It was very crowded with people coming and going. I was still embarrased
about the whole Dave thing and I wondered what Race would do when he found
out about it. I also was still laughing about the whole "can you make sure
he won't beat me up" thing. We ended up finding Race where Jack suspected
he would be, by the other gamblers and I saw he still had his shirt. I
walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder then gave him a hug. He
swung around and looked just as surprised as Jack and Spot to see us.
"Whudd are ye doin hea?" asked confused, his expression mirroring the ones that Jack and Spot had had when we showed up to see them.
"Well ids been a rough day...which one of ye wants te explain whudd happened?" I said a little tired of relating everything that had happened and now seemed far away.
"Ok," Bailey began. "Stay calm."
"Whudd de ye mean stay calm??" he said and I could pretty much tell that that probaly wasn't going to work with him. Normaly a cool, easy going guy, Race had a fierce temper when he used it.
"When me an Ang were at Christina's t'day, me an Doodles were teachin her some fightin," Bailey began. "Den all of a sudden de Delancy's boist inte de door of de apartment."
"De Delancy's!! Dey followed us?!" Race caught on quicker than the rest.
"Yea," I said. "So dey threatened us and tried to beat us up. But as everyone hea knows deyre stupid so dey think were pooa defenseless goils."
Bailey cut in again. I think she really enjoys this kicking ass stuff. "So foist Osca tried ta punch Ang but she showed him dat she ain't as defensless as he thought. She broke his nose."
Race who had been looking angry and worried let out a guffaw. "Man I whoulda payed te see dat!"
"So," I continued, "afta me and Bailey took care a Morris we told Christina whudd happened an left. But deyre was one problem. De Delancy's tipped off de Crypts an dey were on deyre way when we left so dey caught on my trail."
Race was speechless for a few moments he looked to be thinking hard about what I had just said. "Oh...shit,"was all he said. "So did ye eva see em on yer way te Manhattan?"
"No, thank god," Angel said.
We were all silent for a few moments, standing there, just thinking. I was trying to think of someway that this could all be over. Meaning just that Shadow, his cronies in the Crypts, and the Delancys would just leave us alone. But to me there really were only three options. Getting them all in jail, but then again not all of them would go to jail so there would always be someone after us to take revenge for getting all their or his pals in jail. We could keep going on like we had been, hiding back and forth between cities and lodging houses and friend's places, but I'm sure they'd catch up to us in the end just like they had that day. And the third option...well that to me this seemed the most unconcievable...Shadow's death. Since he was the only one who really cared about me if he was gone then maybe the others wouldn't even care and leave us alone. Well the Crypts were always not too friendly with newsies but they could still not be on us like this, day after day. All the time with us hardly having a breath in between running and hiding. "In fact" I thought to myself, "I'm tired of running, hiding, being the scardy cat. Because that's just not me," I was the girl with no father, no past who learned to fight to survive while mother tried so hard then in the end...look how that had turned out for her. I was trying so hard not to feel the sadness and despair that was welling in and hurting my heart. It seemed as if there was no escape any solution only heartache and hurt at each turn in the maze.
"Whudder we gonna do!" I shouted suddenly into our silence, though there was still a lot of surrounding noise from the races. "Deyre at us whicheva way we toin! Dey ain't neva gonna let up till I die or we kill one o dem...well actually dey'd probaly be afta us more if we killed ona dem!" I was so frusterated and I really was at breaking point though I had ignored it before. I couldn't stand to see them infringing on everyone's lives. Race who should be at the tracks and playing poker to his heart's content, was with me day after day. Then Bailey, Angel, Spot, and Jack too. They devoted their time to helping me and it wasn't fair to them. Then I asked myself, who was it fair to? Because it certainly wasn't fair to me. I didn't do anything besides witness the death of a loved one, the only loved one I had at that time. And this is what I got. "I suppose," I grudgingly thought to myself, "whoever said life's not fair was so true, they probaly don't know how right they were." I took a deep breath to try and calm myself some then realized that Jack was talking.
"—ne a two things," he was saying.
