CHAPTER FIVE
Annalise looked after them for a while, thinking things would have been much simpler if she had simply been able to follow along with them. But maybe that kid was right. He did have a lot of other boys with him. And in a business where selling was everything. she guessed they couldn't afford too much competition. Turning around, she spots the bridge that towered over the neighborhood she was in. Wouldn't be hard to find her way there. It was easily the biggest thing around. She set off with high hopes, finally an opportunity to make something for herself in New York City.
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It took longer to get to that bridge than she had thought it would. Crossing it was no short walk, either. She searched her new surroundings with eager eyes, but to her dismay, it didn't appear much different than the place from which she had come. Annalise sighed, and approached a man in a shop door nearby. "S'cuse me. S'cuse me, sir. is this Manhattan?"
The portly man squinted at her over his broom, pausing in his sweeping long enough to give her a slightly offended look and snap back, "'course it's Manhattan!! Where'd you think you was, goil? London?"
Shocked and frightened by his unprovoked outburst, the blonde girl stumbled back, mumbling a 'sorry sir' before she quickly walked to the next block. Her thoughts were jumbled, tired. And disappointed at what she had found. People here were no different than back across the bridge! The agitation at this thought, and her fatigue brought her to flop down on the curb, and quickly jump up as a carriage rattled by, nearly taking off her foot, the horse shying and driver cursing at her as she backed up against the brick building behind her, green eyes wide. No different. Same mean faces, same rude voices.
Still, she thought, still I have to find somewhere to stay.. and hopefully a job. Well, really a job. unless I want to keep sleeping on the streets. So Anna had no choice but to trust that blonde kid, Black-Cane Boy, and hope the newsies here would take her in.
She begins to wander down the streets aimlessly once more, half- hoping one would just run up to her and offer her a job and a bed to sleep in. Ha. Like that would happen. If I'm gonna get anywhere I have to find one of these newsies. but how?
The thought struck her a second later. Papers. They sell papers, that boy had said. What else? What else had he said.
Goils can't be newsies. So they were boys. Boys with papers. That helped her out a little. All she had to do now was keep looking.
And she didn't have to go far. As she walked another two blocks down, there was a crowd of people further down the street surrounding two boys who were standing on boxes and shouting things she couldn't make out at their audience. One of them was waving around what appeared to be a stack of newspapers. Her breath caught in her throat, and she sped up the pace of her walk, moving quickly two the outside of the murmuring crowd as the boys shouted headlines into their ears.
"Fiah in th'mayah's howse! Read all about it!"
"Railroads missin' all-ah dere engineers! Train company in an uproah! Only in da Woild! can't get it in no othah pape!"
She couldn't see them. She had to get closer. She wedged her skinny frame in between two middle-aged gentlemen in front of her, wading her way into the knot of people. She pushed her way through, earning a fair share of dirty looks, and normally she wasn't so pushy, but this was desperate. Tripping over an elderly man's cane, she breaks into the front of the crowd, and looks up at the two boys there.
They were no less ragged than the army Black-Cane Boy led, but her immediate impression was that they were definitely friendlier. Both were grinning madly for some unknown reason, laughing at each other as money and papers changed hands all around her, over her head even. One boy was blonde, and while his eyes were brown, a patch hid the left one. Some of her fellows in the crowd seemed to think this was some kind of scam, while others told them to lighten up. That boy was wearing a faded orange shirt and a vest that had obviously seen better days. Both had the same style hats on and short pants, but the blonde boy's friend had a grayish shirt to go with his vest. He was younger than his friend, and that one had brown hair, curly brown hair. But from this angle she couldn't really see his eyes, the sun must have been blinding him, because it was hitting his eyes in a way that made it impossible to be able to discern a color for them.
Annalise waited. And waited. And waited some more. The number of their papers was dwindling, as was the interest of their crowd. People had begun to drift away, until finally it was just the two of them and her. They both jumped down off the crates they had been selling from. They were pleased with their selling, and didn't notice her at first.
"Looky here, Blink! We'se almost moved da whole lotta 'em! Youse only got." the curly-haired boy said, then thumbs through his friend's remaining papers. ".only t'ree left!"
She stepped forward. "Excuse me?" Three eyes immediately zoned in on her as the boys looked over their shoulders, staring at her for a moment in a comical way before the one with the eye patch grins and asks charmingly, "'ey. Youse looking' t'buy a pape?"
