for his half Puerto Rican son.
"I-," Rico's breath caught in his throat. "I am...." Breathe, Rico.... "Your son."
John Williams' eyes widened and his whole body seemed to explode as he exclaimed, "Teddy!? Where have you been? I've been trying to find you for, how did you find me, where have you been staying, are you a newsie?" Rico's head swam with all of his father's questions. How his father's voice saing "Teddy!?" repeated over and over in his mind, and he was overcome with memories. That voice, that voice was the sound of home. Rico, tears beginning to build, launched into the story of Tibby's and Mugger convincing him to come and meet his father, and when he was done, his father told his side of the story.
"I feel so guilty. I have been living a comfortable life for the last five years. I am rich, although I will not tell you how rich exactly. It's not good for someone's brain to chew on wealth. I own and run a lumber and furniture company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and have been living there since I- uh, left New York. I worked for a lumber comany and slowly worked my way up to the top. That is a whole story in itself. Last summer, I became restless, bored, and discontented. I had been thinking about the son I left quite alot and decided that I would find you. I spent three months trying to find where you would be indirectly, so I could go meet you. I found out that your mother died, and that you were lost track of, but that most orphans became newsies. So I, on a hunch, decided that that's as close as I was going to get to finding you without actually leaving my comfortable house in Grand Rapids, and came to New York. I looked all over New York and was just about to give up. I have to be back in Grand Rapids in a week. I leave the day after tomorrow. I am just so ashamed that it took boredom to make me come get you."
Rico sat in silence during this whole explanation. While his father was talking he realized something. "I woulda done the same thing. I woulda nevah..."
Rico didn't even realize he had reverted back to his accent, but his father stood up and Rico followed his lead. "Teddy. I want you to come to Grand Rapids with me. I'll hire a tutor for you. You're a smart boy, and you have no future on the streets of New York."
At this blunt remark, Rico sat right back down again. This was what he was afraid of. He could not, absolutely positively could NOT leave Mugger and his Newsies. Didn't his father understand that he was the leader of Manhattan? He had responsibilities here. But on the other hand, to have a house, an education.... Perhaps he could talk his father into taking Mugger also? But they couldn't take all of the thirty something newsies he lead. That was his family.
"Fahtha, I can't. I can't tell you how much I'd love to, but I got family here. Me newsies...I'm theia leadah. They need me. Muggah needs me."
Rico had explained about all of this previously, and his father, being an intelligent man, knew this was coming. He also had a surprise up his sleeve.
"Okay, Teddy. Okay. You don't have to. But I do have to go back to Grand Rapids, and you may hate me for it, but just wait it out okay? Everything will be wonderful, no matter what, because you are strong."
Rico wasn't ready for that. He expected to be forced into going to Grand Rapids, but this? He smiled and hugged his father.
"Ise gotta go get Muggah. Wouldja- wouldja like ta meet 'er?"
Williams' eyes lit up. It was an unspoken agreement that for today, they were to be father and son. At least for today. "Of course."
Later, Rico would remember that day to be one of the strangest days of his life. Everything was so confusing that it all made sense, and he dared not think of it for too long for fear that he would drive himself mad, trying to figure out what he was feeling.
Rico's father went back to Grand Rapids in three days, but he wrote often. Rico didn't have a specific address, so Williams just sent it to the Manhattan lodging house. They corresponded in this way often, and Rico was happy. He told the newsies everything that had happened and it was accepted with a general, "Ooohh.... I get it."
Christmas Eve was celebrated with singing and dancing and a free night at the lodging house, as it was usually five cents a night. Mugger, Rico, and the other newsies talked and laughed and by the time it was about midnight, were all sound asleep. All except Rico. He was up, writing to his father by the moonlight, telling him how happy he was. There had been virtually no problems the last three months, the weather had been mild, and, most importantly, his newsies were happy. Everything was right except the fact that Rico missed his father. Rico fell asleep that night thinking of living in a house with all his newsies and Mugger, seeing himself and Mugger as the mother and father of all these orphans and runaways.
