"I don't know.. keep Jack away from Santa Fe? I don't know.." Angela answered, staring off into space. They sighed and just sat there. Angela began to reiterate how screwed they were. Walking down the street towards them were a couple of newsboys. One had curly, fuzzy brown hair and a cute little face. The other one was taller and quieter, and had brown hair and a sweet face. They approached Angela and Lynn. The taller one looked slightly uncomfortable.
He opened his mouth and said, "you, uh... look sorta, um.. sad. I mean, is everything... um.. all right?" Angela began to speak, but then noticed that the boy was staring intently at Lynn, obviously expecting her to answer. Looking at Lynn, she realized that Lynn was just sitting there expecting Angela to answer, because that's what she always did.
She elbowed Lynn, Lynn sort of started and said, "oh.." she looked rather surprised and looked around. "No. I mean, yeah.. I mean.. umm... no, well, sort of. Yeah. Umm... we're sort of, sort of a long way from home. Yeah, I, I guess." The newsboy didn't answer, but just continued staring at Lynn, who turned to Angela with an "ahh" look on her face.
Luckily, the other newsie had caught on to the fact that his friend was a little bit 'out there', and said, "So, where'd youse come from?"
Angela picked it up from there, and replied, "oh, we're from Minneapolis, Minnesota." She said. Lynn was staring at her shoes, and her hands, and occasionally looking up, and seeing that the newsboy was still staring intently at her. Angela and the other newsie exchanged a glance.
"Um, I'm Angela." She said, putting out her hand to shake.
"I'm Mush." Said the newsie, shaking her hand. "This hea's Pie Eater," he said.
At the sound of his name, Pie Eater jumped, "what?" He murmured. Lynn and Angela giggled a little.
"This is Lynn." Angela said.
She elbowed Lynn, who said, "oh.. hi." She shook hands with Pie Eater, who held her hand and locked eyes with her. A little startled, Lynn looked back at him, meeting his gaze. For a moment no one spoke, and then Mush said.
"Well, maybe we'll see youse 'round, like for lunch or somethin'." He said. Lynn and Pie Eater began staring at their shoes. Mush turned to leave, but Pie Eater just stood there until Mush grabbed him, "come on." He said. Then they left. A few seconds after they were out of sight Angela began to laugh, and then Lynn did too.
"Oooh.. Lynn... ha ha!" Angela started to laugh.
"Shut up!" Lynn said, hitting Angela. "So... what do you think of Pie Eater?" she asked tauntingly.
Lynn blushed. "He's... cute, I mean.. yeah." Angela laughed.
"He totally likes you. He was just sitting there staring at you." Lynn flushed pink and said nothing. Angela speculated. Angela speculated a lot, it was just something she did. Pie Eater was kind of cute. Mush was cute too. Not much tended to make Lynn shut up anyhow...
Angela and Lynn sat at the table in Tibby's eating lunch. They weren't really talking much, just sitting there thinking about.. stuff.
Suddenly the doors burst open, and Jack came in, happily waving a ticket. There was a large crowd of newsies around him, saying stuff like, "hey Cowboy!" or "Wow. Santa Fe." and stuff like that.
Angela gasped. "Oh no.." She mumbled, staring at the newsies.
"Yeah, oh no." Lynn said, looking around the room.
"We can't.. he can't.." Angela started, "He can't go. He just can't. I don't know what we're going to do but he can't go. Umm.. why would he want to go anyway?" Angela said. Lynn shrugged and looked around.
"So.. what do we do?" Lynn asked.
Angela thought, "well, we have to talk to Jack. Not now though, there's too much of a mob. We have to do it, like, after lunch or something."
Lynn smiled. "Whatever, Ange." she said.
"Hey, I know." Angela said, "we don't have to talk to Jack at all. You can just get Pie Eater to do it for you." Lynn slapped her. "Ow!" Angela said, "well, you could..."
"Oh shut up." Lynn said, blushing. Suddenly, there was like a scuffling noise behind them. Angela looked up, and Lynn turned around to see. Mush was giving Pie Eater a sort of shove, and Pie Eater was just standing behind Lynn looking scared and speechless.
Finally Mush said, "um, is anyone sittin' there? Could we sit there?" Angela and Lynn exchanged a look.
