Ch. 3 The Rally
Mush walked Spunk and Ponine out of the alley, and Marbles and Kane re-joined them. Kane had to practically pounce on Spunk to make sure she was alright and she patiently waited for Kane to finish checking her for bruises and cuts, so she could continue selling papers again.
A few minutes later, they caught up with Trolley, Tag, Seer, Jazz, Poker and ABC. Spunk re-told to them the events which she had just gone through, only exaggerating the truth a little bit. ABC and Trolley were astounded.
"Weren't you scared?" ABC asked her.
"Yah, a little bit I guess." Spunk told her.
"How did you get out of it!" asked Tag.
"Well, Mush here saved me." Spunk answered and looked lovingly up at her boyfriend.
"What happened!" Poker asked her.
Spunk laughed, "I just told you!"
They continued to talk to each other and sell papers for another couple of hours. It was still early, so they were able to stop at Tibby's for a few minutes and eat something. Denton was there, and he payed for it. He wasn't wealthy, but he always payed for his newsie friends.
"It's so nice of you Denton to always pay for us. You really don't have to." Marbles told him.
"Oh, don't you worry about it. I—" Denton started but he was cut off by screams coming from outside the restaurant.
The newsies ran outside to see what was going on and walked right into a thick cloud of black smoke. Spunk coughed and pulled down the two people closest to her. Mush, and Kane. She couldn't see anything, but she could tell it was them.
"Grab the others and follow me!" Spunk shouted. She and her friends coughed their way over to a courtyard about a block away from Tibby's.
Flames and smoke were rising from a factory across the street from where they had just been. It was a dress factory where Spunk's mom, before she had gotten the fever and died, had worked.
Trolley made a noise kind of like a crying baby and a crying kitten. Trolley could picture her mother's writhing form in the biting orange flames as if the incident had been yesterday. Her mother had been in a fire, back when she was a very little girl. Her mother had been making breakfast and she had left their stove on when she had gone to let the cat out of the house. The stove fire had caught onto a towel, which caught onto the table, which caught onto the curtains. When her mother had come back into the room, her dress had begun to burn. Trolley, being 8 years old at the time, came running into their kitchen when she heard shouting, to see her mother burning up.
Trolley looked away from the flames. Spunk noticed her friends pain and she pulled her friends away from their gaze on the burning wreckage of the factory.
"Come on," Jazz said to them, "let's get out of here. The poor factory people don't need anymore onlookers."
They walked more into town and had stopped to rest in Central Park, when Blink, Kane's boyfriend, came running up to them holding a flyer.
"We're gonna have a rally!" He shouted handing Spunk a flyer, and kissing Kane on the cheek.
"What for? There's nuthin to rally against." Spunk told him.
"Yes there is!" he said. "You know that fire there up near Tibby's?"
"Yeah, we was just there." Jazz said.
"No one in the building can get out. Those scabs locked all the doors and the fire escapes don't work. They just trapped all those people in there, and hightail it out of there themselves." Blink scowled.
Spunk could see Trolley getting uncomfortable again.
"And that's not the only one. There have been a lot of these kinds of fires and things lately. Kids want better working conditions. Less hours. More money." Blink looked excited. "It's kinda gonna be like the rally we had at Medda's place during the strike!"
Spunk remembered how she and Jack had gone to the rally during the strike and how he had told her how to escape, while he himself got caught. It made her miss him even more.
"Anyways, the rally is tonight at 8:00pm. Tell everyone you can about it." He handed each of them another flyer, and left.
That night at the rally, thousands of newsies, factory workers, pin setters, shoe shiners, and other kid workers met to hear the union leaders speak.
"We need to woik togedda to get better woikin conditions and uh... more money, and less hours! We can't keep working like this. Getting hoit and not getting better, getting sick and getting fired, its not right." The leaders all gave speeches like that, mostly saying the same things. Like Blink said, it did remind Spunk of the rally they held during the strike.
After the leaders spoke, Medda came out in her frilly dress and started singing and dancing for the boys. Spunk, who was obviously not a boy, still enjoyed Medda's performance. Spunk had always wanted to be a performer. Sometimes on weekends after she had sold all of her papers, Medda would give her singing lessons, and teach her some routines that she had performed. Spunk hoped that someday she could stop selling papers and make more money being a vaudeville star.
Midway through Medda's performance, Spunk heard a shrill whistle coming from one of the doors leading into the performance hall. All at once, every big boss and company owner was there, along with the bulls, and Snyder.
