Crippled Words (A Crutchie Love Story)

Chapter 1: Sadie and Willa

By Popular demand, I wrote another Newsie Fan Fiction about Crutchy so here it is guys. Hope you like it :)

“Wake Up!” my friend, Willa, yelled shaking me in my sleep, “Wake up!”

                “What is your problem?” I said sitting up, “You’ll wake up the whole apartment if you don’t shut up.”

                “I wouldn’t have to yell if you would have just woken up.”

                “I wouldn’t have to be snappy if you would have just let me wake up by myself. Why are you shaking me awake anyway?”

                “Because I want to go to the picture show and we’re going to be late if you don’t wake up. Your dad is gone now anyway.”

                I grumbled and got out of my bed. I lived in an apartment building for all the research doctors and their families. Willa was my best friend. She lived in the apartment next door with her father, mother and little brother. All the doctors usually left really early and that included my dad. I got dress and pinned my hair up. Willa had been my friend ever since my dad and I moved to New York. She was fun, loving, and random and that’s why she was my best friend. When I was done getting ready, Willa grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my apartment. We were about to walk down the stairs when Willa’s mother opened her apartment door and stopped us.

                “And where do you two think you’re going?” she asked us.

                “Um, to the picture show,” Willa said.

                “You didn’t tell me you were going to the picture show.”

                “Well, I was going to tell you, but you were feeding Louis. I didn’t want to bother you.”

                “Sure. Good Morning, Sadie.”

                “Good Morning, Mrs. Wilson,” I said.

                “Willa, next time you want to run out the house, tell me where you’re going.”

                “Yes, Mama.”

                “No go on you two.”

                We smiled at her and ran down the stairs and out the door. The streets were busy, carriages and horses aligned the streets. We heard the bells go off at the Pulitzer building signaling the newspapers were ready to be sold. Willa and I walked on our way to the picture show. We stopped at the gate of the newsboys place where the boys were coming out, papers in hand.

                “I wonder if it’s hard to be a newsboy,” Willa asked.

                “How hard can it be to sell newspapers all day?” I said, “Plus they’re all orphans and runaways. It’s not like they have much to care about.”

                “Still…most of them are our age.”

                “Well, if I ever meet a newsboy, I’ll ask him how hard his job is.”

                Willa giggled. We continued on our way walking. We got to the front of the theatre. Willa handed the clerk her money and she got the tickets. When we were about to walk in, we were stopped by a news boy with an eye path on his right eye.

                “Wanna buy a pape, sweet face?” he asked me.

                “No thank you,” I said, “Why do you have the eye patch?”

                “Long story. Why do you ask so many questions?”

                “Long story.”

                He smiled at me. “Name’s Kid Blink.”

                “Sadie.”

                Willa pulled me along into the theatre. She hit me on the arm and I looked at her angrily.

                “What?” I said.

                “You just randomly decided to talk to a newsie? And you were flirting?”

                “I wasn’t flirting. He was flirting. I was just asking him a question. Don’t get your bloomers in a twist.”

                “Yeah, sure. I’m not the one picking boys up off the street.”

                “You worry too much. I was just being friendly. And what kind of name is Kid Blink anyway? The boy can’t blink to save his life.”

                “Maybe it’s a pun.”

                “Seems pretty funny to me.”

                We both laughed and went to go find seats in the movies. We sat down waiting for the movie to start. I looked at Willa.

                “You think our dads will ever find a cure for crippled people?” I asked her, “It just seems that they keep trying and nothing has come up. Meanwhile, all these people are losing their jobs.”

                “They might one day. I mean, cripples always have people to take care of them anyway. They can hang in while doctors find something to help them.”

                “I guess. I was going to go to work with my dad tomorrow and see what they do. Do you want to come?”

                “My mom won’t let me go. She said I shouldn’t disturb my dad a work.”

                “Your loss. I’ll just go by myself. I’ll tell you if anything interesting happens.”

                “In a doctor’s office? I doubt it.”

                I laughed as the theatre went dark and the show started.