It was a couple of weeks before anything of any significance happened. Things were calm for a while, and everyone had fallen back into rhythm. Elise had finally come back to work, with Killian in tow. Mama Green allowed those of her employees who had small children to bring them to work, provided they were still able to do their jobs while keeping their children in check. Killian was a fairly quiet baby, so he proved to be no trouble at all. All the girls seemed to love him, and helped Elise out by taking him every now and then to coo and fuss over him and give her a break.
Work had ended, and the girls were heading out the door to go home. Killian slept in his rickety carriage, a feat Elise never quite understood how he accomplished. Penny spotted two pleasantly familiar figures waiting across the street, and she and Elise headed over.
Skittery and Crutchy stood, waiting. Crutchy looked utterly disturbed and uncomfortable, while Skittery's face was practically glowing with jubilation. He swooped Penny up with a big hug and a kiss before leading her over to the side.
"What're you so happy about today?" Penny smiled a little; she loved seeing him like this.
"Big news. Really big news."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. I got a job offer today." He grinned, looking like he wanted to sing and dance.
Penny blinked. "But... you have a job."
"Well, yeah, but it ain't like you can be a newsie your whole life." He shrugged. "Fella I know down at the docks needs somebody to load cargo an' stuff. I'll drive the delivery wagons too, sometimes. The pay's real good."
"What're you going to do about a place to live? Are you staying at the lodging house?"
"I was thinkin' I would... 'til I save up for my own place, anyway." Skittery wrapped an arm around Penny's shoulder, planting a kiss on the side of her head. "It's mostly work in the evenin's, so I'm still gonna be sellin' papes during the day. I'll have some savings and a place of my own in no time."
"Wow, Skittery," Penny said, smiling. "That's wonderful."
"Ain't it?" He laughed and swept her up again, spinning her around. As he set her down, he kissed her. "I love you, Penny."
Penny froze, staring. "What?"
Skittery blushed. "I.. I said I love you."
"Oh..." she sighed as she wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head in the crook of his neck. "I love you, too."
"Crutchy, what's the matter?" Elise's brows knitted together with concern as she walked over to him with the carriage.
"Just had a real weird day, is all." Crutchy shrugged and reached down to tickle Killian.
Elise waited a few beats, watching him. "Well, are you going to tell me about it?"
"Huh?" He looked up. "Oh, yeah. Um, see, I ain't been sellin' so good lately. So I went lookin' for a new spot, y'know, someplace they don't know me. I just started walkin', and 'fore I know it, I wind up in the Bronx. I sold real good there, though."
Elise nodded. "That's good." The look on his face told her he wasn't finished. "What else happened?"
"Well, I get hungry, so I figure I could spring for this deli that's across the street from where I'm standin'. So I walk on in, an' the guy behind the counter looks up an' says hello. Then he stops, an' I stop, and do you know who it is that owns this place?" She shook her head. Crutchy sighed. "My own damn father."
As Crutchy sat down on the bench, Elise's jaw dropped. "So what did you do?"
"Well... I wanted to run, an' I was fixin' to hightail it outta there, but I couldn't move. He says my name, an' I here this commotion in the back. This lady runs out, lookin' all panicked, an' it's my ma. My ma, Elise. An' she almost bowls me over, the way she's runnin' at me, huggin' me and stuff." He shook his head, leaning back on the bench.
"What happened?"
"Well, they sat me down an' started askin' me all these questions. Where I've been, why I took off, what I've been doin' all this time. Ma said she thinks about me every day, misses me every day." He rubbed his hands over his face, sighing loudly. "I thought they'd forgotten about me."
"Oh, Crutchy." Elise sat down next to him, slipping an arm through his. "What are you going to do now?"
"Um... they asked me to come home and have dinner in a couple days. Y'know, to talk, an' all that." Elise nodded. "But, uh, I was thinkin'... maybe if you came with me, it wouldn't be so hard. You could bring the baby and whatnot and it... well, would you? Come with me?"
"Absolutely."
In an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Queens, two figures huddled with no fire and no blankets in the fading daylight.
"Kenny, I'm tired of this. We got no money, no food, no place warm to stay."
"I know." Kenny rolled his eyes. "You only point that out every five damn minutes."
"I'm just sayin'. We should be livin' the high life by now... that's what Papa sent us over here for. But we lost those damn girls and we aren't any closer to gettin' 'em back."
"Shut up, Frankie."
"Well, we were supposed to have them workin' for Papa's friend by now! We were supposed to be getting our cut, but instead all we have is a bunch of overprotective, filthy, newspaper-peddling street trash." He wrapped his arms tighter around himself. "We oughta have a plan to fix this mess we're in."
"Frankie, I'm workin' on it. Just drop it for now."
"Squatting in some freezing, rat-infested warehouse is not exactly my idea of the American Dream."
"Goddamn it, Frankie, I told you to drop it." And with that, Kenny's fist went flying into Frankie's face. As his brother slumped down onto the floor, Kenny sighed with relief. "Ah. Quiet."