When Rico awoke that Christmas morning, the first thing he was aware of was that he was extremely comfortable and warm. He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Mugger's peacefully sleeping face. This wasn't strange, as she slept one bunk over from him, what was strange was that they were both in one massive bed, with luxurious blankets and pillows covering it. Rico sat straight up, not knowing where he was. He looked around the room in sheer wonder. He was in the lodging house alright, but there were new, beautiful beds each containing one, not two or three, serenely sleeping newsie and blankets and pillows. There were boughs of holly and candles decorating the room, and even a Christmas tree decorated with glass ornaments. Sitting next to the Christmas tree, in a comfortable looking chair, sat Mr. John Williams, reading a book.
"Father!" Rico exclaimed.
"Do you like it?" John William's eyes sparkled and his face glowed.
"It's amazin. How did ya do this?" One by one, newsies were waking up slowly. None of them seemed to be surprised at any of it.
"I bought the lodging house. It is now the Williams Newsies House. All the newsies helped me to set it up last night while you were sleeping. You and I will live here with all the newsies. They will not have to pay to stay here, I own it now. I have a study and a bedroom downstairs, and I have arranged to pay for anything you might eat at Tibby's." Rico's head was spinning.
"Yoah gonna live in New Yawk with us?"
"Yes," Williams said, smiling extravagantly.
"I- you... thank you!" Rico said. Mugger sat up next to him, and her jaw promptly dropped.
"This is wondrous," Mugger said, getting out of bed and finding slippers at her feet.
"There is only one condition. You must be working to live here," John smiled. "I won't have lazy newsies living in my house." He looked fondly at all the boys chuckling in the room. "If a lazy newsie exists!"
Rico got up and, pulling on his charchol gray pants, he walked over to his father, and hugged him.
"Thank ya so much. Mah life is piefect now."
"Actually, I have one more surprise for you."
Rico looked at his father, puzzled, and got only a cock of the head and a warm smile. The door to the bunkroom creaked open, and a dignified woman's voice rang out shrilly.
"Mr. Williams? Am I late?" Rico turned around to see an elegant grandmotherly woman, smiling her droll little smile. Three or four little newsies rushed to her and relieved her of the many books she was carrying. She waddled up to Rico and looked at him up and down. Finally, she looked into his eyes, which was quite a feat for her as she only came up to his chin, and said, "You must be my student. Yes, you are a smart lad. I can see it in the way you stand, in the way you look. You are a leader, and you are strong." She glanced at Mugger, who was, as usual, shadowing him. "He's yours, isn't he?" Muggers cheeks went the way of cherries as Rico pulled her to him. The woman continued, with a sly little grin and dancing eyes, "You're a lucky one, he's a fine catch. I'll have a pleasure teaching this one, I will."
Rico, who had been smiling intensly at this woman suddenly dropped to her height and hugged her.
Epilogue
Although at that time Rico had no idea what was to become of him, he knew that he was going to live a grand life. But most importantly, he lived a happy life. The Williams Newsies never left the Williams Newsies House. Many of them grew up, like normal, and a few went off to find their destinies in places like California, London, and Paris, but most just stayed. The Williams Newsies House grew with the boys, and eventually, girls to become a glorious settlement where all orphans were welcomed, sheltered, taught and nurtured. It was a family for those who had none. It was a home for those who had none. It held a future for those who had none. Kids and teenagers like Mugger, Rico, Kid Blink, and Mush all found a life there. The Williams Newsies House was the first of it's kind and the only of it's kind. It was New York's home.
Spot Conlon, a small but intimidating boy of about fourteen, was the leader of the Brooklyn newsies. He watched over his newsies like a hawk and had also been watching Rico's black hair coming for the last five minutes. Rico was coming, no doubt, to talk about the territory at the mouth of the Brooklyn Bridge, and whose newsies were allowed to sell their papes there. Spot knew the Manhattan newsies were in somewhat of a slump, and was willing to give up the territory, so he wasn't worried about Rico. What he was worried about was the pretty, short girl Rico was with. She was unfamiliar to him, and anything unfamiliar unsettled him. Spot liked knowing his opponents. She might be helping Rico with his negotiations, and Spot hated negotiating with females, especially pretty ones. They were so... irrational.
"Heya Spot," Rico said calmly, if not friendly.
"Rico. Who's dis ya got heah?" Mugger felt Spot look her up and down, and guiltily admitted to herself that she liked being admired by this powerful, if young, newsie.
