Chapter 3
As Jack approached the Santa Fe Post Office late that afternoon, he pulled the letter he had written to Sarah from his pocket to look back over it. His own slanted print read,
Dear Sarah,
I'm thinking about ya every day, whenever I look up at the sky. The sunrises in Santa Fe are so beautiful, I can't even describe 'em. When you come, you'll see for yourself. There's so many colors, and they're all so bright, and when the sky has clouds, they're big like mountains. It's nothing like you've seen in New York, trust me.
I have a job working for the Santa Fe pape, the Dispatch. I give out the papes to the newsies (yeah, like Weasel used to, don't laugh) with two guys, Chuck and Eli Cartwright, who are cousins (Chuck is almost as bad as both the Delanceys put together, too, just trust me on that). Today was my first day. (go and show Dave this letter, too, so he can tell the boys about them) The leader of these boys, his name's Keystone. He's like Spot was back in the day, but almost worse when it comes to the attitude. He's got a real good command over the boys, though, and knows my deal and not to disrespect me. I told him about how we were in the strike, and that seemed to get him to appreciate me, which, from what everyone's told me, the other distributors before me couldn't do. The other boys are a mixed bag, including a kid who only speaks in riddles (named Riddle, imagine that) and a guy who's seventeen but as short as a little kid (Smalls). It's real strange. They also do sellbacks here, on account of the slower news days. It gives the kids and even break, too, which is good for them. These boys make me miss the Lodging House, but I guess I'm finding a way to deal.
I live in a boarding house (it's the one Kloppman gave me the name of before I left) with a lot of other people (I'll put the address at the bottom of the page so you guys can write me back), including a noisy baby next door. I'm warning ya now, Sarah, if all kids are as loud as that one, we're not having any. The woman who runs the boarding house, though, Miss Cate, puts it all together best she can, though, and she's doing a real good job. You'll like her when you meet her. She's only two years older than me.
I don't know how long it'll be before you can come, but I'm hoping it's not long. If my job keeps up well, it won't be more than a little while. I'll write again soon, and send me a letter the next time you can.
Love,
Jack
(Room 19, Bennett Boarding House, 25 Trail Avenue, Santa Fe)
After dropping the letter off with the post office clerk, Jack returned to the Boarding House. Topper was sitting on the doorstep again, but this time he was with Pulley, a fourteen year-old with short, near-black hair like Keystone's and equally dark eyes.
"You two moochin' dinnah off Miss Cate?" Jack asked pleasantly as he turned the doorknob.
"Why're you so happy?" replied Pulley with skepticism.
"No reason," Jack said, but in his mind, there was an image of Sarah.
"He's thinking about Miss Cate," grinned Topper.
"You listen ta Keystone too much."
"I'm supposed to listen to the leader, aren't I?"
Jack rolled his eyes. "Not when 'e's wrong, which 'e is in dis case." He opened the door and gestured for the two to enter. "C'mon."
"Key'll only be wrong when he lets Goldy sell papers," said Pulley, putting an angelic look on his face as he went inside. "Miss Ca~te!" he called.
"Pulley, is that you? And Topper too, I'm guessing…" commented Catharine, briefly peeking her head out of the kitchen to see the boys. "Jack!" she exclaimed, brushing the loose strands of dark hair that had fallen out of her braid from her face. "I didn't hear you come in."
"I ain't as vocal as dese two, Miss Cate."
Catharine smiled. "You can just call me Cate, Jack. I'll feed you whether or not you add the 'Miss'."
"Oooo~ooooh," chorused Topper and Pulley. Catharine disappeared back into the kitchen to hide a faint tinge of red spreading across her cheeks.
"If you two want papes tomorroah, youse'll stop teasin'," Jack said in Topper's ear.
"You wouldn't!" he exclaimed.
"I might," he laughed. "Dey should call ya Gully."
"Gully?"
"Short fer Gullible."
"Yahoo!" Topper shot back in return.
"Yeah!" added Pulley.
"You two ain't got a good insult of yer own, do ya?" asked Jack. "Gotta take everythin' from Key and Riddle."
"S-so?" Pulley sputtered weakly.
Jack laughed. If these kids ever spent a day with the boys back home, he thought, they'd end up much different. Or maybe they'd be just the same. He could never know for sure. Reflecting on what he had told Sarah in his letter, the boys in both cities weren't as different as he thought. They each had to make a living from day to day…they even lived under the same sky and sun. They just looked at it differently. As his laughter faded, Catharine's declaration floated into the front hall.
"DINNER~!" She poked her head back out as assorted boarders, old and young, male and female, began making their way down the stairs in what resembled a herd. "That includes all Dispatch employees," she added, smiling at both boys and Jack. The three proceeded into the boarder's dining room.
