Lynn nodded, "the fact that he is allergic to hay was pure luck. I never knew anyone besides you who was."
"Yeah, well I'm not complaining." Angela said. They walked outside, to go to Tibby's for lunch. "We should just sit there and watch, and observe things... because I have a hunch that Jack is.. lonely, and that's why he wants to leave. The thing is we can't become friends with him because we're going to be leaving." Angela said, telling Lynn what to do.
"Yeah, we'll just watch." Lynn said, opening the door to the restaurant. They walked in, and sat down at 'their' table in the corner.
"Let's start." Angela said, and both of them turned their heads to look out into the restaurant.
"Mush and Pie Eater are friends..." Lynn said.
Angela said, "Davy's sort of on his own, but he's got his brother..." Angela looked around some more.
"Specs and Dutchy are friends too, and mostly everyone else. Except Jack. Yeah, they're all really nice to him and talk to him and stuff, but he doesn't have, really, friends. This proves my theory."
"Yeah..." Lynn said, nodding in agreement, "you know, we're here not only to make Jack and Elizabeth get together, but we are here to make Jack happy.. because when he meets her, then he gets a friend!" She said.
Angela nodded, "yeah, I know." Angela began to speak, but never got to, because a voice interrupted her.
"Hi, Lynn!" Lynn slowly looked up. And there was Pie Eater, grinning down at her, happy as a lark.
"Hi," she said.
"So, how are you?" he asked.
"Umm.. fine. How are you?" Lynn answered.
"I'm great." He said, smiling, "how are you?"
"You... just... asked... me... that..." Lynn said, confused.
"Oh, sorry." Pie Eater smiled at her, unfazed. "Can we sit down?" This was improvement. Obviously Mush had talked to him a little bit after he had slapped him.
"Yeah." Lynn said, smiling. Pie Eater sat down next to her. Mush sat across from him, next to Angela.
"Hi Angela," he said.
"Hi," she said. Pie Eater looked at Mush, who caught his eye and winked at him, as if he was saying 'good job'. Pie Eater smiled. All four of them ordered their food, and managed to carry on a pleasant conversation. No one was being... stupid, or anything like that. In fact it was all quite... normal.
"Oh cheese it!" Mush said as he glanced at the clock on the wall. "We gotta go finish sellin'." He explained.
"Ok," replied Angela and Lynn, still a little shocked from the normality of the conversation.
"I'll see ya," said Pie Eater with a grin. He stood up, and reached over and gave Lynn's hand a squeeze, and turned and walked towards the door. Lynn went into a form of shock. Mush turned and gave Angela a peck on the cheek, and she went into a similar form of shock. They sat there in shocked silence for a while.
Angela said vaguely, "they even paid..."
Lynn nodded with her eyes still wide, "yeah..." she mumbled.
"That was really.. it was.." Angela began.
"Normal?" ventured Lynn.
"Yeah." Angela said.
"Was it really normal?" Lynn asked.
"Yeah, well the conversation..." Angela said.
"We're acting really stupid, aren't we?" Lynn said, nodding her head.
"Yeah..." Angela said. "Oh God we are so moronic!" she blurted.
Lynn nodded, "I know!" she cried. They started to laugh like crazy.
A couple of days later, on the 25th of September, Angela and Lynn were outside in Greely Square sitting there, with the midmorning sun beating down on them.
"It's been two days and we have done nothing!" Angela said, throwing the diary down. Lynn dove for it.
"Don't throw it! You'll kill it or something!" She said, grabbing it and opening it up. "Hmm... we are in trouble if Jack leaves five days from now. Five days, do you hear me Angela? Do something!"
"What am I supposed to do!?" She said, looking at the sky helplessly. Angela began pacing around, waving her hands and raving about how they weren't going to be able to stop him, and they'd never get 'back' and all that stuff. "I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!"
"Calm down for crying out loud!" Lynn shouted, "calm down!"
"I'm not a calm person!!!" Angela shouted.
"Calm down before everyone comes over here and wants to know what's wrong with you!"
"I'm just fine!" Angela shouted. Lynn decided not to say anything. Angela sat down, and put her head in her hands. "We have to do something." She paused, "now."
"Like what?" Lynn scoffed. "It's not like we can just steal his ticket or something."
"Well, uh... You know, I think we might have to."
"What? We can't steal from Jack! He'll catch us and..."
"He will not. Besides, we have to do something, and this is really the only thing that could stop him from just... going."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. But... I.. oh, whatever." Lynn said, apprehensively.