"That's none a ya consoin. Yur newsies gotta stop soakin mine. Jus yestaday, I got a kid at the house, bleedin all ova evertin. You gonna-"
"Didja evah stop to tink why dey named it da Brooklyn Bridge?" Spot interrupted.
Rico grunted, and ran a hand through his glossy black curls. If there was one thing he hated, it was being interrupted. It was just plain rude. "Spot my newsies and ya's don care what is called. Dey just wan' make theiah livin, juss like you an me." All this time Mugger was watching them carefully. She had begged to be brought along, and she knew Rico couldn't resist her saying that she respected what he did, and wanted to see how he did it so well. He was male, after all and she knew enough of him to be able to use his ego.
Spot gave Rico his best evil eyes, and in anger, loaded his slingshot and shot a wooden beam about twenty feet away, splintering it. "See dat Rico? Se how easy I could beat ya? So, I's a nice guy. Ise gona let you have da stinkin territory. Jus you keep ya stinkin newsies outta Brooklyn, arite?" Spot was proud of himself. If he was gonna back down, he was gonna do it threatening. It soothed his dignity.
Rico smiled, and led Mugger away from Brooklyn. Once they were on the bridge, Mugger felt safe to ask a few questions of Rico. "Spot Conlon... he could be really dangerous, right?"
"Hope you don' got no friends in Brooklyn. Cause I don't want you goin back," Rico replied, effectively, if indirectly, answering her question.
"He won't try to come hurt us, will he?" Mugger asked, though she meant Spot coming to hurt Rico. She hadn't thought Spot was that dangerous, but she was afraid for Rico. He was her best friend, and she was a good fighter, but she was quite right to believe that she couldn't protect him from Spot and his newsies.
"Naw he woudn' try nothin like dat." I don't think, Rico admitted silently to himself. One never knew what Spot Conlon would do. Rico knew that Spot didn't think much of this territory, but it was risky anyway. Once again, Rico found himself asking what his father would do. Spot often reminded Rico of his father. Brilliant and willing to share his knowledge, but utterly unpredictable and impossible to depend on. Rico's father had left him and his mother when he was six, and his mother died of pneumonia the next winter. He had been a newsie ever since he was seven, but this was his first year of being the leader of Manhattan. Now that he was responsible for all these people he loved, he found himself thinking of his father often, and wondering how he could have left Rico. Rico couldn't bare to think of leaving his beloved newsies unprotected.
"Good. Rico?" Mugger had stopped. They were in front of the Manhattan Lodging house. He turned to her, and his chocolatey brown eyes locked with her Caribbean blues. He tucked a strand her brown, paper- straight hair behind her ear.
"Yeah Muggah?"
"Yoah my best friend. So just...be careful, alright?"
Rico pulled her into a hug, and she buried herself in his tall frame. "I's good at dis, remembah? Is gon' be okay. I knew I shoulda nevah taken ya." Rico's heart ached at the way she was scared for him. He vowed right then to never leave his best friend or the other newsies unprotected in any way. They were much too valuable.
The next morning, Rico met Mugger and two of his other best friends, Kid Blink and Mush, at the distribution offices. The four of them decided to sell at their new "territory" just to make sure Spot wouldn't try anything, and after a day with no hitches, except some problems Mugger was having with her skirts ("Ya gotta lose those... how do ya move?" asked Blink), they walked into the little restaurant, Tibby's for dinner at dusk.
Mugger watched Rico as he talked and laughed with Blink, Mush, and Smarts. She couldn't help noticing how relaxed and carefree he looked. And how handsome. She shook the thought from her head. She couldn't fall in love with this kid, he was her best friend. It would be too awkward. And yet she found herself admiring every word he said, and every move he made.
Mugger marveled at how the newsies could be so territorial and ruthless sounding to each other, and then come home to their lodging house and act like there was nothing serious going on. Maybe there was nothing serious going on, and Mugger was just used to her quiet and provided for life at the orphanage, for that is where she had grown up. At fifteen, she felt as though she had been taken care of for too long at the fancy aristocratic orphanage. It was almost like a boarding school, and Annalee, then called by her given name, was going insane until she met Rico. After knowing Rico for the better part of a year, she had, with his help, left the orphanage once and for all. She knew she was leaving behind a potentially prosperous life if she had been adopted or, more likely at her age, asked for her hand in marriage, but the life of the streets had beckoned to her ever since she could remember. How could she resist Rico, who had given her a best friend, a nickname, and freedom?
