Exiting the orphanage some time later, Sadie felt a lot better. The
Mother Superior had offered her a job immediately once she had heard of her
previous experience. She had also given her a job working with the infant
orphans. She was to bathe them, feed them, change them and just mind them
in general. Sadie was ecstatic. The other woman who worked with the infants
was a young nun named Sister Agnes, a gentle soul with a kind, sweet face.
Standing on the sidewalk, Sadie loosened her shawl and let it hang looped
around her elbows. The sun had risen into a clear, midmorning sky. The
streets were bustling with traffic and vendors, and people hurrying back
and forth.
Sadie decided to explore the neighborhood a bit before going to back to the lodging house. Walking down the street, she groaned inwardly at the sight of some of the newsboys eating apples furtively in an alleyway. One of them saw her, and motioned her over.
"You're the girl what lives with us now right?" The speaker was a boy of about ten, his freckled face pale and dirty. His brown curly hair was covered by a battered black cap. Sadie nodded and he smiled at her.
"I'm Spider and these are Frog and Lefty." He made a gesture that included the two other boys. Lefty looked older than Spider, his eyes were harder and darted every which way keeping an eye out for policemen. He grunted in her direction, looking up at her briefly, a lock of his brown hair falling into his eyes. Frog was the boy who had been hit by Mumbles. His nose was black and blue and looked swollen. He had to have been about six or seven. His brown trousers were patched up and the gray vest he wore almost went to his knees. He gave her a shy smile and her heart lurched at the sight of missing teeth.
"You hungry? Noticed you left the same time we did and I don't think you ate." Spider was holding an apple up to her. She gratefully accepted it and slid down onto a crate next to the boys to eat it as fast as she could. Suddenly a whistle blew, and all three boys leapt to their feet, cursing and looking around wildly.
"C'mon! It's the cops!" Frog and Lefty took off out of the alley like lightening, Frog's little legs churning. Spider grabbed Sadie's hand and pulled her up to her feet before charging out of the alley. Splitting up, Spider led Sadie away from the cops and down what seemed like fifty side streets and alleyways, over fences, and finally down to the riverside. Reaching the docks, Sadie was taken aback to see most of the newsboys swarming over one of them, Spot residing on a pile of wooden crates looking all the world like a king overseeing his subjects. It was too cold to swim, but most of the boys were practicing with their slingshots, Spot calling down pointers from time to time. He looked over at Spider and Sadie as they entered the scene, closely trailed by Frog and Lefty. Sides heaving, Sadie dropped down onto a crate and felt sick.
Thump. She looked over to see Spot standing beside her, smoking a cigarette and swinging his cane. Frog collapsed near her feet, smiling up at her, than Spot. Spot's face softened momentarily as he ruffled the boy's blonde hair.
"How's the nose there, Froggie?"
"Not bad Spot."
"Why d'you guys look like you went to Hell and back?" Spider spat onto the dock and lit the stub of a cigar. Leaning against a pillar, he wiped his chin off.
"Coppers. We stole some apples and they blew the whistle so we all had to scram." Spot nodded and then looked at Sadie, with an amused grin.
"You helped to steal apples? There's hope for you yet."
"I didn't steal them, I just ate one." Spot clucked his tongue and looked at her disapprovingly. She rolled her eyes and looked right back at him. Chuckling, he sauntered off to help one of the smaller boys with his aim.
"What's his problem anyway?" she whispered to Spider. Spider looked over at Spot and then back to her.
"He's a tough guy. Usually he's got more charm when it comes to broads, but his girl just left him a week and a half ago."
"Left him? Why?" Spider's mouth twisted into a smile.
"In case you haven't noticed, Spot's not the easiest guy to get along with all the time. But he's our leader, and he's a damn good one. Couldn't have asked for another guy who knows how to run things, and watch out for the whole pack. His girl, Diamond, she was a great girl. But her and Spot are too alike, in all the bad ways. She ran off to Manhattan to be with Cowboy." Spider spat again, but this time it was in disgust.
"Cowboy? You mean Jack?" Spider looked at her sideways and nodded. Sadie leaned back against a crate, and let the information soak in while listening to the boy's hooting and hollering when their marbles hit a target. Standing up, she asked Spider to show her back to the lodging house. He agreed, and they set off. Once reaching the building, he gave her a charming bow and a grin, and disappeared back towards the docks. Sadie ran inside, told Becca she was going to Manhattan, and that she'd be back either that night, or tomorrow morning.
