Papes and Pens

Chapter 5

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"I kissed him Daddy," Katherine says quietly. "And you know what? It was worth it!" Katherine says, her voice growing louder.

"Worth it? What do you mean by worth it?" Mr. Pulitzer spits.

"Well you know she is the same age you were when you married her mother." Mary interjects quietly.

"But Jack Kelly? He doesn't have any worth to his name! How will you survive?" Katherine's father grumbles.

"I make enough money for the both of us to live comfortably!" I exclaim. "Plus, Jack works. Under you I might add! If you're so worried about us not making ends meet doesn't that just criticize how much you pay your workers? Plus it doesn't matter how much money he makes. All it matters is that we love each other."

"I really need to have a word with him. How about this weekend? No man can go around messing with my daughter." Mr. Pulitzer mutters.

"Don't you dare do anything that will make him want to leave Dad! Because if he goes, I'm going with him, no matter what you say." Katherine huffs.

"Is he still thinking of moving to Santa Fe?" Her father asks, softening his tone.

"No, he knows that his family is here in New York. But if you give him a reason to move, he'll be on the next train to Santa Fe. We both will be." Katherine replies.

They wrap up dinner, and Katherine heads out, hoping Jack remembered about meeting at the rooftop. After an intense dinner with her father, he is what she needs.

"How ya been Ace?" Jack asks as I climb onto the rooftop.

"I had quite the dinner father. He wants to see you this weekend. You in? Katherine says, sitting down next to Jack.

"Well, if you're up to it I'm up to it!" Jack says, giving Katherine some of his blanket. "We're going to have to talk to him eventually, might as well get it over with sooner rather than later."

"Okay then I'll let him know we're coming. Father just has a little bone to pick with you. He doesn't appreciate that you almost shut down his paper, but he's happy that you'll make cartoons that the public enjoys."

"I figured. Eventually I get on everyone's good side." Jack winks, as they lie down to look at the stars.

"You really do Jack Kelly." Katherine says, resting her head on his shoulder.

"So it's a date then." Jack says, clasping her hand.

"Does a dinner with my father count as a date in your book?" Katherine chuckles. "If so, we need to sort out your priorities."

"Do you want to talk about what happened with your father?" Jack asks. "I know it must be hard without a mother. You only have one person to please. I on the other hand have no one to please, so I can do whatever I want. You, on the other hand, probably have the hardest person in all of Manhattan to please."

Katherine sighs, "No, nothing too over the top happened, I just always forget how tiring it is to explain my life to him. It'll be easier having someone on my side this weekend."

They talk about the upcoming meeting with Mr. Pulitzer until it got too cold for them to stay on the roof. Jack walked Katherine home, and then turned in for the night.

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Jack jolts awake to groaning and crying a couple beds away from him. Crutchie is

having his nightmares again. They had stopped for a couple weeks now that he's been home, so it startled Jack awake one evening. Jack quietly gets up and walks to Crutchie, hoping to calm him without waking the others. Only he knows what Crutchie went through, thinking of how relieved he is that no one else has to go though what they went through.

"Crutch, wake up." Jack whispers, shaking his shoulder. "Wake up." Jack leans over him, trying again more forcefully. Crutchie flutters his eyes open, bloodshot and watering.

"Can we go?" Crutchie grabs Jack's shoulders and pulls himself up. His leg hasn't been getting any better lately. "I think it may be the only way to escape the nightmares." He grabs his crutch and walks quickly towards the kitchen, the only room not occupied by boys during the night. Jack follows, hoping to calm him down.

"Crutchie, sit down." Jack says. "What was in your dreams?" He sits besides Crutchie. The only thing that helped him when he had them was talking them through with Crutchie. Now it was his turn to be on the receiving end of things.

"You know that kids died in there. I never saw it happen, but I heard the stories. That's how they had enough room for me to sleep." Crutchie whispers, holding his head in his hands "I can't get their voices out of my head or their frail bodies out of my mind."

"Kids starving and with barely any clothes to wear. I saw it too, their eyes bloodshot and tired. Like they would never see sunlight again." Jack says as his voice cracks. "But now it will never be like that. And that's because of you and me and every boy and girl who wasted away in that rotten hell."

"When will they go away?" Crutchie asks, looking at Jack with bloodshot eyes.

"Never. They will just become more and more infrequent." Jack answers. "Do you really want to go to Sante Fe?

"I want to go to a world where no child has to go through what we went through and a world where I never have to see that place in my mind again."

"I don't know if that place exists. But Crutchie, the only way we can get close to it is to stay here and work. Work to create safe living conditions through cartoons and the extra money we earn and work through the nightmares." Jack says, holding Crutchie's hands. "You're my family, my brother. Without you, I don't think I'd be alive. You keep me strong. Together we can change the world, but only after we get some sleep."

Crutchie stifles a yawn. "The world can wait until tomorrow. Thanks Jack, I mean it."

"Anytime."