Brooklyn's Queen: A Spot Conlon Love Story

Chapter 2: You learn from Jack, you learn from the best

We all stopped singing as two boys walking in the center of the street.

Racetrack begins to sniff the air, "Dear me. What is dat unpleasant aroma? I believe da sewer blocked up during the night."

"Too rotten to be the sewers." Boots said.

"It must be, the Delancy brothas!" I yell out. Laughter breaks out in the crowd. 

"Inna back, you ugly little shrimp!" Oscar says to Snipeshooter, then throws him to the ground in revenge. 

"You shouldn't do that, it's not healthy." Race said, helping him up. 

Jack then walks up to Oscar, and says "You shouldn't be callin people little ugly shrimps, Oscar, unless your referrin to the family resemblance in your brotha here." Jack points at Morris. The boys glare at Jack. "That's right, it's an insult. And so's this.."

Jack then reaches out and flips Morris's hat off his head. Jack takes off and the Delancy brothers follow him through the streets, but Jack is too fast. He quickly jumps up on a cart and hide in on the roof of a store. The brothers come up to it and are hit with Jack's feet as he swings from the ceiling and kicks them both in the stomach.

As Jack heads back to us, he runs into a new guy and what looked like his little brother.

"Watch it willya? What do you think you're doing?"  The new boy asks. 

"Runnin!" Jack yells as he keeps going, then he trips and the Delancy Brothers surround him. They try to hit him, but my brother is too quick. He, again, kicks them in their stomachs and throws them into the crowd. The Brothers give up and just stare at Jack as he climbs the gate to open it.

Us newsies run to the window to grab our papes. 

Jack knocks on the window, "Oh Mr. Weasel... Ya miss me Weasel?"

"I told ya a million times, it's Weisel. Mr. Weisel to you." Jack then grabs a paper from Mr. Weisel and begins to read it. "How many?" He asks. 

"Don't rush me, I'm cruisin the merchandise Mr. Weasel." Jack teases back. The boys, including myself, take a laugh out of this. "The usual." 

"One hundred papes for the wise guy." Mr Weisel says. I then walk up to the window. 

"Well, heya Mr Weasel! You know, I think I'm beginning to like ya! So, do me a favor and pass me my papes for free." He just glares at me.

"50 papes for the little Kelly." Mr Weisel hands me my papes. 

I sit on the step next to Race. "Anything good this morning?" He asks. I shake my head.

"And again, the trolley strike. I means, how long can this go on for?" I say. It's been the head line for a few weeks and people have been getting tired of it.

"Ey, baby born with two heads, must be from Brooklyn." Race says. We all get a chuckle.

All of a sudden I hear some commotion behind me at the window.

"I paid for 20 and I only got 19." It was the new boy. What was he doing?

"Are you accusing me of lying kid?" Mr. Weisel yelled at him. 

The new boy just replied back, "No I just want me paper." Props to him for keeping his cool. I would have went off so badly on Mr Weisel. 

"Beat it."

Jack then walks up and counts the newpapers himself. "No, its nineteen Weasel, but don't worry about it, it's an honest mistake. Morris, he can't count to twenty with his shoes on." Morris then lunges at Jack, but is stopped by the bars on the window. The newsies start laughing. 

"Alright get outta here." Mr Weisel hands the new kid his pape.

"Hold on, Finn, spot me two bits." Jack tells me. I flip him a coin and Jack slaps it on the counter. "Another fifty for my friend here." 

"I don't want another fifty-" Says the new kid. Really? Every newsie wants more papes.

"Sure you do, every newsies wants more papes." It's like Jack read my mine, and I let out a little laugh. 

The new boy starts to protest. "These are your papes, I don't take charity from nobody! I don't even know who you are..."

Just then, his little brother calls out, "Cowboy! They call him cowboy!" 

"Yeah, well that and a lot of other things including Jack Kelly, which is what me mudda called me. What do they call you kid?"

"Les, and this is my brother David, he's older." 

"Oh no kidding." Jack says. "How old are you Les."

"Near  ten." Les replies. 

"That's no good. Anybody asks, your seven. Younger sells more papes, Les, and if we gonna be partners-" 

"Wait, wait wait, who said anything about partners?" David exclaims. 

"Well, you owe me two bits, right? Okay, so I consider it an investment. We sell together, split 70-30, plus you get the benefit of observin me, no charge." Jack says back.

I stand up and say, "Your gettin the chance of a lifetime here Davy."

"You learn from Jack, you learn from the best." Crutchy tells David. 

"Well if he's the best, then why does he need me?" 

The crowd let out an "oo" and we all chuckled. This kid is smart, but he has not a clue what he's doing right now. 

Jack looks around and then back to David. "I don't need you pal, but I ain't got a cute little brother to front for me. Now with this kids puss and my God given talent, we's can easy move a thousand papes a week. What do ya say Les, you wanna sell papes with me?" 

"Yeah!" Les says with excitment. David stops their handshake. 

"Wait, it's gotta be at least 50-50." 

"60-40 I forget the whole thing." Jack says back.

"That's fair." I say. The other newsies nod in agreement. David looks consider, but with his Les's pleading, he holds out his hand for a shake. Jack spits into his hand and goes to shake David's. David pulls away fast.

"Whatsa matta?" Jack asks.

"That's disgusting." David says, looking at Jack. We all let out a laugh. Us newsies start to walk out to the street. 

"Name of the game is volume Dave. You only take twenty papes, why?" I ask, walking next to him.

"Bad headline." David replies. 

Jack then says, "First t'ing you gotta learn, headlines don't sell papes, newsies sell papes." 

"Right, right, yeah." We all say. 

"We's what holds this town together. Without newsies, nobody knows nothin." Jack says.

Just then a young, attractive girl walks by. They all take off their hats and "oo" and "ah" at her. I shake my head. 

"Don't worry Finny, we's still love ya." Race hugs me.

"Yeah, yeah, get off." I say, pushing him away. We both laugh. 

"Baby born with three heads!" 

"Extra, extra!"

We all spread out and head to our selling spots. Now, I have three partners, Jack, David, and Les. Jack's a pretty protective brother, so he always makes me sell with him. We make more money anyway, so I don't complain.

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Don't worry, you know who is coming up soon :))