The short, blond-haired, blue-eyed girl ran through the streets of 1900 New York, which were left wet and muddy from a storm that had just stopped. Small drops of rain fell on her, and as she ran, puddle-water and mud flew up. Her skirt was torn and ruined. As she passed a cart, a sharp edge cut into her shirt and ripped her shoulder.
She didn’t care. All that mattered was running. Running from the three boys chasing her. They had been for a couple of minutes. They were only just a few feet away from her when an arm reached out of an alley, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her into the alley.
Jesse Parker was now behind a girl. Average sized, but real thin, with short dirty-blond hair.
The boys slowed down and went into the alley where Jesse was. When they saw the girl, they stopped. A tall boy said, "Dodge! Spot's been lookin' for ya."
Dodge shrugged. "Yer point?" she asked.
There was a pause. The toughest-looking of the boys said, "Step aside, Conlon. We gots a trespasser tah deal wid."
Jesse swallowed hard and took a step backwards. "I didn't know I was tres--"
"This 'ere's me friend, Kitty, from Queens. Any problem you got wid her you got wid me," Dodge said. Jesse was shocked. This girl didn’t even know who Jesse was, yet she was defending her.
"Spot wants you back it Brooklyn," said the shortest of the three boys. "You are 'is cousin. He misses ya, an' he's worried, ya know?"
Dodge rolled her eyes. "No, I don’t. G'bye den," she said. She grabbed Jesse's wrist and pulled her out of the alley. The three boys just stood there and stared at her, and then went back to Brooklyn.
Dodge pulled Jesse over to the steps of a small building. "Brooklynites," she said. "Dey t'ink dey owns New Yawk." Jesse looked at the building. Red bricks, with a sign that read "Newsboys Lodging House." Why do they need a period up there? Jesse wondered.
After a long pause, Dodge said, "It ain’t too shabby. Welcome to ya' new home."
"Uh....." Jesse said. Home? Here?! With guys?! No way she was going to live with a bunch of boys!
"Yeah, you ran away, and you need to make a living. So you're going to work as a Newsie with me. I'll show ya da ropes. It ain’t dat hard."
"How do you know I'm a runaway?" Jesse asked.
"Well, you're all dirty and alone in the streets. If ya didn’t run away, then you would have someone with ya. It’s dangerous out 'ere at night," Dodge said. She had a good point. "Dodge Conlon. You is.....?"
She spit in her hand and held it out to Jesse, expecting her to do the same. Jesse just looked at Dodge's hand, then at Dodge, and then back at Dodge's hand. Dodge rolled her eyes and said, "Ya got a long way ta go, Kitty."
"My name isn’t Kitty. It's Jesse. Jesse Parker," she said. She was a little annoyed.
"Not no more. You gotta change your name if you wanna stay away from home."
Jesse sighed. "Fine, Kitty it is. Shall we?" She pointed to the door. The two walked in, and were met by an old man.
"Hello, Dodge. Who's your friend?" he said. He seemed really nice to Kitty. He reminded her of her grandfather.
"Hey Klopmann. Kitty Parker. She's going to be stayin with us for awhile. Here," Dodge said after she wrote the words 'Dodge Conlon' in a huge book. "Dis is so Klopmann knows we've been sleepin' here. Da fee is two cents a night. Hope ya got money." She handed Kitty the pencil.
Kitty wrote 'Kitty Parker' down in perfect cursive. Dodge gave her that What-Are-You-Thinking? look. Kitty erased and wrote 'Kitty Parker' as messy as she could, but so it was readable. Dodge smiled and nodded.
Two boys came thundering down the stairs. "Klopmann!" yelled a tall boy with curly hair. "Race is usin' dose dice again! He's been ch--" He stopped when he saw Dodge and Kitty.
The other boy laughed and said, "Will ya look what da Conlon dragged in? Anuddah goil. JIST what we need."
"Ignore 'em," Dodge said. She led Kitty upstairs. "Skittery and Pie Eater knows I can soak 'em any day." Pie Eater and Skittery gave mean looks, but she didn’t see them; she was halfway up the stairs, with Kitty following.
