The end is wild.
Ray = 19. Jack = 10. Louis and Mush = 8. Charlie = 7.
Anyway. Enjoy! :)
"Shouldn't Antonio be talking?"
"I mean, probably."
"Do ya really want a talkative three year old, though?"
These are some of the voices that go around the lodging house in mid November of 1886. Antonio is three years old now. But the strange thing is, is that he hasn't uttered a word since that day around a year ago when he spoke his first word and first sentence.
"Let him take his time," Ray tells them all. But he's still a little worried too. He knows that Antonio isn't mute. But what if Antonio never fully learns to speak? What will happen then? This world doesn't take too kindly to people who are different. Ray knows that.
But at least he can think like those normal people.
Ray just wants to get inside Antonio's mind, see what's going on in there.
What he doesn't know is that across the room, with Louis and Mush, Antonio is thinking close to the exact same thing. He wants people to understand what he means.
"Antonio?" Mush tries looking Antonio in the eye.
Mush has brown eyes. Antonio can see that. He doesn't want eye contact for too long. He just wants to look into those eyes. But the eyes staring back at him is too much.
He looks at Louis's eyes. They're a lighter color.
"Antonio, wanna play a game?"
Antonio. Wanna play a game? the sentence resonates in his head. That name is his name. Those meanings of those words, the tones, the intonations, all play again in his head. Wanna. Waanna. Wannna. Play. Plaaay. Playyy. A. Uh. Game. Gaame. He plays those words again and again, changing slightly each time how a word is stressed and where, and how it changes the feel ever so slightly.
Antonio. An-to-nio. He can hear it. He can feel it. He can feel the other words, too. How do people throw around words so lightly?
Words are fascinating. Antonio has a lot of them in his head. But he can't get them out. He doesn't know how to. Everyone makes it look so easy. They just open their mouths, and do it.
And they all know something he doesn't. He doesn't know what he doesn't know, but he knows that there's something he needs to figure out. Maybe then he'll start talking. Or start acting like the older kids do.
Jack, Louis, Mush, and Charlie play with him the most. And Ray is always there too. There are other kids. But these are the ones that stand out. They are the ones that he can tell from anywhere.
"Hey Ray? Can I go outside?" Charlie asks Ray from across the room, not out of earshot of Antonio. He takes the words in.
"Sure. Have Jack there to watch over you."
"Okay." And with that he starts walking towards the stairs, taking Jack with him.
Where's he going? Antonio thinks. What more is there? He gets up to go in the direction Charlie and Jack went. He wants to follow them.
Louis and Mush stand up after Antonio's taken more than just a few steps.
"Hey Antonio! Stay here! You can't go there!" Louis and Mush tell him in high-pitched voices, and grab his hand so he can't go.
YOU ARE READING
I'll Always Look Out For You
Fanfiction15 years before the legendary newsies strike of 1899, a child was born. When he is 18 months old, he is brought to the Manhattan Newsies Lodging House. In time, he would be known as Racetrack Higgins. This is his story. This is the story of the news...