"Cheese it it's the bulls!" Spunk shouted. Everyone started running every which way. Suddenly Spunk remembered something Blink had said. "Its kinda gonna be like the rally we had during the strike!" Not only was it 'kinda' like the rally they had during the strike, but it was almost exactly like the rally they had had during the strike. She couldn't help thinking that Blink had secretly planned the interruption from the bulls. How else could they have known about the rally. But Spunk's thoughts were halted by something.
Though she was trying to run, she was being lifted of the ground. She screamed and turned her head to see a bull with an unusually large hat.
"Let me go you scab! I'll soak ya!" Spunk yelled and she punched the man. He dropped her and tried to hit her with his stick, but she dodged it and kicked him. She turned the other way to run again, but there was another bull blocking her way. He scooped her up, and Spunk, kicking and screaming, was dragged away from the building.
She was thrown into a truck with about 5 other girls, 3 of which she knew.
"Kane! Trolley! ABC!" Spunk said, "you guys got caught?"
"Don't be so cocky. You got caught, too." ABC told her.
"Yah but you guys haven't been caught by a bull 'improvin da truth' about headlines to get money... and its not like I do it all the time! Only, when they suck. And when I don't have enough for food." Spunk answered back to her.
A bull looked in through the bars on the car.
"So you're the little street rat who's been causing all the trouble with the lying." The bull said smirking at her.
"I ain't a street rat! And I don't lie!" she shouted at him.
"I just heard you say it yourself. You are the liar and thief who's been stealing things from the stores on mainstreet! Wait till the court hears about this one!" He slammed the door shut on the car and started to drive away.
"What!?! I never said that! And I don't ever steal! I haven't ever stolen anything in my life! Except maybe once when I was little, but that doesn't count! Now I have to go to court for something I didn't do? And its my word against his." Spunk slunk down on the car bench.
"You're word against his, AND Snyder's." Kane added.
"Thanks." Spunk said sarcastically. "What am I going to do." She felt helpless.
"Don't worry, we can be witnesses or something. We've known you forever. We can tell everyone how good you are all the time. Whatever will help you!" Trolley said to her and patted her on the back.
"This is hopeless. You know how Snyder is, anything he can do to get more money, makes him happy to lie about. Even if it means putting and innocent girl in jail. What a scab."
For the first time in her life, Spunk had gotten caught doing something she wasn't supposed to do. But for the first time in her life, she hadn't really done what she was accused of.
Mush walked Spunk and Ponine out of the alley, and Marbles and Kane re-joined them. Kane had to practically pounce on Spunk to make sure she was alright and she patiently waited for Kane to finish checking her for bruises and cuts, so she could continue selling papers again.
A few minutes later, they caught up with Trolley, Tag, Seer, Jazz, Poker and ABC. Spunk re-told to them the events which she had just gone through, only exaggerating the truth a little bit. ABC and Trolley were astounded.
"Weren't you scared?" ABC asked her.
"Yah, a little bit I guess." Spunk told her.
"How did you get out of it!" asked Tag.
"Well, Mush here saved me." Spunk answered and looked lovingly up at her boyfriend.
"What happened!" Poker asked her.
Spunk laughed, "I just told you!"
They continued to talk to each other and sell papers for another couple of hours. It was still early, so they were able to stop at Tibby's for a few minutes and eat something. Denton was there, and he payed for it. He wasn't wealthy, but he always payed for his newsie friends.
"It's so nice of you Denton to always pay for us. You really don't have to." Marbles told him.
"Oh, don't you worry about it. I—" Denton started but he was cut off by screams coming from outside the restaurant.
The newsies ran outside to see what was going on and walked right into a thick cloud of black smoke. Spunk coughed and pulled down the two people closest to her. Mush, and Kane. She couldn't see anything, but she could tell it was them.
"Grab the others and follow me!" Spunk shouted. She and her friends coughed their way over to a courtyard about a block away from Tibby's.
Flames and smoke were rising from a factory across the street from where they had just been. It was a dress factory where Spunk's mom, before she had gotten the fever and died, had worked.
Trolley made a noise kind of like a crying baby and a crying kitten. Trolley could picture her mother's writhing form in the biting orange flames as if the incident had been yesterday. Her mother had been in a fire, back when she was a very little girl. Her mother had been making breakfast and she had left their stove on when she had gone to let the cat out of the house. The stove fire had caught onto a towel, which caught onto the table, which caught onto the curtains. When her mother had come back into the room, her dress had begun to burn. Trolley, being 8 years old at the time, came running into their kitchen when she heard shouting, to see her mother burning up.
Trolley looked away from the flames. Spunk noticed her friends pain and she pulled her friends away from their gaze on the burning wreckage of the factory.
