A/N: woohoo I got a review, pathetic I know but thanks to Sparks Kelly anyways. Now on to the story...wait the part where I say, "a sight of seasons the sun hadn't yet shone upon" well I kinda stole that from Brian Jacques and I'm not giving it back! ok? So don't sue me I'm broke anyways. Now, on to the story...
Several months later:
"10 cents a hundred!"
"Can you believe dat?"
"Now dey jack up da price!"
"This'll bust me I'm barely makin' a living right now"
"I'll be back sleepin on da streets"
The news of the price hike came to me through my brother's and Jack's downcast faces as I met them for lunch at Tibby's one day. I knew just how hard the raised prices would be on the newsies, times were tough and it looked like they were about to get tougher. All the newsies were congregated at Tibby's discussing what could be done. Jack wanted to start a newsie strike but his newest friend Dave was pointing out the difficulty of getting something like that to work. To effectively end distribution of The World and The Journal would require every newsie in New York to stop selling. Getting some of the boroughs in on the strike wouldn't be too hard but from the sound of it Brooklyn would be a tough sell, the leader of the Brooklyn newsies was a kid named Spot Conlon. He ruled Brooklyn with an iron fist and it would take a lot of convincing from Jack and Dave to get him to stop his boys from making money.
"If we gets Brooklyn wid us we'll have it," Jack stated calmly, "none a da udders won't stand against Spot, he's too tough fer dem"
Jack and Dave made plans to visit this Spot Conlon the next day, and they were taking Boots with them. I eventually left the restaurant to go back to work after making sure that Daniel had enough money to pay rent and eat. The whole rest of the day as I sat inside sewing I thought about what Jack said, nobody would stand against them is they got Brooklyn they were unstoppable. I realized how hard it was for the boys to do this, most of them lived day to day, stealing food when the headlines were bad and they couldn't sell. This strike would be long and hard but it was to right a wrong that they had to overcome.
Wrongs will be righted...if we're united...
The whole day I had that phrase running through my head. Before mom and dad died I sang a lot. I just made songs up off the top of my head and Mom use to say that my singing was a sight of seasons the sun hadn't yet shone upon. I still wasn't totally sure what she meant by that but I knew that the words running around in my head would eventually come together into a song. When I went to bed that night I still hadn't finished it but I figured that by tomorrow I'd have most of it set in my head.
Open the gates and seize the day
Don't be afraid and don't delay
Nothing can break us
No one can make us
Give our rights away
Arise and seize the day
Now is the time to seize the day
Send out the call and join the fray
Wrongs will be righted
If we're united
Let us seize the day
Friends of the friendless, seize the day
Raise up the torch and light the way
Proud and defiant
We'll slay the giant
Let us seize the day
Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son
One for all and all for one
Open the gates and seize the day
Don't be afraid and don't delay
Nothing can break us
No one can make us
Give our rights away
Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son
One for all and all for one
By the time I took my lunch break the next day the song was firmly in my head, the next question was who do I tell it too? I wasn't sure if any of the guys could sing, I knew Race played the harmonica but other than that I wasn't sure how musically talented any of them were.
As it turned out getting the newsies interested in her song was a lot easier than she had originally anticipated. All Ashlyn had to do was mention the fact that she was thinking of a strike song for them to Daniel who promptly spread the word all over everywhere. 'Newsies are worse than a group of uptown girls when it comes to gossip,' she reflected. The first people she sang it to--besides Daniel--were Jack and Dave. They had been somewhat unsuccessful in recruiting Spot Conlon and Brooklyn to join their cause and they both thought a song was a great way to get the boys motivated again. At first she thought that she would only have to teach the song to Dave and a couple others but all the newsies wanted to learn so she took the best singers of the group and taught them and they in turn taught the rest. In all it was a success and the boys drew a crowd one afternoon while they sang in the square during lunch.
She watched them for awhile then started to return home, it was a Saturday but with the boys holding a picket line in front of the distribution center there wasn't much for her to do. Ashlyn turned around when she heard shouts, the boys had obviously run into the center and were now trapped by a rough looking group of men with chains and clubs. Her thoughts immediately went to Daniel and Les, David's younger brother. Both of them were under 10 and shouldn't be in something like that. Unfortunately the men had shut the gates and there was no way for her to get through. Brian Denton, a reporter for the Sun who was covering the strike news had also been locked out and was now angrily questioning a cop, "Aren't you going to stop them sir?" But was met with, "Just move along mister."
So it was all set up before hand, somehow she wasn't surprised, all she could do was pray that everyone would come out alright. Crutchy had already been hauled off to the Refuge and several of the boys had gotten soaked. She watched the fight helplessly from the gate when suddenly cries of "Brooklyn!" "Its Brooklyn!" filled the air. Turning Ashlyn saw young men armed with sling shots pop up from hiding places on the surrounding roofs. One in particular was also wielding a gold tipped cane. He had dirty blond hair and blue eyes and a smirk plastered on his handsome face, "Neva feah, Brooklyn is heah." So that was Spot Conlon--most famous and respected newsie in New York.
After Brooklyn arrived the fight was short, Spot opened the distribution center gates himself and led in more of his boys, but not before giving Ashlyn and wink and a smirk.
The fight at the center made the front page of The Sun the next day.