This Ain't Just Newsies No More ~ Sprace & Javid

29 | Counting Days | David

"Les is ten. I'm keeping that stuff away from him for a good long time."

Race shrugs. "You do you, I guess. Anyway, on account of me goin' and sellin' at Sheepshead Races, I got the name Racetrack. And, I went back every day." He huffs. "I miss Sheepshead already."

"You haven't even been here a week."

"That's a broken routine, Davey. Of course I feel weird not going there."

"You were fine not paying for papes for a week."

"That's different."

"How?"

"The strike was something to believe in. I don't quite feel like bein' here is some worthy cause to believe in."

"Well then, of course it's gambling that you miss. What a shame you're being kept here, instead of placing bets, losing hard-earned money from the day."

"Well...yeah."

David sighs. He and Race truly aren't on the same wavelengths. But they only have each other right now. Not Jack, not Spot, nor any other newsie...not even the Delanceys have seen them since day one. So, David needs to work with what he has. And what he has is...a fifteen-year-old gambler who smokes.

Who also knows more about Jack's life before the strike. Part of it anyway.

"When did Jack get the nickname Cowboy?" David asks, getting back to the subject of nicknames. He couldn't care less about gambling. True, it's better than Race talking about how 'it's a rigged deck" and "they have all the marbles" and "it's hopeless," but now is something he knows he and Race can find common ground on.

"It was a little while back," Race says. "He found a thrown away dime novel, lying forgotten on the ground. He was mesmerized by it. I think he still has it."

"He showed it to me." David thinks back to the first day he knew Jack.

"Les, you wanna shine my shoes for me?" Jack sat down. He pulled out a dime novel from his pocket. "You see that? That's Santa Fe. You'd love Santa Fe. Everything is different there."

Race nods. "That makes sense. So, he's been carryin' it around for years now. In the earlier days, he kept showin' it to us, sayin' how much he wished he could go there. He wanted to ride the horses, free in the open air. Everyone called him Cowboy as a joke. Even Weasel and the Delanceys picked up on it. But it meant more to him than that, ya know? He told me that more 'n anything, Santa Fe was where he wanted to be. It was everything, and I mean everything. He chased that dream forever."

"Well...what happened?" David asks. "He's had plenty opportunity to leave. Even Teddy Roosevelt offered him a ride! So why's he still here?"

"Well, somethin' happened," Race responds.

"What?"

Race looks David in the eye as he answers simply, "you."

David feels the heat rising in his cheeks. "Really?"

Race nods. "You were finally the one thing that meant more to him than anything."

David averts his eyes. He feels a grin creep up his face. Of course, he'd known that these would have had to be true, but it just feels different with someone confirming it.

"I bet he's a big mess now that he doesn't have you."

David looks back at Race. "Well what about Spot without you?"