She shakes her head. "You. you are newsies. right?" They turned to her fully now, giving confused glances to each other before nodding. It had been a stupid question, but Annalise had wanted to make sure. To be completely sure. "Do you know Jack?"
The blonde boy, whom the other had called Blink, glares at her with slight suspicion. His friend, however, brightens and replies in what could only have been described as a cheery chirp, "Yeah! We knows Jack!"
'Blink' echoed him, the same suspicion in his eye in his voice. "Yeah, we know 'im.why?"
"Well, I was over. across the bridge." she started nervously, realizing for what wasn't the first time she didn't know where she had been. 'Blink' interrupted her.
"In Brooklyn?"
"Yeah, I guess so.. but anyway, I didn't have a place to stay over there. some men had stolen my purse. my other purse, and the money in it."
The curly-haired boy breaks in, his face suddenly turned downcast. "That's Brooklyn for ya. So how'd you find heah?"
"A boy told me to come here. A newsie."
The older of the two questions, his voice still laced with a vague suspicion, "Why'd he tell youse t'go heah?"
"I said I needed a job. That I wanted to be a newsie, like he was. Like you guys are."
'Blink''s partner furrowed his brow in confusion. "Goils ain't newsies."
She sighed. "That's what he said, too. But I'm desperate. I don't got anywhere else to go, so he told me to go find Jack and talk to him about it. He said there were too many newsies over there."
"Well, dere's lots heah, too."
The curly-haired kid suddenly reached up and smacked his partner across the face. "Don't be mean. Let's take 'er to Jack!"
"Yeah, okay. To Jack.." he pauses, suddenly regretting his consent. "But we still got papes t'sell!!"
"Aaaahh, youse only got t'ree! And I've got two. Not much, Blinky."
His friend protests as she looked on quietly. "Dat's five cents! Ten papes tomorrah!"
Annalise, to stop the fighting. and maybe get on the blonde boy's good side, "I can wait."
He looks to her, suddenly fighting not to smile. Looks like that plan had worked. "Okay."
His friend grinned. "We'll try t'be fast."
So they set off, the two boys leading the way, waving their papers and shouting out headlines. Annalise dragged behind, tired and partly dreaded seeing this Jack. maybe he wasn't that bad, like these two. But then again. maybe he was like Black-Cane Boy.
She hoped not.
Annalise looked after them for a while, thinking things would have been much simpler if she had simply been able to follow along with them. But maybe that kid was right. He did have a lot of other boys with him. And in a business where selling was everything. she guessed they couldn't afford too much competition. Turning around, she spots the bridge that towered over the neighborhood she was in. Wouldn't be hard to find her way there. It was easily the biggest thing around. She set off with high hopes, finally an opportunity to make something for herself in New York City.
~!~!~!~~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~ !~!~!~
It took longer to get to that bridge than she had thought it would. Crossing it was no short walk, either. She searched her new surroundings with eager eyes, but to her dismay, it didn't appear much different than the place from which she had come. Annalise sighed, and approached a man in a shop door nearby. "S'cuse me. S'cuse me, sir. is this Manhattan?"
The portly man squinted at her over his broom, pausing in his sweeping long enough to give her a slightly offended look and snap back, "'course it's Manhattan!! Where'd you think you was, goil? London?"
Shocked and frightened by his unprovoked outburst, the blonde girl stumbled back, mumbling a 'sorry sir' before she quickly walked to the next block. Her thoughts were jumbled, tired. And disappointed at what she had found. People here were no different than back across the bridge! The agitation at this thought, and her fatigue brought her to flop down on the curb, and quickly jump up as a carriage rattled by, nearly taking off her foot, the horse shying and driver cursing at her as she backed up against the brick building behind her, green eyes wide. No different. Same mean faces, same rude voices.
Still, she thought, still I have to find somewhere to stay.. and hopefully a job. Well, really a job. unless I want to keep sleeping on the streets. So Anna had no choice but to trust that blonde kid, Black-Cane Boy, and hope the newsies here would take her in.
She begins to wander down the streets aimlessly once more, half- hoping one would just run up to her and offer her a job and a bed to sleep in. Ha. Like that would happen. If I'm gonna get anywhere I have to find one of these newsies. but how?
The thought struck her a second later. Papers. They sell papers, that boy had said. What else? What else had he said.
Goils can't be newsies. So they were boys. Boys with papers. That helped her out a little. All she had to do now was keep looking.
