“Pardon me Miss, buy me last paper.” a young man with an eye patch over his eye said to her as she walked down the street.

“I have no money, I’m looking for a boy named Mark Cutstone. He’s 16. It’s really important that I find hem.” she said desperately.

“Sorry Miss, I can’t help youse. I only know newsies.” he turned back around and continued to sell papers.

“He ran away eight years ago, I have to find him.” she said to him as he turned back around to her. “please, can you help me.”

“Sorry, I have to finish selling, but when I’s finished, I can.” he said as he sold his paper and picked up another one from a stack under a box.

“You said that one was your last one.” she said as she looked at the rest of his stack of papers. “I can’t stay, I have to look but thanks anyway.” she turned and left him selling. She began to wonder if that is what Mark would be doing. All day long she asked the other newsies about a boy named Mark and no one seemed to know anything. Cold and hungry at the end of the day, she followed one of the newsies into a restaurant to see if she could find her brother. As she walked in the door most of the boys looked at her. One particular boy noticed her and couldn’t help but stair. She felt a bit uneasy at the thought of being around so many boys and not knowing anyone.

“Excuse me Miss, but do I know you?” asked the one that had been watching her since she had walked in. “I feel like I know you from some were.”

“I’ve never seen you before in my life.” she said getting nervous with a total stranger so close.

“I could have sworn I knew you from some were, I know I have seen you somewhere before.” He said as he gently moved a strand of hair out of her face.

“Unless your from Canada or have been all over the world, I don’t think I know you.” She boy went silent as he turned her face so he could get a better look at her. “Leave me alone.” she said as she turned her face away. The boy moved it back to study the face he swore he knew. She got up and ran to the door. On her way out she bumped into the kid with the eye patch, not noticing she continued on her way out. Once out side she ran down the street to an old house on Main Avenue, a place she hadn’t been to since her father took her from new York.

Back at the restaurant the eye-patch kid sat down to the young man who had frightened the young girl away.

“That girl looks so familiar to me.” he paused a second to think about where he had seen her before. “I know were I’ve seen her before, she looks like me mudda’.” Glad that he figured it out he went back to eating his sandwich

“That poor girl,” started the kid with the eye-patch. “She is looking for her brother, he ran away eight years ago. I think that she said his name was Mark or somethin’ like that.”

The boy that had frightened her away stopped and started to think about what he knew of her. She look like his mother, She was looking for her brother that had ran away eight years ago.

“Pet!” He got up from the table and ran out of the restaurant.

**********

The young girl walked back into the house, that had been her home so long ago. The rooms were full of just and dirt. She slowly made her way up the stares and to a room she knew all too well. She stared at the doll laying on the moth eaten bed. Memories danced in her head. She saw a small gost like girl, that she recognized as her self, gaze at the doll as she crawled under the covers. “I know things will different here, but we have Mark.” the gost like said and the disappeared. The young lady then looked over at the small vanity. Once again she saw the small gost like girl talking to the little doll. “Katy, remember how Momma used to sit at her vanity and brush her hair, I want to do that every night so I don’t forget.” And the child was gone again. The Pain of her child hood filled the room. She sat down on the bed and gently picked up the small doll

“Pet!” She look up at the door and saw a gost like figure of a boy near the age of eight standing there. “I’m leaving. Pa doesn’t love us any more and I’m leaving.” he said to the gostly child sitting on the bed.

“Mark, let me go with you, I want to come.” she said rising to her feet.

“No, not right now, I’ll be back for you as soon as I find a place for us to stay. It won’t be long, just make dad mad. I promise I’ll come back for you, I promise.” he assured her and then they both were gone again.

The young lady broke down and cried. The tears seem to come without an end to them.

“I figured out were I knew you from.” She look up to the door to find the young man from the restaurant standing in the door way.

“Get away, I don’t have anything, leave me alone.” she said fearfully to the boy as he took a step toward her. “Leave me alone don’t hurt me.” she screamed as he took another step. He stopped when he saw the pain and fear in her eyes.

“Pet, I promised I’d come back, I promised.” he said softly.

