I was starting to feel at home with the Manhattan Newsies. They were kind to me and took care of me while I recovered from my injuries. My head still pounded. I was tempted to keep taking the morphine powder she had given me. But I saved it just in case the pain got worse. The powder made me sick to my stomach so most of the time it wasn't worth it. A week after I arrived I asked the one boy who I was starting to feel close to, to help me take off the bandages.

We returned to the Lodging house a little earlier than the rest of the boys. Mush followed me in by the sinks. I held the eye patch that Sadie had given to me. I was almost afraid to see what I looked like underneath. My eye was supposedly gone, but I didn't think I could believe it till I saw it for myself. I sat down on a stool and Mush began unwrapping the bandage from my head. There was some blood on it and some yellow stains as well. I hoped this didn't mean there was an infection, but I felt fine. My ear was uncovered all the way first. It was still buzzing a lot and hurt when there were loud noises. But I hadn't told anyone. Anyone who saw me for the rest of my life would know about my eye, but the ear was my secret.

When the bandage was almost removed from my eye I reached up and held the towel to it. I glanced up at Mush with a questioning look. He nodded and left the room. After I was sure I was alone, I slowly pulled the towel away from my Face. What I saw was shocking. I had expected to see a gaping hole where my eye had been, but instead it seemed that my eye had started healing closed. I didn't want to touch it, but when I tried to move my eye lid it just stayed shut. I guessed it was a good sign.

I wet a clean section of bandage and cleaned up my face, it was still pretty bruised. There was dried blood in several spots on my head to clean. As soon as I was done I tied my patch on for the first time. It felt odd and took a while to position without slipping down, but eventually I got it to stay.

There were many names and faces to learn in my new home. Every time I thought I'd met everyone there would be more that showed up the next week.

Despite the multitude of people I still felt alone. My mind constantly drifted back to Kyndall. I wished I could go back for him. Some nights I would lay awake day dreaming that he was there holding me. Mush was quickly becoming my best friend. He was a very affectionate person, but there wasn't the same spark of life when we talked.

I made a enough money to get by. I paid for my lodging and food and was pretty comfortable. There were a lot of politics among the Newsboy community. You made sure you stayed in your selling spot, and you didn't go across border lines into other territories, even for fun unless you knew that they were our allies. I was always warned to stay far away from Queens, Bronx, and most importantly Brooklyn. We weren't currently having any disputes with them, but they still didn't need much to start a fight.

I got into a few fist fights here and there. The play fighting the boys did helped me learn how to stand my own. I'm not a big kid by any means, but I haven't spent my childhood malnourished like a lot of the others. When I was 12 there were talks about skirmishes with some of the Brooklyn crew. There was a power vacuum left in Manhattan after our leader Bear decided it was time for him to go on to man's work.

Two months after he left another kid stepped up, his name was Jack Kelly. He had live here before I had arrived, but had spent a long period in the Refuge. He was very charismatic. No matter what kind of mood you were in, there was no one who could make you smile like Cowboy.

When boys began to coming home at night with black eyes and bleeding, Jack was the one who stepped up and decided to do something about it. He organized the younger boys into selling teams. They were to stay within 2 blocks of each other. So that if someone got jumped they could easily run to the next boy, or holler for help and be heard.

Most of the beatings stopped when soon after they realized we weren't going to sit by and do nothing. Finally we had a messenger from Brooklyn show up on the doorstep one Sunday evening. He was a big goon of a kid, couldn't be selling papers as a newsboy much with his age and size. But he served his purpose, most of us wouldn't dream of attacking someone his size. So he had no problem delivering his message before anyone got jumpy. Cowboy agreed to meet with them at Tibby's in 3 days. It was one of the only neutral places that wouldn't call the bulls when a group of us gathered.

Both sides had agreed to bring 4 boys along with their leader. Jack came in to the room and started pacing the length of the dorm looking at us each in turn. "I'm bringing 4 of ya with me to deal with the Brooklyn problem. Mush, Racetrack, Snoddy." When he got to my bunk he looked at me and pointed. "Kid Blink."