The walk back to Manhattan took as long as she remembered it. But at least this time, she wasn't lugging a heavy bag full of clothing. She assumed that since the Brooklyn boys were having a break already, that the Manhattan boys would be as well. She was right, they were in the square again, some of the boys play fighting with wooden swords, others shooting dice, and the rest hanging all over the statues and talking.
"Well if it isn't Sadie!" Sadie grinned and sat down next to Crutchy. He looked happy to see her, and a few of the other boys came over to shake hands. Sadie noticed this time, that there were a few girls loitering around as well. Dressed like the boys, they held themselves with the same street-wise attitude and weren't as friendly looking. Spying Jack, she noticed a pretty redheaded girl with her arm around his waist. More than a few of the boys had black eyes, or bruises. The one she remembered as Mush had a sling around his left arm.
"So where you been, Sadie? I haven't sold ya a paper in a few days." Sadie took a deep breath.
"I live in Brooklyn now." Distrust flashed across Crutchy's eyes briefly before he looked at her again, curiously.
"How'd that happen?" So Sadie told him the whole story, about Henry and not wanting to deal with him, Becca and Sam and Sam's new job. Moving into the lodging house. At the end, Crutchy's mouth was hanging open, and she saw that she had gathered an audience.
"You live with the Brooklyn newsies?" A short, athletic girl had planted herself in Sadie's face, cigar stub held between strong white teeth. The fire shooting out of her dark eyes put Sadie on edge.
"Yeah so what if I do?" Sadie leapt to the challenge, standing nose to nose with the dark haired girl. Two other girls quickly arrayed themselves behind Sadie's challenger, eyes angry and suspicious, fists clenched.
"Did Spot send you to spy on us?" Sadie was confused. Crossing her arms, she looked at the girl coldly.
"I don't know what you're talking about. He did no such thing." The girl laughed without any humor, and started cracking her knuckles.
"Ink, Cloudy, Sorrow! Lay off. She's okay." Jack was striding over, his face angry. The girls started, and then stepped back, casting sullen looks at Jack. Ink stepped down only after pretending to lunge at Sadie, to make her flinch. Sadie held her ground and raised an eyebrow at the slightly smaller girl.
"Maybe some other time honey," Sadie called out as the three girls sauntered away. Jack took Sadie's arm and led her a little bit away from the crowd of newsies. His girl followed.
"Sadie this is,"
"I know, Diamond right?" The girl nodded her eyes guarded.
"Spider told me what happened." Diamond flashed a quick smile.
"How is he?" Sadie told her the story of their morning meal, and Diamond laughed shaking her head.
"Yup that's Spider and his little hooligans for ya."
"What's with those other girls?" Diamond and Jack exchanged looks.
"Spot's declared it unsafe for any Manhattan kids to go into Brooklyn. The racetrack is there though, and as you know, some of us like to gamble. Our boys aren't as fight worthy as most of the Brooklyn boys, so we're getting murdered every time we cross the Bridge." Diamond lit a cigarette and held it out to Jack, who gazed at her with soft brown eyes for a moment before taking it and inhaling. Sadie raised an eyebrow and frowned.
"I wish that Spot wasn't hurt, this would have been so much easier." Sadie didn't open her mouth to voice her opinion. There were two sides to every story, and she was sure Diamond had her reasons for leaving Spot. Just not in the manner that she had done so.
"Don't worry about Spot, doll. He don't have a heart." Diamond sighed, and shook her head furrowing her eyebrows.
"That's not true, Jack. We both know that he does. That's why he's doing this. He's furious and hurt and it's all my fault." Jack silenced her with a glare.
"No, it ain't. Don't say shit like that. Our boys can look after themselves; I don't think Spot's told his goons to murder 'em. Just rough 'em up a little. Things will die down."
"And if they don't?" Jack stared at the cigarette he pinched in between his pointer finger and thumb and sighed discontentedly.
"Then me and the boys and Spot's boys will have to settle things once and for all." Sadie shuddered at the finality of his voice and noticed that Diamond had done so as well. Then the Distribution bell rang for the afternoon edition, and the newsboys and girls all trailed off down the street towards the Distribution yard. Diamond invited Sadie to tag along with her.
"We need to talk, you and I," She whispered into Sadie's ear. Sadie just shrugged and kept close to Diamond for the other newsgirls were looking at her darkly and muttering in low tones. She glared back at them boldly and started to ignore them.