"Woah, whudd did ye say? I was lost in me thoughts for a moment.
"I said we could do one a two things, well mebe dere's moa but I think," he began again for my benefit," I think we could attempt to talk to em foist off..."
"Jack, Jack, Jack," Spot said shaking his head. "Dis reminds me o sumthin...strike ring a bell? Ids de same wid me now...no deyre is gonna be danger if we try ta negotiate. I know de Crypts, dey won't hold deyre word an I'm sure it'd be way moa satisfyin to disfigure deyre faces a little."
"Strike?" I asked a little confused, "Whudd strike?"
"Newsies strike," Race said. "De pape companies increased the cost of deir papes when we were makin little enough as it was at de time. So we went on strike, got all de newsies in New Yawk on it plus de woikers in sweatshops and den bike messangers. To make a long story short de papes gave up in de end an we got our normal pape cost back."
I was surprised to hear all of this, I had never heard anything about it and I had been in Harlem selling my occasional pape. But I wasn't in with the newsie crowd...no I just snuck in to buy papes once in awhile, it definatly had not been like Manhattan. There had been trouble, so I had distanced myself from all the newsies there, even those that might have been considered my friends...
I jerked myself bck out of my head and my memories then asked, "When was dis?"
"Hmm...'bout a yea ago," Race said then looked at Jack and Spot for confermation. They both nodded.
I then understood why I had not heard of it. I had been busy with my own problems.
"Hello? Back te me ideas," Jack complained having been interuppted by my curiosity about the strike.
"I'll tell ye moa lata," Race said with a wink. He could tell that I wanted to know more. I smiled.
"So," Jack said with a pointed look at Spot who looked a little disgusted with him. "Don worry dis plan has a fall back."
"It betta be good," Spot said, "I'm worried yer gonna start talkin like a walkin mouth"
"Stop talkin 'bout dat!" Race exclaimed.
"Can I go on?" Jack complained again.
"Calm down!" Bailey said to Jack, "Stop actin like a goil. An Spot stop talkin 'bout when he went te Brooklyn wid Davy te ask ye te join de strike, were not gonna feed yer ego anymoa an tell ye Brooklyn rules!" Bailey set them in their places then
"Geez, I'm so confused," I complained because they were obviously talking about the strike again.
Angel who hasn't said anything in a while was just laughing at us as she listened to all of our complaints and repremands.
"So," Jack bagan again for the third time or at least I think it was third, I had lost count. "We should try te negotiate wid dem foist like say leave us alone or...well we'll havta thinka sumthin. If dey don't agree te dat den we fallback on..."
"De fallback?" Race suggested trying to contain his laughter as this was a serious subject. But then again Angel wasn't concerning herself with trying to control her laughter.
"Haha," Jack said sarcastically. "Yer crackin me up," he said loading on the sarcasm.
"Soo Jack...whudds de fallback?" Spot asked him when he didn't say anything more.
"Well I was thinkin along de lines of de strike," he began enthusiastically.
"Wait," Bailey stopped him before he went on, "Why don't we leave an go somewheres else te discuss dis? We're in de middle of a crowd an dis might be kinda private."
"Ok," everyone agreed and we headed out of the races.
"Why don we head ta Meddas'?" Jack suggested then. "Dey might not think te look dere right away if dey come te Manhattan, lookin fer ye." He said looking at me.
We all agreed and set off for a safe refuge at Medda's place.
We arrived and Jack led us upstairs And we entered a room that looked to be just a typical bedroom.
"Ready fer me idea now?" Jack asked us all as we got comfertable.
"Sure, go ahead," Bailey said to him.
"Ok", he said clasping his hands together purposfully. "De foist part is de negoitiatin. I think we should try getting em te leave us alone. Whudd I said 'bout de strike eoilier is dat maybe we could get a bunch o newsies tageda fer numbers foist te intimidate dem. But I have a feeling dat as much as I would like this te woik, its not gonna. So jus like de strike whudd was de fallback?" he looked around at all of us questioningly.
"We'll soak em!" Race and Spot shouted joyfully together.