I nodded in response. We were the oldest and largest of the group, but after seeing the size of the Brooklyn boy I wasn't so sure it would matter. But Jack seemed to trust us. We did our best to sell our papes quickly on Wednesday and skipped the afternoon edition. We sat back in the lobby of the lodging house talking about what our limits were on the borders.

Before we could even agree among ourselves it was time to hurry over to Tibby's. We wanted to be there before them so we could decide the best place to sit. Jack wanted to appear as intimidating as a group of 12-14 year olds could be.

We picked the table in the back corner of the place. We all instinctively sat down next to each other, but Jack began walking around the table. Suddenly he stopped and said, "All you get up. Spread out around the table. Don't give them the security of being togetha." We all got up and moved around the table.

The waiter brought us all some water and Jack had a cup of coffee. Most of us were too nervous to eat so we decided to wait until Brooklyn arrived. I had never seen him before, but it was obvious when Train had arrived. He looked tough as nails as he strolled in like he owned the place. Another boy who was the size of the messenger followed him. Behind them was a tall blond with wearing a worn out top hat and a cold look on his face. On his heels was a black haired boy who glanced around rapidly, you would have thought that he thought someone was about to take a swing at him. Last of all was shorter skinny kid. His expression was the calmest of the five.

I found myself setting down my glass and standing up. Could it really be him? He had to be at least 2 inches taller than when I saw him last. I saw him look at each of us, his eyes passed right over me. And then he stopped and his eyes darted right back to me as he halted dead in his tracks.

The boy in the top hat called over to him, "Spot!" Kyndall looked up at the boy and resumed walking to the table. The only chair left was one kiddy corner from me. I did my best to pay attention as Cowboy and Train talked. The boy named Topper piped up a lot, as did Race and Mush. The black haired boy didn't talk at all that I noticed. But I noticed him glancing at me and Kyndall several times.

Kyndall spent most of his time staring intently at his water. I stared at him for a long time hoping he'd look at me eventually. But he would only look at me and then look out the window. After 20 uncomfortable minutes of talking. Manhattan agreed to give Brooklyn an area near the factories where many Brooklyn natives worked. I looked up to see Train and Jack spit shake on it.

By then the time things were settled and we agreed to eat, the waiter had already given up to us. Most of the boys got up and went up to the counter to order some food. I watched them leave and Kyndall leaned in towards me. "How are you doing Doug?" He still had the same fierce look on his face, but his eyes told me that he was actually happy to see me.

I couldn't help but smile hearing his voice. It was much lower than the last time I had seen him, it suited his new tough guy act. "I'm getting by well enough. I'm glad to see you got out. And you seem to be doing pretty well."

He nodded and started breathing faster. A look of pain crossed his face quickly and then he looked back up at me. "Last time I saw ya you were being taken away on a stretcher. Wasn't sure you were going to make it."

"I was in the hospital for a while, but someone helped me run away. I've been living with the Manhattan boys ever since."

He wouldn't meet my gaze again and stared out the window. "When I realized you weren't comin back, I started makin plans to escape. I looked for ya for a few months. I had given up hope of findin ya."

I smiled inwardly at that, he cared enough to search for me. But I could tell he was unhappy so I tried to lighten the mood and said, "Guess I was in the last place ya looked." I flashed him another smile as the other boys returned to the table. "I'm gonna go get something to eat, you gonna get anythin?" He looked up at me and shook his head no.

I waited for my food and brought it back to the table. I grabbed a chair from another table and told Racetrack to move over. I set the plate down in front of Kyndall and pulled my chair up next to him. When he looked at me I did my best impression of an Irish accent and said. "Care for some fish and chips? You do like potatoes don't you?" He shot me a hurt look, but then realized that I was teasing him. He ate a few bites from my plate. But went back to drinking his water.

I elbowed him in the ribs and said, "It don't taste that bad, ya know ya want more. Help yaself."

Not too long after, all the boys had finished eating and started saying goodbye. Kyndall stood up next to me and I followed suit. I reached out my hand to shake his and smiled. "It was nice to meet ya Spot."

He glanced at my hand and then clasped and replied. "Nice to meet you too, never did catch ya name."

"Ya can call me Kid Blink." He gave me a small smile and followed the rest of the Brooklyn boys out.