After picking up newspapers, the kids all split up to go to their respective corners or selling spots. Diamond grasped Sadie's sleeve and pulled her along after her towards Irving Hall where she must have taken over a spot.
"Okay," she said when they finally stopped.
"While I sell, I want you to tell me how Spot seems to be doing. It's important. EXTRY EXTRY! OUTBREAK OF BODIES FOUND IN SEWERS! AUTHORITIES BAFFLED!" Sadie flipped to the page she heard Diamond tell a lady the story was on, and stifled a laugh. The story was about some dead rats that had floated up from the sewers.
"Spot seems.Angry. Very angry. I wouldn't really know how he's doing, Diamond. He doesn't like me; he's barely said a civil word to me since I arrived which was granted only a day or two ago. But he just seems on edge." Diamond nodded.
"He's like that all the time, really. Only with a few people does he ever let his guard down. And I can count all those people on one hand. Hah, can you imagine? I've actually seen Spot Conlon cry. Nobody has done that and lived to tell about it." She snorted without mirth and sold another few papers. People seemed drawn to her red hair. It shone like a beacon in the cold, raw twilight.
"But if you do ever get to see the real him, you'd understand that I really am torn up about how all this went. Me and Jack, we just started spending time together whenever I'd go to Manhattan. And with each day I spent less and less time with Spot. And he began to notice. We fought, and I just couldn't take it anymore. It's so hard loving someone like him. He sucks the life out of you." Sadie put a hand on Diamond's shoulder and squeezed it gently. The girl's voice was gruff with emotion. Blue eyes met gray and they silently sat together on the sidewalk, occasionally selling papers, not speaking. Finally as the sun began to set, Diamond sold her last paper and rose, brushing off the seat of her pants.
"Do you have a place to stay for the night?" Sadie shook her head, No. Diamond jerked her chin in the direction of the Distribution center.
"C'mon, the lodging house is nearby. You can stay with us there. Besides, if you want to start being friends with Manhattan, you better stand up to those girls. No self-respecting Brooklyn girl would let them do what they did to you today." Sadie found herself smiling. She WAS a Brooklyn girl now. And with that came a certain pride in the tough neighborhood she had moved too.
"Well I was a Manhattan girl a few days ago. But now I guess I have to start learning how to deal with Brooklyn kids. And this seems like a perfect place to practice." Together they linked arms and walked down the sidewalk towards the Manhattan Lodging House.
Sadie decided to explore the neighborhood a bit before going to back to the lodging house. Walking down the street, she groaned inwardly at the sight of some of the newsboys eating apples furtively in an alleyway. One of them saw her, and motioned her over.
"You're the girl what lives with us now right?" The speaker was a boy of about ten, his freckled face pale and dirty. His brown curly hair was covered by a battered black cap. Sadie nodded and he smiled at her.
"I'm Spider and these are Frog and Lefty." He made a gesture that included the two other boys. Lefty looked older than Spider, his eyes were harder and darted every which way keeping an eye out for policemen. He grunted in her direction, looking up at her briefly, a lock of his brown hair falling into his eyes. Frog was the boy who had been hit by Mumbles. His nose was black and blue and looked swollen. He had to have been about six or seven. His brown trousers were patched up and the gray vest he wore almost went to his knees. He gave her a shy smile and her heart lurched at the sight of missing teeth.
"You hungry? Noticed you left the same time we did and I don't think you ate." Spider was holding an apple up to her. She gratefully accepted it and slid down onto a crate next to the boys to eat it as fast as she could. Suddenly a whistle blew, and all three boys leapt to their feet, cursing and looking around wildly.
"C'mon! It's the cops!" Frog and Lefty took off out of the alley like lightening, Frog's little legs churning. Spider grabbed Sadie's hand and pulled her up to her feet before charging out of the alley. Splitting up, Spider led Sadie away from the cops and down what seemed like fifty side streets and alleyways, over fences, and finally down to the riverside. Reaching the docks, Sadie was taken aback to see most of the newsboys swarming over one of them, Spot residing on a pile of wooden crates looking all the world like a king overseeing his subjects. It was too cold to swim, but most of the boys were practicing with their slingshots, Spot calling down pointers from time to time. He looked over at Spider and Sadie as they entered the scene, closely trailed by Frog and Lefty. Sides heaving, Sadie dropped down onto a crate and felt sick.
