New York Gem

Chapter 3

"But why the news boys?" Amber asked as we walked down the sidewalk together.

"I dunno." I shrugged. "They seem super loyal."

"I guess that's true." Amber granted, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. She then pointed to a scrawny boy on a street corner yelling 'Extra! Extra!'. It didn't look to be any of the ones we'd met last night, but we continued on our route to talk to him. When we approached, I noticed a slingshot in his pocket.

"Mornin', ladies." He greeted us. "Paper?"

"Sure." Amber nodded, buying a paper.

"What's your name?" I asked curiously.

"Patrick." He replied. "Finch. They call me Finch."

"I'm Brooke." I smiled.

"Amber." My sister added.

"Okay." Finch bobbed his head. "It was nice meetin' you. Anything else I can help you with?"

"See, Finch," Amber sidled over to the brown-haired News Boy. "Brooke is trying to make friends. Care to contribute?"

"Absolutely!" Finch exclaimed. 

"We've already met Jack and a few other News Boys." I informed him.

"Newsies." He corrected. "'News Boys' is too formal."

"Newsies." Amber and I agreed in unison. Finch got distracted with a few passing people, but came back after a few moments. 

"Great!" He smiled. "You can come by the Lodging House this evening?"

"Yep." Amber grinned, linking arms with me. We then left with satisfaction.

"That was fast." I commented.

"Yep." Amber nodded. "Where to?"

"I have no idea." I shrugged.

"Let's go look at the old Refuge!" Amber suggested. 

"Why?" I whipped my head around to face my twin. 

"Because we've never been--" She started.

"That's not a bad thing." I interrupted.

"And there's no danger anymore." Amber finished, ignoring my input. 

"Fine." I sighed. "But if I get kidnapped, you're switching places with me."

"I can do that." Amber laughed. We eventually arrived at the abandoned building. I tried to imagine it teeming with banged up kids, but I couldn't picture it anything but ghostly quiet. "Let's go in."

"Absolutely not." I tugged my sister back.

"Why not?" She shrugged, dragging me through the pried open doors. The hallways were musty and dark, surrounded with old prison bars. Inside the cells were worn out bunk beds and garbage. She stopped in the middle, cupping her hands around either side of mouth and yelled: "Hello? Anybody here?"

"Boy, are you gonna be sorry if someone responds." I muttered, glancing around. 

"Oh, look!" Amber shouted, running forward and swinging a door open. "A room!"

I trudged forward, not keen on being left alone. The room looked like an office. It had a connecting room with a decent bed. The main one had a desk and bookshelves. Plastered on one of the walls were cut pieces of newspaper. Amber was examining it carefully.

"'May 23, 1893, eleven year-old Jack Kelly busts out of local juvenile prison by playing the part of a stowaway on Governor Theodore Roosevelt's own carriage whilst Roosevelt was taking photos with multiple orphans (address for adoption processes on page 6). The owner of the prison, Warden Snyder, makes this claim: 

"'His is not a pleasant story. First sentenced to a few months because he was caught stealing from Sheepshead Marketplace. This time around, the kid was found embezzling amounts of food and clothing.'

"This is Jack." Amber breathed, investigating the other papers. There was the paper printed from the Strike, the Children's Crusade, and some from years before.

"Now, this is either the sort of shrine a really proud parent would make, or this guy hated Jack." I mumbled. I swept my eyes over the dark office and noticed a musket propped up in the corner. There was packages of bullets stacked in the same corner. After having a deeper look at the floors, I saw small splotches of dried blood. While I was distracted, someone grabbed my hand. I let out a shriek and whipped around to hit whoever it was with my small bag. 

"Woah!" The attacker yelped, ducking. "You know me!"

I paused for an instant to discover that it was JoJo.

"What are you doing here?" Amber demanded, a moment of alarm shining in her eyes.

"I saw you guys come in and I got curious." JoJo shrugged, looking around with wide eyes. "I ain't never been in here before."

"Us either." Amber and I told him. She followed with: "But look over here, there's a wall of Jack."

"What?" His brows furrowed as he headed to where my sister was standing. He read the articles and looked over the photos pinned to the wall. "Let's just go ahead and..." He took each and every letter off the wall and shoved them into his pocket. "Jack would want to see this."

"Yeah." We nodded and followed him out. The sunlight hit me like a train, absolutely blinding in the early afternoon. JoJo adjusted his cap to block the light from his eyes, but then noticed my squinting. He removed his cap and fixed it onto my own head to block the sun from my dark green eyes. I smiled and gave it back.

"It's alright." I grinned. He nodded and offered it to Amber.

"No thanks." She shook her head. JoJo put it back onto his head.

"This is my stop." He sighed, stopping at a busy street corner.

"Okay." I beamed, waving goodbye. Amber and I headed back to the diner.

"Back so soon?" Dad glanced up from the cooking bit of the front kitchen.

"Did you make any friends?" Momma asked.

"Yep!" I grinned, sitting at a table across from Amber. 

"Who?" Momma peeked from the baking station.

"News boys." Amber rolled her eyes.

"News boys?" Dad echoed. "Why?"

"They seem like they'd be great friends." I shrugged. 

"Solid point." Momma conceded, giving us each a slice of black cherry pie. "Who did you meet?"

"Well, yesterday a few came in." Amber started.

"Jack, Crutchie, Racetrack, Albert, Elmer, and JoJo." I added.

"This morning, we met Finch." She continued. "He invited us to visit them later today."

"Do I trust these news boys?" Dad glanced at Momma. 

"We'll know soon enough." She shrugged. "When did Finch say?"

"Evening." We replied. I go on with: "That's when they finish selling, I guess."

"Maybe we should have Percy go with them." Dad said to Momma.

"How's about we have him walk them there." Momma negotiated. "And if he thinks it's unsafe, he'll stay with them."

"Fine." Dad sighed. Percy is Mr. Jacobi's son. He's about 19, I think. (Percy is my character; Imagine him looking like a young Leonardo DiCaprio)

I glanced up at Amber teasingly. She's had a crush on Percy for quite some time. Amber glared at me.

The time passed rather quickly. Percy came by about half an hour before the sun goes down. 

"You're visiting the news boys?" He raised a brow.

"Yep." I said loudly, marching outside. "Let's go!" 

Momma had prepared a small basket of food for us to bring them. Amber had it in tow, but handed it to me when the were in Newsie Square.