Before I knew it, morning had come, and I woke freezing, stiff, sore, and aching with hunger. Race was still asleep and ashes had scattered over his blanket, giving the strange appearance of something like a mini snowstorm. I rubbed at my eyes with my fists and stood up painfully. Another long day ahead to follow the one that had so recently ended.
Race awoke with an audible groan and rolled over and off the stoop. I ignored him and walked around a little, trying to loosen the November chill from my body.
"Well, that was fun," he said from behind me. "But, sorry Skitts, I don't plan on doing it again. So for my sake, how 'bout you sell all your papes today, yeah?"
"Yeah, sure," I said. "Might as well get a head start, huh?" I began to head off to the distribution office.
"Okay, alright," he agreed, and ran a few steps to catch up. Even when I slouched, Race was barely at shoulder height. But what he lacked in stature he made up in character. There was something about him… you could tell, something invisible just surrounded him, and you knew he was a force.
-
"Be still my heart," Race said a few blocks later, putting out a hand to stop me. I followed his gaze and felt my heart skip a beat despite his warning. Walking towards us was a girl, brown hair in braids, soft blue eyes, small and cute as all hell, the kind of girl you could just wrap your arms around and hold forever, and --
And --
She caught sight of us and quickened her pace, a smile lighting up her features. My breath stuck in my throat.
And… Race's girl.
She reached us and dropped her package at my feet, then pulled Race to her and pressed her head against his chest with a satisfied giggle. He laughed and kissed her hair, his arms strong around her shoulders. I stood off to the side, feeling awkward, and picked up her forgotten things. She broke the embrace and turned her bright eyes towards me.
"Hi Skitts," she teased. She loved our nicknames.
"Anna," I said with a little tip of my cap. She giggled again and I noticed (not for the first time) her dimples. Race slid his arm snug around her waist and pulled her back our direction. She accepted her things back from me with another smile and chatted with him softly. I found myself falling a step or two behind, and watched them intently, without really meaning to.
They were in love, it was obvious, and it stung my eyes to look at it. It was obvious in the way he guided her absentmindedly around little things in the side walk, puddles, broken stones, trash. It was obvious in the way she looked at him as he talked, her eyes shining with trust and warmth. It was obvious in the way he changed around her, the way he stumbled over words he would fire off a mile a minute at anyone else, the flush his face sometimes took on, the way his quick flash of a smile showed up more often.
I was bitterly jealous, but I didn't begrudge them. After all, Race was my best friend, and Anna, she… Race was my best friend.
-
Anna parted from us at the Distribution gates and Race and I leaned back against the comforting iron with identical sighs.
"Amazin'," he murmured, half to himself.
"She's quite a gal," I echoed dully, and we fell silent again.
It wasn't long before the rest of Manhattan caught up with us and we were surrounded on all sides by fighting, yelling, jeering newsboys of all ages, joking and fighting amongst themselves in some sort of barely organized chaos. I loved it.
We got our papers with little trouble and moved out together to find a good place to stake out for the day. I flipped through one of my copies as we walked, making little mental notes along the way. On the calendar page I paid special attention.
"Here," I said, nodding towards a small paragraph. "Town hall meeting starts in an hour."
"Perfect," Race smirked. The town hall was a favorite place of ours to sell. Its morning meetings were usually packed full with important businessmen and politicians, young and old, all needing their news in a hurry on the way in. We separated and stood across the street from each other, myself a little closer to the actual building than he. Thus began our favorite game - who could make up the most outrageous headline (and get away with it). We were well within earshot of each other, of course, and the only rule was that we could not make eye contact.
Before I could even start, however, a haughty young man, impressively dressed, appeared before me. We exchanged goods without a word, and I could almost hear him sniff as he walked away, head high. Not a hair was out of place on that head. I snickered but the sound was hollow.
"MOTHER GIVES BIRTH TO TWINS, CANNIBALS!" Race's first shout returned me to my task at hand. With an ill concealed grin, I shouted in response.
"MOTHER EATEN AFTER DELIVERIN' CANNIBALS!"
One scared looking lady hurried over and gave me a suspicious glance, but snatched the paper out of my arms anyway. Race had decided to take a different approach, one borrowed from the solid advice of our friend Jack Kelly.
"CANNIBAL LOVENEST DISCOVERED, BROOKLYN!"
"EXTRA, EXTRA! BROOKLYN: VAMPIRE BREEDING GROUND!"