"An how do ye think we'll manage to do dat?" Angel said doubtfully.
"Well if we get enough newsies rallied..." Bailey said.
"But den why would newsies wanna come te fight fer sumthin they probaly don care 'bout?" I asked feeling a little put out. "Most of dem don even know me an why whudd dey wan te risk getting deirselfs hoit fer me?"
"Heres de deal," Jack began. "Newsies might not care dat yer de reason dat dey're gonna rally. Deres a few reasons dey is. Foist dey all know me an Spot hea te be de greatest leada's of de New Yawk newsies and Race hea's me right hand man. Good guy." Both Jack an Spot looked way to egotistic after this, both smirking like fools while Race just sat and chuckled.
"Well dats a great reason", Bailey rolled her eyes at them. "I hope ye have a backup."
"Yea if dats all we're goin on den lets stop while we're ahead," I said agreeing with Bailey and Angel nodded agreeing with both of us.
"Geez, dey're ye go deflatin oua egos again," Jack said.
"Yea as oua goilfriends I think ye should be a little moa supportin of oua good looks an powa," Spot said looking as Jack did: deflated.
"Ok," Jack said, "Fine. Anodda reason dey whudd wanna help us whudd be all newsies hate de Crypts an de Delancys'. We all hate em so much dat any newise who wasn't a pussy whudd wanna take a shot at em, especially if we had numbers an a real chance."
Spot chuckled, then said, "Neva fea Brooklyn's hea!" Everybody but me laughed while I looked at them confused.
"Is dis sumthin to do wid de strike again?" I asked feeling out of it again.
"Yea," Angel answered. "I wasn't dere but I've hoid 'bout it a lot before. De newsies got ambushed by de Crypts when dey were tryin te get odda newsies te join de strike. Dat was just de Manhattan newsies. Spot had said dat he wanted Jack's newsies ta prove dat dey whudden't be afraid te fight. So like he said he showed up and Broolklyn and Manhattan took out de Crypts tagedda."
"So whudd, did ye actually say dat when ye got deyre?" I asked Spot who looked very proud.
"Well yea," he said. "Hey don give me dat look," he said to me. I was looking at him with my eyebrows raised trying not to laugh. "It was all I could think of at de time. It seemed apropriate."
"Anyways," Jack cut in as he had been doing a lot that day said. "I think all de smart newises whudd wanna try ta get back at dey Crypts fer all de rotten stuff dey've done ova de years. And believe me de've done plenty."
"Dat actually could woik..." I said hopefully. "But I don wan any newsies te get hoit because deyre all fightin, it whudd really be my fault." I knew if that happened I would feel awful and I knew it really would b emy fault.
"Ye know Doodles," Spot said about to give me a little Brooklyn logic, "Ye can't stop any o dis an de way it was started wasn't yer fault eidda. If we're gonna blame someone, its gotta be Shadow. Unless you hired Shadow te do dat te yer mudda den its not yer fault at all."
It turned out Brooklyn logic made more sense then I had given it credit for. I nodded, "Thanks Spot. But its really hard not te blame yerself fer messin up stuff," I said then looked around at all the warning looks being shot at me from all sides and I added, "but I'll try not to." That seemed to satisfy everyone for the time being and they all smiled with approval. "Geez I'm moa likely te be killed by all o ye if I say dat I feel bad dan by Shadow."
"Well dats cause we care 'bout ye" Bailey said in one of her moments of seriousness. Everyone agreed with her on this and nodded.
"Yep kinda sucks, but fer some odd reason we do," Spot said pretending to look as though this was such a hardship for him. I laughed and hugged him then in answer to a look from Race that said plainly "Aww I wan one", I gave him a hug as well. Then to make it fair I hugged Jack, Bailey and Angel as well.
"Thanks," I said trying not to tear up even if it was happiness that swelled through me, not sadness. I had friends and they cared about me, were going to help me get out of trouble no matter what. I think they had already proved that much by what we had been through together.
"Why don we go talk ta Medda now an see if she whudden't mind us stayin de night, den lets go get sumthin te eat, I'm starvin," Spot suggested showing his infamous leadership.
