When she turned the corner onto Duane Street she saw the mail man further down the street making his deliveries. She hurried into the lodging house where Kloppy was holding the small pile of letters. Without a word the old man handed them to her to look through.
With high hopes, she quickly tossed them aside one by one, eyes anxiously searching the envelopes for her name. With tears in her eyes, she bent down to pick up the fallen envelopes and gave them back to the lodging house owner.
Kloppman's heart broke at the sight of the tears in the eyes of the girl that he loved as his granddaughter. He was just about to pull her into a hug when someone knocked on the door. "Will you get that for me, sweetheart?" he asked, brushing the hair from her face.
Nodding, she walked to the door and opened it. "Can I help you?" she asked the man on the stoop. As she looked up at him she realized that this was the man that she had seen at the building where Cap worked. In his hands was a large box.
He smiled down at her. "You wouldn't happen to be Miss Rae Kelly would you?" he asked her.
She straightened up to her full height. "Yes I am," she answered, brushing away her tears. "Where's Cap?" she demanded.
"He's still at the fair, little miss," he said kindly. "But he asked that I bring you this package."
She nearly snatched the box out of his hands and barely remembered her manners long enough to mumble a quick 'thank you' before shutting the door in his face. She carried the box over to the front desk. "Look, Kloppy! He sent us a package from the fair!"
Kloppman opened the box for her. Inside was another box and a letter addressed to the older man. He opened the letter and smiled as he read it.
"What does it say?" she demanded.
"It says that you have to wait until the boys get here to open it. And that you have to share everything except what is in the envelope with your name on it. He said that's for your birthday which he is very sorry he missed," Kloppy answered, showing her the letter.
"I have to share?! But it came to me!"
Kloppman shook his head and smiled. "The rest of it is a present for all of you. That's why you have to share."
Rae stomped her foot and put her hands on her hips. "Those boys better hurry up, cause I'm not waiting on them much longer."
The older man laughed. "Go upstairs and put your things away and make your bed...maybe by the time you finish that they will be home."
Grabbing her hat and her messenger bag, she ran up the stairs to her room. She threw open the door and tossed her hat and bag on the floor just inside the room. She tossed the blanket across the bed, not even bothering to straighten the sheet that Kloppman insisted she use. Once finished she stood at the top of the stairs. "Are they here yet, Kloppy?" she yelled.
Shaking his head he walked over to the stairs. "Not yet, Rae. Why don't you go into the bunkroom and get all the dirty clothes off the floor?"
She put her hands on her hips. "The bunkroom smells even worse than the streets, Kloppy."
He laughed. "They are boys, Rae...just bring them down for me please."
Sighing dramatically, she went to do as she was told. "This is really, really gross," she told Kloppman as she carried the clothes down the stairs.
He kissed her forehead and took the clothes from her. "Thank you, honey."
She wrinkled her nose. "Are they here yet?"
At that moment the door opened and the four boys tumbled inside. "Yes, Rae, they are here now..."
Rae ran over to them and grabbed Jack's sleeve. "Come on, Cap sent us some presents but I had to wait for you to open it," she said, dragging him toward the desk. "Hurry up..." She didn't even wait until the others crowded around before tearing open the box. She tossed aside a large brown envelope with her name on it and began to dig through the rest of the box.
The first thing she pulled out was some caramel candies from the Lancaster Caramel Company. They each quickly took one and put them in their mouths, savoring them. It wasn't often that they got such a treat. Next was some chocolate candies from the same company. Race didn't even bother to finish the caramel before stuffing a chocolate in his mouth as well. Kloppman picked up a note that came with the candies. "Cap says that these were sent to all of you by a man from Pennsylvania named Milton Hersey."
The next item pulled from the box was several packages of chewing gum called 'Juicy Fruit'. Rae looked up at Kloppman. "It says Wrigley's Juicy Fruit...isn't Wrigley the guy that makes the soap and baking powder."
He nodded. "That's right. The note says that Mr. Wrigley sent the chewing gum for six very special little newsies..."
"Six?" Race asked and then counted the five newsies in the room. "There's only five here..."
Mush hit the back of his head. "Spot's number six, dummy."
Race rubbed his head. "Oww...and I ain't dumb!"
"Boys..." Kloppman snapped. "Let's see what else is in the box..."
Jack reached into the box. "Hey, look at these funny looking coins..." He showed them several flat coins. "What are those big words, Kloppy?"
The old man took one of the coins from him. "It says 'Columbian Exposition 1893'..."
"What's that mean?" Blink asked. "How did they make those?"
Kloppman looked once more at the note that Cap had included in the box. "There is a machine there that will smash coins flat and put those words on them. The Columbian Exposition is what they are calling the World's Fair...because it's been four hundred years since Columbus discovered America." He looked down at them. "Haven't you been reading those newspapers you sell?" When none of them would look him in the eye he sighed. "You kids take your coins and get out of here..."
After they left the room, Kloppman noticed the envelope with Rae's name on it. He picked it up and carried it behind the desk, dropping it in the box with her name on it. He had a box for each of the newsies where he put things he had found laying around the house.
-----
"Supreme Court declares the tomato to be a vegetable...What kind of headline is that?" Jack asked as the newsies looked through the papers trying to find a good headline.
Blink folded the paper he was looking through. "A week of really good headlines and all we get is this trash..."
Rae leaned against a nearby wall, her hat pulled low over her eyes. "The stock market crashed last week, Blink...it's old news now. No one wants to hear that the banks don't have any more money or that the factories will be closing and all that stuff. They're tired of it."
"But how are we supposed to sell this stuff?" asked the newest of the group, a boy with the unusual nickname Pie Eater. No one was quite sure how he ended up with that name.
