On The Docks | A Spot Conlon Love Story

What Spot Saw That Day

I get back from my day of hard working, selling papes, ordering people around, keeping up with the Newsies. And boy can I say it's tough.

I head to my spot on the dock, behind the crates, but this time when I climb over them, there's a pretty girl.

She has long (h/c) hair flowing in the wind, and I notice that she's reading a book. I can't help but notice that something about her feels far too familiar.

"What're you doings in my spot?" I ask her, she jumps a bit, then falls in the water."Crap!" She yells. I quickly get down. 'The water is freezing cold at this time of day.' I think. I wait to see if she comes up. She doesn't. So I jump into the water, me being used to it, I don't shock up. But she did.

I feel her body and grab her, swimming up to the surface with her. I pull her up on the dock and she starts caughing up all the water in her lungs. I just sit there amazed that there's a pretty girl on MY dock.

"Are youse alright, miss?" I ask, trying to be as polite as possible. She is shaking.

"Yes, thank you," she says, without any accent, 'Must be rich'. I smile at her.

"Now, would ya minds tellin' me why you were ins mah spot?" I ask, not trying to be rude but it come off that way. She looks me in my eyes and I get to see how beautiful she is, her (e/c) eyes matching perfectly with her skin tone, and her beautifully delicate yet powerful features.

"Well, I usually come to the docks at this time, but this time I saw these boxes and decided to climb them. And found this little space, so I pulled out my book and started reading it. Then you showed up and I got scared and fell in." I nod.
'Don't know why I've never seen her here before, maybe she leaves after the sun sets, that would explain it.'

"Makes sense," I spit into my hand and holds it out to her, testing her, "what's yours name, pretty lady?" She spits in her hand and shakes mine. I stare in amazement.

"Wow, Ise never met a lady who's evah done a spit shake," I say.

"Well, I guess I'm not your every day girl. Anyways, my friends call me sweetheart, sometimes sugar." I smirk, letting a stupid thought come to mind.

"Yeah, but I wanna know what I should be callin' youse tonight," I say, thinking about how stupid I am. Nah, who am I kidding, I'm pretty great.

"No thank you. My brother would KILL me if I even went near Brooklyn. So I've already broken one rule, maybe two by talking to you. So I don't want to upset him even more," she speaks and gets herself up.

"Wheres you from then? And whos is this brudda of yours?" I ask, she stays quiet for a moment.

"I'm from Manhattan. And my brother is Jack Kelly." I look at her with confusion and amazement, but trying not to let her know. Maybe this is where I know her from? I could have met her.

"Your bruddas Jack Kelly? As in the leadah of the Manhattan Newsies?" She nods, "So then who does that make you?" She clears her throat.

"They call me Ash Kelly. Friends call me Sweetheart, but when I'm on the streets they just call me sugar." I scoff.

"Whys would you be ons the streets?" I ask, no pretty lady should be hanging around the streets.

"Well, I work as a Newsie. And I'm a pretty good one if I say so myself," she says, I break out laughing, "what're you laughing at?"

"Youse ain't a Newsie! I knows one when I sees one!" She sighs and grabs a cap from her bag, and pulls her hair up, then put the cap on. Wow. I never knew there'd be a day where I'm wrong. She laughs.

"You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Wait, what's your name?" She asks. I smile, knowing that EVERY Newsie knows my name.

"The name's Spot, Spot Conlon. Head of the Brooklyn terf." She stands still for a moment, giving the reaction I wanted. Then I realize how much she's shivering.

"Here, let me set up a bed for youse. You must be freezing," I say, trying to be a gentleman. She shakes her head.

"N-no thanks. My brother's going to be mad at me. I should just head home. But thank you for the offer." She puts her stuff in her bag and is looking around for something. 'Her jacket.'

"No, no! It must've fallen in! Oh shoot! Jackie's going to kill me!" She freaks out, so I put my right hand on her shoulder to console her, she flinches on contact.

"Hey, don't worry, you can borrows mine," I say. She looks at my jacket and then back up at me.

"No, I couldn't-"

"Nonsense, you'll freeze tah death otherwise. And besides, thinks of it as a gift froms Brooklyn." I take off my jacket and hand it over to her. I watch her awkwardly putting it on.

"Thank you, Spot. I owe you one." She giggle slightly and starts walking away. So I pull her back with my cane. I turn her around and wrap my arms around her.

"Hows about you pay me back now with a kiss?" She puts her hand on my chest and pushes away, but I keep her still.

She freezes for a moment, breathing rapidly. Then screaming.

"Stop!!!"

I let go of her, giving her space. I realize that my joke may have gone a bit too far.

"I'm sorrys, I was just trying to joke-"

"No! I won't let you hurt me again!!" She screams at me then takes off. I watch her run away then turn to one of my best spies, Speeder.

"Speedah, watch her and make sure she gets to Manhattan safe."

The next day, Speeder comes up to me.
"That goil got home safe. She went tos the lodging house for Newsies. I watched her lash out at everyone who went near her. Talkin' 'bout being huirt by some guy. Physically. Poor goil, something reals bad musta happened to her. It's like what happens to soilders when they comes back from a traumatic war."

I take a seat on my personal bed and think. What could have happened to her? And what triggered it-

I think back to what happened. I held her real close to me and wouldn't let her go, making an explicit remark.
I knows what happened.
Poor girl, no one should have to go through that, especially not someone as sweet and beautiful as her.

"Rape," I say to Speeder.

"Oh..." He says. Realizing as well that that would make sense.

"Rape." I repeat to myself.