The Road to Harlem

8. Race

Hello my dearly devoted readers, tysm for reading. I'm excited to get back into writing and posting chapters more often *knock on wood*.  Love u all and thank you to my friends for the support and 100 reads!

(Finch's POV)

When all the newsies stepped outside the lodging house, we were greeted by the sign that said the headline saying, "New Newsie Price: Sixty Cents per Hundred". After reading that, the group burst out in shouts of protest. Next to me, Mush yelled "That's so unfair! How is we gonna eat?"

Jack came out of the lodging house and yelled "What's all this about?"

Crutchie hobbled over to him, "Get a load of this Jack," he pointed at the headline.

"This has gotta be a joke," he said, almost laughing. He strutted over to the wagon where Weasel and Delancys were, ready to sell us our papes.

"Papes for the newsies. Line up!" Weasel shouted. Jack arrived at the wagon and we all crowded behind him while he smacked down 50 cents.

"Good joke Weasel, ya really got the guys goin'. I'll take a hundred and be on my way."

"A hundred'll cost ya sixty," Weasel replied with a smirk while the Delanceys eyed each other.

"That's highway robbery! Me and the crew'll take a hike over ta the Journal or the Sun!" Jack declared, and we all cheered in agreement.

Personally, I wouldn't mind working at the Sun because that was the paper that we always had in the house and I used to read it all the time. To be honest, I've always wanted to be a reporter and work for a newspaper. But that was just a stupid dream. I pushed it out of my head and focused on what Jack was saying, "Why the jack-up?"

"I don't make the rules, I just work 'ere. So, are ya buyin' or movin' on?"

Jack thought for a second, "C'mere everybody." He stepped away from the wagon and we all huddled around him. My eyes found Muriel across the "huddle thing" that was going on. She was usually with Race, but right now, he was nowhere to be found. She was standing next to Albert and I glanced away. I looked at him again and we made eye contact for a second before we both looked at Jack. He was saying something about a strike but I didn't really care at this point.

I looked over everyone's heads, and walking towards us was Race! Where had he been? He jogged over and joined the group like he hadn't even been gone.

"Let's go to Jacobi's," I heard Elmer say. A lot of the newsies said "yeah!" in agreement, so we all walked over there with Les, Muriel, and Albert running together in the front. I smiled. I was glad she was so happy here, that we both were so happy here.
I caught up to Race, as he was ahead of me. He was talking loudly with Elmer and Specs. I tapped him on his shoulder to get his attention, and he looked at me surprised. "Can I talk to ya?"

"Yeah, sure." I garbbed his arm and led him away from the pack, but we were still walking so as not to look weird.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Where were ya last night?"

"What do ya mean?"

"I saw ya walkin' towards us from the street when we were talking about the strike." Race looked down, and I immediately felt bad. I didn't know it was supposed to be a secret that he was sleeping someplace else.

"Well... um... Brooklyn," he blurted out.

"I's sorry. I didn't know it was a secret."

"It's okay. Ya know now. I just don't want ya telling everyone."

"Of course," I said. "Could I just ask who ya were spendin' the night with?"

"Do ya promise not to tell?" He said, almost whispering.

"Yeah."

Race took a deep breath, "Well the only person who knows is Jack and he's not gonna tell and you seem pretty trustworthy, so here goes," he took another breath, "I's sleepin' with Spot Conon." He said so I could barely hear him, but I heard exactly what he said. I looked at him and his face was bright red.

"It's alright," I said, "I promise I's not gonna tell." He smiled at me thankfully. I honestly don't know why he told me that but I'm glad he did.

"Wait, Spot Conlon, Brooklyn's leader?" I asked.

"Yeah... do ya got a problem wit that?" He looked at me shyly.

"No, no, of course not. I was just making sure we were talking about the right Spot Conlon." Race sighed a little bit. I definitely wasn't against the homosexual. I wasn't even sure if I liked girls myself. I hugged Race and promised him again that I wouldn't tell anyone as we walked into Jacobi's Diner.