Chapter Eleven
Author's Note: Hello again! I was busy yesterday and left for Virginia that same day, and returned home today, so, yeah, here I am again. I didn't mention this, I meant to, but this is an awesome piece of information that I learned about my family. My mother's side all, and I mean, everyone, comes from Brooklyn. I am totally relishing this, and it is so awesome I don't know how to describe it. I guess I am going to have to write something on Spot C. sometime, but not right now. Nonetheless, this has me totally pumped every time I think about it. And to TeamJacob1998 for the review on "The Cripple That is Within Us", thank you! Sometimes I have those moments where some wonderful sentence pops up in my brain like that. Not to sound like I am snobby or anything, but that was a pretty good ending for that story. I like it a lot. Okay, well, back to this story. Here is Chapter Eleven!
We hobbled in slowly. When we entered the room, after the judge told us to come, I could see that the offenders side of the room was covered in newsies. I saw Blink and Checkers, and both looked extremely worried.
I reached my chair, and it seemed that I did the same as Crutchy; we both collapsed down into the chairs and I closed my eyes for a moment. I opened them, and then looked around at the defensive side, and saw Mrs. Downing's face. She looked disgusted, probably at the way we looked. So was Tom, but I didn't know why he was surprised because he had done this to the both of us. The judge pounded the gavel.
"Order in the court! May we have the offensive side, the Downing family, stand up and tell us their case and claim."he said. Mrs. Downing stood up.
"I stand before you today with proof that these newsboys have to be punished! Both of the ones up front insulted me and my family, and one of them hit my boy with his crutch. My youngest, that is. And Jerry was limping and had a bad bruise. He even broke something! And then my oldest, Tom, and my other one, Mark, got beat up by a newsboy. That is my complaints, summarized, of course." she said. The judge looked at the rest of the family, the lawyer, and the other people on the offensive side.
"Is there proof?" he asked.
"This is my leg!" yelled Jerry, and lifted it up to show the cast.
"There are bruises on my two sons, they suffered." said Mrs. Downing. "And one came home terrified."
"Alright, then. We have proof. What do the defenders say about this?" the judge asked. "This means that the convicted and friends of the convicted may speak."
I looked up at the judge, and began to speak.
"Firs' off, dey were...were teasin' us, sos...sos we had...had a right ta do whatevah... whatevah we wanted ta dem. Den, ...den dey hurt me an' Crutchy. I got...got nearly drownded, an'...an' he be nearly...nearly half dead. Dey hur' us...us, more den we did ...did ta dem." I said. "Does dis...dis look fair ta youse? Dem...dem hurtin' us an'...an' nearly killin' da both of us, compared...compared ta fights...fights an' one broken..broken bone?"
I had angered the offensive side alright. The defensive side, which, as I had said, consisted of newsies only, (and Kloppman), went in uproars of approval; I saw Kid Blink yelling and Checkers as well. The judge pounded the gavel once more.
"Alright! Does this hold true?" he asked. Blink stood up.
"Yes sir, it does! He be righ', an' wes agree. Dere's nothin' more to it. See, wese care for da both of dese two, an' we don't wan'ts neider of dem gone." said Blink.
"What about this newsboy who fought Mark and Tom?" the judge said. The newsies were silent. All of their eyes, including mine and Crutchy's, turned to Blink, who didn't look scared or even flinched at all. "Who was it?" the judge asked again.
"It be me, sir." Blink said, but he was still staring at the judge with not fear, but contempt and anger. "Is did dis 'cause oderwise, dey would both be dead. An' one of da boys, Tom, made 'is goons hold me down an' watch Crutchy get tortured. Da youse know how hard dat is? Watchin' youse closest friend get beat up an' youse can't do nothin'? It be hard. Is fought dem 'cause dey asked for it."
The judge looked at Blink suspiciously.
"Is this all true?" he asked.
"Well, he fought me because otherwise he would have hurt Isabella. But I wasn't hurt too badly." Mark stood up and said. "Even Jerry did something, and that was the reason I fought. Jerry inflicted pain on one of them. That was why I had to fight."
"What if we bring in someone else?" the judge said. He made a hand motion and in came a tall, brown haired, green eyed man.
Crutchy had been watching others for a while, but at the sight of this man, he cried out then looked away. The room was silent, so silent a feather could have dropped and everyone would have heard it. Crutchy and the man then glared at each other, and the man started shouting.
"Nice bein' a convict yourself, eh?" the man yelled.
"Youse keep your mouth shut!" Crutchy somehow yelled back. He looked really angry, and really scared, almost as if he was in mental pain.
"You nevah were any help ta me. Why did you let him come in and not just call him condemned?" the man said.
"Now, now, Martin, don't yell. Just let me know when you are ready to speak." the judge said. "You can wait if you would like."
"I be done with waitin'. It's been years! I ain't going to wait round now!" Martin said. Crutchy looked at him again.
"Youse know...know why it be years? 'Cause..'cause youse were a horrible fadder!" he yelled. The newsies all gaped, well, everybody did. I did too, and some even gasped. Blink looked confused, and I saw Race standing, gaping, his cigar had fallen out of his mouth.
"Yeah, well, yous were not da kid I needed." said Martin Morris. Crutchy seemed to glare harder at the judge.
"Whys he in...in heah? Sos..sos he can... can torture me? He's done...done dat already!" Crutchy said to the judge.
"Because we needed more proof." the judge replied. "Now, Martin, would your son hurt anyone without a purpose?"
"What you mean? Nah, he was too soft. Always, nevah, bein' mean. He'd only get mad if you did somethin' to him, an' even den it would take a lot to get anythin' outta him. Nah, he be a weakling." said Martin. Crutchy wasn't looking at anybody anymore. He was watching the ceiling.
"This is true, I suppose, from a father? How about a friend?" asked the judge. I looked at him.
"Dis is true." I replied. He nodded gravely.
Martin came forward to the judge. Crutchy stared at the back of his father. I wondered what might be going through his head, except that he was in mental pain and physical pain now. Kid Blink was still staring disbelievingly at Martin. Crutchy suddenly cried out in pain, and only a few people's heads did not look at him. Martin looked at him and I didn't see any sorrow in his facial expression at all. Crutchy looked humiliated and he looked over at me. I didn't know what to say, but I smiled slightly at him. I was in pain too, and was surprised that the same thing hadn't happened to me yet.
Martin was talking to the judge about something. The judge told him to find a seat and he sat down in a chair on Crutchy's side of the space in front of the judge. The judge started talking to the family again.
"So do we still hold charges against them other than those that have already been made?" the judge asked.
"I have an opinion to state." said Mrs. Downing.
"Ma'am, we do not ask for that. Only the offensive problems, not opinions should be stated now." the judge told her.
"Well, they were rude towards us." she said, trying to protect her pride, obviously. The judge nodded agreeably.
"We got that. The problem is, Mrs. Downing, your boys hurt these newsboys more than the other hurt them back. This could be something to consider." the judge said.
The room was filled with whispers from the jury all of a sudden and the judge was also talking. Finally, the panel seemed to come to a decision about something. But what the judge said next did not exactly relieve me.
"Alright. This will continue after the panel has had lunch break." he said. The panel began to leave.
Author's Note: So there is Chapter Eleven. I will try to get up the next chapter soon, but school starts for me on Tuesday, and I will still type during the school year, but I am still frantically typing stories left and right. Please review!