"Hey! HEY!" Mugger was brought back to the present by the loud, growling voice of the restaurant's owner, Clancey Reide. His crooked back, shaggy gray hair flopping over eyes magnified by his thick glasses, and malicious sounding voice were slightly intimidating to her, but he often wore an atrocious but friendly smile that looked half grimace and the other newsies regarded him as a sort of a grandfather. Rico and the other newsies silenced themselves instantly. The last time Mr. Reide had yelled like this, it was to inform them that their beloved Lodging House proprietor, Mr. Jaspers, had passed away. The newsies looked from one to another, wondering what was the matter. Rico tried to give them all comforting looks while observing the stranger that no one else had seemed to notice.
Mr. Reide was standing as tall as his curved spine would allow, and gestured to a fine looking gentleman beside him. The gentleman's clothes were all impeccably clean, as Rico's clothes usually were, finely tailored, and the absolute pinnacle of fashion at the time. He stood with an elegant air, perfectly still, with his back as straight as a board, the gold chain of a pocket watch glinting in the afternoon sunlight. He would have looked quite stern had it not been for his dancing, sparkling eyes and his warm smile.
"This 'ear is John Will'ms. 'Ees lookin for a boy named Theodore, or Teddy, Jon'thin Will'ms. Teddy, if one of ya newsies is 'im, this is ya father, and he wants to take ya to... Gran' Rapids, is it?"
"Yes sir," the man said crisply.
Reide raised a finger to the air and shouted. "Gran' Rapids! Ta raise ya like 'ee shoulda," Mr. Reide concluded with a nod of his head and, looking winded, sat in a chair and fanned himself. The newsies were shocked at this speech, coming from a man who rarely said more than two words at a time.
Rico sat rigid as Mr. Williams' gray eyes flitted about the room, settling on each silent boy for a moment, and lingering on Mush, a beautiful quadroon, and Snaps, a mulatto boy. For a moment Rico wondered if this man, who claimed to be his father, was possibly a democrat from the south, the way he looked as if he were measuring up the dark boys. Rico looked self consciously down at his dark, Puerto Rican skin. Rico looked mulatto because he had the features of a white man and the caramel color of his Puerto Rican mother. Of course, that would be why this man was looking at the dark ones. He thanked the good Lord that he was in a shadow, and that the sun was to his back. The elegant man Rico could not think of as his father would not be able to see him. No newsie knew that his real name was Theodore Jonathin Williams, and therefore could not give him up. Rico had not heard the name in so long, he even wondered if he was mistaken.
Mugger was looking at Rico, staring at him without moving. She alone had seen him freeze when the man's name was mentioned. He had composed himself before Mush and Blink turned to ask him if he knew the boy this man was looking for. She was the only one, besides Rico, who had made the connection between the man's seeming interest in the dark boys, and Rico's caramel skin, black curls, and long eyelashes. He did indeed have the exquisite beauty of a mulatto or quadroon, and though she knew him to be Puerto Rican, this man seemed to be looking for someone with dark skin, and she knew Williams wouldn't be able to see Rico. When Mugger started asking him questions with her eyes, as she and Rico had often done in the past, Rico thought about disappearing into the gathering darkness, but how would that look? An evidently rich man comes looking for someone he seems to think is a newsie, and the leader of the newsies slips out? No, as a leader, Rico couldn't leave his newsies. He therefore settled on mimicking the look of bemused interest on the other boys' faces. He dismissed this so-called gentleman, and returned to the Lodging house with Mush, Blink, and Mugger.
The next day, Tuesday, Rico woke before the sun came up after a troubled sleep. Across the bunk room, he saw that Mugger was up too, and wondered what was troubling her. He had worried about her knowing more than the other newsies. She seemed to pick up more about him than the guys, perhaps because she was a female, maybe simply because he told her more. This caused some anxiety within him. Although he didn't believe it to be a good thing, he knew all too well the truth of the phrase "ignorance is bliss." For a minute or two, he lay on his bunk silently, and watched her get up, her long white nightgown billowing and flowing in the faint breeze, walk to the window, and sit on a chest of drawers, looking out onto the rapidly lightening street below. He got to his feet as silently as he could, and tiptoed to where she was standing. When he was about three feet behind him, she spoke.
