The sun shone through the window onto Jazz's face. WIth blinking eyes she woke up and looked around and didn't see anyone. She could hear the newsies on the street shouting headlines; both real and false.
BANG! A shower door flew open and Jack emerged from the stall.
"Oh good you're awake," Jack smiled. "I really didn't wanna wake ya, but ya needed to get up soon." Jazz yawned and Jack walked over to her. "So how'd ya sleep last night?"
"Not too bad," Jazz smiled and leaned down to get her socks and a golden locket fell from the hiding of her underdress. Jack's eyes widened and he stared at her for awhile.
"What's inside?" he asked sounding like a mouse.
"In what?" Jazz looked at him oddly then realized he was looking at her locket. "Oh, this. It was a gift when I was born." She handed Jack the locket shaped like a bright, gold sun draped around her neck.
He opened it and couldn't believe what he saw. He felt like he was falling down a hole that had no end. Light faded from the room, vision faded from his eyes, Jack faded from the world, and the world seemed to fade from reality. It felt like everything that was logical was gone and only fate remained. Jack didn't know what to think, for the pictures in this girl's locket were his parents.
"What's wrong?" Jazz asked Jack who was breathing hard and sweating heavily.
Jack's eyes jolted to Jazz's. He put his hands on her cheeks and tears filled his anxious eyes.
"Annie? Annie, is dat you?" Jack was trying to keep himself together.
Jazz's eyes became very wide and she searched for an answer in his eyes. No one had ever called her that except her only brother. Tears flooded her eyes as well.
"Francis? Oh my god, Francis?" Jazz began to weep so hard that she couldn't see anymore.
They embraced each other and neither of them wanted to let go. They both thought about why they had lost each other:
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Flashback: *Francis Sullivan was only six, and Anastasia Sullivan but 3. They thought that everything was fine, btu they were wrong. Their father was a secret alcoholic, but it usually never interfered with their home life. Soon afterward, he drank more and would always come home in a drunken rage and would become very violent. Their mother and father began to fight all the time.
One night she hid all of his booze, but when he came home drunk and looking for more and didn't find any, he took a knife from kitchen. He came upon Francis and Annie in their bedroom playing marbles. The children screamed at the sight of their father's blood-lusting eyes. He fell to his knees and started slashing at the children. They kept screaming and trying to scoot backwards. He slashed what looked like a star on Annie's left ankle, and a cross on Francis's left shin. Their mother came running in and hit their father on the head with a bottle. She wanted to put an end to it. While the father was knocked out, she gathered their clothes and she fled to her sister's house.
The next night the father snuck into the house and killed their mother. He stole Francis and ran away to New York City.
After six terrifying years, Francis's father was finally captured and is serving a life sentence.*
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"Does dis mean dat Pa is dead?" Jazz asked into Jack's ear. The two looked at each other's legs and saw the scars.
"Hopefully. When I was twelve dey put him away for good," Jack choked. "Does dat mean Shina is..."
"Yeh, he's Malachi."
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Flashback: *After living with her grandparents for eleven and a half years, they were dead. In dizzy tears, Anastasia packed up her few clothes and little money she had and decided to leave. She thought New York would be where she'd have a future. As she ran down the stairs she saw a familiar figure in the doorway.
"What's your hurry?" Malachi asked.
"New York! I have to go to New York!" she screamed with hot, burning tears rolling down her cheeks.
Malachi firmly gripped her shoulders, "I'm not lettin' you go alone, kid."*
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"So ol' Mally's heah?" Cowboy smiled.
They wiped away each other's tears and saw that the day was maturing fast.
"We'se betta get goin'. Come on," Francis yanked her arm.
In a cheesy British accent, "Shall I get dressed first or will it be bare breast and ankles all the way?"
Francis realized what she was wearing and burst out laughing. "You're right. But please be quick, Bunny."
"I will," Jazz smiled and quickly dressed in her black skirt and pink blouse.
Once she had completed her job with her dusty, black shoes, Francis said, "Now let's go find ya a job." They linked arms and entered the rat race known as the Manhattan streets.
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well business as usual is you please!
