"I think she went in here! Come on!" a voice called out.
"I'm right behind you." the other replied, the muttered, "As usual."
As they worked their way further into an old warehouse, overturning boxes and barrows in a vain search, a small girl poked her head out from behind a nearby dumpster. She crept along the side of the warehouse door and tilted her head to listen. The soft sound of boxes crashing in the background told her that they were far in the other side of the building. She softly laughed at the two as she slipped into the shadows.
"It was nice playing with you boys," she whispered.
"Did you find her?" a deep voice asked as soon as the boys returned from their search.
"Naw, she got away again."
The man walked over to the two boys and grabbed them each by the collars of their shirts. "Do you think this is some kind of joke?!" he yelled.
"No!" they both managed to choke out.
"FIND HER! She could ruin everything!!!!
When the girl reached her destination, a small two story house in Harlem, it was already dark out. As she walked up the stairs to the door, she burst out laughing. She opened the door and walked in.
"Josephine? Is that you?" a female's voice called from the next room. Then an old woman appeared in the doorway. "Jose-- Not again!"
The girls laughter slowly transformed into tears. She sat down on the floor, leaning against the door.
The old woman embrased her and then pulled her back up to her feet. "Now you stop that right now! I dont want any granddaughter of mine to be crying! Do you hear me?"
The girl nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
"Now, you have to stop this! You cannot spend your whole life hiding."
"I know Grandmother! I tried, its just, like something comes over me! Do you think I like running? I should know better, and I do but I just feel so angry inside! And I feel like I need to let that anger out! Do you think I enjoyed seeing them kill my brother? And now they are after me too! I should've died in the first place, not Jon! I have to live with that! What would you do if something happened to me? Dont you understand? Everytime I see them I think about what they did to my family, to Jon!"
"Yes! I understand! But this has to stop before you get yourself killed! And I think that the only way to do that, is to get more people to trust you. You need people your own age to talk to and relate too. Now, I talked to an old friend of mine, and he agreed to let you work at his lodging house in Manhatten. Cleaning. You can get to know the boys there, and hopefully, this will all blow over soon."
"I guess I wont hurt to try." the girl climbed the stairs to her room. She sat on her bed and stared out the window into the dark night sky. "Or will it?"
"Good morning! Honey, wake up! you dont wanna be late for your first day!"
The girl groaned and rolled over to look out the window. "Its still dark out! What time is it?"
"Never mind the time, You have to get there before those boys wake up! It takes a while to get there you know!"
"Good morning Mr. Kloppman! We arent late are we?" the old woman greeted her old friend.
"Morning Isabelle. You're just on time. I was just going to go wake the boys."
"Great, this is my granddaughter Josephine. Shall we?" Isabelle headed for the stairs.
"Wait Grandmother!" Josephine paused and took a pocket knife out of the pocket of her dress.
"Josephine, what are you doing with that..."
She poised the knife just below her neck. With one quick sweep of her wrist the long brown braid that had flowed down her neck fell to the floor.
"Why did you do that?"
The girl shook her head and the rest of the braid came undone. "I thought it might get in the way."
"Come on," her grandmother gave her a stern look. As they reached the top of the stairs they entered a room filled with sleeping boys.
"Alright, now all you have to do is wake them up." Kloppman instructed. And with that he went into the other room of boys and started yelling at them to wake up.
She walked over to the closest bed. In it lay a boy with dirty blonde hair and a patch over one of his eyes.
"Wake up!" the boy stayed asleep. "Didn't you hear me? I said WAKE UP!" she screamed. The boys eyes (well, eye) flew open and he suddenly sat up, hitting his head on the ceiling.
"Gawd Kloppman! You--" he looked over and noticed the girl. "Aw, gee sorry miss. I thought that you was Kloppman. Why was you screaming?"
"Well, its my job now, I guess."
"Well, you're doing a good job! Geez!" He rubbed his head and frowned.
She laughed. "Sorry!"
By now, Kloppman had woken most of the boys up, so she hurried off to wake the rest of them. When everyone was (more or less) awake, Kloppman shooed her down the stairs.
As the boys all filed down the stair and out the door, she stared in amazement. She didn't know how she would ever get to know them all by name.
The last people out the door were the boy with the patch, and another boy with curly dark hair and was wearing cut-off pants.
"Hey girl, ain't ya coming?"
"Naw, I got a job here!" Josephine replied, wishing that she could go. The boy shrugged and followed his friend out the door.
Josephine turned to Kloppman. "Who was that?" she asked.
"Oh, that was Blink, and his friend was, uh, Mush. If you want, you can meet some of the boys at Tibby's for lunch. You do know where Tibby's is?"
"Yeah, are you sure I'll be alright?"
