The same routine came the next day. We bought papers, sold the papers, and ate. I had totally forgotten about the time machine the day before. Bumlets and I were walking down lane after finishing for the day. I could hardly stand looking at him, every time I did, I began to turn weak, almost like jelly, or if you haven't eaten in a while and have been walking a long time. Finally after a long I spoke. I took my gray hat off sand scratched my forehead where the hat had sat. I swept a piece of hair back into place as well. I had worn my hair in parted pigtail braids.
"Who is that has the time machine?" I looked at him for one of the first times that day. His eyes were so dark I loved them. I was remembering when I was going through a Dominic stage. I even printed out a color picture off the computer that was so gorgeous; I put it in my locker.
"Denton's brudder, Jonathan. Do you'se like it here?" We stopped for a moment. I found a place to sit.
I sat while he stood in front of me. I cocked my head to right. "I don't know. I haven't been here long enough. I'm starting to miss my family though. I mean before even when I was going to be gone, I could have at least called them. Now, I don't even know if I'm able to get there. I wonder where Julia is, that man was so weird."
"He seemed really familiar. I'se can't place him dough." Bumlets replied. I thought for a few moments trying to think if he was anywhere in Newsies. I didn't think so. I had seen the movie enough it could play in my head. I wondered why Bumlets asked if I liked it there. I was hoping he would say something else along the lines of him liking me there. A shadow fell over us. Bumlets turned and I looked up. As soon as I could tell who it was, I began to smile, and stand up.
"Ariel!" Julia came to me and we hugged. She was now wearing turn of the century fashion dress, and was caring a parasol. Her hair was even done up on top of her head.
"Look at you! You look wonderful." I gasped. I loved old clothing styles. "Where have you been?"
"When I woke up I was in a huge house, and there were people looking over me." She began telling her story up to now. She had left out her caregiver's name. I wondered if was intentional.
"But look at you, you're a newsy. Just what you've always wanted to be." She laughed excitedly.
"For Halloween maybe, but I don't know about this." I laughed a little. She pulled at my braids. I wondered what Bumlets thought of what she was saying. I hadn't told any of them my desire to ever meet them, or ever be in the movie or anything. I thought maybe I should introduce them, although I knew Julia knew who he was. She wasn't that big of a fan, but she liked it enough, her favorite was Mush and just Aaron Lohr in general.
"Julia this is Bumlets, Bumlets, this is Julia." They shook hands and he smiled.
"Hello." She said smiling back. I began to feel insecure. I always thought she was much prettier than I was, and she had always had better luck with guys than me. Maybe I was just being silly.
She turned to me abruptly. "We have to talk, come with me." I didn't reply, I didn't know why, but it was almost as if I didn't trust her. "Please."
"Where?" I inquired waiting for a straight answer. Her eyes wandered and she sighed.
"Just come with me, for the night at least. I have something to tell you." I thought about the book that I had to finish. I didn't want to disappoint anyone, or maybe that was just an excuse, I wasn't sure.
"I can't. How about meeting me sometime tomorrow. Is Tibby's okay, about noon?" She looked at me for a second before answering.
"Yeah, that should be fine, but I wanna talk to you alone."
I nodded. "Okay." She pulled me in for a hug my head was at her shoulder. I looked at Bumlets, with my eyes squinted, in question. "Kiss, kiss, hug, hug." She repeated this, pulled away and then turned and left. I tuned to Bumlets who was as clueless as I was. We had forgotten what we were just talking about. We went back to the lodging house, and had dinner with the other newsies. Racetrack tried to teach me how to play poker. I have seen the game played but have never myself tried it. I watched him in the first game, and he whispered everything to me that he was thinking. After a few hands of that, we played an open hand. I didn't do too well. Finally, I just decided to watch. I asked for an extra deck, and began to show Bumlets how to play Speed. He was a quick learner, not that there is much to the game to begin with. After a few hands, he began to beat me. We began to make a crowd. I was more comfortable then than I had been since I got there. I was louder and squealed with delight when something was in my favor. The same when it wasn't.
After a successful hand I took the bent up cards and shuffled them a few times. "Okay, how about BS. Hove you ever played it before?" When they all shook their heads. I began to pass cards out to the people at the table, until they were gone. "It goes like this, Bumlets you go first, you have to put down at least one 'two' or as many as you have. Now if you don't have any you have to bluff it and act like you do, putting them face down in a pile in the middle. The next person has to put a 'three', and so on to the 'ace'. If someone knows or thinks that another person is bluffing, they call 'BS', before the next person goes. That person has to flip the card, or cards they just put down, and if it false to what it was suppose to be then they have to pick up all the cards in the middle. But if it is the right one then the person who said 'BS' picks the cards up, and the person who is out of cards first wins."
"Sounds like me kinda game." Racetrack stated moving his cards around in his hand. We started the game and about half way through it Racetrack BSed me.
"Are you sure you wanna say that? Look at all those cards, and you're so close to winning."
"You'se just sayin' dat so I'se wont. Aren't ya?" He studied my face.
I rearranged some cards. "It's up to you." He thought for a moment, and then he said it. The look on his face was classic when he saw I really did have two 'sevens'. I was relieved this time, I hadn't BSed, more than once, I had said that before and gotten away with it. At the end of the game, I was out first, Racetrack next and then Bumlets, and so forth. That night I even got to wash my clothes. I read the rest of 'The Christmas Box' to them and we all went to bed.