This was the fist time Jack had seen the dining room; he hadn't eaten with the boarders his first night, and Catharine used the kitchen for breakfast since fewer residents took breakfast at different times. Though Catharine insisted on her father's simple policy, the long oak table and chairs were overshadowed by the bright, patterned wallpaper and three vases of fresh flowers, each positioned at a different place on the table. Women took their seats first (children ate in the sitting room, where there was less decoration and more room to run after the meal); whatever men did not end up with seats stood with Catharine and everyone participated in lively, friendly conversation. Jack could see why Topper came to dinner each night and often brought a friend; everything Catharine served, it was excellent, and the conversations made it just as good.
As Jack spooned vegetables onto his plate, his letter to Sarah was making its way out of the Santa Fe Post Office and beginning a long journey of misplacement and delay. It would reach the Jacobs home a month and a half after Jack dropped it off at the post office.
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Jack lay in bed, reading a copy of The Santa Fe Dispatch when he heard a gentle knock on his door. It was unusual for him to get visitors, especially at night. Cara McAllister had stopped dropping by unexpectedly nearly a month ago when he had politely informed her that he had a fiancée waiting to come join him here from back home, so he knew it wasn't her, but had no idea who else it could be. His caller didn't identify himself, so Jack didn't bother answering and went back to his paper.
A few moments later, though, another knock came, this time accompanied by a voice.
"Jack? I know it's late, but --"
Jack recognized the voice on the other side as Catharine's. He rose out of bed and answered the door before she could finish her sentence, knowing she rarely visited anyone past the boarding house curfew (nine o'clock) unless something was wrong.
"Youse okay, Cate?" he asked, concerned.
"Oh! Yes, I'm fine, Jack." She smiled.
"Why're you heah, den?"
"It's only nine-thirty."
"Past the curfew, though."
Catharine smiled again. "I guess I'm bad for not following my own rules, then."
"Yeah, I guess," Jack said, smiling as well.
"Miss Clark from the post office stopped by with a special late delivery," she told him, taking her left hand out from behind her back to reveal the letter she was holding. "I would have given it to you in the morning, but the postmark is from New York." Jack reached out and took it from her.
"Thanks, Cate…" He undid the seal and pulled the letter out, scanning it quickly.
"From Sarah?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah…it's dated two weeks ago."
"This is the first letter she's sent you in the two months you've been here," Catharine observed as his eyes darted across the paper.
"She says the one I sent got lost in the mail for a while…"
"Oh. Well, it's good it got through, at least." She gave a small smile. "I should let you go. You'll want to write her back, and I need to make sure everything is in order for the morning."
"Thanks again, Cate," he said to her, still holding the letter tightly in one hand. "Really, I'se grateful dat you brought this ta me."
"You're welcome, Jack. You have that meeting in the morning, right?" He nodded.
"See you at breakfast, then?"
"Yeah. 'Night, Cate."
"Good night."
Jack watched her go down the hallway to the stairwell and then closed his room's door gently behind him, doing his best not to wake either neighbor on each side of him, especially baby Alex. Standing by the window, he could see Sarah's letter was one full page, front and back, though she didn't have much to say. She missed him and was glad his letter finally came so she wouldn't have to be worried anymore. David was doing fine, and so was Les, but at the moment he had a cold. Her parents missed him and wished him the best of luck. When would she be coming? she asked twice, once at the beginning, and once at the end. She signed it with all her love.
Strangely, though, everything she said was only on the first page. He turned it over to see who the other writing was from. Jack laughed out loud when he read the first few lines -- it was David. He had stolen his sister's letter, he said, and after overcoming the stench of the perfume she had coated it with (Jack sniffed the letter and found no traces of it; it must have worn off since she had sprayed it, he concluded), he had decided to take it to the boys at the Lodging House and have them sign it. He had all of them -- including Kid Blink, Mush, Specs, Skittery, Bumlets, Snoddy, Pie Eater, Dutchy, Racetrack, even Spot and Kloppman -- each saying hello and wishing him luck. Jack would have to thank all of them in his next letter, he resolved, for all the warm wishes. It was just what he needed, after spending so much time with the Santa Fe newsies, a fresh reminder of home.
Jack's mind drifted away from the letter for a moment when he gazed out the window. Though Santa Fe was canopied by a large blue sky and blinding sun in the day, a gentle moon accompanied by thousands of stars lit it up at night. In his mind, he tried to blot out some of the bright spots hanging in the inky covering, attempting to make it more like New York's sky, where the stars were hidden by smoke and city lights. If just for that night, Jack wanted to be a little closer to the people he thought had left behind but had come bounding back in that letter. Sarah…even if she said it was all the same up above, he wanted to see the same things that she and the boys did that night, just to let them all know he was doing the best he could. And in the morning…
In the morning, Jack had a meeting with Mr. Grayson and the other bosses at the Dispatch. He tucked the paper back in its envelope and set it on the table next to his bed, his mind going back to Santa Fe. Keystone and the boys were expecting him to be there tomorrow, and the last thing he could do was be late after staying up till the dead of night, reflecting on things long past.