Angela looked up at them, "sure." She said. They walked over and since Angela and Lynn were sitting across from each other, Mush shoved Pie Eater who very stiffly sat down next to Lynn. Mush sat down next to Angela, and Angela scooted her chair over a little. Lynn glared up at Angela, who pointed at her and laughed. Pie Eater looked at his feet. Mush stifled a laugh, and Angela looked at her nail polish, feeling stupid for pointing and laughing.
"So..." Mush said.
"So..." Angela said.
Pie Eater turned to Lynn, "umm.. that looks good. What is it?" He said. Lynn looked at Pie Eater. She looked at Angela (at this Angela almost began to laugh), and she looked back at Pie Eater. Mush hit himself on the head, as if he couldn't believe Pie Eater.
"It's macaroni." She said, slowly.
"Oh..." he said, smiling and nodding. Angela and Mush looked down, embarrassed for Pie Eater because he was being, well, strange. Lynn looked down in confusion. Just then a waiter came to take the boys' orders. Mush ordered a roast beef sandwich.
Pie Eater said, "I'll have da macaroni."
Mush turned to Angela, "so, how'dya like New Yawk?" He turned and pointedly looked at Pie Eater, implying that he should start talking. Pie Eater just looked confused.
Angela looked over at Pie Eater and Lynn, "oh, it's fine." She said, slowly, smiling at him. Mush vaguely nodded at Angela, and then looked over at Pie Eater. For a moment they both looked at Pie Eater.
Pie Eater 'woke up' and said, "oh.." He turned to Lynn, "so.." He began, and stopped to think about what to ask. "How long ya stayin' hea'?" He asked.
Lynn turned and looked at Angela, because she didn't know the answer to that. Not that Angela did, Lynn just figured Angela could come up with something. After a while, Lynn turned back to Pie Eater, "umm.. that's sort of in question now.. we aren't quite sure."
Pie Eater nodded, looking interested. "So, um, ya like it here?" He nodded at Lynn.
She sat there, and answered, "yeah, yeah. I like New York.. you know." She said.
Pie Eater smiled. "That's great." He said, smiling. Lynn rolled her eyes and nodded, and looked around wondering what to do. The boys' food came just then, saving Lynn from a rather strange situation. They all began to eat, Lynn and Angela resumed eating because they had stopped during that time.
Mush swallowed a bite of his sandwich, and said, "So, um, what brought you to New Yawk?" This directed at Angela. She looked at Lynn, and thought for a bit, and then said, "um.. no particular reason. It was kind of... an accident, in fact."
Mush looked up, "youse hea' alone?" He asked.
Angela nodded, "yeah." Mush nodded, and took another bite of his sandwich.
Pie Eater suddenly looked up and said, "this is really good macaroni." He turned to Lynn, "don't you think?"
Lynn smiled, "yeah. Yeah, it is." She said.
Pie Eater started thinking, "the cheese isn't too salty, and the sauce.. it's not too cheesy.. the noodles are just right... it's really good." Lynn nodded, looking at Angela with a 'what's wrong with him?' look.
Angela, however, didn't think it was weird at all. "Really?" She asked, "can I try some?" All of a sudden she looked at Lynn, wide eyed, unsure if she should have said that or not.
Pie Eater looked slightly startled, but said, "sure." And pushed his plate over.
Angela tasted his macaroni, and said, "it is good macaroni. Yeah, it's just the right consistency, not too thick, just the right way."
She pushed his plate over to him, and he said, "yeah, I know." Lynn and Mush exchanged a puzzled glance.
Lynn looked at Angela, who looked up and said, "what? What? It's good macaroni." Everyone began to laugh at Angela.
Mush pushed open the door and held it open while Angela and Lynn walked through. The boys left and Angela and Lynn stood there.
After they walked away, Mush slapped Pie Eater. "Ya moron... what's wrong wit' chu?" Mush said. They weren't far enough away that Lynn and Angela couldn't hear them, so Lynn and Angela started to laugh really, really hard. They managed to stagger over to some stairs and sit down. They were in tears they were laughing so hard.
Angela gasped, "Oh my god.." She was absolutely cracking up. Lynn was laughing really hard too, and leaning against the wall. They were gasping for air they were laughing so hard. People began to stare at them as they were walking by. A shorter newsie with dark hair and Jack came over to them. They gasped a few times, attempting to stop laughing enough they could actually speak.
"Umm.. what's so funny?" The shorter newsie asked.