The two girls walked into a room. There was a sign nailed to the door. 'Girls' Bunkroom. No Guys'. Dodge pushed open the door and walked in. "Hey Pixie, Swingah," she said. The two girls were playin craps. Kitty recognized Swinger as her friend Lucy from Bridgeport. Obviously Swinger didn’t recognize her. "Shaky, Mandy. Where's Lizzy?"
"Over heah, on da bed," came a little voice from the dark corner of the room. The electric lights were out, so Dodge lit a candle and walked over to a bunk.
"How are ya feelin'?" Dodge asked the little girl lying on the bunk. She looked sick.
"Fine, I guess. How's my bruddah?" Lizzy said.
"He's ok. His tooth is grown in now. Looks fine." Dodge felt Lizzy's forehead. "Still got a fevah. You aint sellin' tomorrah."
"But--"
"No buts. Get some sleep, you look tired." Dodge said. She kissed Lizzy's cheek and blew out the candle.
"Why dont you'se go visit da guys? Ya know dey love ya," Pixie said, not looking up. She knew Dodge liked to go into the guys' bunkrooms and talk, maybe the occasional poker or craps.
"Sounds good. Hey, ya wanna 'get aquainted' wid dese goils or come wid me to da guys..... there's a single boy wid your name written all ovah 'im," Dodge said.
"Uh....." Kitty thought about it.
"Sounds good!" Dodge said. She grabbed Kitty's right arm and started to pull her out of the room, but Kitty yelled. Everyone looked up.
"AH! My arm!" Without thinking, Kitty ripped her right sleeve completely off from the shoulder and looked at it. A deep gash was still bleeding. "Why didn’t you notice it before?" she asked Dodge. "The sleeve was red.....you could’ve seen that I was bleeding."
"Sorry, but it aint’ my fault. You's da one who tore yer arm. I'll get Klopmann….. pick yer bed, if ya want." Dodge said. She ran out of the room, yelling for the old man.
Klopmann came upstairs with some bandages and first aid stuff. He put this liquid on her cut that stung, but Kitty didn’t care. "It's going to leave a scar," he said. Kitty shrugged. She could live with that.
Klopmann went downstairs. "Want some new clothes?" Dodge asked. "Ya gotta act like a guy if ya wanna sell papes.....(Kitty nodded) I'll go get some from da boys, wait 'ere."
Dodge left the room. Shaky said to Kitty, "Where ya from? Queens? Brooklyn? Midtown?"
"Coney Island..... long walk....." Kitty answered.
"You's a runaway, right?" Swinger asked.
"Yeah...... my father hit me..... drunk all the time....." Kitty said. She was tired.
Dodge walked in with a cap, pants, shirt, and undershirt. "Heah," she said. "Bathroom's dat way. Ya welcome."
"Thanks....." Kitty said and headed out the door.
When she came back, she had the clothes on with her hair tucked under the cap. "Ya look great. Come on, ya gotta meet da guys. Twen'ny one all in one room..... dey're great," Dodge said. "Any a' you'se wanna come along?"
The girls shook their heads. Dodge shrugged "Suit yerself." She walked out the door with Kitty following.
As the girls walked into one of the guy's bunkroom, the guys looked up, and then went back to what they were doing. "Alright den, dat’s Jack, Racetrack, Kid Blink, Mush, Crutchy, Tumbler, Snoddy, Itey, Bumlets, Dutchy, Specs, you know Skittery an' Pie Eater, Jake, Snitchy, Swifty, Snipeshooter, Major, Itie, Andrew, an' Specs Jr...I dont think I missed anyone...oh yeah! Me good friend Boots is ovah dere, by da window. Heya Boots!"
"Heya, Dodge, you might wanna know dat yer good buddy an' cousin Spot is comin up da steps to da house..... uh..... maybe you bettah go up on da roof....." Boots said.
"Got it..... hey, Kitty? Act natural and don’t tawk ta Spot unless he tawks ta you......" Dodge said she raced out the window and up onto the roof.
Kitty was a litte nervous. Everyone talked about how tough Spot was..... but Spot Conlon couldn’t be too dangerous...... right?
A short, thin boy burst through the door. He looked something like Dodge, when it came to size and hair. He wore a key around his neck and had a black and gold cane. Kitty could see he had a slingshot in his back pocket.
