Newsies One-Shots

Treksies part 5 of 5 - Zion

They had been walking for a while when they came to a river. They had a spiritual lesson there and were informed that after the river, it was just a short stretch until their final destination.

However, then the problem was raised of HOW they would be crossing the river. As it turned out, they would end up walking THROUGH the water, which was AT LEAST knee deep. It was meant to simulate a small portion of what the pioneers did, as they often had to cross much larger and much deeper rivers.

"Alright, boys, if you want, you can find a girl and carry her across, and girls, if you want, you can find a boy to carry you across," one of the leaders announced.

"What if you're a boy and you want to be carried across?" Race called out.

"If you have a friend who's willing to carry you across, that's fine," the leader replied, "let's go!"

"I don't want to get my shoes wet, will one of you carry me?" Katherine asked her friends.

"I've got you, Kath," Jack volunteered.

"What about me?" Sarah said.

"Make your brother carry you," Race shrugged.

"Davey can't carry me," Sarah laughed.

"Yeah, I can't carry her," Davey shook his head, "I'm not particularly strong,"

"I'll come back for you after I carry Katherine, don't worry about it," Jack shrugged.

"Why doesn't Jack just carry all of us?" Romeo joked.

"But I want Spot to carry me," Race decided.

"Yeah and I think the rest of us can walk ourselves," Specs added, "let me just take my shoes off, I don't want to walk the rest of the way in wet shoes,"

"Me, too. I got blisters the first day and wet shoes will probably make them worse," Spot agreed. 

So, people began crossing the river. As he'd promised, Jack carried Katherine across, then came back and carried Sarah across. He even came back and carried Crutchie across. 

Davey, however, was stuck. He didn't want to take his shoes off, but he didn't want to end up with wet shoes, and he was too afraid to ask anyone to carry him across. After he was among the last people on the first side of the river, he decided his best bet was to just take his shoes off and walk across. But when he sat down to untie his hiking boots, he was startled once again by Jack's voice.

"You want me to carry you, too?" Jack questioned.

"I couldn't ask you to do that," Davey shook his head.

"Well," Jack pulled Davey to his feet, "I guess you don't have to," he scooped Davey up with surprising ease. 

Before Davey knew it, they were on the other side of the river, and once everyone was across and had gotten their shoes on, they continued walking. Before long, someone at the front shouted "I SEE IT!" 

Everyone craned their necks and moved to see what they were talking about. Sure enough, a fenced off, beautifully green area with plenty of trees for shade. It was Zion. 

Everyone seemed to walk a little faster after that. Now that they could see their goal, they wanted to get there as soon as possible. 

When they arrived, there were sprinklers going that they could play in to cool off. They parked their handcarts in neat rows, and then the fun began. Some people sat in the shade and the soft grass, some went to play in the sprinklers, and some went to use the flush toilets that were there. 

"What's that stand over there?" Jack noticed a few tables set up with all sorts of candy and other goodies.

"I think that's where you spend your beans," Katherine reached into her pocket and got a little linen drawstring sack of dry beans out of her pocket, "who wants to check it out with me?"