(You'll understand why I have this dress up here soon. No it is not for Esther.)
I decided to go to Lodging House tonight.
Why am I so scared to do this?
I show up at the door and I hear people behind it.
"Beat that!" Someone yells. The scratches of chairs on the floor and footsteps came after.
"How?!"
"I think he cheated!"
"Race, I swear to God! If you touch my sandwich...."
"Has anyone seen my glasses?"
"Quiet! I'm trying to sleep!"
I finally knock on the door. More people speak. This boy doesn't have a strong accent like the others.
"Les, would you mind checking the door? I thought I heard someone knocking."
"Why?"
"Because it would be rude to leave someone standing out there. And we have to leave soon anyway."
A huff was heard and little footsteps get louder and louder as the boy comes closer. I straighten out my shirt.
A little boy about the age of ten opened the door. He stared at me, wide eyed.
"Would you excuse me for a moment?" Before I could answer, he shuts the door. I hear more voices.
"Its Oscar Delancey. What do I do?"
"Soak him."
"Albert, no. What did we say about beating up other kids?"
"Don't do it."
"Right."
The little boy pipes up. "So do I let him in or not?"
"Yes! He probably wants to see Esther."
"She's sleeping though."
"True. But we already woke up Smalls. She's bound to wake up soon."
"FOR THE LAST TIME, DO I LET HIM IN OR NOT?"
"Yes. Send him in."
I hear more footsteps. The boy, Les, opens the door.
"You can come in." He said. I thank him and step inside. Some of the boys are sitting at a table with cards layed out on it. Others are walking around, getting ready to sleep. Some are already sleeping.
"Hi. Do you know where Esther is?"
Race answers. "Sleeping. I'm sure she'd just love to see you." And with that he walks away.
The boy with no accent speaks. "He's just jealous."
I nod and then walk over to the bunks. Esther is on a top one. She's snoring lightly. Her curls lay askew on her pillow. She seems so peaceful that I almost didn't want to wake her.
But I have to explain about Jack at the ralley.
"Esther. Wake up." I whisper. She moves a little.
"C'mon you can do it. Wake up." I whisper.
"Go to hell." She says, still half asleep.
"Kelly." I say.
She opens her eyes. "Oh. Hey Oscar." Esther stretches for a second then starts climbing down the ladder.
"Hi. Your back seems to be getting better." It's true. The wounds that Snyder reopened had mostly healed and the new ones still had a ways to go yet. But it was still progress.
"Yeah. It doesn't hurt as much as before either." She says, now standing by my side.
"That's good. How was the ralley?" I ask.
She frowns a little. "Funny you should mention that."
"Why?" Did Jack not tell her about the money?
"Well, we both know Jack is fluent in bullshit. He said he talked to Pulitzer himself. I know that that was a lie."
"Esther-"
"He also told me that Pulitzer wasn't going to raise the prices again for two years."
"Esther-" I try again.
"And get this, he said Pulitzer would put it in writing! Can you believe it? I was telling myself, he has to be kidding. Maybe he just can't handle being leader. Maybe-"
"Esther!"
"What?"
"He wasn't lying. I was there when he said it."
All the newsies are staring at me.
"You wanna talk alone?"
"Where would we go?"
She pauses. She suddenly smiled and snapped her fingers. "Jack's penthouse."
"Wait your brother has a penthouse?" She runs toward the door.
"Yeah, on the roof!" She calls back to me.
"You have to be joking!"
She is climbing the fire escape ladder and I hesitate before following.
"I love the view." I say.
"Me too. Now what about Jack?"
I explain everything from when the mayor walked in to when Jack walked out.
"So Jack took the deal to get me out of the Refuge when I was already out of the Refuge?"
"I was the only one who knew of your escape. But Snyder and the mayor were there so I couldn't have said anything."
"I get that."
We pause for a moment. I just stare at her. Her gray eyes glimmered brighter than the stars above us. When she smiled, you couldn't help but smile back. She has the most amazing laugh. For someone who seems so positive, no one would be able to tell she had had gone through so much pain.
"Esther?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember when we kissed?"
"How could I forget?"
"Remember when I asked you to tell me your story?"
"Mhm."
"Can I tell you mine?"
"Yeah. Go for it."
"It's not a happy one either."