“Mark?” she look up at the young man. His eyes were green and full of sincerity. She remembered them from her childhood. “Why didn’t you come back sooner, he took me away, you never came for me.” she said, not sure how to feel toward her brother.

“I couldn’t, and when I did, you were gone.” he said.

“We left months after you did, you could have come back for me, do you have even a clue as to what I had to go through!” she cried. “I was left everywhere and anywhere because you never came back.” Her brother walked up to her side and stroked a stand of hair out of her face.

“I’m here now and I promise I’ll never leave you again.” he said as he took a set next to her on the bed.

“Some promise, as I recall, you’re not vary good at keeping those.” she said angrily.

“You know, if you hate me so much, why did you come back.” he asked annoyed at her.

“Were else could I go? He’s dead, OK. And I don’t think that the royal family is much into adopting and orphan from New York.” she said turning away from him.

“Your being sarcastic right?” he said, shocked and appalled at her.

“No, I’m not! Nore am I when I say, the Dalilama isn’t into adopting me, or the Emperor of China, should I go on?” she hissed at him.

“Let’s get out of here. I think that you just need to get out of here. I promise from now on, I’ll neva’ leave ya.”

“You didn’t before.” she said, skeptical of her brother.

“I wasn’t a newsie then, I’m a newsie now and newsies never break a promise. I promise I’ll never leave you.” He said again. She believed him and walked with him out of the old house.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I sat up in bed, horrified at the last spoken of my dream. I remembered back to the day when I had first come back to New York. The painful memory of the promise he had made terrified me. I had to get some fresh air. I pulled off the covers and made my way out side to the harbor. Once I was on the dock a ways out, I could see all the stares in the sky. I search for the three stars in a row. I gazed at the third one on the right.

“Scrapes, I want to tell you how much I miss you. You promised me you’d never leave me, but your gone. now I will never see you again. I just wanted to tell you I love you, now that your with mom and dad, tell them I love them too. I’m really lonely down here and I wish you were here with me, I still need you dispite what I had said before.” Tears started to roll down my cheeks, no one was around so I let them fall with no objections.

“Hey kid, what youse doin’ out here at this hour?” I snapped my head up to see who had accompanied me outside without me knowing it.

“Spot, what youse doin’ out here?” I say as I quickly wipe every last tear off my cheeks.

“I was wachin’ ya sleep and youse just up and ran out, I had to folla’ ya.” he takes a step toward me and the steps back. “You OK?”

“He promised Spot, he promised!” I broke down in tears and turned my back to him as to hide my tears from him. “He lied to me, he promised, damn him, he promised!”

“What he promise?” He walked around so he could see my face, but he kept his distance.

“Nuthin’, it don’t matta’, he’s gone now.” I leaned up against the railing and looked at the horizon. “I’ve been all over the world but I don’t think that I’ve seen anything as beutiful as that. The way the the moon hits the water and how the stars meet it in the horizon.”

He moves up next to me and also leans against the railing, For along time we continue to look at the beauty of what lies before us, side by side. Soon the cold night air starts to set in and I can no longer keep my teeth from chatering.

“Youse’cold?” he asks me and I nod my head yes, without saying one word. He steps behind me and pulls me back by the waist across the dock on which we are standing. Soon he is leaning on the rail at the other side of the dock and he gently pulls me back till my back is against his chest. He wraps his arms around me and I place my arms over his. We watch the stars rise from the horizon. I place my head on his shoulder and look up into his eyes and he looks down and our eyes meet and out gaze falls into one anothers. I look so deep into his eyes feeling that if I looked deep enough I could see what he was thinking. The intense look became to much and something was about to happen. Out of no were, he looked back up at the horizon and mine fell on the third star on the right of the three in a row. Not to long after that my eyelids became too heavy for my to keep my eyes open. He moved my right arm back around his neck and lifted my feet off the ground by placing his left are behind my knees. There I felt safer that I had ever felt, I never wanted for him to set me down. I loved being in his arms. He set me down in the same bed I had previously fled, and I went into a peaceful sleep.

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