"All right, tomorrow we'll do it." Angela said. She didn't talk like she particularly liked the idea, but she said it forcefully, like nothing would change her mind. "Right after he buys his newspapers. That way we know he'll be out selling his papers, and won't catch us."
"Ok, Ange. If you think we can." Lynn said, skeptically. She generally did whatever Angela said though, and she was going to this time too.
"Angela. Angela.... Angie!" Lynn said in a loud whisper, shaking Angela the next morning. "Their getting up, I can hear them. Wake up!" Angela moved.
"What?" She asked, squinting her eyes open. She grabbed her glasses and stuffed them on her face.
"The newsies. I can hear them waking up. So get up!" Lynn said, she was already dressed and stuff. Angela got up, got dressed, and told Lynn to hide under her blankets, and look asleep.
"Why?" Lynn asked, looking around.
"Because that way if they come in here-"
"They aren't going to come in here!"
"They might!"
"Oh, fine.." Lynn mumbled, trying to look asleep. They laid there for a few minutes.
"Let's go." Angela said.
"No way. They aren't even gone yet." Lynn said.
"How do you know?"
"I can still hear them! Besides, why don't we give them a few minutes after they leave?"
"Because we don't know how long it'll take us to find the stupid ticket."
"Fine then Angie. Just wait, I'll tell you when we can leave." Lynn said, and then she sighed, "I really don't want to do this."
"Oh for crying out loud, Lynn."
"What? I don't feel like going through Jack's stuff, and stealing the one thing he worked most for. Doesn't that seem a little bit rude to you?" Lynn said.
"Lynn, we have to, don't you see that? We can't do anything else, so we have to do this." Angela said.
"Oh.. but.. fine then." Lynn said, unable to come up with a good protest. "Well, they're gone, I guess we can leave now." She said, sitting up. "Come on."
"You sure they're gone?"
"Yes I'm sure."
"Great. Let's go." Angela said, opening the door quietly. They crept out of the room as quietly as they could. To get to the bunkroom where the boys slept they had to walk right past Kloppman, who was reading his newspaper.
"Be quiet!" Hissed Lynn when Angela started to speak. Angela nodded, and they slowly started to walk past him.
About halfway, Angela realized, "Lynn, he's asleep!"
"You're kidding.. no, you're right. That's cool." Lynn said, pushing open the door to where the boys slept. "Oh.. I really, really don't want to do this." She whispered, looking into the empty room. "Oh, well, we don't know which bunk's Jack's. Oh darn, can't do it I guess." She started to close the door.
"No.. his bunk would be the one with his hat on it." Angela pointed to a center top bunk, with a cowboy hat sitting on it.
"Aww.. darn." Lynn said, glaring at his hat. They walked over to his stuff and Angela started to look for his ticket.
"Come on, I can't do this alone."
"I don't want to!"
"You have to, don't you ever want to get back?"
"Yeah.. but.." Lynn trailed off, and started to look at stuff Angela had already looked at.
"You are no help. Look, I found it!" She held it up triumphantly. Lynn's heart skipped a beat when she looked up and saw someone in the doorway. It skipped two beats when she realized it was Jack. She started fervently hitting Angela.
"A-A-Angie.... A-Angie... Ange.." She murmured, trying to get her attention.
"What?" Angela turned around, she sat frozen. "Uh oh.." She said. Lynn stared wide-eyed.
"What are you two doin'?" Jack demanded, glaring coldly at them. Lynn sat stock-still and didn't move.
"Oh, umm... umm.. you wouldn't believe Kloppman asked us to clean, would you." She said, despairingly.
"No. What were you doing. Why do you have my ticket?" He glared at Angela, and then Lynn, Lynn was still frozen, but Angela was putting things back how they were.
"Really, really sorry. Really sorry." Angela said, slowly standing up and walking towards the door. Lynn still sat there. "We're leaving.. now.. yeah.."
"Sorry." Lynn murmured as she stepped backwards out the door. "Really, really, so sorry you wouldn't believe it sorry." She blushed and turned around, leaving as fast as she could. Once they got out the door they started walking, and walking.
"I feel so, so stupid." Angela said, quietly.
"No kidding." Lynn said. "I feel like scum or something."
"Yeah, really. Ohh.. that was so, so stupid." Angela said.
"It was your idea."
"You went along with it."
"It was still your idea. And I didn't want to."
"But you did it!"
"Yeah.. I did." Lynn said, relenting. They walked in silence for a while, thinking about what an enormous mess they'd just created.
