Racetrack's Newsie Races (A Racetrack Higgin's Love Story)

Chapter 7: I Thought You Understood!

The boy and his father came about an hour later. The man was a little younger than my father. He had salt and pepper hair with a mustache to match and pale blue eyes that were turning gray from old age. He shook hands with my father and he shook my hand too. The boy that had come in behind him was obviously his son. He looked probably how his father had looked at 19 years old. His son had black hair that was slicked back and brown eyes. He had a dimple in his left cheek and a smile full of pearly white teeth. His skin was so fair he looked like a porcelain doll. He was about 5 inches taller than me and I had on shoes with a small heel. He greeted me by kissing my hand, not looking away from my eyes.

                “Hello, Joe,” the older guy said, “Nice place you have here.”

                “Oh thank you, Hampton,” my father said, “And it’s nice to see you too, Samuel. I haven’t seen you in ages.”

                “It’s nice to see you too, Mr. Pulitzer,” Samuel said shaking my father’s hand.

                “Well, we came to discuss business, did we not?” Hampton asked my father.

                “Why, yes we did,” Dad said, “Sydney, why don’t you show Samuel around the town while we talk.”

                “Yes, Daddy,” I said.

                I looped my hand through Samuel’s offered elbow and walked out the front door with him. I thought to myself of all the things I would rather be doing, all the people I would rather be with. Samuel just liked that he had a pretty girl on his arm.

                “You don’t want to be here do you?” Samuel asked me.

                The question stunned me for a moment and I took my hand away from his elbow. “What?”

                “You don’t want to be here. I can see it in your face that you’re somewhere else in your mind. Did your dad put you up to this?”

                “You’re smarter than I thought, young sir.”

                “Only because my father does the same thing. He takes me to meetings with his partners that have daughters and he makes me meet them and start conversation. Most of them don’t even talk.”

                “I guess we’re a lot alike. Except your father probably trusts you to go outside.”

                “Well, he does, but sometimes only with people he knows. Well, we should get going somewhere. Our fathers will want to know all about it when we get back.”

                “How about we go to Tibby’s diner? They have really good food.”

                He offered his elbow again. “I would love to escort a lovely lady to lunch.”

                I smiled and looped my hand back where it was. He escorted me to Tibby’s which wasn’t that far from my house. He opened the door for me. I walked in and stopped in my tracks. The place was full of the newsies and Denton was sitting at a table with Jack, Spot, Les and David. They turned their heads my way when the door opened. Samuel followed me inside wondering why I stopped. I looked away from the newises and sat down in a booth across the small restaurant with Samuel. The waiter handed us menus.

                “Don’t these boys in here work for your dad?” Samuel asked me.

                “Yeah,” I said, “They don’t really work for him. They just sell his newspapers.”

                “How can they afford this place? Aren’t they all very poor?”

                “Maybe not as poor as you think. Can we just order please?”

                Samuel nodded. I glanced over from my menu. I spotted Race staring at me. He had a cigar in his mouth. He took it out and blew out the smoke not breaking eye contact. He didn’t look happy even though I had told him what I would be doing today. Kid Blink whispered something in his ear and Race nodded. I buried my face in my menu to hide the redness of my face. Could this day get any worse? Turns out, it could get worse. I looked behind me at the diner counter that the kitchen was behind. Kid Blink and Race were talking to the waiter who had given us the menu. He handed Race the pad to write down orders and pointed to the table I was at. I put my menu down and so did Samuel.

                “Maybe we shouldn’t have come to this diner,” I said, “There were a lot of other places we could have gone. It’s not too late.”

                “I thought you like this place,” Samuel said, “And it does have the best roast beef in the city.”

                Just then, Race came over to the table. He had a pen and paper in our hands. He looked at he a long time before speaking. I tried not to act like I knew him, but I wasn’t doing a good job because I was so nervous. I was also really worried Samuel would find out.

                “May I take ya order?” Race asked.

                “Um, we’ll have two milkshakes and two roast beef plates,” Samuel said.

                Race wrote it down. “You two on a date or somethin’?”

                “Yes. It’s our first date, hopefully it won’t be our last.”

                Samuel laughed, but I just felt like hitting myself in the face. Race turned red and walked away. Oh why did they have to be here with Denton today? I tried to act causal with Samuel talking about what it was like to grow up in the Pulitzer image. I was still having a hard time concentrating, but Samuel didn’t seem to notice. Race came back with our milkshakes. I was wondering why he wanted to wait on our table. I soon found out when he pretended to accidentally spill Samuel’s milkshake all over him. Samuel stood up and was covered in milkshake. I stood up too with my hand over my mouth.

                “Oh my gosh, are you ok?” I asked Samuel.

                “It’s alright,” Samuel said, “No need to cry over spilled milkshake.”

                I heard the newsies laughing especially Race. I looked at him with angry eyes. I knew he was mad, but he didn’t need to spill a milkshake all over Samuel.

                “You did this on purpose!” I yelled at Race.

                “I did not. It was an accident!” Race yelled back.

                “What is your problem?”

                “What is your problem?”

                “I thought you understood!”

                “I thought you were smarter than this!”

                “You’re a jerk!”

                I grabbed Samuel’s arm and pulled him out of the diner. He looked confused on what had just happened and I wasn’t going to explain. We walked back to my house as I continuously wiped away hot, angry/sad tears from my face.