Angel and me laughed, he was thinkin with his stomach again. The four of them rolled their eyes, though they did it lovingly, and walked out of the room while we scrambled to catch up to them, still laughing.
"Whudd are ye doin hea?" asked confused, his expression mirroring the ones that Jack and Spot had had when we showed up to see them.
"Well ids been a rough day...which one of ye wants te explain whudd happened?" I said a little tired of relating everything that had happened and now seemed far away.
"Ok," Bailey began. "Stay calm."
"Whudd de ye mean stay calm??" he said and I could pretty much tell that that probaly wasn't going to work with him. Normaly a cool, easy going guy, Race had a fierce temper when he used it.
"When me an Ang were at Christina's t'day, me an Doodles were teachin her some fightin," Bailey began. "Den all of a sudden de Delancy's boist inte de door of de apartment."
"De Delancy's!! Dey followed us?!" Race caught on quicker than the rest.
"Yea," I said. "So dey threatened us and tried to beat us up. But as everyone hea knows deyre stupid so dey think were pooa defenseless goils."
Bailey cut in again. I think she really enjoys this kicking ass stuff. "So foist Osca tried ta punch Ang but she showed him dat she ain't as defensless as he thought. She broke his nose."
Race who had been looking angry and worried let out a guffaw. "Man I whoulda payed te see dat!"
"So," I continued, "afta me and Bailey took care a Morris we told Christina whudd happened an left. But deyre was one problem. De Delancy's tipped off de Crypts an dey were on deyre way when we left so dey caught on my trail."
Race was speechless for a few moments he looked to be thinking hard about what I had just said. "Oh...shit,"was all he said. "So did ye eva see em on yer way te Manhattan?"
"No, thank god," Angel said.
We were all silent for a few moments, standing there, just thinking. I was trying to think of someway that this could all be over. Meaning just that Shadow, his cronies in the Crypts, and the Delancys would just leave us alone. But to me there really were only three options. Getting them all in jail, but then again not all of them would go to jail so there would always be someone after us to take revenge for getting all their or his pals in jail. We could keep going on like we had been, hiding back and forth between cities and lodging houses and friend's places, but I'm sure they'd catch up to us in the end just like they had that day. And the third option...well that to me this seemed the most unconcievable...Shadow's death. Since he was the only one who really cared about me if he was gone then maybe the others wouldn't even care and leave us alone. Well the Crypts were always not too friendly with newsies but they could still not be on us like this, day after day. All the time with us hardly having a breath in between running and hiding. "In fact" I thought to myself, "I'm tired of running, hiding, being the scardy cat. Because that's just not me," I was the girl with no father, no past who learned to fight to survive while mother tried so hard then in the end...look how that had turned out for her. I was trying so hard not to feel the sadness and despair that was welling in and hurting my heart. It seemed as if there was no escape any solution only heartache and hurt at each turn in the maze.
"Whudder we gonna do!" I shouted suddenly into our silence, though there was still a lot of surrounding noise from the races. "Deyre at us whicheva way we toin! Dey ain't neva gonna let up till I die or we kill one o dem...well actually dey'd probaly be afta us more if we killed ona dem!" I was so frusterated and I really was at breaking point though I had ignored it before. I couldn't stand to see them infringing on everyone's lives. Race who should be at the tracks and playing poker to his heart's content, was with me day after day. Then Bailey, Angel, Spot, and Jack too. They devoted their time to helping me and it wasn't fair to them. Then I asked myself, who was it fair to? Because it certainly wasn't fair to me. I didn't do anything besides witness the death of a loved one, the only loved one I had at that time. And this is what I got. "I suppose," I grudgingly thought to myself, "whoever said life's not fair was so true, they probaly don't know how right they were." I took a deep breath to try and calm myself some then realized that Jack was talking.
"—ne a two things," he was saying.
"Woah, whudd did ye say? I was lost in me thoughts for a moment.
"I said we could do one a two things, well mebe dere's moa but I think," he began again for my benefit," I think we could attempt to talk to em foist off..."
