Chapter 4:
Andy opened the door to the study and stuck his head inside, only to find it empty. He walked into the room, munching on a cookie that he had just sneaked from the cookie jar.
Curious, he poked around the desk. That was where Daddy found all sorts of neat things, he'd heard. Maybe he'd find something neat as well.
He pulled out one drawer and then another. Nothing but old papers and some dusty books. How very boring to a young child who couldn't read very well just yet. How could Daddy think ANY of this was interesting? He pulled open another drawer. Empty! This must be the drawer where Momma and Daddy found the money.
Andy sighed, wondering if there were any neat little toys or gadgets to play with. He left the desk and walked across the room, poking through the shelves a bit. Something on the top shelf caught his eye and perked his curiosity. Shoving the rest of the stolen cookie in his mouth, he slowly began to climb up the bookcase. He was about halfway up when the door swung open and Julie, with her nose buried in a book, walked in. Andy lurched with a start and let go of the shelf, falling off it with a cry of surprise.
Julie shrieked with surprise when she heard him cry out and dropped her book. She rushed to his side as Chris burst through the door. "What was that noise?" he demanded.
"Andy fell off the bookshelf- what were you doing up there, Andy?" she demanded, pulling him around.
He stared at her, white-faced and suddenly yelped and burst into tears when she tugged on his right arm.
She let go of his arm and he held it close to his body, whimpering. Chris knelt in front of him. "Let me see it, buddy," he said, reaching for Andy's arm, but Andy whimpered and tried to move away.
"Come on now, let me take a look."
"But it hurts," he whimpered.
"Either let me look, or I'll go get Rae and she can look."
Andy screwed up his face and let Chris take a look.
"I think she should look at it anyway...I think it's broken. Julie, go get Rae, please."
Julie nodded and ran from the room, calling, "RAE!"
"What's wrong, Julie?" Rae asked as she came down the stairs.
"Andy hurt his arm. Chris reckons it's broken."
Rae sighed and placed her hand on her forehead. As if they needed a broken arm right now. With another sigh, Rae followed Julie back into the study. Entering the room, Rae hurried over to Chris and Andy. "Tell me what happened, Andy."
"I don't want to," he said, biting his lip.
She gave him a look. "Andy..." she said with a warning tone in her voice. "Tell me."
"I fell from the bookshelf."
She gave him a look. "And how in the world did THAT happen young man?"
"I was climbing on it."
"Why were you climbing it?"
"Cause I wanted to look at that thing on the top shelf," he said, starting to point to the object, but cried out in pain and cradled his arm.
"All right now, come on, get up. Let's get you in bed. Chris, Julie, go run for a doctor."
After Chris carried Andy upstairs he and Julie ran to town for the doctor, while Rae tucked Andy in the bed. "I want you to lay still until the doctor comes, okay?"
"It hurts, Momma," he said, huge tears rolling down his cheeks.
Rae leaned in and kissed his forehead. "I know sweetheart. The doctor will make it better."
"Am I in trouble?"
"Just a little, for climbing the bookshelf, but we'll deal with that later."
"I love you, Momma."
She leaned over and kissed his forehead again. "I love you too, Andy."
The door cracked open and Ann stuck her head in. "What's wrong with Andy?"
"He hurt his arm," Rae explained.
"Is it real bad?"
"Well, the doctor is going to tell us just how bad."
"Can I come in too?" She asked.
Rae patted the edge of the bed, knowing the little girl would be hurt if she couldn't. "Just be careful climbing up. We don't want Andy's arm to get hurt any more than it is."
Ann carefully crawled up on the bed and sat on her knees beside her brother. "Can I see, Andy?"
He screwed up his face and shifted his arm towards her. "Don't touch it... it hurts real bad..."
She made a face that rivaled his. "It's purple!" Andy looked down at it and whimpered.
Rae quickly pulled Ann back onto her lap. "Hush, Annie."
"When's the doctor gonna get here?" she asked. "Is he gonna make it all better and everything?"
"Yes, the doctor will make it all better, but it might take awhile. Remember when Chris hurt his foot?"
She nodded. A few minutes later, Chris returned with an old doctor in tow.
"Rae, this is Doc. Doc this is Rae Conlon and the little guy on the bed is Andy."
"Pleasure," the doctor said, taking Rae's hand and giving it a squeeze. Then he approached the side of the bed and gave Andy a quick once over. "So young man, tell me what happened."
Andy hung his head. "I was climbing on the bookcase and Julie scared me and I fell."