Angela and Lynn walked into Tibby's quietly. They sat down at a table where Mush and Pie Eater were sitting. They didn't say anything, as if they were in a state of shock.
"What's wrong wit' youse?" Mush asked, looking as Angela.
"Jack's dead set on going to Santa Fe, isn't he?" Angela sighed. Mush and Pie Eater exchanged a look.
Mush said, "well, yeah... yeah he really is. I mean, why'd youse know dat?" He looked confused. Angela and Lynn looked at each other, very distressed.
"You know, we really aren't hungry." Angela said quietly.
"No, we aren't." Lynn said, and they got up. Mush and Pie Eater looked at them, concerned.
"What's wrong, Lynn, an' Angela?" Pie Eater said, looking at them.
"Long story, really. Talk to you guys later." Lynn mumbled, and they walked out the door. The walked down the street, and then saw Jack come out of Tibby's.
"Come on, we'll try to talk to him." Angela said.
"Yeah, say we're sorry." Lynn said. They walked over to Jack.
"We're really sorry." Angela said, almost pleadingly.
"We didn't mean anything bad." Lynn added. Jack just brushed past them, completely ignoring their presence.
"That's bad." Angela said, "normally he's so polite, that even if he were mad at us he'd be polite enough to say 'leave me alone' or something. He's completely ignoring us."
"That's really, really bad. Really bad." Lynn said, kicking rocks on the ground. "We are so screwed..." Angela said, and they walked to the Lodging House.
Lynn woke up, panicked. She stuck Angela's glasses on her and then tried to wake her up. "Angie, Ange.. Angela!" She said, "it's nearly nine o'clock!!" She shook Angela, who woke up with a start.
"What? Nine!" They both got dressed as fast as they could and ran to the bunkroom. Peering in, Angela said, "he's gone." Lynn leaned against the wall, and then slid down to sitting on the floor.
"Oh no... now..." Lynn said, thinking out loud. Jack's train left in half an hour! It was September 30th, and they knew they were really stuck now.
"We can't let him go." Angela said, pacing. "He just can't go. That's all there is!"
"Maybe we just... won't.. get back." Lynn said, closing her eyes.
"No, no, no, no!! That is not an option! We have to get back!" She said, "he just can't go. Come on, we're out of here!" She started towards the door. Lynn grabbed her arm.
"Ange, we don't even know where the train station is." Lynn said, "come on. I'll ask someone for how to get there." She walked into the boys' room. "Hey, does anyone know how to get to the train station?" She said.
"You ain't leavin', are ya?" Asked a voice, she couldn't see who it was.
"No, of course not. Just.. wondering." She said.
"Well, it's down the street out here in front, straight until you see the brick building, and then you should be able to see the top of it, with a sign, above the other buildings on your left."
"Thanks!" Lynn said, and she and Angela went out to the door.
"It's no good, Lynn. The train station is too far away. It takes more than half an hour to get there, walking. Even by carriage we would be too late." Angela said, dejectedly.
"You're right." Lynn relented. She walked over to the wall and leaned against it. "We can't get back, can we?"
"I don't think so. Unless..." She trailed off as she walked towards the door, which she opened. Something fluttered to the ground, she picked it up. "Oh!!!!" She said, running over to Lynn. "Look at this, look at it and tell me what this is!"
Lynn took the paper away from Angela, "this isn't a ticket, is it?"
"Yeah, yeah! I saw it before in his room, remember! He can't go anywhere without it, and like I said, it's too far for him to come back here for it without missing his train anyhow. There's nothing he can do about it and he can't go!!!"
"Does this mean we get to go back?" Lynn said, smiling.
"Yeah, yeah... oh, we have to tell someone to go get him at the train station, bring him to Tibby's where he's got to meet Elizabeth. Ooh.. this is the best thing!" Angela said, waving the ticket around. She held it hidden in her hand as they walked back to the guys, who were leaving.
"Pie Eater, Mush... will you go and get Jack at the train station?" Lynn asked, smiling.
"Why? Isn't 'e on a train.."
"Not without his ticket. He'll be really mad, won't he?" Angela said, taking out the ticket.
"But it's not like we stole it or something! I mean..." Lynn said, looking at Angela.
"No.. I mean, yeah. He won't be mad at us. He'll be mad that he couldn't go."
"Oh, I knew that. So you guys, will you go to the train station, and bring Jack to.. Tibby's?" Lynn asked.
"Sure we will. See youse dere." Mush said, going out the door and dragging
Pie Eater with him.
**To part 4!**