"TWO-BITS, WAKE UP!"
I shot up in bed, immediately alert. My, GOD! What the hell happened?! Glancing around, frantically, I heard a slight chuckle.
"Don't worry," Kloppman said," it's just me." I frowned at him and gave him an indignant glare but he said nothing.
It had been about a week since I decided that Boomerang does, in fact, possess the Evil Eye. And by that time I had gotten over the joys of going back in time and hanging out with the gods of the newsboys, and the immense annoyance of being blind and mute were beginning to sink in.
Curse the darkness.
Whenever people asked me what my greatest fear was, I'd reply, "What I can't see." If I was in water or something, and I couldn't see the bottom, I was so paranoid that something was going to attack me, and I'd be none the wiser. And now…Now I'm blind. Completely, and totally without sight. Can you imagine? Well, no, you probably can't. People would also ask what I would miss the least if I were to lose speaking, seeing, or hearing. I'd always tell them sight, because my life revolves around music.
But there's the problem about how I strive to be independent. A slight pang of annoyance shoots through me when some guy holds the door open for me, or offers to carry my bag, or whatever. They're just trying to prove that they're gentlemanly, or whatever, but it ticks me off. I always snap at them.
Now I have to walk around, my hand clamped firmly to someone's wrist, so I don't run into anyone, or anything.
Perhaps this is what I'm supposed to learn? That it's okay to be a little dependent?...And that I need to hold my tongue?
I smiled, inwardly, at that thought, and then rolled out of bed. Blindly, I ran my fingers along the bedpost, then walked forward, reaching for the sinks. "C'mere, Bits," someone muttered, and led me to the sink on which sat a spare toothbrush they had given me. I smiled, gratefully, mildly wondering which gorgeous newsboy this was, and began to brush my teeth.
"Who're you selling with today?" I shrugged. "Well, you want to sell with me?" I spat, then shrugged again. "Wow, aren't we talkative." I rolled my eyes. "Oh, right. You can't talk." Atta' boy... "Well, anyway, come sell with me. We'll go to the harbor." Aha! It's Mush! I nodded, trying not to grin, stupidly. Mush is really cute. And muscley...Mmm...
"Let's go while they still got some left," Mush said, leading me toward the distribution apparatus. "Hey, Kid! Two-Bits is selling with us today!" Oh. No.
"Says who?" came the expected, ever-so-evil voice of Boomerang. I sighed. Fucktastic. Heh heh...Thank you, Poison Candy Sprinkles!
"Um, says me, I suppose," Mush said, hesitantly. Obviously he hadn't noticed the love-hate relationship between myself and Boomerang, minus the 'love,' of course. Boomerang gave a sufferable sigh, and began walking.
"Boomer, what is your problem?" I heard Kid Blink mutter. Mush slowed his pace, considerably.
"What is my problem? My problem is that she shows up out of nowhere, blind, mute, and deaf, and you're hanging all over her!"
"He hangs all over the guys, too! Are you going to accuse him of being gay?"
Silence.
Did I say that out loud?
"Bits, you just...talked," Mush said, sounding shocked. I was, too.
"I can talk?" I gaped. "I can talk! Halle-freakin'-lujah! I did a little happy dance. "Well, now that I can talk, I think I shall speak what's been going through my head for the past two weeks," I announced, lavishly. "Boomerang, there's some things you need to understand about your boyfriend if you're going to have a good relationship. Kid is a touchy-feely kind of guy. He hangs over everyone. Just because he hangs over me, and just because I'm a girl, means nothing. Face it," I said with a wry grin, "I'm not exactly a beauty, here, eh? So, now that we've established that Kid subconsciously 'flirts,'" I said, holding up my fingers in quotation marks, "let it also be established that I have no interest in him whatsoever as a boyfriend, lover, eloper, whatever you want to call it. Trust me. I'm sure you understand me when I say there are other fish in the Lodging House." I grinned, slightly. "And now I am begging--" I sunk to my knees and clasped my hands. "--begging for your alliance, that I may not go insane from being around guys twenty-four-seven!"
