Chapter 44: A Fine, Fine Life
Mark my words, one thing I'll never be is a traitor....
Oh, how low she had sunk. Nancy's breath was ragged as she tore through the streets, listening to the sound of her own heart beating. Silently she prayed that Bill would not miss the boy from The Cripples, if he did then surely the heart beats that came so readily now would not last much longer.
The boy. On who's wrist she now had a firm grasp. How could it be that she had chosen to throw away everything for him. Then again, Nancy knew why, because she couldn't bare to see him turn out as she had. In that boy she saw herself, young, an innocent, naïve of the evil the world held. Like her, he had not seen danger but excitement and at the very least a way off the streets when confronted by Fagin. But she had watched it happen to him as it had happened to her. Through the housebreaking and the thieving and all other manner of evil she had watched him begin to break. Begin to break at the hand of no other then the same man that had broken her.
I'm so sorry Bill, Nancy thought as she rushed on, caring not to hide the tear that had rolled down her dirt covered face. But Oliver, he was different, he had something that Nancy did not. He had an out. A rich relative, a chance at true love and happiness as she had always wanted it. She would be damned if she would sit by and watch his innocence shatter the way hers had. She would rather hang then see the life drain from his eyes as it had hers. And so she was here, running through the streets breathless to save this child.
Nancy rushed up to the bridge and crouched to his level on the steps, pointing up to London Bridge. She looked over at the boy, who was wide eyed and breathing heavily. Forgive me Bill for what I do here tonight.
"There 'e is, see 'im?" Nancy demanded as she prodded Oliver towards the steps. The boy nodded and she smiled "now go on, quick!" The boy turned to go before rushing back to her and wrapping her in a tearful embrace. Nancy had to bite her lip hard not to cry as well. She was to Oliver everything she should've been wishing for long ago. An escape from Fagin's and from Bill, a salvation...a friend. It was too late for her now but it was not too late for him."Go on," she prodded him. As he turned to go Nancy's heart leaped into her throat and her breath seemed to stop altogether. Sikes had hold of her and was pulling her quickly back.
Her whole life she had done as she was told. Her whole life long she had been submissive. All her life, Nancy had dealt with the blows from Sikes and sent nothing but kind words in return. But now, overcome by her new line of thought, Nancy did the only thing that seemed right.
She fought back. She clawed and screamed and lashed her body around as he pulled her further and further back. She had to calm him down, if only long enough to make him understand, to make him see things her way.
But Nancy never got the chance. In the next instant several things happened at once. The first being that she was thrown to the ground by the man she had always and would always love. The second was that she looked up at him and for the first time was able to see him from both sides: man and monster.
The third thing that happened was the blows he dealt her. Each one more heavy then the next, fueled by rage and meant to kill. Nancy didn't see much of what was going on after the first, her mind was long gone to another time and place.
He struck her once...
"He needs me boy," she said giving the dog's ears a scratch. "And I love him," she continued quietly. "That's all that really matters."
He struck her twice...
As the moon shown down on a sleeping London, two figures roamed an otherwise deserted alley. It was a housebreaker and a prostitute, raised in turmoil and amongst villains, laughing together as if they hadn't a care in the world, and relishing being in each others company.
The third time Bill struck her Nancy was not aware of anything, even the pain was lost to her thoughts...
"It's hell," she choked. There were no other words for it, what Nancy did was her own living hell. "Bet," she said suddenly, her voice earnest. "If you 'ave another option, any other choice at all, don't follow me downstairs. Don't do this unless you're going to starve to death without it." Her voice was grave before she continued with macabre laughter "No I take it back, go starve. It'd be better then what you're about to do."
A fourth time the crowbar reigned down on her, Nancy's vision was beginning to turn red at the corners from all the blood...
"I claim you to be henceforth known, as the Artful Dodger. You may rise good sir," she said with a mock bow. All the boys cheered as Dodger rose to his feet with a grin stretching ear to ear.
For a fifth time the thing swung down, she couldn't breathe now...
And, as nothing more and nothing less then a boy that had become one of the most well loved and respected members of the gang, Ace was sentenced to hang at sunrise.
She wanted to beg for mercy, but she was too far gone now, yet Bill still seemed to be swinging that crowbar with all his might...
"Shut it the both of you," growled Bill. He paused before looking over his shoulder at Nancy and then again at Fagin. "Beginner's luck, she walloped the lot of us at cards. Lost a whole week's earnings I did," he growled.
How many times had that crowbar come down now? Nancy couldn't think of much at all. She couldn't feel much pain anymore really, it was more like a haze as the world around her slipped away. The blows he dealt her were more like small thuds now...
It was a girl who couldn't be more then six. She had her knees tucked up to her chin so Fagin could see her dull black stockings, hole ridden and well worn. Her tangled auburn locks framed her dirty face as she slid her wrist rather ungracefully below her running nose. She blinked her stunning crystal blue eyes at him twice in her waiting for a reply. The young girl's dress was wine red and twice as tattered and dirty as the rest of her.
"No my dear, no. Just singing an old song, one of my favorites as it so happens," said the merry old gentlemen. The girl's head shot up from the place where it was resting on her scuffed up knees.
"I like songs," she said smiling. "Would you teach it to me?"
Bill was gone now, life was gone now, the world and the sights of London were gone now.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They say when you die that your life flashes before your eyes. As for Nancy's, many would've looked upon her life in distaste, several more with mere pity. Had the young girl been alive herself at that moment she would've declared it, regardless of everything that had happened... a fine, fine life.