"Adventurous youngster, aren't you? Well, sit up, sit up, and let me take a look at that arm."
Rae helped Andy ease into a sitting position and Andy cautiously held his arm out to the doctor.
He gently lifted Andy's arm in his hand and prodded it a bit. When Andy yelped, he nodded. "Yes, it does look like you've broken it. I'll have to bandage it up for you. It may hurt a bit."
Andy whimpered and bit his lip, before looking at Rae.
"You'll be all right, sweetheart," she said encouragingly as the doctor removed several rolls of flimsy white fabric from his bag.
"It was a clean break and the bone set itself, which is a good thing for this young man," he said as he began to wrap Andy's arm. "I'm going to make you a sling and I want you to keep your arm in it all the time, and don't try to pick up anything, little man."
"Yessir," Andy replied, wincing. He whimpered again.
Rae sat back down and held his other hand. "It's alright, Andy," she whispered, brushing the hair from his forehead and gently kissing it.
After another minute or two, his arm was wrapped and tucked firmly into his new sling.
"Now," the doctor began, "I'll be by to check on you in a month. No more climbing bookcases, got it?" he tapped Andy's nose with a smile, wrote out the bill, and handed it to Rae. "Pleasure meeting you," he replied, tipping his hat. Chris led him out.
"I told you he would make it all better," Rae said, messing the boy's hair.
"It still hurt when he was doing it," Andy replied with a sniffle.
"I know, sweetheart, but he had to do that to make it feel better."
He nodded and sniffled again. "Can I go play now?"
She smiled and helped him crawl out of the bed. "Just be careful."
With a watery grin, he nodded. "Yes ma'am." Turning, he scampered off, with Ann chasing after him yelling, "Wait for me!"
Smiling and shaking her head, Rae followed them.
* * *
Lights out in the bunkroom across the hall had been called hours ago, yet Spot was still wide-awake.
If he had been at home, he would be in his bed, with his arms around Rae, making sure that she always safe and warm, and knew she was loved. The sound of small feet might possibly be heard as Ann tried to sneak into their room once again. But he wasn't home. Instead he heard the sounds of newsies snoring from across the hall and slept next to a big space of air. Rolling onto his side, he gave a depressed sort of sigh.
He wanted nothing more than to be with his family, but was he willing to risk their safety? If it weren't this murder he had been accused for, it would be something else- he could just see it. Those townspeople were afraid of him and could always use a scapegoat. He would go back right now, if it weren't for...for his face.
He knew Rae ranted on about how his scars meaning nothing, that there was so much more past them, but no one else would see that. They would see a scary, horribly disfigured face and think 'monster'. He rolled over again and sighed. If only everyone else could see past the scars. Then he wouldn't be in Brooklyn worrying about the safety of his family halfway across the state.
He was facing a dilemma. Should he return and possibly endanger the lives of his family? Should he stay and write Rae, asking her to uproot and bring everyone back to Brooklyn? Doing that would only put more stress on Rae and that was the last thing he wanted to do right now. So what to do? He didn't really want to stay in Brooklyn for the rest of his life, but he was out of options. The best thing to do would be to stay where he was. Then maybe in a few years he could go back to his family. He cringed. He didn't like it at all. "But it's for the best," he murmured.
* * *
Rae lay on the couch in the study, shivering. She knew that she should be sleeping in the bed upstairs, but she couldn't. Even though it had been a month since Spot had left, she could still smell his scent when she cried into his pillow at night. Every time she opened the wardrobe, she saw the clothes that he had left behind. Those townspeople were crazy. They couldn't look past a bunch of scars to see that he really was a kind and wonderful young man. Tears filled her eyes. Sure, most people didn't see that side of Spot Conlon, but if you got close enough you could.
"Would you like to buy a pape, sir? Only a penny..." Rae let her hand fall to her side as the man she had asked just walked on by, hardly paying attention. She growled in frustration. That was the fifth one of the day to do that!
Nearly an hour ago she had given up on trying to "improve" the headlines, because no one seemed interested. But now it seemed that even begging people to buy her papers wasn't going to work either. Maybe she could use a couple of them to keep her warm tonight in whatever alley she found to sleep in. She groaned. She did not like the idea very much. It wasn't HER fault no one bought a paper! With a sigh she sank against the wall of the bank that she had been selling in front of, dropping the papers at her feet. She leaned her head back against the wall and pulled her faded black cap low over her eyes.
