Bedroom Games

By: Coneflower

She walked in beauty. No else may of thought so……but he did. The cold wind blew over the gravestones. Ben Conlon shivered. Not necessarily from the cold, but at the thought of who was lying in the ground below him. Still. Quiet. Not a word was spoken by her, not even in life……

Spot Conlon was on patrol of his territory. Usually his newsies would go about watching over it, but there had been problems with a new gang. They'd tried to take over Brooklyn territory about a month earlier. Spot's gang had been on the edge ever since especially him.
The ruckus on the street was interrupted with a showcase of entertainment. A girl came tearing through the crowd. She wasn't watching where she was going and was headed in front of a wagon traveling by. Spot's attention was caught by what was pursing her - two men. They were shouting out profanity and running after the girl. That's when he saw the wagon coming near.
In a matter of seconds, Spot found himself on the ground with the girl. He recovered his bearings first, going to help the girl up.
"Are you okay?"
The girl only pushed him away, grunting. The two men came storming up to them. "What did I tell you I was gonna do to you when you tried to escape?!" the first man yelled, jerking the girl to her feet.
"Ye never suppose to do dat, lassie" the second man - who was Scottish - said, wrapping his arms around her waist. She started to wiggle from his grasp. "Stop it now!"
The girl was jerking furiously to get away and grunting loudly. No words came from her mouth. Spot stood there in utter shock. He knew it wasn't any of his business, but to treat this poor girl like that - it made him angry.
"Hey, hey! Whatcha doin' ta her?!" he said, breaking in on the action.
The two men glared at him. "None a ye business, slug!"
The girl was now gasping for air, still trying to get away from the man's arms. She was trying so hard, she was going to hurt herself soon.
"Why da heck ya treatin' her like doit!" Spot asked, hand on cane…ready for battle.
"She's dumb" the first man replied.
Dumb? Spot shock his head. She didn't look 'dumb', but he wasn't sure what they meant by that. The first man finally slapped her. Spot's eyes grew gray, and a gold tip of a cane connected with the man's temple. Spot fought to free the girl. He succeeded.
He grabbed the girl's wrist and ran into the closest alleyway. He was pulling her along when she tripped over some boxes. She feel hard on her knee. It started to bleed. Spot stopped, sighing in frustration. The girl was tearing up now.
"Let me see." He bent down next to her. The girl glared at him with glassy eyes. When he tried to touch her knee, she moved away an inch. "Don't be scared. I won't hoit ya."
It was hard to believe, but the girl let him look at her knee. She hesitated though. "It looks bad, but we'll get ya fixed up." All she did was stare. Spot cracked a smile at her blank expression. "Whatcha name?" Staring…she didn't respond. "You can tell me ya name. It's okay. Look, I'll tell ya mine. Ise Spot Conlon, leader a da Brooklyn newsies." No response. "Ya nevah hoid a Brooklyn? Do ya know where ya at?" This was getting to be old. Spot slapped his hand on his leg. "Girl, why won't you talk?! Talk, for crip sake!"
The girl backed away a little at his anger coming out. He noticed this and calm down. "Ise sorry. I jist wish you would say something." She started gesturing with her right hand. Spot watched, but didn't understand. "Wha' da heck are you doin'?"
The girl touched her throat then did another hand gesture. Spot was totally confused by now. "I ain't heah ta play games. I saved ya from dat wagon and who evah dose men were, but Ise got places ta go. Bye." He started to walk away. The girl grunted, grabbing onto his wrist.
"WHAT?!" She started gesturing again this time it was more like surrads.
She pointed to her eye. Spot played along. "Eye. Okay, what about ya eye?" She waved her hands over each other then covered her mouth. Spot scratched his head trying to figure this puzzle out. Finally, it struck him. "I…can't…speak?" He looked at her. "You can't talk?" The girl slumped her shoulders, nodding sadly.
Spot turned flush from embarrassment. He bent down in front of her again. "Ise sorry." She hung her head. "I'm guessing ya don't got a place ta stay?" She nodded. "Youse can come wit me den. Come on." He helped her up, leading her to the Brooklyn lodging house the back way.

To be continued.....