"Alright-" he took a moment to catch his breath. "Where..... is she?"
"Oh, Spot, don’t tell me you ran all the way from Brooklyn ta Manhattan," a boy with brown and blond hair said. Andrew..... Kitty thought.
"As a mattah o' fact..... I did. Now I didn’t come here tah play games..... where's Dodge?
"Havent seen her since..... oh..... dis mornin', I t'ink....." said Specs Jr. He was a cute little eight-year-old boy with really short hair and glasses. Specs put his hand around the boy's shoulder. They weren’t related or anything, but Specs liked him and they sold together.
"Is dat so?" Spot said, nodding. Specs Jr. didn’t like Spot, and Spot didn’t like Specs Jr.
"Hey, Spot. She ain’t heah. I think I would know, of all peoples," Jack said from the doorway. Spot had made his way through the crowd of newsies, looking for his cousin. Kitty prayed he wouldn’t come to her. If he saw a girl in the guys' bunkroom, he would be suspicious. She hid behind some tall newsie (Snoddy? she thought).
Snoddy knew she was hiding behind him and whispered, "Don't worry, he ain’t gonna find ya if ya stay back dere."
Spot heard Snoddy. "Snoddy?" he said. "Would you mind moving aside?"
Snoddy stayed where he was. "Actually, I would."
Spot pushed Snoddy aside and found Kitty. She looked up at him with her innocent look..... it had worked every time she used it. Spot found Kitty incredibly cute. "Hey, I's Spot," he said, and kissed her hand. "Who might you be?"
"I might be Kitty Parker. But then again, you never know." Kitty wasn’t afraid of Spot anymore..... he was totally pathetic. She didn’t know why people would be afraid of him.
"Oh really? You's new, I suspect?" he said, trying to look as tall as possible.
"Yeah," Kitty said. Why did he care?
"So, you got a sellin' partner yet?" he asked her. What was he getting at?
Kitty didn’t want to give Dodge away. "No, not yet."
"Then, if you don’t mind....." he said. Oh god, he's going to ask me to be his..... "I would like you to sell with me. I could show you how."
"That would be great..... meet you at the Horace Greeley statue at six?" she asked him, hoping he wouldn’t see right through her.
Spot nodded. "See ya then." Spot walked out the door.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Dodge climbed back in. A cheer rang up from the newsies. She'd gotten rid of Spot without having him find Dodge. That took guts and talent. Kitty smiled.
The five girls in the other room came in. "What's goin' on?" Smiley asked.
Major laughed. "Da new goil just got rid of Spot..... dis is great....."
Suddenly, Spot burst back in the door. "If you all won’t mind, I'd like tah stay here tonight."
Dodge quickly hid under Skittery's bed. She stayed there until she was sure he was asleep, then quietly walked into her own bunkroom. She plopped down in bed and immediately fell asleep.
Chapter 2
"Hey, Kitty, how was yer day of sellin' wid Spot?" Snoddy asked the girl after she walked into Tibby's and took a seat across from him.
"It was ok I guess..... Spot's nice and all, but he's pathetic..... and I swear, it was like we walked all across the city!" she replied.
"You probably did, knowin' Spot. Dem Conlon's likes tah walk," Dutchy said.
Dodge had just walked in. "What do us Conlon's like tah do?" she asked as she sat down next to Kitty.
"Walk. Hey, Kitty, anyone ever tell ya that dis goil right 'eah ran across Manhattan, an' den walked out of New Yawk completely? You should'a seen her when she got back!" Andrew said as he joined the conversation.
"Yeah, an' so what," Dodge said. "I gots legs an' I'm gonna use 'em..... jist not like that ever again." Dodge buried her head in her arms. "It's been a long day."
"More Brooklynites?" Snoddy asked.
"Yeah..... ran from Queens to Midtown," Dodge said, even though no one heard her, because her head was still in her arms.
“Yeah, those Brooklyns..... but ya gotta hand it to ‘em, Dodge. Dey’s always chasin’ ya, and never gettin’ tired,” Dutchy said.
“I don’t understand why Spot is always sending his newsies after you..... could you explain?” Kitty said. She never got why Dodge was always running and hiding from Spot and his newsies. They were all pathetic if you wanted her opinion.
