Notes: Same as chapter one. Now we get to see where the title comes from! Yes! Well, you get the basic idea…
Chapter 2
"It's not like I've never lived on the streets before." Snitch tried to reassure Skittery. "It'll be okay. Jack will eventually come to his senses and let us back in."
"Do you really think so?" Skittery asked, turning into the alley where they had been only hours before.
"We can hope. I guess we'll have to stay here until they let us back in the Lodging House. At least it stopped raining..."
"Yeah." Skittery put down the few clothes he had brought with him, sat down on a crate, and rummaged around for something.
"What are you looking for?" Snitch questioned, sitting down on the dirty floor.
"These." Skittery said, pulling out a set of white rosary beads. Snitch stared at them.
"What are those?" He wondered, looking at them in awe.
"They're rosary beads. My mom gave them to me before she died. You pray with them."
"I didn't know you had them. I didn't even know you were Catholic."
"Yeah, I am. I don't go to church or any of that stuff, but I still pray at night. I'm surprised you never noticed."
"Yeah, I wonder why. But I never had a really had any religion or beliefs or anything like that. What's it like?"
"I don't have anything to compare it to, so I don't know." Skittery smiled and gave Snitch the beads. "I guess you feel special because you believe that there is something great waiting for you after this life."
"Do you really believe that Skittery?" Snitch asked, taking the beads.
"Yeah, I do."
"That's a nice thing to believe in." Snitch sighed, looking over the beads one last time and giving them back to Skittery.
"It is." Snitch put his head in Skittery's lap. Skittery stroked his hair and they both sat there going over the events that had just happened in their heads. "Why do you do it Snitch?"
"Do what?"
"Why did you stay with me, even though you knew it would get us both back on the street?"
"Because I love you and would do anything for you. This is just a minor setback, everything will turn out fine."
"You're too good for me. I'm not worth anything. You should have just left me when you had the chance."
"Please don't say things you know aren't true. You're perfect Skittery and we should just be happy that we're both still alive."
"Yeah, they could have killed us and we both know it." Skittery mused. His stomach let out a rumble. "Snitch, I'm hungry."
"We don't have enough money to waste on food. We're going to have to keep selling in hopes that we'll save up enough to eventually get out of here just in case they never let us back in." Skittery stared at Snitch with wide eyes.
"We call you 'Snitch' for a reason. Go steal some food before it gets dark. That's what you do best isn't it?" Snitch sighed and knew that was the only way they would stop from going hungry. He was actually surprised he hadn't thought of that himself.
"I'll be back soon Skittery, I promise." He squeezed Skittery's hand and left him alone in the alley. Skittery wouldn't admit it in front of Snitch, but he was really scared. He was afraid for both their lives.
'Please God, don't let anything happen to him.' He prayed silently, gripping the rosary beads tight.
"We have an assignment for you Jacobs." Giovanni, "the boss", told David when he came to visit him after school. "We've found two of them for you especially. Do the nicknames 'Snitch' or 'Skittery' mean anything to you?"
David felt his heart skip a beat and he visibly paled. His mind raced. 'There's no way Skittery and Snitch are like that.' He told himself. And he would have to go kill them? No, he couldn't do it. He would never let himself do it, no matter what. David looked away and refused to give an answer.
"Come on kid. It's a simple question. Do you or don't you know two boys who call themselves Snitch and Skittery?" David still refused to answer. Giovanni was getting pissed. He didn't have time for this. He roughly brought up his hand and smacked David across the face. "I don't have time for this you little bastard! Either you know them or you don't!"
David held on to his now throbbing jaw. He had no choice but to answer the man. He nodded slightly.
"Good. Now, why didn't you answer my question at first? I don't like to be violent boy, but sometimes I just can't control my temper. I need you to hunt these two boys down and kill them. One of my men, Jimmy, maybe you've seen him around. Well, he found them and said they were carrying newspapers, so he knew they were newsies. That's why this job will be perfect for you as your first one. Once you kill the first time, each one just gets easier and easier. I don't want to hear any excuses. We need filth like them off of our streets. Do you understand me boy?"
"Yes sir."
"Now, I'm giving you a week and you're lucky you are getting that long. If you bring me back proof that they are both dead, I will give you $100 on the spot. That should be a pretty good start for you and your family to live on. Is this all clear to you?
"Yes."
"Good, now get going."
