Newsies' Little Sister

Chapter 24 - Strike! (Part 4)

A/N Chapter 24...wow!! A massive thank you to everyone that has read/has been reading this story and thank you for being my motivation and supporting me!! I owe you the world! <3

Ginger's POV

Elmer and I ran through the streets of Manhattan to our selling spot. We took the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge, hoping to catch commuters from each side of the river.

"You wanna take the other side El?" I asked as we came to a halt a few feet away from the bridge ramp.

"Sure. Stay safe ok. I love you." He kissed my cheek and smiled at me. He shifted his stack of papes in his left arm and cupped my face with his free right hand.

"I will. I promise." I replied, looking him straight in the eye. I've learnt to take better care of myself and I can actually win a fight now. "I love you too."

With that, he walked to the other side of the bridge and I looked up at the clock on the side of a building, waiting for it to chime.

The bell rang out and right on cue, a hoard of commuters bustled and jostled in between and around each other to either get across the bridge, or to the few trolleys that were still running.

"THREE KILLED IN VIOLENT TOLLEY STIKE DEMONSTRATION!!!" I shout above the noise and four men come up to me to buy papes.

"Mornin' sirs. Pape's tuppence each." I put the price up from 1 penny to 2 since they looked eager to get their news a go. I held out my hand and 8 pennies fell into my palm as I handed out the papes.

I touched my cap and they left for work.

"VIOLENT TROLLEY STIKE CONTINUES ACROSS THE CITY!!!" I shouted again, but in a different direction.

Three more men and two women bought papes from me and I felt the coins jingle in my pocket as they dropped. 

Little did I know, I would really need that money soon enough.

Elmer's POV

I looked over at Em, hearing her shout. She'd gotten louder and was drumming up a fair amount of business. 

I turned my back her, knowing she could handle herself if she needed to, and looked a rich man in the eye. I found that if you look people in the eye, they come over and buy papes from you! It worked and he came over a bought a pape.

He looked like he was in a rush and he couldn't be bothered to count coins, so he gave me a dollar bill and I just stood there, staring at it for a minute. Snapping out of my money-induced trance, I knelt down and tucked it into my sock. That way it would be harder to steal or lose.

Standing back up, I realised I had almost forgotten about selling. Almost.

"TOLLEY STRIKES TURN VIOLENT. FIRE DEPARTMENT IN CHAOS!!!" For once I didn't bend the headline, the fire department were completely out of their depth with the trolley strikers and their protests.

I tossed a man a pape, and he flicked me a coin in return. I caught it and had a real good look at it, thinking it might be more than a penny.

"Damn it..." It was only a penny, but I guess every coin is worth something...And besides, I had a dollar now!

Ginger's POV

The rest of the my papes had been bought and I skipped over to Elmer, where he still had about 10 papes left.

I helped him sell the last ones and when we walked back to the Lodging House, he bragged about the dollar.

"And where is it?" I asked. He stopped dead in his track.