“Uh, maybe I’ll tell it,” Snoddy said. “Let Dodge sleep. Ya see, Dodge is Spot’s cousin..... her muddah was Spot’s faddah’s sistah.”
“I know that.”
“I know you know..... I ain’t done yet!” Snoddy said. He rolled his eyes. “Goils! Anyways, Dodge used to be a Brooklynite. Da only Brooklynite goil evah in da history of da Newsies. An’ she didn’t like it. All da guys was always lookin’ at her like she was da only goil in da woild. She got sick of it, so she left Brooklyn one night. Foist she tried Queens, but Brooklyn found her. Den Midtown, but dey found her dere too. Coney Island, East Side, da Bronx...everywhere she went, she was followed. Den she came heah tah Manhattan. She knewJack. So she figured he’d help hide her. An’ he did, along wid all a’ us.”
“Yeah, ain’t it a touchin’ story?” Dodge said. Obviously she wasn’t sleeping.
“I don’t get it..... why don’t you just tell Spot that you don’t want to live in Brooklyn anymore?” Kitty asked.
Snoddy gave her a look like Don’t-You-Know?. “Spot an’ Dodge are each othah’s only livin’ relatives..... Spot likes Dodge’s company, and her, his. But she knows dat Spot won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Once he finds her, she has no where else to run but out of New Yawk. An’ she loves it heah.”
Kitty nodded in understanding. “Another question,” she said. “What do you newsies do all day besides sell papers?”
“Well,” Dutchy said. “There’s the afternoon edition of the paper, but you don’t have to sell that unless you’re really broke. We just do what we likes tah do. Race goes down to da tracks, an’ I think he’s there already, I like to sleep, an’ well, the rest of us do what we wanna do. We’re free, with no one telling us what or what not to do. That’s why so many of us is newsies. Other work sucks.”
“Ya don’t have tah tell me dat othah woik sucks, I’ve been to ‘othah woik’. Ya do what othah people want ya tah do, not what you wanna do. Its like you’re deir slave or somethin’. I dunno, I guess bein’ a newsie is da only job where you can do what ya wanna do,” Andrew said.
Kitty said, “This ‘being free’ stuff is really important to you, isn’t it? I’m only a newsie because Dodge told me to. I’m not saying that there’s better work out there, because there probably isn’t. But once I have enough money to get on a train I’m leaving for Bridgeport. I was born there.”
“Oh. Swinger's from there, right?” Snoddy asked. Kitty figured he liked to ask questions.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“She was here last year, but she left to be with her family. Then she came back. I dunno why. I was in Queens at da time. An’ her friend Pixie came back because she couldn’t be away from ‘im,” Dodge pointed to a boy at another table, Itey. “An’ den dey all lives happily ever aftah. Da End.”
Kitty nodded. Lucy never told her that she was a newsie in New York. All she said that she had gone to New York to find better work. She thought Pixie looked familiar. She’d seen her once.
“How about you, Kitty? What’s your story?” Andrew asked her.
“Oh, well,” she started. “My parents died when I was really little, three I think. I was put in an orphanage until the owner died. Then it closed. They were supposed to transfer all of us orphans to homes or another orphanage, but they never did. Guess they didn’t care. I went off in search of a job, but only found trouble in Brooklyn. Then I met Dodge, and the rest is history.”
The four at the booth nodded. Life was tough; some kids have parents, some don’t. Those who don’t usually end up in the streets, or working, trying to make a living.
“Well, I hate to go,” Andrew said. “But I gotta catch the afternoon edition. Goin’ broke, ya know?”
“See ya, Andrew,” Kitty said. She was wondering what she would do this afternoon.
“And I gotta go sleep. See ya later,” Dutchy said. Dodge put her hand up and tried to wave, but she couldn’t, so her hand slammed down on the table.
“I’m going back to the Lodging House,” Kitty said.
“Please,” Snoddy said, getting up. “Let me walk you there.”
Kitty smiled and got up, leaving Dodge sleeping at the booth until a waiter came and woke her up. By that time, it was sunset. Dodge walked out of Tibby’s and back to the Lodging House.