Thump. She looked over to see Spot standing beside her, smoking a cigarette and swinging his cane. Frog collapsed near her feet, smiling up at her, than Spot. Spot's face softened momentarily as he ruffled the boy's blonde hair.
"How's the nose there, Froggie?"
"Not bad Spot."
"Why d'you guys look like you went to Hell and back?" Spider spat onto the dock and lit the stub of a cigar. Leaning against a pillar, he wiped his chin off.
"Coppers. We stole some apples and they blew the whistle so we all had to scram." Spot nodded and then looked at Sadie, with an amused grin.
"You helped to steal apples? There's hope for you yet."
"I didn't steal them, I just ate one." Spot clucked his tongue and looked at her disapprovingly. She rolled her eyes and looked right back at him. Chuckling, he sauntered off to help one of the smaller boys with his aim.
"What's his problem anyway?" she whispered to Spider. Spider looked over at Spot and then back to her.
"He's a tough guy. Usually he's got more charm when it comes to broads, but his girl just left him a week and a half ago."
"Left him? Why?" Spider's mouth twisted into a smile.
"In case you haven't noticed, Spot's not the easiest guy to get along with all the time. But he's our leader, and he's a damn good one. Couldn't have asked for another guy who knows how to run things, and watch out for the whole pack. His girl, Diamond, she was a great girl. But her and Spot are too alike, in all the bad ways. She ran off to Manhattan to be with Cowboy." Spider spat again, but this time it was in disgust.
"Cowboy? You mean Jack?" Spider looked at her sideways and nodded. Sadie leaned back against a crate, and let the information soak in while listening to the boy's hooting and hollering when their marbles hit a target. Standing up, she asked Spider to show her back to the lodging house. He agreed, and they set off. Once reaching the building, he gave her a charming bow and a grin, and disappeared back towards the docks. Sadie ran inside, told Becca she was going to Manhattan, and that she'd be back either that night, or tomorrow morning.
The walk back to Manhattan took as long as she remembered it. But at least this time, she wasn't lugging a heavy bag full of clothing. She assumed that since the Brooklyn boys were having a break already, that the Manhattan boys would be as well. She was right, they were in the square again, some of the boys play fighting with wooden swords, others shooting dice, and the rest hanging all over the statues and talking.
"Well if it isn't Sadie!" Sadie grinned and sat down next to Crutchy. He looked happy to see her, and a few of the other boys came over to shake hands. Sadie noticed this time, that there were a few girls loitering around as well. Dressed like the boys, they held themselves with the same street-wise attitude and weren't as friendly looking. Spying Jack, she noticed a pretty redheaded girl with her arm around his waist. More than a few of the boys had black eyes, or bruises. The one she remembered as Mush had a sling around his left arm.
"So where you been, Sadie? I haven't sold ya a paper in a few days." Sadie took a deep breath.
"I live in Brooklyn now." Distrust flashed across Crutchy's eyes briefly before he looked at her again, curiously.
"How'd that happen?" So Sadie told him the whole story, about Henry and not wanting to deal with him, Becca and Sam and Sam's new job. Moving into the lodging house. At the end, Crutchy's mouth was hanging open, and she saw that she had gathered an audience.
"You live with the Brooklyn newsies?" A short, athletic girl had planted herself in Sadie's face, cigar stub held between strong white teeth. The fire shooting out of her dark eyes put Sadie on edge.
"Yeah so what if I do?" Sadie leapt to the challenge, standing nose to nose with the dark haired girl. Two other girls quickly arrayed themselves behind Sadie's challenger, eyes angry and suspicious, fists clenched.
"Did Spot send you to spy on us?" Sadie was confused. Crossing her arms, she looked at the girl coldly.
"I don't know what you're talking about. He did no such thing." The girl laughed without any humor, and started cracking her knuckles.
"Ink, Cloudy, Sorrow! Lay off. She's okay." Jack was striding over, his face angry. The girls started, and then stepped back, casting sullen looks at Jack. Ink stepped down only after pretending to lunge at Sadie, to make her flinch. Sadie held her ground and raised an eyebrow at the slightly smaller girl.
"Maybe some other time honey," Sadie called out as the three girls sauntered away. Jack took Sadie's arm and led her a little bit away from the crowd of newsies. His girl followed.
"Sadie this is,"
"I know, Diamond right?" The girl nodded her eyes guarded.
