Stray on Strike

Ain't I pretty!

I walk into Jacobi's Deli without a newspaper. Nothing to show the guys of our worth. Again I told Katherine to come and I want her to bring one. Well, since Morris ripped up mine.

I ponder weather I should tell the boys what happen with Oscar Delancey. I am confident I can handle that stupid stabber. So what's a little kiss. He took it from me. So it does not mean a thing. Does it? Then again he did steal from me something that I have only given to Crutchie. And harass me. And push me over the edge. But the guys are not going to find out.

The guys are sitting around mopping. Davey is dressed in a casual outfit and little Les still has his arm wrapped up in an bandage. Race is just holding his cigar he is not even lighting it. I do not know why he isn't. He steals them anyways so it's not like he is wasting his money on the Coronas.

It is just boring in here. "Well isn't this just the hou polli!" I say sarcastic and very very loud.

All the heads turn comically all at once. I let out a laugh. Buttons pops up out of his chair and runs up and hugs me. "Stray!" He says excited.

"Aye look at da leg!" I hear a voice call through the crowd. And then all of anyone in the place burst into enormous happy chatter.

"Pipe down would ya?" I shout and sit beside Specs on a table toward the right of the Deli.

As fast as the noise came it went away. All the chatter died down and soon the whole big room was silent. It's just as boring as it was when I first walked in.

Jacobi walks around and hands off glasses of water to various boys around the room. When he is done passing out his project he turns to walk out. But it's more like a shuffle since he's so old and his legs only move two inches per step. He takes a deep breath in and then wheezes out, "Drink up, boys. And don't ever say I don't give you nothin'. And before you say water is nothing, just ask a fish. In the desert."

Did anyone here understand what he just said? "Why do old people talk?" I groan out.

Race talks with his cigar in his mouth, "Ta prove they's still alive."

Katherine walks in. And I leave the crutch on the table and jump up off of the table. People hearing my feet making noise and look up and see Katherine, but they look back down at the ground sadly. "Good morning, gentlemen. Oh, would you get a load of these glum mugs. Why, can these really be the same boys who made front page of the New York Sun?"

Well there goes me telling them the surprise. A voice pipes up through the crowd, "Front page of what?"

Race hops off of his seat and walks up to Katherine. "Let me see!" He snatches the paper and reads the newspaper. "Well would you look at that! That's me!"

Kid Blink laughs at Race's excitement and shouts across the room. "And you're not even dead!" That's the only hope we had of ever getting on the newspaper in our lives.

Race walks towards the middle table and we all run to him. Everyone walks to see the paper Boots yells, trying to just get a peak at the pape. "Where's me, where's me?"

Ike grabs the paper and lifts it above his head proudly. His brother Mike laughs. "Just wait till my old man gets a load of this. I won't be last in line for the tub tonight!" To be fair. That is kinda funny.

"You got us in the papes?" Davey with a playful grin walks towards Katherine. I follow behind me.

Katherine pops out her hip like she usually does. " You got yourselves in the papes."