"Jack, Jack, Jack," Spot said shaking his head. "Dis reminds me o sumthin...strike ring a bell? Ids de same wid me now...no deyre is gonna be danger if we try ta negotiate. I know de Crypts, dey won't hold deyre word an I'm sure it'd be way moa satisfyin to disfigure deyre faces a little."
"Strike?" I asked a little confused, "Whudd strike?"
"Newsies strike," Race said. "De pape companies increased the cost of deir papes when we were makin little enough as it was at de time. So we went on strike, got all de newsies in New Yawk on it plus de woikers in sweatshops and den bike messangers. To make a long story short de papes gave up in de end an we got our normal pape cost back."
I was surprised to hear all of this, I had never heard anything about it and I had been in Harlem selling my occasional pape. But I wasn't in with the newsie crowd...no I just snuck in to buy papes once in awhile, it definatly had not been like Manhattan. There had been trouble, so I had distanced myself from all the newsies there, even those that might have been considered my friends...
I jerked myself bck out of my head and my memories then asked, "When was dis?"
"Hmm...'bout a yea ago," Race said then looked at Jack and Spot for confermation. They both nodded.
I then understood why I had not heard of it. I had been busy with my own problems.
"Hello? Back te me ideas," Jack complained having been interuppted by my curiosity about the strike.
"I'll tell ye moa lata," Race said with a wink. He could tell that I wanted to know more. I smiled.
"So," Jack said with a pointed look at Spot who looked a little disgusted with him. "Don worry dis plan has a fall back."
"It betta be good," Spot said, "I'm worried yer gonna start talkin like a walkin mouth"
"Stop talkin 'bout dat!" Race exclaimed.
"Can I go on?" Jack complained again.
"Calm down!" Bailey said to Jack, "Stop actin like a goil. An Spot stop talkin 'bout when he went te Brooklyn wid Davy te ask ye te join de strike, were not gonna feed yer ego anymoa an tell ye Brooklyn rules!" Bailey set them in their places then
"Geez, I'm so confused," I complained because they were obviously talking about the strike again.
Angel who hasn't said anything in a while was just laughing at us as she listened to all of our complaints and repremands.
"So," Jack bagan again for the third time or at least I think it was third, I had lost count. "We should try te negotiate wid dem foist like say leave us alone or...well we'll havta thinka sumthin. If dey don't agree te dat den we fallback on..."
"De fallback?" Race suggested trying to contain his laughter as this was a serious subject. But then again Angel wasn't concerning herself with trying to control her laughter.
"Haha," Jack said sarcastically. "Yer crackin me up," he said loading on the sarcasm.
"Soo Jack...whudds de fallback?" Spot asked him when he didn't say anything more.
"Well I was thinkin along de lines of de strike," he began enthusiastically.
"Wait," Bailey stopped him before he went on, "Why don't we leave an go somewheres else te discuss dis? We're in de middle of a crowd an dis might be kinda private."
"Ok," everyone agreed and we headed out of the races.
"Why don we head ta Meddas'?" Jack suggested then. "Dey might not think te look dere right away if dey come te Manhattan, lookin fer ye." He said looking at me.
We all agreed and set off for a safe refuge at Medda's place.
We arrived and Jack led us upstairs And we entered a room that looked to be just a typical bedroom.
"Ready fer me idea now?" Jack asked us all as we got comfertable.
"Sure, go ahead," Bailey said to him.
"Ok", he said clasping his hands together purposfully. "De foist part is de negoitiatin. I think we should try getting em te leave us alone. Whudd I said 'bout de strike eoilier is dat maybe we could get a bunch o newsies tageda fer numbers foist te intimidate dem. But I have a feeling dat as much as I would like this te woik, its not gonna. So jus like de strike whudd was de fallback?" he looked around at all of us questioningly.
"We'll soak em!" Race and Spot shouted joyfully together.
"An how do ye think we'll manage to do dat?" Angel said doubtfully.
"Well if we get enough newsies rallied..." Bailey said.
