"That's really pretty." Lynn said, wiping her dusty hand off on her jeans before touching the delicate fabric. "I wonder who all this stuff belonged to." She said, gesturing towards the dusty boxes and trunks, and piles of paintings that were scattered around the small, dimly lit attic.
They were looking around the attic of the house one of Angela's distant relatives had moved out of, and they wanted the stuff in the whole house sold or gotten rid of so they could sell the house. Angela and Lynn were in charge of going through all the stuff in the attic, mostly because everyone else was busy with the stuff on the other floors, and no one wanted to deal with the attic. They were enjoying it though, because there was so much cool old stuff up there to look at.
"This whole trunk is just full of these old clothes. Look at this." She held up a cream-toned shirt, darker around the edges where it was folded. It had an embroidered collar with tiny flowers on it, and the same design around the edges of the sleeves. Lynn went and knelt by the trunk with Angela.
"There is so much stuff in here." Lynn said, pulling out a long brown skirt and holding it up to her waist. "This would probably fit me." They started to go through all the things in the trunk. At the bottom were about three pairs of shoes in different sizes, a few rather lavishly decorated bonnets, and a little bit of very old jewelry.
"This stuff is really cool." Angela said, holding a beige colored blouse and a navy skirt up to her. "We should try it on. It could be so fun!" She unbuttoned the beige shirt and put it on over her white t-shirt. She put the navy skirt on over her jeans. It was really long, almost to her ankles.
"The skirt's a little long, I think." Lynn said, laughing.
Angela made a face, "Back then you had to wear long skirts. It was, like, a law. Here, put this on." She handed Lynn a white shirt and a brown skirt. After rubbing as much dust off her hands as possible, she put the clothes on. It was rather warm up in the attic, and the long sleeved shirts and long skirts were not exactly comfortable.
"It's hot up here." Lynn said, "we're wearing these long skirts over our jeans and stuff." Angela was holding her skirt up and looking through the trunk again. "Hey Angie, take your hair out of the ponytail." Lynn said as she pulled her hair-scrunchie out of her braid and stuffed it in her jeans pocket. She grabbed a brush and ran it through her hair, and then gave it to Angela.
Angela looked confused, "why?" She asked Lynn.
"Because you look more old fashioned that way. It's kind of funny." Angela grabbed the brush and took her ponytail out. "Look here!" Lynn said, showing Angela a mirror in a corner of the attic. "We really look so funny, with our jeans, and this old fashioned clothes, and our tennis shoes."
Angela made a face. Lynn smiled, "I don't look as funny as you." She said, taunting Angela. She always did stuff like that. Angela hit Lynn, Lynn hit Angela back.
"Hey cool, look at this!" Angela said, bending over to pick up a book off the floor. "It's like a diary or something. Awesome."
She and Lynn bent over the book, "cool." Lynn said, leaving a streak of dust- free surface on the cover after she touched it. Angela opened the book, and all of a sudden, the room went dark.
"The light must've burned out or something." Lynn said, trying to find the light switch. Her hand hit stone. "Hey Angela, were there rocks up here before?" She got no answer. "Angela?" She asked again.
"Lynn.. what's going on here?" Angela said, Lynn turned around to look for her and saw that they were standing in a dark alleyway.
"Where are we?" Lynn whispered, looking at Angela.
"How should I know?" Angela replied.
"Well it's your relative's house," Lynn said.
"We were there. But I don't know what's going on now." Angela said, "but come on. Let's not just stand here. We should buy a paper or something and see where we are."
Lynn said, "that's a good idea." So they started off in search of a store or a newspaper machine or something.
They stepped out of the alley into bright sunlight. They looked around for a store or somewhere to buy a paper. Walking down the street were a bunch of guys carrying newspapers.
Angela and Lynn exchanged a glance, "They're probably newsboys," Lynn said. They walked over to the guys, who all took off their hats when we stopped in front of them, confirming their theory that it wasn't 1999 anymore...
"Hey, can we buy a paper from you?" Angela asked. Lynn just sort of hung back and stared at them. They looked a little bit surprised, probably because back then women, girls specifically, didn't buy or read papers at all.
