Life With the Newsies- One Shots- OPEN to OCs

Fly Away With Me

Fairytales and stories take root in the hearts of many. Especially the heart of a child. Like the stories of Peter Pan entertain the children of London, stories of Jack Kelly intrigue the children of New York City. Every kid in New York City knows of Jack Kelly or has heard a story or two about the boy. The girls would swoon over his ability to fist fight and sword fight well. There is one important detail that separates the stories of Jack Kelly from the stories of Peter Pan. Jack Kelly is real and so are his stories. Every kid in New York City knew of that too. When a mysterious person would save kid from the Refuge or the bulls, rumors would fly that Jack Kelly was back in town. Of course, no one had actually seen the boy to know for sure whether or not it was Jack Kelly. Some say he disguised himself as a Newsie. An unidentified individual had been caught and taken to the Refuge a short while ago only to break out again the next. No one had known who the boy was. The rumors flew especially on that night. A crippled boy also disappeared that night with the mysterious boy never came back. Some of the kids were scared for the crippled boy, worried that the mysterious kid had soaked the living daylights out of the crippled boy. Yet some were optimistic and wondered if perhaps Jack Kelly had been in their midst and had saved the crippled boy. Katherine Pulitzer or Plumber as her byline stated, had went to investigate this disappearance. She herself and some connections she had searched all over New York City for the young crippled boy. No one had seen him anywhere and Katherine was curious as to where he had gone. Then she heard the tales of Jack Kelly from the kids on the streets. At first, she thought it was mere child's play. Until a few weeks later, the cripple was seen in the Lower East Side Manhattan Newsboy Lodging House. Katherine had went immediately for an interview. She had entered the Lodging House to find the crippled boy surrounded by a bunch of young boys.

"Excuse me!" Katherine exclaimed, pushing her way through the small crowd of boys. The crippled boy, sitting on the couch, told an animated story of how he met the boy known as Jack Kelly. Katherine listened for a short while before making her presence known. She wanted to hear what this boy who said he had met this mysterious boy had to say about him. Finally, she cut in with,

"Are you sure it was him?" The crippled boy looked up at her with a glimmer of hurt in his eyes that made Katherine almost sad that she had attacked it in such a way. "I'm sorry," She immediately apologized. How could she have started out her interview that way? "Maybe we should start over," She suggested and the boy sitting on the couch nodded. Katherine extended her hand. "I'm Katherine Plumber and I am curious about your sudden disappearance," She introduced and the boy took her hand.

"I'm Charlie Morris, but da fellas call me Crutchy," the crippled boy said softly. "Sorry for all da excitement. An yea, I'se pretty shoah it was de Jack Kelly." Katherine pulled out her notebook and demanded,

"Describe this boy to me." Crutchy started to list things of for her.

"Tall, dark-haired, strong, an kind. He could fly too," The crippled boy responded and Katherine nearly dropped her notebook.

"Excuse me?" She asked and Crutchy nodded.

"Yea, he could fly. He taught me ta do it too an he's said he's comin back for me sometime soon. We'se gonna go back ta Nevahland," Crutchy announced and Katherine looked at him as though he were from another planet.

"Uh huh," was all she could manage to say at the time. Something about this did not make sense to Katherine at the time. But as she sits at her desk and looks at her notebook, she thinks that maybe Crutchy wasn't wrong. She would never let anyone see these facts and she would not put them in the paper by any means. These were pieces of a fairytale that a little boy believed to be true. A few nights later, Katherine decides to go talk to those boys again. She arrives at the Lodging House and knocks on the door. Crutchy answers it and beams at her.