"Rico, do you know the man at the restaurant yesterday?" She asked, startling Rico so he slipped on Smarts' pants and went flailing into the wall. Mugger collapsed into hysterical giggles, despite the seriousness of the mood ten seconds earlier. She and Rico crept down the stairs so they wouldn't wake anyone and burst into full fledged laughter when they reached the common room. When they had composed themselves, Mugger sat on the second stair, and Rico sat one above her, and started playing with her smooth hair, stroking and braiding it, running his fingers through it. It was a favorite spot of theirs since Mugger had moved into the lodging house, and they had shared many a discussion there, often accompanied by raging arguments ending in playful fighting.
"Muggah, ya got da most pretty haiah I's eva seen," Rico said, overtly.
"Thank you. Rico?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you know that man at Tibby's? Mr. Williams?" Mugger turned to him, to find him staring at her as if he was an adult who didn't want to tell a child about some horrible fact of life, such as death. She stood up. "You do don't you? Rico, you can tell me anything, you know that? Why- "
"Wha makes ya think I knows him, eh? You don' know me. Nobody knows me," Rico said, and stood up and left. Mugger walked purposefully after him.
"Rico! You can't jus leave me like that! Cause that's what makes me think you knows him! You's avoidin da topic and I can't stand it, Rico!" They were outside and halfway down the block by now, and Rico stopped, and spun on his heel.
"Muggah. Ya can't know.... Juss... I don' know what he wants, and untill I find out I can' tell nobody da things I know," Rico immediatly regretted even telling her that he knew something, though he knew she knew. It seemed better to let things be left unspoken. But now she knew. He grabbed her hand and led her down an alley. They found a pile of canvas bags and he gestured to them. "Make yaself comf'table. Is a long story." Mugger flopped down on the bags, and didn't say a word. She knew that he would just have to tell her, and if she talked, he might decide she didn't need to know. Rico may have been her best friend, but he was still the leader of Manhattan, and he was still a male, and she used what she knew about leaders and men to her advantage.
"You know dat when I was a kid, me dad left me muddah, right? Well, we neva knew where he went, or what he did and I hasn't seen 'im since. But 'is name was John Williams, an' I was named aftah 'im. Me name, me real name, is Theodore Jonathin Williams. Don't tell nobody dat eithah." Mugger couldn't be too surprised at this, as she had already guessed it. Rico continued on, pacing the alley before her.
"See, it seems I'd be pleased to see 'im afta all dese yeahs, but I don' trust him 's far 's I can throw 'im. Me fadda was a good man, taught me good things. Honah. Chivalry. I even remember 'im tryin to tell me 'bout some politics and science, literature... but Ise no scholah and I was on'y six. The thing is, if 'ee was such a good man, why did he leave me an me muddah? Me muddah was a goahgeous thing, at least da way I seen 'er. But I don't remember nothin, really. Why now? Why does this man, who abandoned me all dese yeahs wanna talk to me now? I juss don't trust 'im. And 'ow'd 'e git to be so rich? We was dirt poor... I rememba dat. I remember me mudder begging him not to make me work in the factory weah 'e did. But I's completely oblivious to an'thing else tha' happened. I don' know me fadda. I should meet 'im right? But Muggah, da thing is, I's happy in dis life. I love livin like this. I don' want nothin to change."
Mugger sat for a moment waiting for him to continue if he wanted to, and when he didn't, she got up and hugged him. He hugged her back affectionately, then flopped down onto the bags. All she could think of to answer his questions would be to see his father. She still didn't understand exactly why he didn't want to see his father. She would have given anything to at least meet her father. As much as Mugger was curious as to what Rico was hiding from her, because she knew there was something, she didn't press him. He had already told her more than he had ever told anyone, maybe even more than he had previously admitted to himself.