The tallest newsboy, with wavy, sandy-blond hair, smiled at her and said, "Sure," with a really sweet New York accent. Lynn stepped forward to stand next to Angela.
"This is Lynn, and I'm Angela." She said, "and who are you?" She asked them, smiling again. Lynn just stood there smiling at them.
"I'm Jack Kelly, uddawise known as Cowboy. Haven't seen youse 'round hea' before, ya new?" Angela started trying to think of a reason they were in New York... Lynn was trying to think of something too.
"Umm.. it's a long story, I guess," Lynn said.
Angela pulled out a penny and gave it to Jack. "Here, can I have a paper now?" He took the penny, pocketed it, and handed her a paper.
"Hope ya, um.. like it." He said, a little bit uncomfortably. Probably because he didn't know whether they were actually going to read it, or what, and he figured they couldn't read it. But they surprised him again when they sat down on the stairs of a nearby building and began to read the paper. Looking up, Angela saw the newsies leaving.
"You have to love their accents," she said, looking up from the paper.
"Uh huh.." Lynn said, absentmindedly as she read the paper.
"Read this, Angela, it's so funny how people thought about women back then." Angela looked at the paper.
"Yeah. I'm glad we have these clothes." She said, smoothing her skirt over her knees. "We look more like we fit in or something." She pointed to the pictures in the paper. "See, the skirts are supposed to be really long. Even these are probably really short for this time period. We've got to look pretty funny with these jeans on... Hey Lynn, you hungry?" Lynn nodded.
"Where should we eat?" Lynn asked, standing up and looking around. "We have no idea what 1899 New York was like. We don't even know what New York in 1999 was -is- like." Lynn said.
Angela looked up, "we can probably find someone who can help us. Maybe another newsboy or something. Oh.. wasn't he fine?" Lynn nodded vigorously. Angela laughed. "Well he's mine, girl."
"Is not."
"Is so."
"No way."
"Yeah sure, whatever Lynn." Not knowing how to respond the that, Lynn slapped Angela on the shoulder, and Angela just slapped her back. This went on for a while until Angela pointed out how stupid they were being, and they started to walk across the square.
"So, how do we find someplace to eat?" Lynn asked, gesturing to the streets going off in a few different directions.
Lynn looked around, "we don't even know where we are, really."
Angela frowned and looked around. "There's a kid, let's go ask him." She and Lynn walked across the street to where the boy was standing. He was selling his newspapers on the corner of the street, and when they walked over to him he turned to them to see what they needed. He was tall with blondish hair and had an eye patch over one eye. That was a little strange.
"Hi, do you know where we can get something to eat?" Angela asked him.
"Sure, dere's dis great place called Tibby's down da street 'ere, I'll walk youse down dere." He motioned for us to follow, and started down the street.
"He's really nice." Angela observed to Lynn.
Lynn nodded, "everyone's nicer in these days." She frowned, thinking about the little problem she and Angela had about "these days" being about a hundred years before "these days" had been only a few hours earlier.
"Here we are." The boy said, "an' by da way da name's Kid Blink. I'll prob'ly see ya 'round." He said.
Angela turned, "what's good to eat here?" He thought for a minute, and then said,
"Dey's got great hot dogs, an' roast beef." Lynn and Angela thanked him, and he walked away. They sat down in a booth and a waiter took their order. After he left they started talking.
"We're really, really screwed, Lynn." Angela said quietly. "We have no place to stay, we have no money from this time, our parents will start to worry about us in a while..."
Lynn nodded, "I don't suppose you still have that book... what was it about it that sent us back here? And really.. where are we going to stay?" A few newsboys walked into the restaurant for lunch, and they slowly came in more and more until the place was almost full.
"We can't sleep in the street, that's for sure." Lynn said, her eyes darting around the room looking for someone to ask. "You should really ask one of these newsboys where we can stay... but what we really need to do is get back." Lynn said, seriously. "I mean, we don't know how we got here.. and we certainly can't stay here. We have no way to really live here."