Lynn managed to stop laughing, and she said, "nothing.. nothing, it's nothing."
Angela managed to squeak out, "if you really want to know.. .ask Mush!" That sent the two of them off laughing so hard they couldn't breathe again.
The boys exchanged a glance. "Ok..." Jack said, and the newsies walked away. They continued laughing really hard, and finally, they managed to stop.
After a few seconds, Angela said, "we just made complete fools of ourselves, didn't we?" Lynn nodded, and they both started laughing really hard again. Finally they came back together, and were a little more in control of themselves.
Finally, Angela spoke. "You know, we really have to talk to Jack about.. the tickets and stuff."
Lynn nodded. "Yeah."
Angela stood up, "ready?"
Lynn stood up too. "Yeah, let's go." They walked down the street to see if they could find Jack. They saw him, so they went over to him.
"Hey, Jack. You know, we're sorry about.. when we were.. laughing so hard back there." Angela said. Jack just nodded, and said it was fine.
"So.. umm.. what was that thing back in the restaurant? When all the newsies were mobbing around you, and you said something about Santa Fe?" Angela asked.
"Oh, well see.. I got dis hea'." He pulled out a ticket, "it's so I can go ta Santa Fe." Angela grabbed the ticket and looked at it.
While she looked, Lynn asked, "so, um, why do you want to go to Santa Fe?" Jack shrugged, and got a faraway look in his eyes.
"Ya know, I mean.. dis town, 'round hea', I wanna get outta hea'. I need a change 'a scene, an' space, ya know?" He sort of squinted at Lynn. "Ya know, it's all bigga' there." Lynn nodded, thinking that he didn't really know what he was getting into.
Angela looked at the ticket, which was like five bucks and she could have afforded it in a minute. She looked up, "this is one-way," she observed.
Jack looked at her, "yeah, I's movin' outta hea'. I's.. leavin'." Angela handed him the ticket, frowning.
"That's an awfully big decision, to move out of your home city like that. I mean, what about your friends and family?" Jack shrugged.
Lynn looked up at him, "aren't you going to miss your friends and stuff?" She asked. Jack got a funny look on his face, and shook his head, shrugging it off. Both Angela and Lynn realized that he hadn't really thought that through, and that he hadn't really realized that.
Slowly, Angela looked up, "what are you going to... do when you get there? I mean, do you have money saved? Are you going to... be a newsie in Santa Fe?" Jack just sat there, and didn't know what to say to that. He hadn't thought about that, he just wanted to go there and be there.
A tall newsie with curly brown hair was calling Jack's name, and Jack turned around. "It was nice talkin' wit' youse, but I's gotta go now." He turned and walked over to the newsie, and walked away talking to him. Angela and Lynn were in the Lodging House. They'd already eaten, but the newsies were eating right then.
"Ok Lynn, the date on the ticket was September 30th." Angela said, sitting on the floor. Lynn sat on the floor too. "Today is September 21st. In the time between we have to persuade him not to go to Santa Fe." Angela said.
Lynn sat up, "well, that can't be so hard. I mean, he hasn't planned or anything."
Angela nodded, "I know.. that is so like a guy." Lynn nodded in agreement. Angela looked up. "You know Lynn, this is it. You know that don't you?"
Lynn looked confused. "This is what?" She asked.
"This is what we're here for. Like it said in the diary, if Jack had gone to Santa Fe she wouldn't have met him. We have to make sure he doesn't. I mean, potentially I couldn't even be born for some reason or another." Angela said, wide-eyed.
Lynn looked up, "whoa.. you're right."
Angela looked concerned, "I mean.. 'no' is not an option. I mean, this is riding on your life as well as mine. You may exist, but my absence would effect you."
Angela and Lynn stepped out of the Lodging House into bright sunlight. Lynn looked up, "so what are we going to do?"
Angela thought, "well, we're going to be here for a while-" she grabbed the diary out of Lynn's hands. "September 30th, to be exact." Angela said opening it to a page.
Lynn looked confused, "why September 30th?" She asked.
Angela showed her the book. "That's the day Elizabeth met Jack," she said.
"Ohh.." Lynn said, "but why can't we just make sure he doesn't go?"
"Because we need to make sure we haven't interfered with the timeline, and they actually do meet."
Lynn nodded, "ok."
Angela tilted her head and said, "you know... I'd really like to brush my teeth."
