I'll Always Look Out For You

25 | Sixty Cents | July 17, 1899

See, I kinda did a little something weird here. We'll figure it out. Anyway. Enjoy! :)

"This can't be happening. They jacked up the price! It's bad enough that we have to eat what we don't sell!" Kid Blink's not done. "Now they jacked up the price! Can you believe that?"

Honestly, Jack doesn't know what to think. No one really does.

"What's that tenth of a cent to him?" Mush asks. "Doesn't it mean as much to us as it does those millionaires? I mean, all the money Pulitzer's making, why'd he gouge us?"

"He's a tight wad, that's why," Race answers as he storms around. He is mad. He needs to pace. He needs to not be still.

Normally, Mush and/or Blink would say something about Race calling people things, but in this case they're just as annoyed at the price change as he is to really care about where Race takes out his anger.

It's just so sudden.

When the prices changed last year, they were making a lot of money. Of course the millionaires would try to make more money than they already had. But now? Headlines are slow. It was just so out of the blue.

"So what are we going to do about it?" Itey asks. "I mean, they can't do this to us. Can they?"

"It's a rigged deck!" Race snaps. "They can do whatever they want! They got all the marbles!"

Race can't take this. His head is spinning.

He can't think.

None of this makes sense.

So his mind jumps to the only thing that he knows makes sense.

Brooklyn.

He takes off, with everyone too wrapped up in their own confusion to see.

He goes the long way: walking. He needs to walk through this. He needs to keep moving. If he stops, he'll shut down. He doesn't want to do that. Walking's a good grounder. That is, until he can have a person be there for him.

He's just about to walk right up to Sheepshead, but then he hesitates. After yesterday, is this really what he needs?

No.

He needs a person.

Someone who will listen to him.

He turns around wildly. His emotions are still running high. He doesn't like it. He really doesn't like it.

But Sheepshead is still right there.

"What got you here in such a huff?"

Spot.

Spot asked that.

He's here. Right now. Asking Race a question.

Race should answer.

"The price of papes went up," Race answers angrily. Not angry at Spot; angry at the price change, at Weasel, at the Delanceys, Pulitzer, all of them in on it.

Spot takes a moment. Then empathetically, he says, "It ain't fair." This is happening everywhere, affecting every newsie.

"I know it ain't!" Race yells.

Spot doesn't even flinch. He knows how Race's emotions can get.

Race looks down. "I need to say sorry now, don't I?" He's used to it. He's used to yelling in someone else's face and having Jack or Blink or someone tell him that he needs to say sorry. Now he's more ashamed of himself. He thought he had grown up, but now he's right back where he started. Maybe the others are right to still treat him like a kid.