SPOT CHAPTER!! I KNOW SOME OF YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!! HERE
IT IS!!!
GypsyRuth: If I knew where to contact you, I would send you a pic of Swifty to set your poor mind at ease. LOW WAVELENGTHS ROCK! Hehehe! :::looks around::: See what?
Southern Spell: YAY!!! Well, Spot is here, and not too long until Mush!!!
Unnamed: I have no idea what to call you! Do you not have a name??? Anyway, thanks for the compliment! And, I am not sure so how I went against Southern hospitality in the other chapter…I didn't really elaborate on it. I just said he had manners. Oh well…
Spatz: WOO!! PEOPLE LIKED MY SWIFTY COP IDEA!!! :::does little people-liked-my-swify-cop-idea dance::: Hayseed was touching? Hehehe! It was all I could think of!
BlakeFire: YAY!! I UPDATE!! WOO!!! I get a marching band too?? YAY!!! Everyone should insult themselves!! It's a national pastime! Swifty the…pillowcase??? Hmmm…OH! I'm originally from the Seattle/Tacoma area, and raised in a Southern city. Not too much of a southern country girl. :::tries to act threatened but fails::: We're both helpless!
Ponine: Annoying feedback? I didn't even know such a thing existed!! I LOVED THEM ALL!!! Specs my favorite newsie??? How could you tell??? Besides the fact that I love writing ANYTHING Specs…
Thumbsucker Snitch: OF COURSE I'M GOING TO DO SNITCH!! That would be newsie sacrilege to miss him!
Klover: YAY!! YOU NEVER GOT YELLED AT!!! :::does a Klover-never-got-yelled-at jig::: Moans and giggles…yeah…that's all he can make me do when we are….ANYWAY! THANKS!!!
Sureshot Higgins: SOMEONE had to say SOMETHING about that rake deal!!! I figured I might as well take a shot at it! I think its official that I am going to do Tumbler!!! HERE IS SPOT FOR YOU!!!
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Some people have ambition. He owned it. He had a fire in his eyes
that never wavered, and an air of determination that was nonexistent
for people his age. I met him when he was about nine or ten, tiny
but tough as nails. He may not have lived in the lodging house, and
though I didn't see him that often, I had to pay attention whenever
he did stop by. After all, there is something about Spot Conlon that
both scares you and amazes you at the same time.
He was easy to notice and anyone could spot him in a crowd. I think
that's how he got his name, but I could be wrong. Those cold eyes
and slingshot may have helped a bit as well. In fact, that slingshot
is another theory of mine. He was always on target, hit whatever
spot he aimed for no matter how small. I didn't ask him, I just
called him by it as rumors flew about how he got his famous
nickname. Rumors tend to go around about people with power, and Spot
was the most powerful newsie among them.
A wise guy to the core, he was often in trouble at the orphanage he
was left at. It was his way of dealing with the pain. Some sulk, he
formed an emotional callus to their cruel remarks and constant
harassment. The sores they so generously bestowed upon his back
nightly only made him toughen and become filled with animosity
towards the world around him. Why is it so many people desperately
want children, but it is the people who hate them that are their
caretakers in such places.
Spot was always intelligent, anyone could see that just by looking
at him. He ran as soon as he found the opportunity and immediately
searched for work to support himself. After all, he needed to make a
living if he didn't want to end up in that orphanage again. He was
soon hired at a mill on the edge of Brooklyn, working long hours and
barely making ends meet. This was no life for him, and he sought a
new way to survive.
Brooklyn was crawling with newsies, as was every city in New York at
the time. After all, it was a busy place with busy people who were
obsessed with the news. Spot happened to walk up to a newsboy one
day, asked how he could get the job, and he was an official newsie
by the next morning. He always got to the point. I may have heard
most of what I learned about Spot from the others, but I knew he was
straight-forward from the first moment I set eyes on him. That's
obvious from the second he opens his mouth.
His hard-ass ways got him noticed by the head Brooklyn newsie. Even
at the age of nine he was a tough one, and this was not often
overlooked. It was a good thing the leader took a liking to him,
otherwise he might have been killed within a week. The leader, Glare
or something I believe, told him all he knew. He let him sit up in
the perch, cane in hand, above the other boys on the docks every
now and then. It was only natural for Spot to take his place when he
left, the young newsboy so full of resolve and so hardened by life
that it often took others by surprise. His stance demanded respect,
and he may have been small, but he knew how to take care of himself.
Fearless and head-strong, Spot was an incredible ally if on your
side, a force to be reckoned with.
I heard about him leaving from the others entering the lodging
house. Spot Conlon leaving Brooklyn was like Teddy Roosevelt leaving
New York. Spot was Brooklyn, the driving force behind the toughest
group of kids in New York. Time stops for no one, I guess, and soon
it was time for Spot to say farewell to his perch and find another
way of life.
It was Swifty that told me about Spot Conlon, the general. I was
always the last to know these things, and my jaw dropped at the idea
of Spot Conlon overseas fighting with the best of them. However, it
did make me feel safer that the toughest kid in Brooklyn was
fighting for our side, like it made the rest of the newsies feel
safer when he was fighting for them. He had traded his slingshot for
a rifle, but I am sure he is out on that battlefield, cane still in
hand, ambition burning in his eyes. He once fought for Brooklyn, and
now he fought for us all, and I wish him the best.
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There it is!!! :::goes BACK into closet with Specs to…"hide":::
Stretch