"But den why would newsies wanna come te fight fer sumthin they probaly don care 'bout?" I asked feeling a little put out. "Most of dem don even know me an why whudd dey wan te risk getting deirselfs hoit fer me?"
"Heres de deal," Jack began. "Newsies might not care dat yer de reason dat dey're gonna rally. Deres a few reasons dey is. Foist dey all know me an Spot hea te be de greatest leada's of de New Yawk newsies and Race hea's me right hand man. Good guy." Both Jack an Spot looked way to egotistic after this, both smirking like fools while Race just sat and chuckled.
"Well dats a great reason", Bailey rolled her eyes at them. "I hope ye have a backup."
"Yea if dats all we're goin on den lets stop while we're ahead," I said agreeing with Bailey and Angel nodded agreeing with both of us.
"Geez, dey're ye go deflatin oua egos again," Jack said.
"Yea as oua goilfriends I think ye should be a little moa supportin of oua good looks an powa," Spot said looking as Jack did: deflated.
"Ok," Jack said, "Fine. Anodda reason dey whudd wanna help us whudd be all newsies hate de Crypts an de Delancys'. We all hate em so much dat any newise who wasn't a pussy whudd wanna take a shot at em, especially if we had numbers an a real chance."
Spot chuckled, then said, "Neva fea Brooklyn's hea!" Everybody but me laughed while I looked at them confused.
"Is dis sumthin to do wid de strike again?" I asked feeling out of it again.
"Yea," Angel answered. "I wasn't dere but I've hoid 'bout it a lot before. De newsies got ambushed by de Crypts when dey were tryin te get odda newsies te join de strike. Dat was just de Manhattan newsies. Spot had said dat he wanted Jack's newsies ta prove dat dey whudden't be afraid te fight. So like he said he showed up and Broolklyn and Manhattan took out de Crypts tagedda."
"So whudd, did ye actually say dat when ye got deyre?" I asked Spot who looked very proud.
"Well yea," he said. "Hey don give me dat look," he said to me. I was looking at him with my eyebrows raised trying not to laugh. "It was all I could think of at de time. It seemed apropriate."
"Anyways," Jack cut in as he had been doing a lot that day said. "I think all de smart newises whudd wanna try ta get back at dey Crypts fer all de rotten stuff dey've done ova de years. And believe me de've done plenty."
"Dat actually could woik..." I said hopefully. "But I don wan any newsies te get hoit because deyre all fightin, it whudd really be my fault." I knew if that happened I would feel awful and I knew it really would b emy fault.
"Ye know Doodles," Spot said about to give me a little Brooklyn logic, "Ye can't stop any o dis an de way it was started wasn't yer fault eidda. If we're gonna blame someone, its gotta be Shadow. Unless you hired Shadow te do dat te yer mudda den its not yer fault at all."
It turned out Brooklyn logic made more sense then I had given it credit for. I nodded, "Thanks Spot. But its really hard not te blame yerself fer messin up stuff," I said then looked around at all the warning looks being shot at me from all sides and I added, "but I'll try not to." That seemed to satisfy everyone for the time being and they all smiled with approval. "Geez I'm moa likely te be killed by all o ye if I say dat I feel bad dan by Shadow."
"Well dats cause we care 'bout ye" Bailey said in one of her moments of seriousness. Everyone agreed with her on this and nodded.
"Yep kinda sucks, but fer some odd reason we do," Spot said pretending to look as though this was such a hardship for him. I laughed and hugged him then in answer to a look from Race that said plainly "Aww I wan one", I gave him a hug as well. Then to make it fair I hugged Jack, Bailey and Angel as well.
"Thanks," I said trying not to tear up even if it was happiness that swelled through me, not sadness. I had friends and they cared about me, were going to help me get out of trouble no matter what. I think they had already proved that much by what we had been through together.
"Why don we go talk ta Medda now an see if she whudden't mind us stayin de night, den lets go get sumthin te eat, I'm starvin," Spot suggested showing his infamous leadership.
Angel and me laughed, he was thinkin with his stomach again. The four of them rolled their eyes, though they did it lovingly, and walked out of the room while we scrambled to catch up to them, still laughing.