And she didn't have to go far. As she walked another two blocks down, there was a crowd of people further down the street surrounding two boys who were standing on boxes and shouting things she couldn't make out at their audience. One of them was waving around what appeared to be a stack of newspapers. Her breath caught in her throat, and she sped up the pace of her walk, moving quickly two the outside of the murmuring crowd as the boys shouted headlines into their ears.
"Fiah in th'mayah's howse! Read all about it!"
"Railroads missin' all-ah dere engineers! Train company in an uproah! Only in da Woild! can't get it in no othah pape!"
She couldn't see them. She had to get closer. She wedged her skinny frame in between two middle-aged gentlemen in front of her, wading her way into the knot of people. She pushed her way through, earning a fair share of dirty looks, and normally she wasn't so pushy, but this was desperate. Tripping over an elderly man's cane, she breaks into the front of the crowd, and looks up at the two boys there.
They were no less ragged than the army Black-Cane Boy led, but her immediate impression was that they were definitely friendlier. Both were grinning madly for some unknown reason, laughing at each other as money and papers changed hands all around her, over her head even. One boy was blonde, and while his eyes were brown, a patch hid the left one. Some of her fellows in the crowd seemed to think this was some kind of scam, while others told them to lighten up. That boy was wearing a faded orange shirt and a vest that had obviously seen better days. Both had the same style hats on and short pants, but the blonde boy's friend had a grayish shirt to go with his vest. He was younger than his friend, and that one had brown hair, curly brown hair. But from this angle she couldn't really see his eyes, the sun must have been blinding him, because it was hitting his eyes in a way that made it impossible to be able to discern a color for them.
Annalise waited. And waited. And waited some more. The number of their papers was dwindling, as was the interest of their crowd. People had begun to drift away, until finally it was just the two of them and her. They both jumped down off the crates they had been selling from. They were pleased with their selling, and didn't notice her at first.
"Looky here, Blink! We'se almost moved da whole lotta 'em! Youse only got." the curly-haired boy said, then thumbs through his friend's remaining papers. ".only t'ree left!"
She stepped forward. "Excuse me?" Three eyes immediately zoned in on her as the boys looked over their shoulders, staring at her for a moment in a comical way before the one with the eye patch grins and asks charmingly, "'ey. Youse looking' t'buy a pape?"
She shakes her head. "You. you are newsies. right?" They turned to her fully now, giving confused glances to each other before nodding. It had been a stupid question, but Annalise had wanted to make sure. To be completely sure. "Do you know Jack?"
The blonde boy, whom the other had called Blink, glares at her with slight suspicion. His friend, however, brightens and replies in what could only have been described as a cheery chirp, "Yeah! We knows Jack!"
'Blink' echoed him, the same suspicion in his eye in his voice. "Yeah, we know 'im.why?"
"Well, I was over. across the bridge." she started nervously, realizing for what wasn't the first time she didn't know where she had been. 'Blink' interrupted her.
"In Brooklyn?"
"Yeah, I guess so.. but anyway, I didn't have a place to stay over there. some men had stolen my purse. my other purse, and the money in it."
The curly-haired boy breaks in, his face suddenly turned downcast. "That's Brooklyn for ya. So how'd you find heah?"
"A boy told me to come here. A newsie."
The older of the two questions, his voice still laced with a vague suspicion, "Why'd he tell youse t'go heah?"
"I said I needed a job. That I wanted to be a newsie, like he was. Like you guys are."
'Blink''s partner furrowed his brow in confusion. "Goils ain't newsies."
She sighed. "That's what he said, too. But I'm desperate. I don't got anywhere else to go, so he told me to go find Jack and talk to him about it. He said there were too many newsies over there."
"Well, dere's lots heah, too."
The curly-haired kid suddenly reached up and smacked his partner across the face. "Don't be mean. Let's take 'er to Jack!"
"Yeah, okay. To Jack.." he pauses, suddenly regretting his consent. "But we still got papes t'sell!!"
"Aaaahh, youse only got t'ree! And I've got two. Not much, Blinky."
His friend protests as she looked on quietly. "Dat's five cents! Ten papes tomorrah!"
Annalise, to stop the fighting. and maybe get on the blonde boy's good side, "I can wait."
He looks to her, suddenly fighting not to smile. Looks like that plan had worked. "Okay."
His friend grinned. "We'll try t'be fast."
So they set off, the two boys leading the way, waving their papers and shouting out headlines. Annalise dragged behind, tired and partly dreaded seeing this Jack. maybe he wasn't that bad, like these two. But then again. maybe he was like Black-Cane Boy.
She hoped not.