Lynn nodded again, "yeah... but it's 1899, who says they had toothbrushes?"
Angela thought for a minute, and then said, "well, we need more clothes and stuff. We should go shopping."
Lynn scowled. "These old clothes suck. 'This bites'." (she was imitating the way Angela talked.. Angela's favorite phrase was 'this bites'.)
Angela said, "well, we should go. We have the money." They walked down the block.
"General store," said Lynn. "Let's go in there."
"I was going to do that anyway, stupid." Angela said.
"Fine." Lynn responded. They walked inside. Inside there was a long counter in front, and everything you can possibly imagine was in there for sale. Or at least, anything you can imagine that they had in 1899.
"We could spend forever in here." Angela said.
"Yeah." Lynn said, "of course it would look pretty weird."
Angela glared at her, "obviously I didn't intend for us to..." Lynn looked at the floor.. "umm.. yeah." Angela said, "let's go look at some clothes."
"Ok," Lynn said. They walked into the back of the store, where there was a small selection of clothes set out. Mostly all the clothes were really dull. Like long skirts in browns and beiges, and all these earth-tones.
"Grr... I want to wear my jeans," Lynn said.
Angela rolled her eyes, "well you can't." She said. They walked around the area looking at the clothes. Most of the nicer stuff was in one part, but it was still boring colors. Angela and Lynn each picked out a skirt and a couple of shirts, and walked over to the counter.
"Can we set this stuff here?" Angela asked, "because we don't want to carry it around while we look." The guy nodded, and they set the stuff down. They walked over to the side of the store.
"We need, like, shampoo and stuff, and soap, and brushes. Toothpaste, toothbrush... stuff like that," Angela said.
"What makes you think they even had... have -whatever!- shampoo in 1899?" Lynn said. They found some soap, and hairbrushes, so they each got some. There wasn't stuff like shampoo, and nothing even similar to a toothbrush. There was all sorts of stuff like bottles of, well.. stuff, that they didn't even want to ask about.
They went over and paid for it (luckily they still had the change to pay for it, and no one was asking about their 'really, really new' money yet.), and walked out of the store with two brown packages.
Angela observed, "well, we don't want to carry these around all day, so let's go back to the Lodging House and put our stuff down." So they walked back to the Lodging House, and walked into the little room off the parlor area that they were sleeping in. It had a little window where you could see the alley, and a table and chairs in it. They set down their packages in the room.
They walked back out and went down the street to the square. They started to wander around, and Lynn said, "hey, what should we do now?"
Angela thought for a second, and said, "well, we should look at the diary some more." They sat down on the curb and began to look at it. "We need to figure out what day Elizabeth comes to New York." Angela said, opening up the diary a little way into it. They started to read it.
"Here, here, look. It's September thirtieth. She comes to New York on that day." Angela said, pointing to the date written in hard-to-read script on the top of the page.
Angela and Lynn were sitting in the Lodging House, contemplating going to get dinner soon. It was late afternoon, or early evening, and Angela began to read the entry from Elizabeth's diary about when she met Jack.
At this point Lynn and Angela smiled, completely knowing what she meant.
Angela and Lynn both said, "ohh.. that is so cute."
Angela smiled, "so why doesn't that happen to us?" They exchanged a glance, thinking about the people at 'home'.
Lynn looked at Angela, "I want to go home..."
Angela nodded, "I know. Me too." Neither of them said anything, but both of them were thinking the same thing: What if we never get home?
They both sort of shook off that thought, and Lynn said, "maybe we should go to dinner." Angela agreed, and they stood up and walked towards Tibby's. They walked inside. Only some of the guys were there, because it was sort of late to be eating dinner, and Lynn and Angela sat down at one of the tables. They ordered their food and sat there, not talking, just thinking. Jack was sitting alone at the end of the long table Lynn and Angela were sitting at, drinking coffee. He was totally lost in thought, running his finger around the edge of his coffee cup. There were a few other newsies sitting in the restaurant too.
Angela said, "well, we really need to talk to him."
"Yeah well.. you do it, Angela." Lynn said.
"Oh bite me.. whatever Lynn," Angela said. Angela walked over to Jack. "A penny for your thoughts," she said. He looked up, a little surprised to see her. He looked at her face, almost as if he was seeing if she were a trustworthy person.
