Fire (From Crutchie to Wheels Sequel)

Sleeping in Brooklyn

Most of the guys hadn't slept on the streets since before the lodge opened. Once it opened, all the Manhattan Newsies had a warm bed to sleep on. Now it was back to sleeping in alleys and in "penguin formation" to keep warm.

"Where do you wanna sleep?" Jack asked the group of about 20 guys after a few days on the streets.

"We could go to Brooklyn," suggested Elmer.

"Spot may not like this," Jack started, "But it's worth a shot."

All the newsies sluggishly walked down towards the bridge, where Spot would undoubtedly be.

"Ey! Why you guys heading towards Brooklyn?" Came Spots voice.

"Our lodge got burned down. Mind if we stay here until we find somewhere to stay? The streets aren't treating some of us right." Asked Jack, refering to Timmy, who looked terrified out of his mind.

"What happen to your face?" Spot questioned, referring to the now blue and purple bruise on Jack's forehead.

"Delanceys."

"Ah. Well, I don't see why not, if we have room. Come." Spot motioned for them to follow.

They walked along the bridge all the way to the Brooklyn lodging house. When they arrived, Timmy and Specs were both recognized by the other refugees who went to Brooklyn.

"Specs! You're alive!" Screamed Turtle as he ran up and hugged Specs. "Timmy!"

"Mute! I missed you!" Said another refugee named Whip. Whip went with Timmy and Brit to Manhatten.
Mute did some random gestures with his hands and Whip laughed.

"What's his name?" Asked Spot.

"Mute," Whip responded.

"Why is he swatting away invisible flies?"

"When we were in the refuge, we became friends, but he can't talk so we made up a fake sign language that only some refugees can understand so Snyder couldn't bring in a translator."

"That's pretty smart."

"Wait. He's been here for half a year and you guys didnt know his name?" Whip questioned.

"Sort of. We called him Swat for a while because he kept on doing that made up language. But then we realized he can't talk and we called him Deaf," Spot responded.

Timmy chuckled in the back. "You guys do realize he can hear, right?"

A nervous "W-what" came from Spot.

"Yeah."

Every Brooklyn newsie sort of just looked at Mute in pure horror, realizing that he could hear everything they'd said about him. Mute just waved and had a smirk on his face.

"He just can't talk cause when we were in the refuge he tried to..." Timmy started but Crutchie twitch slapped him across the face.

"He tried to what?" Asked Spot.

"Nothing," Specs quickly responded before Timmy could finish the sentence.

"Oh y-yeah by the w-way. I t-twitch and s-stutter now, so I g-guess you could s-say I'm a t-triple threat," Crutchie said, nervously laughing, trying to change the subject because it was clear that was not something that needed to be talked about at the moment. Also, he wanted everyone to know that so he didn't look insanely stupid when he slapped someone again.

"When did this start happening?" Asked Bird, a Brooklyn newsie.

"After the Delanceys got him real good. Can we move on?" Replied Jack, remembering what happened in the house a few days ago.

"Alright," Said Spot. "All of you are on the floor unless you're hurt, sick, there's an open bed, or you can sucker someone into sharing. So Crutchie and Crutchie Jr. Follow me."

Crutchie and Timmy followed. Crutchie cringed at the name "Crutchie Jr." It reminded him too much of Les.

As they walked over, a few of the Brooklyn newsies started murmuring and pointing at Timmy.

Spot guided them into a room of beds. All of them were empty except one. From the back, it looked like it was just covered in blankets, but if you moved to the side, you could see there was a boy in it. He was coughing violently.

"Hey, Brit. Your Manhatten friends are here," said Spot.

"B-brit?" Questioned Crutchie.

Brit turned around at Crutchie's voice.

"Hey, Crutchie."