Mairead had taken up residence in the Anderson Lodging House for Girls. The day before, after her witnessing of the tenement fire, Blink and Mush had taken her to the Watson Textile Mill, where she had been given a job as a spinner. This was her first day of work, so she was anxious to make a good impression.
She walked gingerly across the creaky wooden floor and into the washroom. The walls were bare and unpainted; the wash basin and the sinks were filthy, and the water ran at a drip. Frustrated, Mairead wondered to herself why it was that a boys' lodging house was so much nicer than a girls'. Goodness knows that girls are cleaner by nature, she thought angrily as she waited for enough water to drip into her hands so that she could wash her face. She recalled Kloppman saying that the girls' boarding houses were better than the boys'. This proves how much he knows about the subject.
Standing in front of the cracked and dirty mirror, she brushed her long, curly black hair until it pleased her. She pinched her cheeks to give them color, and then gathered her nightgown and made her way back to the bunkroom, where the other girls were beginning to awaken. Placing her things on her bunk, Mairead turned to go downstairs, but one of the girls, a younger girl with auburn hair and bright green eyes, stopped her.
"You're the new boarder. I'm Anna," she said, sticking out her hand.
Mairead shook her hand. "Mairead. How long have you lived here?"
Anna thought for a moment. "Couldn't tell ya how long. My parents put me out when I was a little kid 'cause they didn't have enough money. What's your story?"
"Oh, I - I ran away from home," Mairead answered uncomfortably, averting her eyes to the floor.
"You have a home, and you left?" Anna asked in disbelief. "Was it nice?"
"At the time, I didn't think so," Mairead answered. "But now I look back and realize that it was the biggest mistake I've ever made."
"Were you rich?" Anna asked, her eyes widening.
"All right, Anna, that's enough," another girl intervened. This girl looked possibly older than Mairead, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a discontent look upon her face.
"I was just - "
The brunette gave Anna a death look. "Go get washed up."
"Oh, she wasn't bothering me," Mairead offered with a small smile.
"Well, she was bothering me," the brunette snapped, making sure Anna left for the washroom. "We don't need any little rich girls running around the place, so you'd better come down to our level or leave."
"I never said - "
"You didn't have to say it, we could tell, you with your 'holier than thou' attitude. Quit struttin' around - "
"I don't think I'm better than anyone," Mairead interjected. "I'm only trying to stay alive."
The brunette girl looked at her for a second, and then stuck out her hand. "Emma St. James. I'm Anna's older sister."
"Mairead." She shook hands with Emma, somewhat dazed by the total change in character.
"I guess you're working in the factory?" Emma asked.
Mairead nodded slightly. "Spinner," she answered.
"So am I," Emma said. "Awful place. You don't want to work there any longer than you have to."
"Why?"
"You'll see."
Emma and Mairead had adjacent work stations in the large textile mill. The whirring machines were so loud that Mairead couldn't hear herself think or speak, and since all the windows were nailed shut, it was nearly impossible to breathe. There were cotton particles in the air that she inhaled every time she attempted to take a breath, and that would set her coughing.
"You get used to the air here after a while," Emma offered as she climbed up onto the machine to change out bobbins on her huge mechanized loom. "Jimmy the doffer is gone today, so we have to change out our own bobbins."
Mairead noticed that Emma had no shoes. Suddenly, Mairead heard her curse loudly. Emma stepped down from the machine, her left foot covered in blood. With a grimace on her face, she said, "It caught my toe again."
"Why don't you have any shoes on?" Mairead asked, glancing down at her own worn boots.
"Easier to climb the machines if I don't wear shoes," Emma answered. "You can slip and fall into the gears if you climb up with shoes on. Besides, I can't afford them."
"This is dangerous," Mairead said, watching her loom once more.
She spotted a knot in the thread, and reached up to untangle it. The gears cut into her fingers, and she bit her lip as she finished untangling the thread, which was now stained with blood. Pulling her hands back, she looked down at them. Her fingers were raw and bleeding. Emma noticed this.
"You'll get tough after a month or so," she said as she watched her thread.
At that moment the fixer rounded the corner to inspect the machines. It was a young man who looked to be around nineteen years old, with blonde hair and green eyes. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Mairead. She made eye contact with him and her stomach lurched.
"You're not supposed to wear your hair loose, girl," he said, eyeing her.
The fixer looked around for a moment before spotting what he wanted. He crossed the aisle between looms and picked up a pair of scissors. Coming back to Mairead, he had a wicked grin on his face. "Turn around, girl, and get back to your job."
Slowly, Mairead turned to watch her loom, but she couldn't see the threads for the tears in her eyes. The young man took hold of her hair and began hacking it off with the scissors until Mairead had a short, uneven cut that ended just below her ears.
"A reminder to tie your hair back before coming to work," he said maliciously, grinning at the back of Mairead's head. "Of course, now you have nothing to tie back."
"What was that, Jacob?!" Emma asked angrily. "You could have just tied her hair back with some extra thread!"
He didn't answer, but ignored Emma as he tossed the scissors down onto the concrete floor and went to fix a loom two rows down.
Mairead sobbed silently as she tried watching the threads. Emma came over to change the bobbins for her, but said nothing of the incident with the fixer.
Mairead found herself at the door of the Duane St. lodging house late that evening. Kloppman answered.
"You again? Whaddya want?"
"I need to see Mush, please," Mairead said softly.
"He ain't here. Him an' the guys is gone to Tibby's. You know where that is?"
Mairead hesitated for a moment. "No, sir. I'm afraid I don't."
Kloppman sighed and pointed. "Two blocks that way, on the corner."
"Thank you," Mairead said as Kloppman shut the door in her face.
She made her way the two blocks to Tibby's. Stopping in front of the door, she looked in. Mush and Blink sat at a table with several other newsies, two of them being Race and Jack. She groaned inwardly, but pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Mairead made her way slowly over to Mush's table. He looked up and did a double-take. "Mair? Is that you?"
She instantly wished that she hadn't gone to Tibby's, because every head at the table turned toward her except for Blink's. He stared into his plate.
"Whoa, Greek. You look like h - "
"Shaddup, Race," Mush interrupted, standing. "C'mon, Mair."
The two headed outside and down the street, away from Tibby's.
"What happened, Mair?" Mush asked once they had stopped.
Mairead burst into tears. "It was horrible, Mush! Why would Blink tell me that being a newsy is worse than factory work?"
"Shh, shh." Mush was uncomfortable in trying to calm her down. "Blink don't know, he never worked in a factory. What happened to your hands?"
"The loom cut them up when I was taking out a tangle in the thread," Mairead answered, looking down at her hands again. "And the fixer cut all my hair off."
"What'd he do that for?" Mush asked, angered.
"Because I didn't tie it back," Mairead cried, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Mush patted her on the shoulder. "Everything's gonna get better. You just have to wait for it."
Mairead tried to force a smile, but in her heart she knew that things couldn't possibly improve.