January 1900

Charlotte took her seat next to David in the classroom. She gave him a small smile as she sat down. David had déjà vu of the first day he met her when she sat next to him. She'd stood in the doorway to the classroom, scanning for empty desks. Spotting one at the front, she had walked over and sat down, giving David the same small, uncertain smile.

They hadn't said a word to each other since leaving the Jacobs' apartment that morning.

"Look at that," said a voice from the doorway. "Fuller and Jacobs, together once again."

Neither of them had to look up to know George was grinning from ear to ear, like someone had just served him a slice of early birthday cake.

"So, I guess David is all better and Fuller doesn't have to work anymore, is that right?" said George, as his cronies laughed.

They both knew anything they said, George would use as ammunition.

David felt like as much emotional distance he put between him and Charlotte, they were right back where they started – at the mercy of George.

"I heard Fuller was runnin' around with a street kid," said Petey.

"Shows you how bad Jacobs is if even Fuller is goin' after street kids instead of him," said George.

"That's enough, boys," said the teacher. "Please take your seats."

George and his posse walked to the back of the room and took their seats.

"How did they find out?" Charlotte whispered to David.

David looked over at her and saw her wipe tears from her cheeks.

"I don't know," said David. "They didn't hear it from me."

Charlotte chewed on her lip and tried to focus as the teacher began class.


A snowball hit Charlotte in the middle of the back. "Hey!" She stopped and turned around. David turned and followed her gaze. Les and Jack stood there, snowballs in hand.

"You hit a girl, Jack!" said Les.

"Run!" Charlotte grabbed David's arm and dragged him behind a tree, narrowly missing the snowballs being thrown at them. Charlotte squatted down and began forming a snowball.

Charlotte half expected David to start complaining about how he didn't want to get cold and wet from a snowball fight. How they were going to catch their death of cold. How they had a lot of work to do when they got home. But he just squatted next to her and began forming a snowball of his own.

Charlotte looked out from behind the street and saw Jack ducking behind a park bench, forming a snowball. Charlotte snuck out from behind the tree, staying behind his back and ran across an open area, pegging Jack in the shoulder.

"Hey!" he said, turning around with his snowball ready. Charlotte ran back to the tree as David threw snowballs at Jack to cover Charlotte's retreat.

David felt a snowball hit his back and he turned around to see Les about to throw a second snowball at him. He ducked just in time and grabbed enough snow to make a quick ball and throw it at Les.

The four of them ran all over the small park, throwing snowballs at each other until they all collapsed on a park bench, out of breath and wet all over.

Off in the distance, church bells rang. Jack lightly smacked the bill of Les' hat down over his eyes. "The afternoon edition will be out soon, kid," he said, standing up. "Come on. Let's get into some dry clothes before the circulation bells rings."

"Okay," said Les, hopping up. "Bye, David! Bye, Charlotte!" He waved. Jack gave them a small wave before they turned around and left.

David and Charlotte sat in silence on the bench, catching their breath. He felt her eyes on him and he looked over at her. He saw something in her gaze that was different than before. It stirred feelings inside him he hadn't thought about in a while. He remembered the days of him practicing what to say to her.

"You're not like anybody else," she said.

"What do you mean?"

Charlotte shrugged and looked forward once more. "I mean I know I haven't been a good friend to you these past few months." She paused. "I hate myself for everything I've put you through."

"Don't hate yourself," said David. "I don't hate you."

"That's why you're not like anyone else."

David gave her a small smile.

"You know, I really did like you when we started courting," she said. She sighed. "Patrick, just…" she shook her head, "I don't know. I think I just go caught up in what used to be, and I realized…we're just too different now."

"Come on," Charlotte patted David's arm. "Let's go get dry."