Angela nodded, "yeah, and even though it's great here and all, we do want to get back home. Our parents are going to be really freaked out. Ohh.. we are so screwed." Angela lamented.
"So ask one of these boys where we can stay," Lynn said.
"Why do you always make me ask everything?" Angela countered.
"I don't know. You're good at it." Lynn said back.
They got their food and ate quickly, and when the waiter told them how much it cost Angela looked, more than a little surprised. "Twenty-five cents?" She looked at Lynn in a funny way.
"That's just.. weird." Lynn said, "but hey, it is a hundred years ago. Just pay it." Angela gave the waiter a few coins and turned back to the table.
"We need to get that diary back. I left it in the alley."
Lynn nodded, "and we need a place to sleep tonight too," she added.
"Augh.. where's a 'yellow pages' when you need one?" Angela growled at the ceiling. "Come on, we'll ask a newsie about it."
Lynn looked around. "Which one?" She asked, motioning to the newsies on almost all the seats.
Angela looked around. "Him. Jack. He looks like the leader. He'd know." Lynn looked at him. He was talking with some other newsies and they got up to leave.
"Yeah. Good idea. Let's go. But you talk." Lynn said, getting up.
"I know, I know," Angela said. They walked over to Jack. "Hey, can you tell us where there's a place we can spend the night?" Angela asked, looking at him.
"Sure, dere's a hotel down da street ova' dere. I'd walk ya down but I's really gotta go sell da rest 'a me papes." He smiled at them as Angela thanked him, and they walked out the door.
"We should go down to the alley where we came from, and then come back here to go to the hotel." Lynn said, and Angela was already walking towards the alley.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Lynn said, looking down the dark alley.
"Yeah, it's the place. We weren't that far in." They walked inside and scanned the ground for the diary. "Look." Angela said, picking it up. "We've really got to read this. Maybe it'll tell us why we're here."
Lynn nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but we should go to the hotel now." She said, pointing out of the alley and towards the middle of the square. Lynn took the diary from Angela and started paging through it while she followed Angela, who was looking for the hotel.
"I think this is the place." Angela said, pointing to a sign that said, "James Hotel" above the door.
"Yeah, probably." Lynn said, still looking at the diary. They walked into the hotel and stood in front of the person inside.
When they were finally noticed, the person said, "what do you want?" Lynn looked at Angela, waiting for her to talk.
"We'd like to stay in a room tonight." Angela said to the lady.
"Well, you really should just go back to your parents. Two little girls like you shouldn't be out alone." Angela and Lynn stared in disbelief at the woman.
"What?" Lynn asked, overwhelmed.
"What's the matter with you girls? Go home to your parents." Still astonished, Lynn and Angela turned and walked out of the hotel. They went and sat on the edge of the statue in the square.
"That was really... bad." Lynn said, dully.
"No kidding. Now what are we going to do?" Angela said. It began to get dark.
"This is just great. Really. What are we going to do, Angie?" Lynn asked, on the point of tears.
"I don't know. Don't ask me." Angela said. Lynn was crying, and Angela might as well have been. They had perfectly good reason to be crying. They were alone in New York a hundred years ago... They had no place to stay, it was getting dark, and they really couldn't do much of anything about it.
The newsies started to walk by on their way back into the Lodging House for the night. No one noticed the two crying girls sitting on the statue, at first. Then Jack walked over to them.
"You two again? What's da matta'? Why're youse cryin'?"
Angela looked up. "Only that we have no place to sleep and it's dark, we aren't from.. around here, and we don't know anyone, really." She said.
Lynn looked up. "Hi." she said.
"Well, I mean... youse..." Jack said, thinking. He was probably a little confused by having two crying girls sitting there. "Youse could sleep somewhea' in da Lodgin' House, prob'ly," he said, looking at us. "Don' cry." Lynn and Angela smiled and stood up to follow him.
"Thanks." Lynn said.
The next morning, Lynn and Angela woke up and started to get ready for the day. "Do you think we could just wear our jeans?" Lynn asked, "because I really hate these old clothes."
