It's a Cinch

Chapter 14: Crutchie, Katherine, and the Chicken

I can't believe I'm doing this. I know Jack saved me from Synder, but for how long is he going to hold that against me.

What exactly am I supposed to do? Talk to her like a normal person? Talk to her about Jack? She doesn't even know that guy. The guy doesn't know her. I don't know her. I don't know what I am even doing? God, I need a sandwich.

I just keep walking aimlessly hoping to spot that girl. I want to make it up to Jack and try to meet her, but dang its a lost cause. Trying to find one person in all of New York  is even more impossible than a needle in hay stack, because you know that needle isn't going to move from its spot.

Maybe I'm lucky or maybe just that good, but there she is. Sitting with that guy she was with earlier. Now the moment of truth, do I go over to her and say something? That would be easy but yet nerve racking. Wait! Why am I scared? Its just a person.

I casually start to walk over to them. I get about five feet away and out of no where I hear being yelled. "Tulsa!" I turn my head to see Crutchie on the street corner. He's waving and he looks so happy I just turn on my heel and start walking to where he is at.

"How ya doing Tulsa?" Crutchie says with a big smile on his face. I smile back at him. I tell him, "Good..uh..You know my name is actually Rebecca, right?"

Crutchie lightly laughs and leans against his crutch. "I kind figured Tulsa wasn't ya real one. Did Jack give it too you?"

"Tulsa?" I ask him trying to make sure that was he was talking about so that there would be no confusion. He nods his head at me. "No, no. Tulsa is my last name. Rebecca Tulsa. I guess he just thought Tulsa was better. Who knows why?" We both laugh at this. 

Crutchie pushes his hat up a little and I could see his brown hair poke from underneath his hat. "Yeah, Jack is usually da one who give the guys their names." This made me a little curious. Did he just call me by something other than my what I am usually called out of pure habit? "Why is that?" I cheekily ask him. 

"Well. I'm not exactly sure. Most of da guys wern't really called anything before me and Jack knew em. I mean some had names, but most didn't. So he just started calling them thing and they just stuck. Race is Race, because when he goes and gambles on the horse races down at the tracks. Specs got them nice glasses. Mush used to have a slur. I got a crutch."

I slyly smile at him and keep up the conversation. "Yours is probably the most literal." I say while laughing, but no laugh comes from Crutchie so I awkwardly stop laughing and try to find something else to talk about. "So, how's the paper today."

Crutchie holds out a newspaper and passes it to me. "The pape's just the trolley strike. Nothin' to make a living off of." That's just sad the reporters aren't even trying to give the newsies a chance. "Hey, Tulsa. Ya looks like an ernest person. Can I ask ya somthin'?" There goes my chances of getting any of the newsies to call me Rebecca. Without a beat I reply to him. "Sure thing, what is it?"

Crutchie moves over most of his weight and leans on his crutch. He nervously asks, "When I walk,does it look like I'm faking it?" Crutchie then walks around me in a circle.I'm not sure what to tell him. I put my hand on his shoulder and he doesn't know how to react to it. So I take my hand off and place them by my side. "Who says you're faking it?"

"Oh, nobody. But there are so many fake crips on the street that a real crip doesn't stand a chance." Crutchie sadly says with a frown on his face. This isn't the optimistic Crutchie that I am accustomed to.

"So what? A limp doesn't sell newspapers, newsies sell newspapers. Newsies with a bright personality who are determined." I tell Crutchie. I remember what he said earlier about  his smile that spreads like butter. Crutchie smiles  and then starts to blush. It was quite adorable.

A shout is heard. Crutchie and I looks at each other confused. We both slowly walk down the street trying to find where that holler when from. I turn my head to see the other Delancy hovering over some poor kid who is laying on the ground holding his arm in pain. When Crutchie sees what I am doing, he grabs my arm and starts to pull me away. "Crutchie, didn't you see that? We have to help him."

"We should, but those Delanceys are rotten. And it doesn't matter if its Morris or Oscar, they're both bad. We'll be beaten into dirt." He says trying to get move away from the crime scene. "So?" I yank my arm from he and he looses balance but regains it and holds onto his crutch. This gives me enough time to run back to the ally, where that poor kid is being beaten to a pulp.

Back at the ally, the kid is against the wall terrifed. I am frozen in fear until I hear the thud of a punch and the kid falls on the ground. "HEY!" I shout. The other brother, Morris Delancey looks at me annoyed.

"Go home, nothing concerns you here." Morris say facing his body out towards me sending chills up and down my spine. I stomp my feet down and walk quickly to be in front of the victim. Morris rolls up his sleeves.

"Everything concerns me here and if you touch this child one more time I'll-"

"You'll what? Hurt me." He starts to laugh. But another voice stops his laughter only to result into a bigger fit of laughter. "NO. I WILL!" Crutchie moves as fast as he can and stands on front of me.

With all this distraction, I help the beaten child off the ground and he runs as fast as he can from the ally. Morris looks at me angry. "You owe me a bloody nose and a black eye." He kicks Crutchie's crutch and he falls to the ground. "No!" I say as soon at I see that happen to Crutchie. I swing my fist at him and it lands square in his jaw. Morris then pushes me agianist the wall and I loose traction and slip onto the ground. Morris the steps over Crutchie who is trying desperately to get off the ground. He then kicks my legs and I grunt out of pain.

My head laying on the ground the next thing I expect to see a foot straight to my face. Not a falsh of purple fly by. "I would walk away if I was you, unless you wanted to be  blasted on the front page of the New York Sun. Which won't be a good thing especially when words like cold-hearted, barbaric, and inhuman are associated with your name. Which would be?" He says leaning her hand back looking down at me. Who was I to stop her roll? "His name is Morris Delancey. And while you're at it. He's got a brother Oscar, who is just as cruel."

She smirks and then flings her head around Morris looks worried. " 'Brutal Brothers Locked in Slammer.' Now that's a good headline."

I get up and then help Crutchie off the ground. He gets situated on his crutch and the adds on the girl's comments. "With a headline like that, I'll be selling papes like there's no tomorrow."

"Your choice?" Jack saw something in this girl and now I see it too. Morris dusts of his shoulder and leaves the three of us standing in the ally. Crutchie and I look at her with wide eyes. She looks at us with a small smile.

"Thank you." I mumble out.

"Me?" She questions. "You the got the kid out of here and punched him in the jaw. All I did was talk." She smugly says and starts to walk out of the ally. Crutchie looks at me before going after her. He says I his soft but yet thick accent, "Well thank ya for talking. "

I don't hear the reast of what they are saying to each other, because while I was standing alone in that ally I started to talk to  myself. "She saw all that....she saw everything." I start to run to catch up to the two. "Hey!" I call and they both turn around to me.

"What's your name?" Call me straight forward, I don't care. I just want to know information.

"Katherine." She says  in a calm safe sounding voice. Crutchie then pats my back and goes off rambling. "Well Katherine, I'm Crutchie and this here is Tuls-" 

"-Rebecca" I say cutting off Crutchie. She reaches out her hand for me to shake and I return the favor.

"Rebecca, its been interesting. Let's do it again something. Nice meeting you too, Crutchie."

Well I actually did end up meeting the girl Jack was head over heels for. Funny how thing work out like that. Of course it have been nice to not have been pushed around by Morris Delancey, but its in the past now so what are you going to do.