The Grave Digger

Chapter 19: Pictures

Trigger Warning for this chapter, read at your own discretion

   By May, Bones' good selling was starting to slow down. She sold less and less, no matter how much energy she put into it. People just wouldn't buy from her. Nobody knew why, but that's how it was. But she wouldn't tell anyone that she was worried, or anything. She just kept her regular troublemaker smirk on her face, and said everything was fine. Even when she came back to the lodging house late, trying to hide all the papers she hadn't sold. They wouldn't tell her, but everyone knew. They knew she was trying to hide the fact that she hadn't sold well, but they didn't ask. But one day, she did sell pretty well. She sold all her papers, as did most of the others, and it wasn't even dark yet. They had a great headline that day, something about some missing child or whatever. Everyone wanted the scoop on this child that had been missing for almost fifteen years. Race had joked about how the child looked like her, but he was just being weird. She ran away, her parents had given her to someone, she wasn't taken. But that evening, they all had a bit of spare time. Most of the newsies were reading, so that left Bones with nothing to do.
She put her head on Race's shoulder, and sighed. "Go away, I'm reading." She sighed again, and laid down in front of him. "Don' make me slap you." He said, not looking up. "Fine, geez, I'll go bother someone else." "You betta not botha me!" Jack yelled across the room at her. Blink looked up from his book. "I'll teach ya how ta read, c'mere." She raised an eyebrow. "Trus' me, I've tried ta loin, I jus' couldn', it gives me a headache." She walked over to him, and put her chin on his shoulder. He laughed. "A'ight, I'll start from da beginning of dis book. Ya see here, it's called 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.'" She wrinkled her nose. "I don' get it." Blink laughed again. "Sorry, maybe reading's jus' not fo' ev'ry one. Bu' I'll still read ta ya." He put his finger under the words as he read. "'Tom!' No answah. 'Tom!' No answah. 'What's gone wit dat boy, I wondah?'" He kept reading until the end of the first chapter, occasionally stopping to ask Specs how to pronounce a word. Specs was known as the 'smart one' of the newsies. Bones was so engrossed in the story, that Race eventually looked up, and watched the two of them, nearly laughing. When Blink stopped reading, Bones looked at him. "Wha' happens next?" He looked at her, smiling. "Satu-day mornin' was come, and all da summah world was bright an' fresh, an' brimmin' wit life." Again, he kept reading, and he didn't stop until the sun started to set. He closed the book, and chuckled a little as Bones pouted.
That night, Bones just wanted to draw. She missed the familiar feel of the parchment beneath her arm, the strong pencil between her fingers. She had a few drawings she had been able to do a while ago. One of Spot that she was really proud of, and one of the Brooklyn Bridge that was beautiful. Quietly, she pulled them out from under her pillow to look at. She didn't think anyone had seen her, but Crutchy had. He couldn't see the drawings themselves, but he saw the papers she had pulled out from her pillow. He didn't ask, but he wanted to see them sometime.
The next day, Bones did not sell very well. She stayed out till well past dark, hoping somebody would buy from her. Meanwhile, all the other newsies had gotten back to the lodging house. "Hey, where's Bones?" Jack asked, making sure everyone was alright. "She's still tryin' ta sell. Didn' do too great tu-day." Crutchy answered, hovering in between their beds. He was debating whether he should pull out the papers to see what they were. He did, when no one was looking. But he was amazed. "Wow, these are real good. Do ya think Bones drew these?" He asked, forgetting he shouldn't have found them in the first place. Race looked over Crutchy's shoulder. "Wow, those are amazin'. She might've." "She might've what?" Bones asked, suddenly appearing in the lodging house, all her papers in hand. "Did one o' ya's get a goil or summin', or ya talkin' abou' me?" Crutchy quickly hid the drawings behind his back. "We said ya mighta gotten lost in da dark." Hastily, he passed the drawings to Race, who stealthily hid them under his sheets without Bones noticing. She raised an eyebrow, and placed her pile of papers on her bed. She took a deep breath, and rubbed her shoulder. "You okay?" Race asked. She nodded, and slipped onto her bed. She looked extremely worn, and she laid her head down. But something wasn't right. Something was missing. She picked up her pillow, and, to her dismay, her drawings were not there. She turned to face the others, confusion on her face. "Did someone take summin' from up here?" Everyone denied, but Bones could see guilt written all over Crutchy's face. She stared at him with a seemingly knowing look. "Crutchy? C'mere." He did as she said, and walked to her. "Did ya see someone take summin' from my bed?" He swallowed, and slowly said, "no." Bones knew he was lying. He was a terrible liar. "Crutchy, tell me da