"Spider told me what happened." Diamond flashed a quick smile.
"How is he?" Sadie told her the story of their morning meal, and Diamond laughed shaking her head.
"Yup that's Spider and his little hooligans for ya."
"What's with those other girls?" Diamond and Jack exchanged looks.
"Spot's declared it unsafe for any Manhattan kids to go into Brooklyn. The racetrack is there though, and as you know, some of us like to gamble. Our boys aren't as fight worthy as most of the Brooklyn boys, so we're getting murdered every time we cross the Bridge." Diamond lit a cigarette and held it out to Jack, who gazed at her with soft brown eyes for a moment before taking it and inhaling. Sadie raised an eyebrow and frowned.
"I wish that Spot wasn't hurt, this would have been so much easier." Sadie didn't open her mouth to voice her opinion. There were two sides to every story, and she was sure Diamond had her reasons for leaving Spot. Just not in the manner that she had done so.
"Don't worry about Spot, doll. He don't have a heart." Diamond sighed, and shook her head furrowing her eyebrows.
"That's not true, Jack. We both know that he does. That's why he's doing this. He's furious and hurt and it's all my fault." Jack silenced her with a glare.
"No, it ain't. Don't say shit like that. Our boys can look after themselves; I don't think Spot's told his goons to murder 'em. Just rough 'em up a little. Things will die down."
"And if they don't?" Jack stared at the cigarette he pinched in between his pointer finger and thumb and sighed discontentedly.
"Then me and the boys and Spot's boys will have to settle things once and for all." Sadie shuddered at the finality of his voice and noticed that Diamond had done so as well. Then the Distribution bell rang for the afternoon edition, and the newsboys and girls all trailed off down the street towards the Distribution yard. Diamond invited Sadie to tag along with her.
"We need to talk, you and I," She whispered into Sadie's ear. Sadie just shrugged and kept close to Diamond for the other newsgirls were looking at her darkly and muttering in low tones. She glared back at them boldly and started to ignore them.
After picking up newspapers, the kids all split up to go to their respective corners or selling spots. Diamond grasped Sadie's sleeve and pulled her along after her towards Irving Hall where she must have taken over a spot.
"Okay," she said when they finally stopped.
"While I sell, I want you to tell me how Spot seems to be doing. It's important. EXTRY EXTRY! OUTBREAK OF BODIES FOUND IN SEWERS! AUTHORITIES BAFFLED!" Sadie flipped to the page she heard Diamond tell a lady the story was on, and stifled a laugh. The story was about some dead rats that had floated up from the sewers.
"Spot seems.Angry. Very angry. I wouldn't really know how he's doing, Diamond. He doesn't like me; he's barely said a civil word to me since I arrived which was granted only a day or two ago. But he just seems on edge." Diamond nodded.
"He's like that all the time, really. Only with a few people does he ever let his guard down. And I can count all those people on one hand. Hah, can you imagine? I've actually seen Spot Conlon cry. Nobody has done that and lived to tell about it." She snorted without mirth and sold another few papers. People seemed drawn to her red hair. It shone like a beacon in the cold, raw twilight.
"But if you do ever get to see the real him, you'd understand that I really am torn up about how all this went. Me and Jack, we just started spending time together whenever I'd go to Manhattan. And with each day I spent less and less time with Spot. And he began to notice. We fought, and I just couldn't take it anymore. It's so hard loving someone like him. He sucks the life out of you." Sadie put a hand on Diamond's shoulder and squeezed it gently. The girl's voice was gruff with emotion. Blue eyes met gray and they silently sat together on the sidewalk, occasionally selling papers, not speaking. Finally as the sun began to set, Diamond sold her last paper and rose, brushing off the seat of her pants.
"Do you have a place to stay for the night?" Sadie shook her head, No. Diamond jerked her chin in the direction of the Distribution center.
"C'mon, the lodging house is nearby. You can stay with us there. Besides, if you want to start being friends with Manhattan, you better stand up to those girls. No self-respecting Brooklyn girl would let them do what they did to you today." Sadie found herself smiling. She WAS a Brooklyn girl now. And with that came a certain pride in the tough neighborhood she had moved too.
"Well I was a Manhattan girl a few days ago. But now I guess I have to start learning how to deal with Brooklyn kids. And this seems like a perfect place to practice." Together they linked arms and walked down the sidewalk towards the Manhattan Lodging House.