"Oh sure, and if you see any of the boys, they'd walk with ya."
"Bye Kloppman! I'll see you in about an hour!" Josephine called as she left the lodging house.
She hadn't gone this way to Tibby's for a while, but soon things started to look familiar. When she reached the restaurant she hesitated before entering. She hoped that Blink would be there. She didn't know him, but she already felt like they were friends.
She entered and stood just inside the door. She looked around for a familiar face, anyone. When she saw no one she recognized, she sighed and turned to leave.
"Hey girl!" she spun around to the direction the friendly familiar voice had come from. "Come sit here!"
She walked over and took a seat next to Blink. "So, how's your head?"
"Gawd, I got a bump the size of Brooklyn, that's all!"
"Aw, I'm sorry! Let me see," she reached up the feel the back of his head.
"Hey Kid, you gonna introduce us to your friend?"
Josephine withdrew her hand. She that this was the same boy Blink had been with earlier. "Who's Kid?"
"I'm Kid" Blink replied.
"I thought you were Blink."
"I am. Both actually."
"Oh, okay. Anyway, I'm Josephine, but the only person who ever calls me that is my Grandmother. You can call me Josey. Or Joey."
"Okay, well you can call me Mush," the boy with the curly ahir started, "and this here is Race," he nodded to a small Itialian-looking boy.
"So Josephine, I saw you at the Lodging House this morning. What were you doing there?" Race asked.
"Oh, well, Kloppman gave me a job there. I have to clean and wake you guys up in the morning, I suppose."
"Wow, you must have to get up pretty early!" She yawned and they all laughed.
"Yep." she smiled.
"Do you have to walk all the way from your house?" Race questioned.
"Well, my grandmother gives me a ride in her carriage, I live in Harlem ."
"Why dont you work there?"
"Race! Leave her alone!" Blink scolded.
"No, its okay." Race smirked at Blink. "I really dont know. Grandmother just knew Kloppman so I guess she figured it would be easier? Besides, its not that far!"
"You should stay a the lodging house."
"I'll think about it."
"Okay, well, hey, we'd better get going." Blink insisted.
"are you going back to the lodging house Josey?" Mush asked.
"Yeah."
"Well, someone should go with you, you dont wanto get caught with the Delancy's."
"You know the Delancy's?!" she was astonished.
"Yeah, doesn't everybody?" Mush gave her a weird look. "Who sells around the lodging house?" he pondered.
"Itey does. And Crutchy." Race offered.
"Crutchy's not here," Blink said. "Anyone see Itey?" The boys scanned the room.
"There he is! Over by the window."
Josephine, who had no idea who they were talking about, looked over to the window. She saw three boys, one with wavey blond hair, one with wavey dark hair, and one with short straight brown hair.
"Come on." Mush grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the booth. They walked over to were the three boys stood. "Hey Itey! My friend Josey here need a favor."
"Oh yeah?" the boy in the middle said.
"Yeah, see, she's working at the lodging house and needs someone to escort her back, to make sure nothing happens to her. You're gonna do that." Mush stated.
"Um, okay sure. You ready?" he asked Josephine.
"Yeah,"
Itey paid for his food and they left the restaurant. "Do you live here in Manhatten?"
"No, I live in Harlem, actually."
"So why are you working all the way over here?"
"My grandmother knows Kloppman."
"So, why are you working in a lodging house insted of a factory, like most girls do? And why do you live with your Grandmother?"
"Its a long story."
Itey stopped walking and stared at her. She turned to face him. He stared into her eyes for a moment before looking away. He started walking again and said, "I hope you'll tell me someday."
He had gotten a bit ahead of her, so she had to run to catch up. "How did you know I live with my grandmother?"
"Word gets around," Itey stated. "So, what time do you have to be back?"
"I dont know, I guess I dont have to be back yet, why?"
"Just wondering. Do you think I could sell a few papes on the way then?"
"Sounds fun, can I try?"
"sure." He handed her a small stack of papes. "Go ask that guy over there." he said, pointing to a man across the street.
She gripped the papers and crossed the street. She walked over to the man. "Excuse me sir, I was wondering if--" the man started to turn around and she realized who it was. She turned around quickly. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else." she quickly ran back to Itey.
She hoped he hadn't recognized her voice.
Didn't he want it?" Itey asked.
"Uh, no," she replied, distracted. "Lets just go, I probably should be getting back soon. I have a lot left to do today." she hurried off, leaving Itey stunned. He quickly caught up with her.
"Are you okay? Did he say something to you?" he asked concerned.
"No, I'm fine." she replied, forcing a smile. She hated lying to him, even though she didn't really know him, especially when he was so concerned, but she couldn't tell any of them. Not just yet.
MORE COMING SOON!