truth, I won't be mad." He couldn't meet her eyes. She was still looking at him knowingly, and he finally told the truth. "I took them. I'm sorry, I jus' wanted ta know wha' was unda ya're pillow. I shouldn've taken them. Race hid them unda his sheets when ya came in." Bones looked up at the ceiling, annoyed. "Crutchy, ya could've asked ta see them." He finally met her eyes. "Ya would've let me see them?" "No, bu' ya still coulda asked. Bu' thanks fo' telling the truth, unlike all da uddah people in here." She looked around the room with a poisonous glare, and every newsie looked at their feet, ashamed. Lastly she looked at Race, even more upset with him for lying to her. They had been friends for the longest time. She hardly recalled the last time he lied to her. "In Crutchy's an' our defense, dey're really good." Race said, so quietly, Bones could hardly hear him. "Dey're no' dat good. Dey're jus' some random things." Bones blushed. She never would have thought of them as that good. They were just some random drawings on some paper she had gotten her hands on. In fact, she did the one of Spot with a piece of charcoal she found. Race looked up at her. "These are amazin'. You can' say dey're not good." She shook her head, but Race pulled them out and showed everybody. "Did you do these?" Jack asked. Shyly, Bones nodded. "Wow. I could nevah imagine bein' able ta draw this good." She smiled. "I can teach ya, it ain't that hard. I'm pretty sure I did the one of tha bridge when I was nine. And tha one o' Spot I did when I was twelve." The Newsies were passing them around, all amazed. Eventually they had all seen them, and were all chattering about them. But it was late, and they had to get up to sell in the morning, so they all eventually went to sleep.
Bones didn't know why, but she always woke up before the sunrise. She thought about waking Race up again, it was nice sitting up there with him, so she did. She poked him in the back, and he immediately woke up. She placed her finger to her lips, telling him to be quiet. She didn't talk, and she didn't want to talk, just like how it had been nearly a year before. He followed her out to the roof, and they sat like they had so long ago. It was so peaceful, sitting there, with no sound besides the birds and their breathing. She burrowed in closer to Race's side, and he kissed the top of her head. She never wanted that moment to end.
The next few days were really bad for Bones. Not just with selling newspapers, but with people taunting her, as well. One guy even backed her up against a wall, but she kicked him in his soft spot and ran away. But these small things really got to her, and she wondered what it would be like to have a family, and not have to work to get food. She wondered if anyone would notice if she just... left. She wanted to fly away, like a bird. She wanted to leave everyone and everything so she could fly somewhere, anywhere. She wanted to fly.
One night, Bones wondered if she could fly. She looked around to make sure everyone was asleep, but she didn't realize that Race wasn't. She ran to the bridge, Race behind her. She got to the bridge, and traced her hand along the railing. She laughed, soon, she would be out of there, no one would bother her again. She would be far above them, and she would never look back. She laughed even more, until tears were running down her cheeks. Then she started to climb the edge.
Race's heart started to beat faster. He ran towards her. "Bones, get down from there." She didn't even look at him when she said, "why? Why can' I jus' fly away from here? I wanna fly, let me fly!" Although she was not facing him, Race could see the tears streaming down her face. "Bones, please." He was tall enough that if she stepped forward, he could reach her waist. "I wanna fly like a bird." She stepped forward, but Race grabbed her, and pulled her off the bridge. "Let me go, I wanna fly!" She yelled at him, crying. He held her close to him, calmly shushing her, and rocking her back and forth. He sat down with her in his lap, still rocking her, as she was crying. He ran his hands through her hair. But he was terrified when she actually said the words, "I wanna die," although it was quiet enough he could have been mistaken. "No, you don', I promise, you don'." He rocked her, tears starting to flow from his eyes, and he pulled her in closer to his chest, hoping she would fall asleep.
Bones hated the pictures. The ones in her mind from back then. They were horrible. She wanted them to go away. She knew a bird wouldn't see the pictures. She knew that she could be a bird if she flew. But she knew that the only way to be a bird was to fly off the bridge, into the water. "I wanna die," she whispered into Race's chest. Why wouldn't he just let her fly? Why wouldn't he let her be a bird? She cried, and cried. She wanted to get away from all the horrible people. They were monsters. They said she couldn't do anything, that she was stupid. She cried, and cried. She fell asleep, and it was as if Race was shielding her from the pictures. They didn't come back that night.

AN: Drawings are not mine, I found them online