David went to leave the office but Giovanni snapped his fingers. "Wait boy!" David stopped. "You might need this. Keep it with you at all times. You never know when a job could be done." Giovanni took out a silver switchblade from one of his desk drawers. He handed it to David. David took the blade with shaky hands and placed it in his back pocket. "And this." The man took out a few pieces of cloth. "You can use these to gag your victim. There's less of a chance you'll get caught and it'll make things easier on you. Now leave." David nodded and started heading home to figure out how he was going to pull this off.
His parents had died of the flu only two weeks ago, leaving the children on their own with very little money. Sarah worked fulltime as a seamstress but was paid almost nothing for her work. David's father had been in bed and out of work for almost a month before he died, causing his mother to try and get a job anywhere she could. She looked for weeks but no one would hire her. She caught the flu eventually but had gotten a much worse case than her husband. She was only able to fight it for three days before it got the better of her. Just hours after she died, David's father passed on. Sarah, David and Les had lost both of their parents in a matter of hours.
David really wanted Les to stay in school and have as much of a future as possible. As much as he wanted to, David knew he'd never be able to go back to being a newsie. He knew he wouldn't make even half as much as he needed selling newspapers. He needed a lot of money and fast. He started asking around Manhattan for a fulltime job. He was forced to lie about his age. Every job he was offered would interfere with his school days. He wanted to stay in school so he could get a good job in the future to support his family but he was about to as a last resort until he was approached by an older man with thick glasses. He pulled him aside and said that he'd overheard David's problems and had just the job for him. He would be paid much more money than other jobs would give him and he didn't have to quit school. David had stammered and asked how he knew he was still in school but the other man just brushed off the question. He told David that he was head of an organization that got rid of what the man called "sinners and "criminals" that deserved to die anyway. He ran some dollar amounts by David and the younger boy had no choice but to accept before he even knew who he was killing.
The man grinned and shook David's hand, signaling a done deal. David asked the question that had been nagging him the whole time. He asked what they had done to deserve to be killed. The man explained that they had been tracking down "fags" all over the city and were getting rid of them one by one. David paled and couldn't believe he'd agreed to do this. He himself had been questioning his sexuality lately and was leaning for towards guys than girls. He couldn't really kill his own kind of people, could he?
But he was desperate for the money and he knew that he had no other choice. It was either this or watching all that was left of him family starve to death. He had to do whatever this man, whom he learned called himself 'Giovanni' told him. Giovanni told David to stop by his office the next day after school and he would give him his first assignment.
David's nagging conscious kept bugging him. 'You know this isn't right. You can't do this! You'll become a murderer!' David knew that and knew that this job would reserve him a seat in hell. At this point, he knew that it was the only thing to keep his family alive and his own destiny took back seat to that of his family's. He wish he didn't know all of these things, it just made everything harder on him.
Jack went back out to finish selling after he saw that the rain had stopped. He couldn't believe that he had freaked out like that on Snitch and Skittery. Of course, it was what was expected of him to do. If he had supported them for being queer, he would get the reputation of being a fag himself and he didn't need that. Not when he knew the truth.
Jack Kelly had been having feelings for guys lately that weren't normal. They were like the feelings he used to have for girls, only stronger somehow. He found himself staring more when Mush walked around shirtless in the morning and trying to catch a peak at anything he could when the other boys were getting dressed. He knew these feeling weren't normal, but they were just too strong to be ignored.
But they were especially strong every time he looked at David. He heart would beat rapidly inside his chest and his knees would go week. His guilty dreams at night were filled with David screaming his name. But more than that, he realized that he'd do anything for David, no matter what. And those feelings might not have been love but they were some kind of caring.
When he'd finally figured out that this meant he was gay, he'd been afraid and stayed in denial for as long as he could. If anyone even brought up the subject he's freak out on them. And when he'd caught Skittery and Snitch in the bathroom together, it struck a cord somewhere. He knew that if word got out that the leader of the Manhattan newsies was hiding two fags they would think he was one himself. He had no choice but to kick out Snitch and Skittery, no matter how much it hurt him.
In their time, there were groups out there whose sole purpose was to get rid of any queers they came across. If you were caught or even suspected of being attracted to people of the same sex, you were killed. It was just the way things were in a city like New York. Homosexuality was not accepted and was morally wrong.
"I think you did the right thing kicking them out." Race told Jack later that afternoon. Jack just nodded. Sure he'd done the right thing for society and for his own reputation, but he'd lied to himself in the process. Was his own ego more important than the lives of two of his friends? He shook off that thought and sold the last of his papers.
End Chapter 2