"I think..." Mugger started, then stopped. She was staring at Rico. Suddenly she was overcome with emotion. Suddenly, she forgot about not hurting his feelings and thought about what would be best for him. "Rico!" she almost whined. "You have to go see your father. If you don't, you'll be left wondering your whole life, like you are now. You'll nevah know. What if he just wants to give you money? Or a house? You could live in a house! You know he's rich. He could- you could..." Mugger had to take a deep breath before she continued. She really didn't want to bring this to his attention. She didn't want to say this so much, that she stood up straight, concentrating on losing her 'New Yawk' accent she had half- aquired from living with the newsies. This was coming from the well-raised and educated Annalee, not street-wise Mugger. "Rico, you're seventeen. You are a smart, handsome, honorable young man, and if your father wants to give you a home, a secure life, and maybe even, maybe even," she faltered here, knowing that the one thing Rico wanted more than anything in the world was to go to school. "Maybe, he'll want to teach you. You could go to college, Rico! I know you're smart enough you just..." Rico had turned away when she said this. She didn't notice or care, but tears were coming to her eyes. The way she saw it, Rico absolutely had to go see his father. It could be the beginning of the life he always wanted. He had risen as high as he could being a newsie. It was time for him to grow up, this could be his one oppourtunity to become Theodore Jonathin Williams and leave Rico on the street. In her head, she knew this was right, but in her heart, she cried out for him not to leave her.
Rico stood facing away from Mugger, his fists clenched. She didn't understand, he thought. She didn't understand that he couldn't leave his newsies, couldn't leave her. It wasn't the life he was afraid to leave behind... God knows Rico would have been happy to spend the rest of his life studying everything and anything that came across his path. He was afraid to leave the newsies. Naive and optimistic Mush needed a big brother, Kid Blink, hyper and irrational needed a mentor, Snaps needed a teacher, and Smarts needed a listener. Mugger needed him. He couldn't leave all of these people high and dry.
Rico tried to rationalize himself. The truth was, he'd like to see his father. He just wondered if his father would approve of him being a newsie, living on a dime a day, sometimes having a home, sometimes not, sometimes eating, sometimes not. It wasn't a very noble way to live.
And, he told himself, seeing his father didn't necesarily mean that he couldn't be a newsie anymore. He would just talk to him, right? He turned back towards Mugger, who was standing with silent tears flowing down her cheeks. He pulled her into a hug, and sat down with her next to him on the canvas bags.
"Muggah," he said, stroking her hair. "Yoah right. Yoah so right, an' I don't wanna belie' it. I don' wanna leave you and me newises. Yous all need me. We need eachotha. But Muggah, yoah right. I gotta go at least tawk to 'im." At this, Mugger shook with a single sob. "But Muggah, just cause I talk to 'im don't mean I's just gonna leave ya."
Mugger looked up at him and locked her eyes to his. "I love you, Rico." She put her head back down on his chest as his breath caught in his throat. Neither of them actually admitted that they saw each other as more than best friends, but Rico did answer her.
"I love you too, Muggah. And I'll nevah stop. Nevah."
Rico and Mugger cleaned themselves up and trekked back to the lodging house. As they neared it, they were bombarded with questions. Where were they, what were they doing, why were they gone, why did they not tell anyone.... Rico and Mugger just said that they had just taken a walk and got back later than they had thought. The newsies just shrugged it off, each making a mental note that Rico and Mugger were a couple. It was strange that the newsies realized this before Rico and Mugger themselves.
Over the next couple of days, Rico and Mugger, going by their given names, Annalee and Teddy, did a fair bit of spying, researching, and threatening to get the information that John Williams was staying at the Waldorf Hotel, looking for his son. He had become rich working in the lumber industry in Grand Rapids, a small town in Michigan that was rapidly growing. People knew when John Williams was in town, but in New York City, he was not well known, and it tood Mugger and Rico almost a week to find this information out. They were doing this after they sold the morning edition of the papers every day, and it was getting to be a choice: they either slept at the lodging house or ate dinner. They were just not making enough money. When they finally found Williams, it was almost November, and the weather was getting cold.
Mugger shivered, wrapped up in her skirts, a jacket, and a couple of Rico's shirts. They were walking in silence towards the Waldorf Hotel so that Rico could meet his father. Rico had scoured the lodging house and put together a rather sharp looking suit, made up of donations by the other newsies. The newsies were rather confused about their sometimes-absent leader, but they trusted and supported him, and their faith in him made the fact that Rico may have to leave them even harder to bear.