《~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~》
When I was 10 and Morris was 8, our father got smallpox and died soon after the diagnosis. We were beyond ourselves with grief. Gregory Delancey was a loving man. He would always come home and I remember running and launching myself into his arms. When he died, my mother turned to drinking. And when she was angry, she turned to us. She hated us after losing Dad. She would take every chance she got to hurt us. At least it wasn't her mother who put the scars on her back. A more recent flashback plays in almost every one of my nightmares. I was 13 and Morris was eleven.
FLASHBACK
"Oscar!" Morris comes barrelling into the room. He launches himself into my arms like I did to Dad. I tumble off the bed with a huge thud.
We land in a human knot on the ground.
"Shhhhhh! Mom will hear you!" I say. Morris stopped laughing.
Sure enough, about two minutes later, our mother bursts through the door.
Her blonde hair is pulled into a tight bun. Her dress is the one shown above. Her brown eyes are narrowed and her arms are crossed.
"Haven't I told you to keep quiet when I'm trying to sleep?" I can tell she hadn't been sleeping. If she'd have been sleeping, it would have taken her a few more minutes to get in here.
She takes a flask out of the pocket of her dress and takes a long swig.
Morris crawls into my lap when she steps a little closer.
"I did it." He says.
"Did what?" She says.
"I made the noise. I didn't mean to wake you up. I-" He says.
"Get up." Morris hesitates before standing. He walks over slowly and she forcefully grabs his wrist. He looks back at me for help as she leads him out of the room.
This is stupid, I would think to myself. Kids shouldn't have to live in fear of their parents. Finally, I had enough.
"No." I say. She stops and turns around. She seems more angry than ever.
"What did you say to me?"
"He isn't going with you this time." She storms back into the room and looms over me. I scoot away as far as I can from her but my back hits a wall.
I'm trapped.
"How dare you defy me! I've given you food, a bed to sleep on at night and this is how you repay me? With disrespect?" She backhands me across the face, harder than she ever has before.
I couldn't help it. My eyes spill a few tears. I listened carefully to her words she said a second ago.
She never said anything about loving us.
"Fine. He doesn't have to go this time." She roughly shoves Morris on the ground next to me. He clings to me, burying his face into my shoulder.
"But you will." She pulls me up by the arm.
"NO! OSCAR!!" Morris scrambles to come to my aid but she swatted him away like a fly.
I'm struggling as hard as I can. I've never struggled against her grip before so she wasn't ready for it at all. I managed to break free from her grip and tried to run away. I only got a couple strides in before she kicked me in the ankle, making me hit the ground. She grabbed my leg and dragged me into her bedroom. Even in there, I could still hear Morris yelling my name.
"Get down." I don't.
"No." I am shaking now. I've never gone against her before.
"Get DOWN!" She shoves me down and grabbed one of my father's belts She brought it down on my back. Again and again, over and over.
"Please stop! Mama, stop!" My pleas only get me harder lashes.
Suddenly, the door opens.
My uncle Wiesel is standing in the doorway with Morris.
"Harriet, what are you-" His eyes fall on my bloody back.
"It's not what it looks like-"
"That's exactly what it looks like! I was just coming here on a friendly visit to find out you've been abusing your son! I have no choice but to take them into my custody."
My mother just looks at me, disgusted.
"Fine." She pulls me upwards and thrusts me at my uncle. I stumble, but he catches me before I hit the ground.
Once we walked out of that apartment, I never saw my mother again.
END OF FLASHBACK
"Good God." Esther looks so sad, I want to reach over and comfort her.
"I got scars too, Kelly." I say.
Esther wraps me in a huge hug and I hug her back. I pull her closer and closer until our lips touch again.
I don't want to let go. We both may be broken but we are the missing pieces to the puzzles of our lives. I lay down backwards. She stops kissing me for a second.
"I gotta breathe." She said. I laughed.
"Take all the time you ne-" I'm cut off by another kiss.
I lock my hands around her waist and her hands are on my shoulders.
But the moment is cut short.
"Oscaf Delancey, get your hands off my sister!"
Dunn Dunn Dunn!
Well. I didn't know what to do to give Esther and Oscar more common ground. Then I was like omg i became smart.
So I got pictures again. This time the pictures are of the Delancey parents.
This one is Gregory. Adam Kaplan had brown hair so I thought this was good.
This is Harriet. I needed her to look pretty but also she needed to look a little older because most of the images I found were like teenagers. She looks like shes about in her late twenties but I am fine with that.
Hope you like the story so far!