"Come on," Jazz said to them, "let's get out of here. The poor factory people don't need anymore onlookers."
They walked more into town and had stopped to rest in Central Park, when Blink, Kane's boyfriend, came running up to them holding a flyer.
"We're gonna have a rally!" He shouted handing Spunk a flyer, and kissing Kane on the cheek.
"What for? There's nuthin to rally against." Spunk told him.
"Yes there is!" he said. "You know that fire there up near Tibby's?"
"Yeah, we was just there." Jazz said.
"No one in the building can get out. Those scabs locked all the doors and the fire escapes don't work. They just trapped all those people in there, and hightail it out of there themselves." Blink scowled.
Spunk could see Trolley getting uncomfortable again.
"And that's not the only one. There have been a lot of these kinds of fires and things lately. Kids want better working conditions. Less hours. More money." Blink looked excited. "It's kinda gonna be like the rally we had at Medda's place during the strike!"
Spunk remembered how she and Jack had gone to the rally during the strike and how he had told her how to escape, while he himself got caught. It made her miss him even more.
"Anyways, the rally is tonight at 8:00pm. Tell everyone you can about it." He handed each of them another flyer, and left.
That night at the rally, thousands of newsies, factory workers, pin setters, shoe shiners, and other kid workers met to hear the union leaders speak.
"We need to woik togedda to get better woikin conditions and uh... more money, and less hours! We can't keep working like this. Getting hoit and not getting better, getting sick and getting fired, its not right." The leaders all gave speeches like that, mostly saying the same things. Like Blink said, it did remind Spunk of the rally they held during the strike.
After the leaders spoke, Medda came out in her frilly dress and started singing and dancing for the boys. Spunk, who was obviously not a boy, still enjoyed Medda's performance. Spunk had always wanted to be a performer. Sometimes on weekends after she had sold all of her papers, Medda would give her singing lessons, and teach her some routines that she had performed. Spunk hoped that someday she could stop selling papers and make more money being a vaudeville star.
Midway through Medda's performance, Spunk heard a shrill whistle coming from one of the doors leading into the performance hall. All at once, every big boss and company owner was there, along with the bulls, and Snyder.
"Cheese it it's the bulls!" Spunk shouted. Everyone started running every which way. Suddenly Spunk remembered something Blink had said. "Its kinda gonna be like the rally we had during the strike!" Not only was it 'kinda' like the rally they had during the strike, but it was almost exactly like the rally they had had during the strike. She couldn't help thinking that Blink had secretly planned the interruption from the bulls. How else could they have known about the rally. But Spunk's thoughts were halted by something.
Though she was trying to run, she was being lifted of the ground. She screamed and turned her head to see a bull with an unusually large hat.
"Let me go you scab! I'll soak ya!" Spunk yelled and she punched the man. He dropped her and tried to hit her with his stick, but she dodged it and kicked him. She turned the other way to run again, but there was another bull blocking her way. He scooped her up, and Spunk, kicking and screaming, was dragged away from the building.
She was thrown into a truck with about 5 other girls, 3 of which she knew.
"Kane! Trolley! ABC!" Spunk said, "you guys got caught?"
"Don't be so cocky. You got caught, too." ABC told her.
"Yah but you guys haven't been caught by a bull 'improvin da truth' about headlines to get money... and its not like I do it all the time! Only, when they suck. And when I don't have enough for food." Spunk answered back to her.
A bull looked in through the bars on the car.
"So you're the little street rat who's been causing all the trouble with the lying." The bull said smirking at her.
"I ain't a street rat! And I don't lie!" she shouted at him.
"I just heard you say it yourself. You are the liar and thief who's been stealing things from the stores on mainstreet! Wait till the court hears about this one!" He slammed the door shut on the car and started to drive away.
"What!?! I never said that! And I don't ever steal! I haven't ever stolen anything in my life! Except maybe once when I was little, but that doesn't count! Now I have to go to court for something I didn't do? And its my word against his." Spunk slunk down on the car bench.
"You're word against his, AND Snyder's." Kane added.
"Thanks." Spunk said sarcastically. "What am I going to do." She felt helpless.
"Don't worry, we can be witnesses or something. We've known you forever. We can tell everyone how good you are all the time. Whatever will help you!" Trolley said to her and patted her on the back.
"This is hopeless. You know how Snyder is, anything he can do to get more money, makes him happy to lie about. Even if it means putting and innocent girl in jail. What a scab."
For the first time in her life, Spunk had gotten caught doing something she wasn't supposed to do. But for the first time in her life, she hadn't really done what she was accused of.