"Waiting for the papes to sell themselves, Kelly?" a voice asked beside her a moment later.
"Go away, Conlon!" she muttered, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the chill.
"Mm, not until you tell me why you're sitting here on the freezing cold ground."
"Why do you think?" she retorted, nudging the stack of papers with her foot.
"Ah, I see. Rough day... That's the bad thing about being a newsie... Well... here... tell you what... tonight, dinner and lodging are on me."
"Stop messing with me and go eat your dinner and go sleep in your warm bed."
"I'm not messing with you, Kelly." Grabbing her arm, Spot hauled her to her feet. "Come along."
"Then why are you doing this? If you think I'm going to kiss you or something even worse you can just drop dead."
Spot rolled his eyes. "Oh, get over yourself, Rae. I'm doing this for you, not for me."
"Oh no! Spot Conlon never does anything for anyone else. The only person he worries about is himself."
"You know, if that was funny, I'd be laughing right now," he muttered.
Rae threw her hands up and turned to walk away. "See you in the morning."
"What's your problem, Kelly? I'm doing you a favor here!" he yelled, heading after her.
"Why?"
"Because I want to- is there crime in that?"
She sighed. "I guess not."
"Besides, I thought we decided to be friends..."
"I guess we did..."
"And friends help each other, right?"
"I guess."
"Then let me pay for your dinner and your bunk tonight."
After giving it some thought, she finally nodded. "Okay... all right... But don't expect any .... you know, FAVORS from me."
He smirked. "Yes ma'am."
"Shut it!" she muttered, leading the way to a small diner.
* * *
Rae sighed as the memory faded off for the time being. That was a time when she had been able to see a rare side to Spot- well, before she married him of course. Even once they agreed to be friends, she had rarely seen that side of him. Even when she did it was only when the two of them were alone. She realized now that even before the scarring, he was very defensive over his image... he let very few see anything other than the rough rouge almighty Spot Conon. That was one thing she never understood, even after they got married. Why in the world was he like that? When he returned, she would have to make a point to talk to him about it, she decided.
It used to amuse her when he got overly defensive of his image, but now... She didn't know whether to be worried, or mad. She sighed. All she really wanted was for him to be there with her, image and all. She hugged the pillow on the couch tightly to her chest. How much longer would it be?
* * *
Rae straightened and attempted to stretch her back. She glanced down at the tub of laundry that she had been attempting to wash. It was getting harder now that her belly kept getting in the way. The baby kicked her rather sharply when she leaned to grab a shirt. "Okay, okay. I get it, you don't like that." She straightened and sort of leaned backwards to grab it.
Chris walked into the room with Kendra in his arms. "Rae, you shouldn't be doing that."
"Well, it's not going to get done on it's own. Besides, all of you are doing enough as it is.... and I need to keep busy somehow."
He took her arm and led her toward the living room. "Rock Kendra then."
With a sigh, she sat in a chair and took Kendra. "I just get so restless..." She didn't have to say she was still worried about Spot- Chris knew very well.
"I know, but Molly and Julie and Andy will be back from town shortly and then you can spend the rest of the day asking Andy about his visit with Doc."
She gave him a smile. "I suppose." Rae winced slightly as the baby kicked where Kendra was leaning against her.
"You all right?"
"Yes... This baby is just a bit... restless."
Chris rolled his eyes playfully, "Just what we need! Another Rae!"
She swatted at him with a grin.
He turned serious. "Please, just stay here and rest..."
She sighed. "I'll try- hard, I promise."
Chris bent down and looked Kendra in the eye. "You keep Momma here, alright, sweetheart?"
Kendra smiled and exclaimed, "Mama!" grabbing a hold of Rae's shirt and pulling herself up to her feet unsteadily. "Mama!"
Rae smiled and caught the little girl's hands. "That's right, sweetheart," Rae said, kissing her forehead.
Kendra giggled and touched her face, cooing typical baby sounds as if she was holding a conversation with her "Mama".
Rae glanced up at Chris. "We'll be fine, Chris. You don't have to stand there and watch me."
"I just want to make sure you stay resting is all..."
"If I need anything I'll call you."
"You'd better," Chris warned before walking off.
Rae looked back down at Kendra. "He's almost as bad as your Daddy."
"Dada!" Kendra exclaimed, bouncing on Rae's lap.
Rae kissed her forehead. "I wish he were here."
Kendra gave Rae a wet kiss on the cheek and exclaimed again, "Dada!"
"Hopefully he'll come home soon, sweetheart."