A New Deal For Christmas-Newsies

Chapter 2-Snyder's Office

Katherine feigned obliviousness when she saw Snyder push a glass of some foul smelling liquid behind a stack of papers and out of her sight. She wasn't stupid, she knew he was probably doing something against the law. Only she wasn't sure just what and quite frankly, she'd rather not protest against this large man while she was quite so vulnerable. She made a mental note of asking Mr Kelly what the rules of running a Refuge are when he returned from Brooklyn.

Pulling her own small stack of papers from her briefcase seemed to take Snyder by surprise.

"You a working girl, eh? I figured you were just a woman looking to adopt that went the wrong way to the orphanage." He laughed and strode over to Katherine.

"My boss," she began, unfazed by him despite how close he was, "is Mr Jack Kelly." Snyder's eyebrows shot up but he tried to disguise it. "Due to a new programme amongst a few political leaders, the top 20 most powerful men in all of New York have been asked to take in a child for two weeks, over the course of Christmas."

"And you came to a Refuge because... you're stupid?" He was smirking now.

"I figured it would dig a little closer to Mr Kelly's own roots." Handing him the paper, Katherine continued. "If you'll just sign here."

Snyder obliged and picked up a pen, scrawling a quick signature at the bottom of the page.

"And if you sign here..." as he spoke, Snyder went over to the other side of his room and pulled out a red book from the shelf. "A visitors book. Gotta keep track on who those rascals get to see, eh?"

As Katherine signed her name in the book, Snyder chugged a quick mouthful of alcohol, leaving Katherine to pretend she hadn't seen.

"Now, if you want the boy," both Snyder and Katherine glanced at Crutchie as he hovered in the doorway. "You'll have to thank me for him."
Snyder approached her, his eyes looking sinister and scary.

"I thought you said you'd have to thank me, I mean... you said I'd be 'taking him off your hands'." Katherine laughed nervously, tucking the signed papers back into her bag as she set a hand on Crutchie's shoulders. "Let's go." She said, sensing his discomfort along with her own.

Snyder made a grab for her but once she and Crutchie had passed the doorway, he seemed to have just given up.

————

Katherine set her hands on the boys shoulders as they left the building. Once she'd spotted Bill in the car, she opened the door so that Crutchie could enter. The poor boy climbed in and used his crutch to help him position himself on a seat as Katherine sat beside him.

"This is Bill, Mr Kelly's chauffeur." She introduced them as Bill set off from the Refuge. "Bill, this is Mr Kelly's Christmas guest." She smiled. "Tell me about yourself." She turned to the boy.

"Uhh..." He mumbled incoherently, Katherine just smiled encouragingly. "My... uhhh... name's Crutchie. I'm 12... I... Snyder said I was stealin' from da bank but I wasn't. I was... me n' Race..."

"The older boy? With the dark hair?" Katherine questioned.

"Yeah." Crutchie exhaled gently as though thinking of his friend, despite only being separated moments ago. "We was stealin' from a couple of da shops, nothin' they'd miss, jus' a blanket or two ta keep da boys at da lodgings house warm as win'er came round. We'd'a payed da money if we 'ad it. Bu' we gots caught so it don't matter now."

Katherine didn't want to upset him, but she was curious. And she'd always wanted to be a reporter.

"How long ago was this?" Her voice was confident and wasn't at all shaking with nerves the way she'd expected it to. Here, sat next to her, was a small, broken boy who had probably suffered more in all his 12 years than she had in her 22. His pale blue eyes looked dull and teary when he answered.

"A year? Maybe less, I lose track o' time."

"Well, Crutchie. I'm Katherine Pulitzer, please just call me Katherine. I'm Mr Kelly's secretary. You'll be staying with us for two weeks, over Christmas, if that's alright with you?" Crutchie nodded, his chin lifting as he peeked curiously out of the cars blacked-out windows.

Katherine sat back in her seat, leaning comfortably against the door to watch her new companion's excitement. Just wait until he got to the mansion...