Chapter 3
Snoddy and Kitty were silent the entire way to Central Park. When they got there, they took a seat on a park bench directly across from Mush and some girl, who were making out. Snoddy tried not to laugh, but it was hard. Mush didn’t notice the two were sitting there watching them, but the girl did. She pulled away from Mush and pointed to Snoddy and Kitty.
“Uh, Snoddy, Kitty? Do ya mind?” Mush said, looking a little embarrassed.
“Actually..... no, we don’t,” Kitty said, trying to act as casual as possible.
“Well,” said the girl, “we do. So please, leave.”
Snoddy thought for a moment. “Mmm..... no, sorry, can’t do dat. Said I’d take Kitty for a walk and we walked, and now we’s tired. So I t’ink we’ll be stayin’ heah for awhile. But you’re welcome tah leave, if ya want.”
Mush shook his head and gave Snoddy an evil look, and then got to his feet. Taking the girl’s hand, he said, “C’mon, Julie. We’ll go somewheres else.”
“Oh, Mush!” Kitty called. “Klopmann says you haven’t payed your nightly two cent fee for awhile!” Mush didn’t turn around, just made a thumbs-up with his right hand. Kitty and Snoddy laughed. It was the most interesting thing that had happened that hour.
“So, uh, Kitty, I hears you’s from Bridgeport. What’s it like dere?”
“Noisy, not fun, you know, kind of like New York, if you know what I mean,” Kitty said.
“Oh, yeah. I know what ya mean,” Snoddy replied. He really liked Kitty. Not just liked, loved, even though he’d only known her just that day and the day before.
“So, Snoddy, where are you from?” Kitty asked, moving a little closer to him.
“Ah,” he said. “I’s from da Bronx. Ya know where dat is, right?” Kitty nodded. “Well, one day I was wid me muddah an’ I wandered off. I didn’t know where she was. So I just kept walkin’ until some boy asked me if I’d sell papes wid him. I’s a newsie evah since. Typical boy-becomes-newsie story, but” (he shrugged) “oh well.”
Kitty smiled. She said, “So, how did you get the name? Every newsie has a nickname, including me.” Kitty rolled her eyes. “And yours is something to question. Snoddy? I just have to know.”
“To tell you da truth, I have no clue whatsoever. One day da boy was callin’ me ‘Snoddy’ an’ dere I was. My identity. Snoddy is who I am an’ probably who I’ll always be. Of cou’se, I can[t get a descent job wid da name ‘Snoddy’ now can I?” Kitty shook her head. She really liked Snoddy. Not just liked, loved, even though she’d only known him just that day and the day before.
“Uh, Kitty? Can I ask ya a question?” Snoddy asked. He could feel his heart beating a mile a minute.
“Of course, what is it?”
“Do ya like me?”
“Of course I like you, Snoddy!”
“No, I mean do ya like like me?”
“You mean do I love you?”
“Uh, yeah, dats da one.”
“Yes, I love you. Do you love me?”
Snoddy’s heart rate went down just a cinch. “Yeah, I do.”
“Then.....” Kitty said. Snoddy leaned closer to her. “Will you kiss me?”
Snoddy smiled. “Do ya even have tah ask?” His head moved towards hers, and their lips touched for a good minute and a half. That is, until Mush and the girl were sitting across from them, watching them kiss.
“So how does it feel when ya got someone watchin’ ya kiss da goil, Snoddy?” Mush asked with that evil grin on his face.
“To tell ya da truth, Mush, it feels great.”
Chapter 4
The next day, Kitty decided she was going to blow Spot off and sell with Snoddy. Instead of taking the regular way to the Distribution Center, her and Snoddy quietly sneaked through alleys until they got where they wanted to go. Kitty was wondering why Spot never sold in Brooklyn where he belongs with the rest of the strange Brooklynites. It was a mystery that probably would never be solved.
“So how many, Kitty? Fifty? Sixty?” Snoddy asked her and lauged.
“It’s not funny that I can only sell around ten or twenty papers a day, Snoddy. I suggest you shut up!” Kitty said, sort of offended.
“Ya know I was jist kiddin’, doncha, Kitty?” Snoddy said and gave her the sad puppy eyes.
“’Course I do, Snoddy!” Kitty said, and turned towards the distribution window. “Uh, I’ll take twenty. Thanks.”