They stopped in front of the immensly elaborate and resplendant hotel and Rico, who was usually the most beautiful, tallest, strongest, and most respected, felt shadowed next to this extravagance of great splendor. He marveled at how Mugger still seemed to glow next to all of these beautiful people, and was more than a little surprised when she kissed him on the cheek. "Go. I'll be waitin' here for ya. I won' move an inch, take as long as ya like."
"Ya sure ya don' wan' come with me?"
"I can't. You hafta meet ya fahtha alone. Go!" She gave him a glorious smile. Rico walked into the hotel feeling glad that Mugger had confidence in him.
He did his best to imitate the aristocracy. He held his head up and walked at a steady pace. He thought about speaking like a gentlemen, like Mugger spoke when he first met her. All too soon, he was standing in front of the door to room 203. He held up his fist to knock on the door and it opened in front of his face. There stood John Williams, in all his glory. He seemed to be going somewhere important, for he was all dressed up. He looked like a magnificent king or something of the sort to Rico, who suddenly thought proudly, This dazzling man is MY father.
"Can I help you?" Williams looked Rico up and down, and looked a bit interested. No doubt that over the last few days, he was looking at every dark boy he saw, looking for his half Puerto Rican son.
"I-," Rico's breath caught in his throat. "I am...." Breathe, Rico.... "Your son."
John Williams' eyes widened and his whole body seemed to explode as he exclaimed, "Teddy!? Where have you been? I've been trying to find you for, how did you find me, where have you been staying, are you a newsie?" Rico's head swam with all of his father's questions. How his father's voice saing "Teddy!?" repeated over and over in his mind, and he was overcome with memories. That voice, that voice was the sound of home. Rico, tears beginning to build, launched into the story of Tibby's and Mugger convincing him to come and meet his father, and when he was done, his father told his side of the story.
"I feel so guilty. I have been living a comfortable life for the last five years. I am rich, although I will not tell you how rich exactly. It's not good for someone's brain to chew on wealth. I own and run a lumber and furniture company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and have been living there since I- uh, left New York. I worked for a lumber comany and slowly worked my way up to the top. That is a whole story in itself. Last summer, I became restless, bored, and discontented. I had been thinking about the son I left quite alot and decided that I would find you. I spent three months trying to find where you would be indirectly, so I could go meet you. I found out that your mother died, and that you were lost track of, but that most orphans became newsies. So I, on a hunch, decided that that's as close as I was going to get to finding you without actually leaving my comfortable house in Grand Rapids, and came to New York. I looked all over New York and was just about to give up. I have to be back in Grand Rapids in a week. I leave the day after tomorrow. I am just so ashamed that it took boredom to make me come get you."
Rico sat in silence during this whole explanation. While his father was talking he realized something. "I woulda done the same thing. I woulda nevah..."
Rico didn't even realize he had reverted back to his accent, but his father stood up and Rico followed his lead. "Teddy. I want you to come to Grand Rapids with me. I'll hire a tutor for you. You're a smart boy, and you have no future on the streets of New York."
At this blunt remark, Rico sat right back down again. This was what he was afraid of. He could not, absolutely positively could NOT leave Mugger and his Newsies. Didn't his father understand that he was the leader of Manhattan? He had responsibilities here. But on the other hand, to have a house, an education.... Perhaps he could talk his father into taking Mugger also? But they couldn't take all of the thirty something newsies he lead. That was his family.
"Fahtha, I can't. I can't tell you how much I'd love to, but I got family here. Me newsies...I'm theia leadah. They need me. Muggah needs me."
Rico had explained about all of this previously, and his father, being an intelligent man, knew this was coming. He also had a surprise up his sleeve.
"Okay, Teddy. Okay. You don't have to. But I do have to go back to Grand Rapids, and you may hate me for it, but just wait it out okay? Everything will be wonderful, no matter what, because you are strong."
Rico wasn't ready for that. He expected to be forced into going to Grand Rapids, but this? He smiled and hugged his father.
"Ise gotta go get Muggah. Wouldja- wouldja like ta meet 'er?"
Williams' eyes lit up. It was an unspoken agreement that for today, they were to be father and son. At least for today. "Of course."
Later, Rico would remember that day to be one of the strangest days of his life. Everything was so confusing that it all made sense, and he dared not think of it for too long for fear that he would drive himself mad, trying to figure out what he was feeling.
