Authors notes: HiYa!! It’s me Natz again. Guess what! I bought the Collectors edition DVD of Newsies. It is so much fun. Great new features like running feature length commentary by the director and staff. Happy 10th anniversary Newsie fans.
Disclaimer: After much deliberation and consultations with our lawyers, Christi and I have decided to recant all statements previously posted about us owning Newsies. As much as we wish we did, we don’t. However if Michael Goorjhan (Skittery) and Gabriel (Spot) wanted to sell themselves to us we would be more than happy to comply. Now on with the story.
^O^ Natz
Note: the Italics area flash back.
“Paul… Paul! Paul stop it, nuh!”
a tiny little voice wailed consistently in his ears. Paul halted his merciless
attack on the poor, defenseless body and leaned back on a large wooden barrel,
which was in one of his favorite places; the sugarcane field next to their
house. The smaller body pulled itself upright on the barrel and proceeded to
scowl crossly in the direction of the larger body. “You real mean to me, you know? I din do nuttin? I just wanted a
piece of cane to suck on. You din had to jump on me like I is a tief.” The
little wining voice continued to harass his eardrums. “ Why you got to be so? I
just want some cane” The little wining voice then started to get a pouting
quality to it. He looked over at his victim, Yep, there it was, a pout fixed on
her little mouth. He started to grin mischievously.
“I know that you wanted to tief
my cane. You better go and cut your own.” He said with a lording air. “ Little
sisters should know their place. Go and play with you dolls.”
The little face pulled itself
into a masterfully made scowl and the little body turned and ran out of the
field, back towards the little Chattel house which bordered it. Paul turned to
the side and called out to the cane field. “You can come out now Charlie, the
pest is gone.” With those words a yell and a whoop were heard from a patch of
cane and out came flying a 10 year old, curly haired, wild boy. He jumped
directly on the older boy and started to poke at him mercilessly with a piece
of cane he had broken off while hiding from “the pest”. Paul had no other recourse
than to grab at the smaller boy’s suspenders and jerk them up roughly. With
that done, little Charlie boy yelped and bounced away from his prey.
“HEY!! No fair… no pulling of
suspenders!” the little boy protested quite obstinately.
“Yeh! But you can jump out at me
out of nowhere. I protest! No fair either.” Paul responded with the same wining
tone. He knew just how to handle his
little friend, as spoiled as he tended to be some times. **It’s no wonder cause
he is Mr Drax’s son. Spoiled to the core. Given what even he wants. **
The bright blue eyes of the
young Charles Drax focused on the boy who had been companion and best friend
for all his life. He plopped himself down on a big pile of cane trash, which
had been left there by the cane cutters earlier that day. The duo had spent the
entire day running through the fields, trying their hardest to avoid the Drax
Hall Plantation cane cutters and especially Charles nanny, Miss Smithfield, who
was also known as Snitty to the children on the plantation yard. They had been
successful for the most part, darting from plot to plot, avoiding the areas
that were being worked on at the time. It had actually not been a difficult
task seeing as the plantation’s cane fields stretched for acres in each
direction. The day had been wisely
spent gathering a choice selection of juice-laden stalks of cane, which was
currently lying in a pile next to the trash heap. Charlie lay back on the pile, it crackled under him, the yellow
blades of the cane trash sticking up and pointing towards the western bound
sun. Paul followed his younger counterpart in lying on the pile. He grabbed a rod of cane and started to peel
it with his teeth, spitting out the pith and outer, waxy covering. He then
broke off a piece of the peeled cane and handed it to Charlie, who accepted it
gratefully and stuck it into his mouth, sucking and biting at the juicy
rod. Paul broke off a piece of the
peeled cane for himself and began to suck it as well. All was quiet on the
field, save for the hollow moan of the wind whipping off the now bare ground,
lifting leftover trash and flinging it all over the ground. The two were silent as well, staring up at
the wide blue sky.
Charlie turned and his eyes fell
on a figure that he had been trying to avoid all day. She scowled at the
reclining pair with a look of utter vexation, her eyes growing darker and
darker. Charlie grimaced and whispered to Paul, “ The pest is back. We are
caught.”
Paul sighed and lifted his head
and peered in the direction of the ominous figure. “ What are you doing back
here?” he asked irritated. “I thought I told you to go back home. This is boy’s
time now.”
The scowling figure gave Paul a
death glare to rival even that of Snitty’s. “ You are so unfair. I all alone at
the house and you guys keep running off and leaving me. I want cane too.” She
paused, then added spitefully, “I can always go back and tell Snitty that you
two out here in the field and that you have Charles sitting on the ground and
not even using the table manners she always going on that he should
always use.”
“You won’t dare do that!”
Charles growled at her and jumped up from the pile. He turned to Paul, “ You
little sister is a little snitch.”
“Oh Yeah! Well what are you,
white boy? You always coming here and getting my brother into trouble. He is
the one who does get licks when you make him do stuff.” The little vixen yelled
back at the boy who was still a little shorter than she was. She glared at him
with a look of utter contempt.
He could say nothing in response. He could only stare at her and inwardly wish that he could figure out where she got her audacity.
Charles came out of his reverie as the coach stopped outside of a large building. They had arrived at the hotel. He looked over at Paul who still seemed awe struck at the city of New York. He was also. True, he had lived in England for a while, but it was in a country house, which his family owned. Most of his life had been spent on a little plantation in an island he called home. Now they were here in the middle of a burgeoning metropolis, with thousands of carriages and millions of people. Charles rose from his seat on the carriage and nodded at his companion. The tall, well-built chocolate toned man followed his lead and stepped down from the carriage. The driver was taking their luggage down from the rack and a bellboy from the Entritnia hotel was already approaching them. Charles raised his eyebrow to Paul and from there his friend took action, telling the bellboy the name on the reservation. “Lord Charles Drax” he said in clear even tones. “Predence suite” he added.
The bellboy rushed around them, pulling the heavy trunk onto his pulley and dragging it behind him, asking them to follow him to the main desk to check in. After 15 minutes had passed, the two were in their new living quarters, surveying the area. The living room had a very masculine air, with dark stained oak paneling, brick red wallpaper and a wood-burning fireplace. There were two bedrooms. The master bedroom decorated tastefully with bold tones of red and a four-poster bed. The other, smaller room was decorated in kind, but in forest green. After 10 minutes of investigating the room Paul began to unpack, putting his belongings into the smaller green room. Charles watched him for a while, sitting on the bed as Paul went to and fro putting all his things in drawers. On the dresser Paul placed a small-framed photo. His fingers lingered on it for a moment, and then he returned to putting away his clothes.
When he had emptied his belongings from the trunk he paused and glanced over to the bed. “You want me to unpack for you too Charlie boy?” He asked.
Charles shook his head and replied. “I’ll do it when I am good and ready.” I want to go and explore the city for an hour, get some thing to eat now that I am off that blasted boat.
“That’s a good idea. You hardly ate when we were on the boat, couldn’t hold anything down.” Paul grinned at the memory.
Charles scowled at the jab to his ego. “I am fine now. Let’s go. We have wasted enough time already”
~~*~~
11 / Bulma’s Hideout /