There was more silence.
"I think I liked her better when she was mute," Boomerang grumbled, but I swear I heard her smiling. My work done, it was time to make good use of my newly renewed (go figure) vocal chords.
"In the heart of little old New York, you'll find a thoroughfare...It's the part of little old New York that runs into Times Square...A crazy quilt that Wallstreet Jack built...If you've got a little time to spare, I want to take you therrrreeee!!!" I skipped around a bit, tapping my feet.
"Come and meet..." Tap. Tap. "...those dancin' feet!" Tap. Tap. Taptap. "On the avenue I'm takin' ya to..." Dramatic pause. "Fourty....Second...Streeetttt!"
New song!
"I'm young and healthy! And you've got charrrrmmmmsss! It would really be a sin not to have you in my arms!" I serenaded Mush. "I'm young and healthy! And so are yoooouuu! When the moon is in the sky, tell me what am I to do? If I could hate ya, I'd keep away. But that ain't my nature! I'm full of Vitamin A, say!"
Someone handed me a coin. SWEET!
"We're in the money! We're in the money! We got a lot of what it takes to get along! We're in the money! The sky's a-sunny! Old Man Depression you are through! You've done us wrong! We never see headline, not a breadline today! And when we meet the landlord we can look that guy right in the eye!
New Broadway!
"There's a grief that can't be spoken....There's a pain goes on and o-on...Empty chairs at empty tables...Now my friends are dead and gone..." I sang, mournfully. "Here they talked of revolution...Here it was they lit the fla-ame...Here they sang about tomorrow...But tomorrow...never came..."
"Red! The blood of angry men! Black! The dark of ages past! Red! A world about to dawn! Black! A night that ends at last!"
"How strange...This feeling that my life's begun at last...This change...Can people really fall in love so fast? What's the matter with you, Cosette? Have you been too much on your own? So many things unclear...So many things unknown...In my life there are so many questions and answers that somehow seem wrong...In my life there are times when I catch in the silence a sigh of a faraway song...And it sings of a world that I long to see...Out of reach...Just a whisper away, waiting for me...Does he know I'm alive, do I know if he's real? Did he see what I saw, does he feel what I feel? In my life...I'm no longer alone now the love of my life is so near...Find me now...Find me hear..."
"On my own pretending he's beside me...All alone...I walk with him till morning...Without him, I feel his arms around me. And all when I lose my way I close my eyes and he has found me."
"Come on, dearie, why all the fuss? You're no grander than the rest of us. Life has dropped at the bottom of the heap. Join your sisters, make money in your sleep. That's right, dearie, let him have the lot. That's right, dearie. Show him what you've got...Old men, young men, take 'em as they come! Harbor rats and alley cats and every kind of scum. Poor memn, rich men, leaders of the land. See them with their trousers off, they're never quite as grand. All it takes is money in your hand!"
"TWO-BITS, SHUT UP!" Boomerang, Mush, and Kid Blink roared. I pouted, slightly, and fell silent.
"Bits, you're driving away customers. They don't appreciate songs about whores," Mush said, kindly.
"And there are creepy old men giving you funny looks," Boomerang added. I shuddered.
Three showtunes-less hours later, Kid said, "Come on. It's the end of the day. Let's go home." I couldn't resist. He said the magic words...
"At the end of the day you're another day older! And that's all you can say for the life of the poor! It's a struggle, it's a war, and there's nothing that anyone's giving! One more day standing about, what is it for? One day less to be living!"
"TWO-BITS, SHUT UP!"
Soon, I know. But I couldn't last another day without speaking!
Shoutouts!
Nosilla: I'm writing as fast as I can! Scout's honor!
koodles4you: Yeah, I'm going to emphasize the fact that she's blind, now that she can talk.
Dreamless-Mermaid: Hey, thanks babe! We'll see...
BoomerRang: Hardcore jerk no more! YAY! Wow, I feel so...blessed that you decided to go easy on me. Can you hear my sarcasm?
HAZZAGRIFF: YAY! Heh heh...I love bloomin'...
