The old man made his ways slowly up the lodging house stairs. He sighed when he came across the strange sight that was quickly becoming commonplace.
Jack Kelly wasn't in his bunk, and by the looks of his bed. The bunk had never been used. Jack's hat and boots were gone as well.
If this had been any other newsie, Kloppman would have been happy. One less person to wake up. With any other newsie Kloppman would have been excited, He started early today; he'll have enough to pay his board tonight!
But this wasn't any other newsie. This was Jack. As Kloppman woke the boys up he continued to worry about Jack. Jack had never been an early riser. He would crash into bed as soon as the poker games ended, and no matter how much sleep he got, Jack never responded well to a morning wake up call.
But that had changed. Kloppman had seen this before. You can't judge a Newsie by their actions during the day. It's at night when a boy's true self comes out.
When a newsie first came to the lodging house, they rarely slept. Most missed their parents, were uncomfortable in the squeaky bunks, or were too busy enjoying their new found freedom.
Those would be fine, given time. Old Kloppman knew there were two behaviors to watch for. There were the boys that screamed, and the boys who months later, didn't sleep.
Jack had never fit any category. When he had showed up in the lodging house at the age of seven, he had slept like a baby every night. Kloppman was horrified. If a newsie could sleep like a rock at the lodging house on their first night, it meant that wherever they had lived before, they had been too frightened to sleep.
The years passed and Jack's pattern never changed. He had slept soundly every night, safe and warm under Kloppman's roof.
That was until Flame left.
Only one person at the lodging house other than Jack and Kloppman knew how much that hurt. You see, only Race knew that Jack had an older sister.
Flame was four years older than Jack and his twin sister Birdy. Song bird was her full newsie name, but most called her Birdy, or more accurately, Boidy.
Jack was twelve when Flame left for Santa Fe. He had been in and out of trouble with the law, and had to change his name. As long as he had been at the lodging house Jack had been Jack.
Flame had called him that. She explained that she couldn't bear to call him Francis after their jerk of a father.
Jack didn't remember too much about his father but he knew that he loved Flame and she could call him anything she wanted.
In the end, when he escaped from the refuge, it wasn't a huge ordeal to switch from Jack Sullivan to Jack Kelly.
Flame hadn't changed her name. Birdy changed hers later, after Flame had left. No one wanted Snyder to get to curious about why a girl named Birdy Sullivan had a brother named Jack Kelly, especially while he was still on the lookout for a Francis Sullivan.
When Flame took off for Santa Fe to escape Snyder, Jack had stopped sleeping. After many long talks with Kloppman, he agreed to try, Jack became a screamer. He would sleep fitfully for an hour, than awake wailing, haunted by nightmares he could never recall.
Months later, Jack began to sleep again. His life went on, but Kloppman still watched him closely.
Jack was doing it again, but this time was different. This time Jack denied it. He told Kloppman that he slept but never went to bed before all his boys were in.
He refused to talk to Kloppman, thought he was hiding it, but Kloppman knew. He saw Jack, and sometimes Race, late at night sitting on the fire escape, smoking and thinking.
Kloppman knew that Jack blamed himself. It was only natural, abandoned by two sisters, one of them his twin, It was no wonder Jack dreamed of running away…