As Snoddy and Kitty walked down the steps and set off to sell their papers, J.J., Tumbler’s dog, came running up and barked at Kitty. She raised her eyebrows and said, “Tumbler! Your dog?”
Tumbler, who was now six and a half, was Lizzy’s twin brother, and he was probably the cutest little newsie there ever was.
“Sorry, Kitty! He likes ya, though, can’t ya see he does?” Tumbler said. He was just as small as the dog.
“That’s strange, considering my name,” Kitty said. She scratched the dog behind the ears. J.J. wagged his tail and almost knocked Tumbler down on the ground.
“Ya know, Tumbler, pretty soon dat dog is gonna get bigger den you,” Snoddy said, holding his papers up on his shoulder.
“’E is not!” Tumbler argued. He hated being called little or small, or people saying other things are bigger than him. It made the boy feel unimportant.
“Is too!”
“Is not!”
“Is too!”
“Well, then you can’t pet ‘im, ‘cause he’s my dog and I say no,” Tumbler said, walking off with his papers. He usually had the dog run ahead and find a crowd of people, and then say something like “My dog’s da only t’ing I have left in da woild, an’ I’m goin’ hungry. Please buy my papers, mistah!” and everyone would always be all sorry for him and buy what he had. He was so good at it he was getting more money than Skittery, which made Skittery mad. He was one of the tallest Newsies, besides Snoddy, and this little kid, who was only six, while Skittery was seventeen, was raking in the cash.
“Tumbler!” Kitty called after him. He didn’t turn around. “Snoddy, you know Tumbler hates it when you say stuff like that!”
“I know, I was jist havin’ some fun wid da kid. C’mon, these papes aren’t gonna sell demselves,” Snoddy said. “So, uh, what if Spot comes along, what are ya gonna do?”
Kitty smiled and said, “I’m gonna tell him that I’m in love with a great guy and I can’t sell with him anymore. Simple as that.”
Snoddy nodded and kissed her forehead. “Delta Sigma Phi National Fraternity Established!” he yelled out and held up a paper. Kittty gave him a weird look. He said, “I don’t know what it means either, but dis is a really bad pape.” And he continued to shout out jibberish. Kitty did the same until she ran into Spot.
“Oh, Spot! I have something to tell you,” she said.
“I have somethin’ tah tell ya too,” Spot said. “You go foist.”
“No, you.”
“Nah, you.”
“We’ll go at the same time then.”
“Ok.”
“I can’t sell with you anymore,” they said in unison, only for Spot, it was “I can’t sell wid ya anymore.”
“I’m gonna sell wid Mandy heah,” Spot said and pointed to a girl who looked their age holding up papers and shouting headlines.
“Well, that works out because I’m gonna sell with Snoddy,” Kitty said. Spot laughed.
“Has he kissed ya yet?”
“More like I kissed him!”
“I’m proud of ya..... well I gotta be goin’, see ya around,” Spot walked off.
“Bye,” Kitty said.
Pretty soon Kitty and Snoddy were all out of papers to sell, so they went to Tibby’s just to hang out with the other newsies. They both weren’t really hungry, which was actually a big deal to everyone because newsies were always hungry.
Naturally, Itey was sitting across from Pixie, holding hands, kicking each others’ feet, and sending eyebrow messages, which really annoyed Kid Blink and Swinger, who were sitting next to them.
Snipeshooter was being annoying as usual, and Pie Eater and Skittery were being evil. Smiley and Racetrack were flirting with each other, but they didn’t know it, and Dutchy was eating a hot dog on a fork. Just kidding.
“Oh, hey Kitty,” Dodge said from across the room. Kitty dragged Snoddy over to her and sat down.
“Hey Dodge. Get in any trouble with Spot and his evil pathetic newsies today?” Kitty asked her.
“Yeah, dey chased me all da way from da East Side tah here, but den Cowboy came to da rescue, as usual,” she said. Kitty noticed that Jack was sitting across from Dodge.
“Hey Kitty,” Jack said.
“Hi Jack,” Kitty replied.
“Ooo, Cowboy’s in love!” Snoddy said, loud enough for everyone in Tibby’s to hear. The room was silent for a moment, then it erupted with laughter.