Angela snorted, "Are you kidding? We'd be... I don't know... something bad would happen to us, and we'd stick out like anything."
Lynn pouted. "Fine then. But I'm still wearing my jeans under this skirt, even if I do get hot because of it." She looked around. "I suppose in an 1899 boys lodging house they don't have brushes, do they?" She said, looking around the little parlor area they'd slept in. "I suppose I'll just pull my hair back." She pulled her hair-scrunchie out of her pocket and attempted to smooth her hair in front as she put it in a ponytail. "This looks moronic. But it's better than nothing." she said.
Angela was already sitting on a chair, looking at the diary. "We have to read this today. It's really interesting." She flipped through the pages. "Wow, there's a lot though." She said, looking at the stuff. "Come on. Let's go." Angela said, getting up.
Lynn got up and followed her out the door. They walked down the stairs just with the newsies. "Hey goyls, youse up?" Jack said, looking over the other newsies at them.
"Yeah." Angela said. They started to walk out the door.
"Heeey!" An old man said. "You boys been sneakin' goyls up dere or somethin'?"
"No." Said Angela, Lynn and about five newsies.
"It's not like that at all." Angela said, "grrrr.. can someone explain something to him?" Jack talked to another newsie, who went over and talked to him. He didn't say another word to or about Lynn and Angela, so as much as they wondered what had been said, they didn't argue with it.
They walked down to the square and sat on the statue, and looked at the diary. "So who's is it?" Lynn asked.
"My... great...great aunt Elizabeth's. Her middle name was Angeline. That's where my name is from." Angela said, looking at a few pages. After reading for a while, the diary took an interesting turn. "Whoa... she's in love with Jack." Angela said.
"Wha-at?!" Lynn said, grabbing at the book.
"Yeah, she says she and Jack are like... friends. Whoa.. this is cool." Lynn just stared at her. "We have to be here for something about this.. I don't know what.. but it has to be about this." Angela said, holding up the diary.
"Come on, give it to me." Lynn whined, holding out her hands. "What's wrong with you anyways? Give it to me!"
Angela shook her head. "No. I'm not done yet. This is cool.. we can find stuff out about Jack. He really, really wants to go to Santa Fe."
Lynn looked at her, puzzled. "Santa Fe? Umm.. why?"
"I don't know, but even now.. or in 1899.. he wanted.. wants.. to go. It's his lifelong dream."
Lynn laughed, "Santa Fe? I don't see what's so great about Santa Fe. It's just some town in New Mexico."
Angela shrugged. "I don't know.. he just wants to go there." She said, looking at the diary. "She's really glad he didn't though."
"Why?" Lynn said.
"Because, dumbcheese, if he had gone to Santa Fe he wouldn't have met her." "Ohhh..." Lynn said, understanding what Angela's point was. She really hated it when Angela called her 'dumbcheese', because it was a moronic name, and it was stupid of Angela anyway. "We have to get back Ange. We can't just stay here." Lynn said, staring off down the street.
"I know that..." Angela said.
Lynn and Angela decided to go eat breakfast at Tibby's. On their way there they saw the newsies gathered near some nuns who were giving them bread and coffee.
"Look, that's sort of... strange." Lynn said, pointing.
"Well, obviously someone has to feed them because they don't get much money selling papers for a penny, I imagine." Angela said. They walked into Tibby's and sat down at a table. Angela started to talk.
"There has to be a reason we're here. These things don't happen for no reason. It has something to do with that diary too. And we have to do what we came to do and then get back, without doing anything. Anything that may disrupt the timeline has to be undone. We can't leave hardly any impact here. You know that could screw up history!" Angela said, loudly and quickly.
"Umm.. Ange, where do you get this stuff?" Lynn said, staring at her.
"I've watched Star Trek all my life. I could probably recite every single episode ever made for you." she said, "just by being here for a short time is altering the timeline. We have to limit our impact, and anything we can fix that shouldn't happen we have to fix."
"Sure Angie, whatever." Lynn said. She understood what Angela was saying,
but it was still confusing. After eating they walked out into the square and sat down to
talk.
**To part 2!**