"You have to make the headlines more interesting," Jack said, still looking through his paper.
"How do you do that?" asked another of the more than half a dozen newsies that had come in the months since Cap left.
It was Rae who answered. "You lie..."
"Cap wouldn't like that," Race told her.
She rolled her eyes. "The vendors on the street do it everyday, boys...they just...improve the truth a little."
Jack jumped to his feet. "I got it! This article on the last page says something about a funeral wagon overturning..."
"What's so good about that?" questioned Bumlets.
"Instead of saying that a funeral wagon lost its wheel and turned over...you say something like..." Jack shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Corpse found in carriage..."
Race nodded. "So it's not really a lie..."
"That's right. We sell the papes...not the headlines..."
-----
Jack walked through the market, his papers at his side. The day's selling had been so bad that he had given up on trying. It had been nearly a month since the crash of the stock market and things still weren't looking up. Sure every couple days they found a headline that they could improve a little, but for the most part the papers weren't selling. His meager savings were long gone. Kloppman was allowing them to stay for free at the lodging house, but the old man couldn't afford to feed them so they were forced to find food on their own. However they couldn't buy food if they couldn't sell their papers...and no one could afford to buy papers.
He stopped and stared longingly at the loaves of bread on a baker's cart. After a few minutes he noticed a small loaf of bread fall from the cart and roll underneath it. Jack crept closer to the cart, hoping that the baker wouldn't notice the missing loaf.
Casting glances at the baker, he slowly bent down to grab the loaf. Not quite able to reach it, he dropped his papers and stretched a little more, his fingers finally closing around the loaf. Just as he started to stand up a large hand clamped on his wrist.
-----
Rae was in the kitchen, nearly shoulder deep in water from the laundry tub. "Kloppy..." she whined. "Why do I have to help with the laundry? The boys are the ones who got it all dirty..."
Kloppman looked down at her. "I need your help, sweetie. I've never asked you to pay for your bed like the boys do, so do you think you can help me out just a little?"
She wrinkled her nose. "I guess..." she sighed.
He patted her back. "Cap would be proud of you for helping."
"He don't care," she snapped.
Kloppman sighed softly. "He loves you very much, sweetie."
Rae shook her head. "If he loved me he wouldn't have left me...he would've adopted me."
Before the old man could respond the door opened and Blink and Mush ran in. Blink bent over and put his hands on his knees, struggling to catch his breath.
"The bulls got Jack!" Mush exclaimed.
"Do you know where they took him?" the old man questioned.
It was Blink who answered. "The Refuge..."
Rae's eyes widened. "Snyder got him?"
Both boys nodded.
Kloppman sighed again. "I don't think I can get him out of the Refuge..."
"What are we gonna do, Kloppy?" Mush asked.
Blink nodded. "Yeah...he's our leader..."
"No he's not!" Rae snapped. "Cap's our leader!"
"But Cap's gone, Rae," Blink replied.
"He's coming back! And Jack's not the leader cause Cap never said he was!"
Mush bit his lip. "But Jack's the oldest..."
"That doesn't mean he's the leader!" Rae yelled, before storming from the room and slamming the door.
The two boys looked up at Kloppman. "Why is she acting like that, Kloppy?" Blink asked.
The old man sighed, staring at the door. "I'll let you boys in on a little secret...No one knows why girls act the way they do."
-----
Rae waited backstage at Irving Hall while Medda was on stage singing. When the singer walked off the stage, she knelt in front of Rae, brushing a strand of hair from the girl's face. "You've been crying." Rae could only nod. "Come upstairs with me, sweetie."
Rae followed Medda upstairs to her flat, which unlike the rest of the theatre was very plain and simple. She went to the small kitchen to put some water on for tea while Medda changed out of her costume and took off her stage makeup. Rae had the tea ready by the time Medda returned. "Medda?" Rae asked the older woman.
"Yes, angel?" she answered, settling herself into the large overstuffed chair and propping her feet up.
Rae brought the singer a cup of tea. "You're Cap's momma, right?"
Medda sighed softly. "Yes, I am."
"How come you gave him to Kloppy?" Rae asked, sitting on a low stool beside her.
Medda was silent for several minutes before answering. "When he was just a little boy I worked for a man who didn't like children. He wanted me to travel with him all over the country singing, but he wouldn't let me take my son. So instead of telling the man no...I left my son out on the streets to fend for himself."
"Did you love Cap?" Rae asked her, hugging her knees.
Medda nodded. "Yes, sweetie, I loved my son very much. I still do."
"He told me that he loves me...but I don't think he does..." Rae said, not looking at the older woman.
"What makes you think that?" she asked the girl.
Rae took a deep breath. "Cause he didn't adopt me...he said that there were too many papers to fill out and it would take too much time...and he left me."
"Oh sweetie," Medda said, brushing a loose strand of hair from Rae's face. "I know that he wants to adopt you...and he had to leave for work, but he'll come back for you."
Rae pushed her hand away. "He ain't coming back!"
Medda sighed. "Sometimes people leave for different reasons. I thought I was doing the right thing when I left my son, but I've regretted it every day. Cap didn't want to leave you, baby, but his job sent him away for a short time. He did every thing he could to take you with him."
Rae was quiet for a moment before looking up at the older woman. "Why did my real parents leave me?"
"No one knows, angel. Maybe they couldn't take care of you anymore, or they got sick...there could be a bunch of different reasons." Sighing softly, Rae leaned her head against Medda's knee. The older woman loosened Rae's braid and gently ran her fingers through the girl's hair. "I'm glad they did, baby girl. You've been good for Cap and Kloppman...and even me."