It was now only three quarters of an hour until the meeting began, so the men in their somber black suits began to arrive more frequently now, and their business stopped our fun from getting too out of hand. Before the bell rang signaling the start, I had gone through over half of my papers. Foot traffic had slowed considerably, so I crossed the street to join Race, who was having a little trouble getting rid of a customer who insisted on finding what page the story about the "pirate ship sails up Broadway" was located. He saw me and we slipped away together.
"Not bad," he said, hefting a stack of papers that had shrunk considerably.
"Why, thank you," I grinned. "I must say, it was an impeccable plan." We were back to goofing off, now imitating the clipped voices of the very gentlemen we had just sold to.
Race made an impressive show of clearing his throat. "Yes, wot, I do say ol' chap, smashing, absolutely smashing."
An elderly man with a monocle took a paper and did not look pleased to be paying me for it, so I stopped from continuing my impressions.
"Where do we hit next?" I asked Race, who was puzzling over something in one of his copies.
He closed it up with a grunt and found his cigar in his pocket. "Dunno. Some hot spot, that's our best bet at this time," he said around it.
"Alright," I agreed. "I'll go to the park, meet you back here with the next edition?"
He nodded and moved off in the opposite direction, yelling nonsense in his rough accent all the way.
-
I had gone no more than three blocks when a strange voice behind me said, gruffly, "I need a paper, boy." I turned around dutifully and was surprised to find Anna in place of an ornery old man. She laughed loudly, her eyes dancing.
"Hey, how's it going today?" She asked in her normal tone.
"Pretty well, actually," I said, nodding towards my rapidly decreasing stack. "I won't complain."
"Well, I do need a paper," she said, and produced a penny from one of the deep pockets hidden in her smock. I handed her a copy but refused her money with a mock bow and a quick step back.
"Skittery," she said warningly, her mouth set. "Take it."
I just shook my head and continued walking backwards. "No, thank you," I said politely.
"Fine, I'm giving it to Race," she told me with a scowl.
I ignored her and lifted my hat in a silent farewell. She laughed again and shook her head, but kept her money and continued on her way. I turned around and tried to slow my heart from the frantic pace it had picked up. I was unsuccessful.
At the park, I made my stand near the edge of a crowded dirt path and found it easy to sell papers to the old men sitting on the benches and the gentlemen who were walking with their ladies. One man, with a dusty monocle and the bushiest mustache I had ever seen, even tried to engage me in conversation, but I was unable to impress him with my knowledge… in fact, the only topic I could even respond to was the weather.
"Yeah," I said. "Sure is nice out."
He left soon after that attempt with an annoyed expression. He forgot his paper.
-
The next night I sat again out on the front steps. Despite the day before, I hadn't had many good selling days recently, and this one was no exception. So there I was, stooped over my bent knees, head on one hand, the other holding a cigarette. I was debating on whether or not to use some of my precious little money to spend the night inside, and the chill in the air was beginning to help my decision.
It was dusk, and most were inside getting ready to go out for the night. I heard the scrape of shoes on the cobblestones to my right and soon Anna appeared before me.
"Good evening," she said politely. I looked up and smiled faintly.
"Hey."
She looked very pretty, her hair was curled more than usual and her lips shone red. She smiled back and my eyes traced those lips.
"Is Anthony around?" She asked, craning her head around to try and look through the door.
"Yeah, he's up there," I said. "He'll be down in just a minute."
"Oh, alright." She paused and looked around for a second, then gathered up her skirts and sat beside me. "I'll just wait here, then."
I just nodded and stared down at my cigarette. For the life of me I couldn't think of anything to say.
Anna wasn't used to silence. "Skittery…"She said slowly, "Skittery, what's your name?"
I glanced over, surprised. "What?" I asked, almost confused.
She smiled again. "Your name… your real name, what is it?"
"Oh," I said, and looked back to my cigarette for help. "Um… Michael." The word felt strange on my tongue, I hadn't said it in so long.
"Michael," she said, like she was testing it out. "I like it. Is it okay if I call you Michael from now on? I can't believe I hadn't asked before."
"Yeah, sure," I said. I didn't take my eyes off my smoke. My heart was beating fast, again. Not even a good drag helped calm it down. Luckily for my sake, Race opened the door just a few moments later and helped Anna off the step. He kissed her lightly on the lips and she blushed. Then he turned and tipped his hat to me.
"See you later," he said. "And inside, too."
Anna looked confused. "Why wouldn't he be inside?" She asked.
"No reason," I said quickly, and Race didn't challenge it. He took her hand and they began to walk away.
"Good night, Michael!" Anna called over her shoulder, and I heard Race laugh. I smiled wryly and, mind made up, tossed my cigarette to the ground and went into the Lodging House for the night.