Jack looked at her, "well, I's been thinkin'..." he squirmed around in his chair. "Ya know, 'bout goin' ta Santa Fe.." He shifted his weight and uncomfortably looked around the room. "I mean, it's always been me dream ta go ta Santa Fe, an' I finally got dis ticket. I was so happy, ya know..." he trailed off.
"Well, what was wrong with New York to begin with?" Angela asked, quietly. She sat down in the chair next to him. Lynn just stayed where she was sitting, watching. "I mean... what's so great about Santa Fe?" Angela asked, Jack looked up at the ceiling,
"I mean, I wanna change. In Santa Fe it's all bigga', not all closed up like New Yawk. I don't hafta be a newsie all me life." He said, and Angela thought for a moment.
"Well, what are you going to do in Santa Fe? Be a cowboy?" Jack turned and looked at her strangely, and studied her hard.
Finally, he decided on an answer, saying, "why not?" Angela smiled with relief that he wasn't mad at her. She caught Lynn's eye, who was glaring at her, as if she was saying 'don't encourage him'. Angela looked back to Jack.
"Um... do you know how to ride a horse?"
He shrugged, "I could learn."
Angela nodded, "do you know how to rope cows? Do you like cows? Have you ever seen a cow?"
"Well, I seen one once," Jack said, smiling. Angela nodded again. Jack looked up at her, "have you?"
"Yeah," Angela said, "I've ridden a horse, I've seen cows."
"So how was it?" Jack asked, interested.
"I was miserable." She said, quietly.
"Why?" Jack said, surprised.
"I'm allergic to hay. All those animals are around hay. When I get near them, I start sneezing and my eyes get watery."
He thought, "umm.. how do ya know if youse allergic ta hay?" He asked.
"You've never been around hay, have you?" she said, "I guess you can't tell unless you've been around it. Don't they have stables around here for, like, those carriage horses?"
Angela, Jack and Lynn were in a horse stable, standing in the doorway. There was hay all around them. "Ok now.." Angela said, then she turned around and sneezed. "Sorry, *sniff*. Jack go over dere..." she pointed at the hay bales, "ad *sniff* sit dowd.. touch it, handle it." He started to walk over to the hay. "Hey Lynn, bake sure I dod't touch anythig." She said, "because I'll react bore."
Suddenly Jack sneezed, and they turned around. Jack shrugged it off, and sat down on the hay. Then he sneezed again. He turned and looked at Angela and Lynn with a worried expression, and pulled out a piece of hay. He twisted it around in his hands, and then sneezed and rubbed his eyes. Angela raised her eyebrows. He put his hand down and then reached back up and rubbed his eyes again.
Angela looked at Lynn, "he shouldn't do dat.. *sniff* but I guess I'll let hib get da full effect."
Jack sneezed, and turned around. "Hey Adgela..." He said, he sounded really plugged up, "I think I'b... *sniff* allergic ta hay." He frowned, and rubbed his eyes again. He got up and walked over to Angela and Lynn.
"Come on you allergic people, let's get you out of here." Lynn said. They walked out the door, and walked. It was pretty quiet, except that Jack and Angela kept sniffing, but no one was talking.
Angela spoke, "does edywud have a kleed- I bead, a handkerchief?" Jack handed her one, and she blew her nose on it.
"Dow give it back.. I deed it too," he said. Lynn burst into hysterical laughter. The whole thing was pretty funny. Dusk began to fall and they were walking back to the Lodging House. They opened the door and walked in, both Angela and Jack sniffing and sneezing, and Jack was rubbing his eyes, which were red and watery by now.
"Rubbing theb makes it worse." Angela said, and Jack nodded.
They walked past Kloppman, "what happened ta you two?" He asked.
Both Angela and Jack said, "nothig," and kept walking. They walked into the parlor where the newsies were sitting.
Race was shuffling some cards, "hey Cowboy." He said, looking up.
"Hi Race." Jack said, sounding rather pathetic. Race looked at Angela and Jack, who were sniffing at intervals.
"What happened ta da two 'a youse?"
Angela and Jack exchanged a look, and Lynn said, "they're allergic to hay.. it's a long story."
Race nodded, and then said, "wait.. if youse 'llergic ta hay, den how's ya gonna be a cowboy?" Jack walked over and plopped down in a chair next to Race.
He took out his ticket and slapped it on the table. He took a deep breath. "I
dunno Race, I jus' don't know.."
**To part 3!**