Precisely 6 o'clock. I stared at the large clock tower. I walked into the diner with confidence. There, seated next to the window, a new girlfriend on his lap, sat Jack. Oh, infamous Jack, with his hat and his rope and his cute little smile….NO! No, never that. Well, there he was, sitting across the table from Racetrack, talking about the money he had lost on his newest adventure to the track.
"Now, what have we gots here?" Jack asked, quite amused.
"A newsie by the looks of it!" Racetrack chimed in, as he moved to give me the window seat.
"Aye, don't jump to conclusions." Jack replied, grabbing my hat off, revealing my disheveled haircut. "Perhaps you were right… but we'll see. So… where ya from gurly?"
"Well, I was sent here by my Aunt after my parents died. She lived on a ranch in Santa Fe, but didn't want to keep me."
"Santa Fe! You lived in Santa Fe?!" Jack shouted, nearly knocking the girl off his lap.
"Yeah……..well, it isn't that great… just a big desert, a big blue sky, and the sun."
"It's the same sun as the one here." Said Jack, captivated.
"But it…… looks different."
"So… uh, how do yous like it here?" Racetrack interrupted, moving closer to me, resting his hand on mine.
"It's nice- except for the coaches."
"HA! Anyone who lives in New Yoik gets along fine with the coaches. Theys don't bother us!" Jack snapped out of his daze.
"Hey, dollface" I said to the girl on his lap, while lighting a cigar, "you have a problem with coaches?"
"Yeah, they're so dirty and dangerous, I hate them, they scare me!" The girl replied. Jack glared at me with true hostility.
"Well, I'm sure you… move around enough that you haven't and probably won't get used to them." I said with a smirk on my face.
With that Jack jumped up, dropping his 'friend' just as I moved out into the isle also. He grabbed my right wrist, twisting it into an odd position, and shoved me against the wall. Half of the other newsies there were shouting for him to soak me. "Don't you EVER insult me like that again." He growled into my ear. With those few seconds, I stuck out with my left fist, hitting him on the jaw. He stood there in shock just long enough for me to kick him backwards and throw off his balance so that he fell to the ground.
"Better be glad I'm righthanded!" I said with a good-natured smirk. With that I spit on my hand and offered it to him. He looked me up and down menacingly. Then, with a half-smile, he did likewise.
I helped pull him up, and just as I did so, he said "Welcome to New Yoik, kid! There's a room for you at the lodge. It was supposed ta be a guest room, but yer gonna need yer privacy, I's guessin'." With that the three of us newsies left the old diner and his girlfriend behind and headed home.
