HEY!! Wow!! I got a lot of replies from this between the mailing list I am in and ff.net!!! I AM SOOO HAPPY YOU ALL LIKE IT!! To those of you reading Things Change, I am kind of at a writer's block right now and don't know where to go with it. I will update it soon though!

Raven: don't worry, I'll do one of these for everyone….including SPOT!

Kicker: THANKS!!! You lazy bum! Kidding, is this soon enough for you??? HEHEHE.

Brightsoul: THANK YOU!! I'll have all of them up soon enough!!!!

The Omniscient Bookseller: WOOT! Yeah, Race rocks!!!

Klover: YOUR REVIEW MADE ME LEAP WITH GIDDINESS!! Hehehe!!!! I definitely will be doing more…SEE!!!

Back to the story!!!

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Michael. How could I forget someone like him? He was first
introduced to us as weak. He was tall and wouldn't be thought of as
lanky, but he was often sick. I remember a time where he had a cold
so bad we thought he had Tuberculosis. Snoddy, we called him, on
account of he was always wiping that nose of his from all the
disease that he would get. Despite all that, however, he had a
strong personality. With all he had been through, he had to. If he
didn't, chances are he would have killed himself even before the
depression of adolescence had the chance to set in.

I believe I heard him speak of his mother on several occasions.
True, he would never actually refer to her as his mother, but you
could tell who he was talking about by the way he spoke. She was a
young woman when she had him. Raped by someone, I believe. When
Michael was born, all she could see was that man that had taken
advantage of her, tearing away her clothes as well as her pride. She
quickly gave him to some couple that took in children such as our
Snoddy, from people such as her.

Neglect was common in such places, and this one was no exception. It
was because of this neglect that he had succumbed to illness often
as a child. The smell alone would make someone ill, but piled on top
of that was urine covering the floor of the bathroom from the little
ones as well as insects scaling the walls in search for food, and
that was on a good day.

By the age of ten, filthy and exhausted, Snoddy showed up to our
home. Eager to leave the family he was left with, we welcomed him
openly to join ours. He adjusted well, and though it took some of
the newsies to warm up to him due to his constant illness, he was
friendly to all around him.

His ability to fight off disease weakened as he grew. The hot sun
beating down on the back of his neck causing nausea in the summer,
the colds that flew around during the harsh winter, and all the flu
in between had a debilitating effect on him. He passed out in the
lobby of the lodging house from heat exhaustion in mid-July one
year. He would wake up to vomit and then would pass out once more. I
remember telling the rest of the boys the news of his condition each
night, and those who had religion would pray for him each day. I
caught Bumlets and Specs holding their rosaries so tight I was sure
their hands would bleed. Though he recovered, he was still very
frail. Snoddy soon left the city in search of somewhere that wasn't
engulfed in industrial smoke as New York was.

Years later, I received notice from his daughter somewhere in Maine
that he had fallen ill once more and thought I should know. She had
sent notice to all his "family". In other words, us. I never heard
of how he was. I hold the hope in my heart that my letter of his
recovering was lost, and that the others were sure I received mine
and, therefore, didn't feel the need to tell me. Whatever happened
to him, I remember his ill body, but his strong mind the most.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There, kind of sad but its a newsies life and they didn't dance
happily in the streets the whole time. Hope you liked it!!!

Stretch