“Wid Dodge Conlon I might add!” Snoddy then said. More laughter. Jack threw his hat at Snoddy, but it missed him and hit Itey in the back of the head while he was kissing Pixie.
“What the hell?” Itey said. He chucked the hat back to Jack, which hit him in the lip, and he started to bleed.
“Good goin’, Snoddy,” Jack said.
“What’d I do?” he asked.
“If you would’ve just stayed where you were so I could hit’cha, den I wouldn’t’ve hit Itey, an’ he wouldn’t of hit me!” Jack said. He was annoyed. That wasn’t a good thing.
Snoddy sat down next to Dodge. “I ain’t gonna sit next tah an evil hat-thrower,” he said.
“Well if you won’t, I will. Hi Jack!” Kitty said in a highly enthusiastic voice.
“Hi Kitty!” Jack replied in the same highly enthusiastic voice. Dodge and Snoddy shook their heads.
Spot walked into Tibby’s, holding Mandy’s hand. Dodge said, “Alrighty, I’m gonna tell ‘im tah leave me alone, den maybe he will..... maybe.” She stood up and said, “Spot! Ovah heah!”
Spot made his way over with Mandy and said, “Listen, Dodge. If you want me to quit buggin’ ya, ok. I see dat you can do what you wanna do, an’ I don’t wanna stop ya.”
“Ok..... um..... yeah, alright. Bye,” Dodge said.
Mandy, thought Dodge, Kitty, Snoddy and Jack all at the same time. Mandy was the reason why he was acting mature for once. Well, maybe that would be the only time Spot would be mature. He never was, after all. Or Mandy changed him..... strange.
“Well,” Kitty said. “I gotta go. Yanno, do stuff.”
“I’ll come wid ya,” Snoddy said and started to get up.
“No, you stay. I can do some stuff on my own, you know,” Kitty said. She pushed him back in his seat.
“Ya sure you’re gonna be ok?” Snoddy asked.
“Of course! You’re not my guardian, Snoddy! Enjoy yourself and stop following me around! I’ll be alright,” she said.
As she walked out the door, the nifty bell rang, and Snoddy said, “She’s gonna get herself in trouble.”
“Relax, like she said, she can take care of herself!” Dodge said. “Get yourself some knockwurst and calm down!”
“Ok,” Snoddy said. He wasn’t trying to be over-protective, but what if something happened to Kitty? He didn’t want to lose her to some psycho or drunk guy. He ate his knockwurst and tried to forget about it.
Chapter 5
Kitty wished she had listened to Snoddy and let him come with her. She was lost, and it was getting dark. Pretty soon, she’d have no way to tell where she was, and she’d have to stay out all night and try and find her way home in the morning. She just hoped she wouldn’t run into a psycho or drunk guy. That would be a bad thing.
Kitty heard a noise in the alley, so she walked faster. She felt like she was being followed. She walked faster, and then broke into a run. Pretty soon she turned around and found out that what was following her was.....
“Oh, just a stray kitten!” she said, and breathed a sigh of relief. She picked the cat up. It was a cute little ginger-colored kitten, very small. It cocked its head to one side and purred. Kitty smiled. She’d take it back to the lodging house, if she ever did get back there. Sitting down, she petted the kitten, then looked up at the sky. She couldn’t see many stars, but she could see some. She looked at the kitten and said, “I’ll call ya..... Star. Yeah, that’s it. Star.”
Kitty dosed off soon, but woke up to the sound of someone yelling. “KITTY! KITTY, WHERE ARE YA?”
“Snoddy! I’m over here!” she yelled back. He entered the alley.
“Oh Kitty, I was worried, ya know? I didn’t know where ya was, I..... looks like you’ve found a friend,” he said and patted the kitten on the head. “A friend that J.J. ain’t gonna like!”
“Oh, he’ll like her! He better. If he don’t, I’s gonna get a liddle mad!” Kitty said.
“Ya picked up da accent! I’s so proud,” Snoddy said and wiped away a fake tear. Kitty hit him in the arm.
“Yeah, an’ what’s so good about it?” she said, then smiled. “C’mon, let’s go home.”
The Spleenerific End
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