April: The
Early Years
Anna was an average girl in just about every perspective. She lived in an
average home, with average parents and had average looks. In her eleventh year,
shortly after her mother became pregnant with her second child, Anna’s father
died from an unknown illness. A layer of guilt spread upon Anna and her mother,
Mary. Mary never seemed to recover from her guilt and at the time of her son’s
birth, she died. So, there was Anna, and her nameless brother, orphaned and
alone.
The children had no other living relatives in the area. Anna could
vaguely remember meeting her great aunt when she was two, but thought she heard
that she died about five years ago. Though she was unsure, she decided to forget
about it move on. The neighbor’s were never close to the Murphey family hence
they never noticed their absence.
Anna had always been a strong independent girl, determined and
free-willed. She tried to push away the pain of her loss and focus on keeping
her little brother healthy. He hadn’t a name yet and he was almost a year old.
Anna never really thought about it. Since he couldn’t talk, and she had no one
else in the world to talk to, she had no reason to yet refer to him with a name.
One day Anna was walking around her seemingly abandoned house while her
brother was sleeping. She thought about leaving the house with her brother and
going to the city to she what she could find there. But she couldn’t do that.
She had to at least wait until her brother could talk and walk for himself.
He stumbled around now, but mostly fell down. It would be at least two
months.
Suddenly the little boy startled Anna with his screams to get up. Anna
laughed to herself as she always did at such an occurrence. She had always
imagined that he was talking while he was crying. It usually sounded like he was
screaming ‘Pint!’ over and over again. Just then, the idea popped into her
head. She could call him Pint! It wasn’t a real name, but it was something to
go by. She was instantly at he brother’s side.
“What is it little Pint? You hungry? Tired? Wanna move to da city
streets? Huh? Yeah, me too. Dere’s nothing for us here.” Anna decided to
forget ‘the right thing to do’. She and little Pint would head to the city
ASAP. She had to get away from her memories of her parents. She didn’t want to
have to explain their absence to Pint when he was old enough to wonder. When
Pint was calmed, Anna rushed through the house gathering some of her things into
a carpetbag. She took her clothes Pint’s clothes, a picture of her family her
father’s old hat which she or Pint would have to grow into, her mother’s
only jewelry (a silver locket and her wedding ring) and all the money she could
find. When she was done, she had an overstuffed bag and $10.22. She laid down
her head to rest; they would leave in the morning.
*****
When morning came, Anna packed some food and found a book to add to her
bag. She wrapped Pint up in a blanket, as she would have to carry him.
She closed and locked the door with the key around her neck. Perhaps
she’d be back someday, but not soon.
*****
It took Anna a week to get to the city for she had a lot to carry and she
didn’t exactly live right next-door. Along her way, she decided she needed a
new identity, just incase anyone was looking for her. She figured if anyone was
looking for her, it wasn’t going to be good if they found her. She settled on
April, nothing more, nothing less. She really had no reason for choosing that
name. She basically couldn’t think of anything better and didn’t think it
was all that bad.
*****
April wandered around the entire city for a few weeks. She was running
low on money and Manhattan seemed like a nice place, so she decided to stay
there, at least for the time being. Pint could walk better on his own now,
enough to give April a break from carrying him for a few hours each day. He
started to talk too, mostly whines about hunger and pain. There was nothing
April could do though; she was hungry and in pain too.
They slept in
various alleys and April pondered more and more ideas for getting money. She
couldn’t work in a factory because she couldn’t leave Pint alone. She
didn’t want to beg, it was too degrading in her mind. She thought more as she
drifted off to sleep.
*****
The next day
April awoke to shouts of random stories, which sounded to mostly be false. She
wondered what was going on. She glanced around and walked to the end of the
alley. She saw some boys selling newspapers. That was it! She could sell
newspapers too! And she could have Pint with her all day. Most of the newsboys
were walking from the same area, so she figured she’d go check it out with
Pint.
One or two people
were still buying newspapers and April walked up to the counter as they walked
off to sell their papers.
“I’d like
30,” April said to the rugged man behind the counter.
“Fifteen
cents.” The man responded flatly. She laid the money on the counter and
accepted her papers.
She went back to
her spot in the alley and read over the headlines. They sounded similar, but
more truthful, to what the boys were shouting out.
She figured she could changed the headlines a bit too, and off she walked
with Pint and their papers after hiding their bag under a few crates.
*****
And so continued
the lives of April and Pint, buying papes at the end of the line each day. They
drew no attention to themselves and thus remained unnoticed by the other
newsies. April tried to keep a “tough” air around her, though that was hard
at times while carrying a little baby. Pint was a well-behaved, yet streetwise
little boy. By now April was sixteen and she had grown to be 5’4’’. She
had auburn hair that hung down to the middle of her back and piercing blue eyes.
April and Pint
sold within the same five or six block radius each day. Pint became very good at
finding his way around this area. Their only trouble occurred in the wintertime.
They were cold and had nowhere to go to get warm.
Near
Thanksgiving, the two were completing their sales for the day. April lost sight
of Pint in the crowd and was frantically looking for him. It was becoming dark
and she still hadn’t found her precious little brother. Saddened, she went
back to their alley with her extra papes. It was too late to sell them now.
© 2000; April