Rico's father went back to Grand Rapids in three days, but he wrote often. Rico didn't have a specific address, so Williams just sent it to the Manhattan lodging house. They corresponded in this way often, and Rico was happy. He told the newsies everything that had happened and it was accepted with a general, "Ooohh.... I get it."
Christmas Eve was celebrated with singing and dancing and a free night at the lodging house, as it was usually five cents a night. Mugger, Rico, and the other newsies talked and laughed and by the time it was about midnight, were all sound asleep. All except Rico. He was up, writing to his father by the moonlight, telling him how happy he was. There had been virtually no problems the last three months, the weather had been mild, and, most importantly, his newsies were happy. Everything was right except the fact that Rico missed his father. Rico fell asleep that night thinking of living in a house with all his newsies and Mugger, seeing himself and Mugger as the mother and father of all these orphans and runaways.
When Rico awoke that Christmas morning, the first thing he was aware of was that he was extremely comfortable and warm. He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Mugger's peacefully sleeping face. This wasn't strange, as she slept one bunk over from him, what was strange was that they were both in one massive bed, with luxurious blankets and pillows covering it. Rico sat straight up, not knowing where he was. He looked around the room in sheer wonder. He was in the lodging house alright, but there were new, beautiful beds each containing one, not two or three, serenely sleeping newsie and blankets and pillows. There were boughs of holly and candles decorating the room, and even a Christmas tree decorated with glass ornaments. Sitting next to the Christmas tree, in a comfortable looking chair, sat Mr. John Williams, reading a book.
"Father!" Rico exclaimed.
"Do you like it?" John William's eyes sparkled and his face glowed.
"It's amazin. How did ya do this?" One by one, newsies were waking up slowly. None of them seemed to be surprised at any of it.
"I bought the lodging house. It is now the Williams Newsies House. All the newsies helped me to set it up last night while you were sleeping. You and I will live here with all the newsies. They will not have to pay to stay here, I own it now. I have a study and a bedroom downstairs, and I have arranged to pay for anything you might eat at Tibby's." Rico's head was spinning.
"Yoah gonna live in New Yawk with us?"
"Yes," Williams said, smiling extravagantly.
"I- you... thank you!" Rico said. Mugger sat up next to him, and her jaw promptly dropped.
"This is wondrous," Mugger said, getting out of bed and finding slippers at her feet.
"There is only one condition. You must be working to live here," John smiled. "I won't have lazy newsies living in my house." He looked fondly at all the boys chuckling in the room. "If a lazy newsie exists!"
Rico got up and, pulling on his charchol gray pants, he walked over to his father, and hugged him.
"Thank ya so much. Mah life is piefect now."
"Actually, I have one more surprise for you."
Rico looked at his father, puzzled, and got only a cock of the head and a warm smile. The door to the bunkroom creaked open, and a dignified woman's voice rang out shrilly.
"Mr. Williams? Am I late?" Rico turned around to see an elegant grandmotherly woman, smiling her droll little smile. Three or four little newsies rushed to her and relieved her of the many books she was carrying. She waddled up to Rico and looked at him up and down. Finally, she looked into his eyes, which was quite a feat for her as she only came up to his chin, and said, "You must be my student. Yes, you are a smart lad. I can see it in the way you stand, in the way you look. You are a leader, and you are strong." She glanced at Mugger, who was, as usual, shadowing him. "He's yours, isn't he?" Muggers cheeks went the way of cherries as Rico pulled her to him. The woman continued, with a sly little grin and dancing eyes, "You're a lucky one, he's a fine catch. I'll have a pleasure teaching this one, I will."
Rico, who had been smiling intensly at this woman suddenly dropped to her height and hugged her.
Epilogue
Although at that time Rico had no idea what was to become of him, he knew that he was going to live a grand life. But most importantly, he lived a happy life. The Williams Newsies never left the Williams Newsies House. Many of them grew up, like normal, and a few went off to find their destinies in places like California, London, and Paris, but most just stayed. The Williams Newsies House grew with the boys, and eventually, girls to become a glorious settlement where all orphans were welcomed, sheltered, taught and nurtured. It was a family for those who had none. It was a home for those who had none. It held a future for those who had none. Kids and teenagers like Mugger, Rico, Kid Blink, and Mush all found a life there. The Williams Newsies House was the first of it's kind and the only of it's kind. It was New York's home.