Pieces

The Refuge

"These newsies," Wiesel said, shaking his head. "We gotta shut them down."

"You're right," Oscar said. "We're outta work until they stop, it ain't fair!"

"Yeah!" Morris smiled and stood up from the chair he'd been told to sit and stay in. "We gotta put the price back down!"

"No. No." Wiesel grabbed Morris's shoulders. It was very sudden. It scared him, but he pretended it didn't. "We're not changing the price. There's a rally today. We're going. And we're shutting it down."

"No, no! Shut it down? And...and..."

"Hurt them."

"No!" Morris tried to get away from Wiesel. He started squirming, then tried hitting Wiesel and pushing him.

"Stop it!" Wiesel pushed Morris to the ground, then grabbed his bat, which was leaning against a nearby wall. Morris quickly covered his face. He hated the bat. Wiesel only hit him once, in the arm. He couldn't do much more, since he needed Morris's help at the strike.

Wiesel carried Morris to the house. When they got there, Wiesel put him to bed, then went to plan with Oscar.

Morris didn't sleep. He had no reason to. He wasn't tired, and he hadn't even had dinner yet. And besides, he was thinking too much to sleep. Mostly about the strike. He didn't want anyone getting hurt, especially if it was his fault. He could almost hear what Oscar and Wiesel were saying. Something about Crutchie. He'd have to remember to keep an eye on Crutchie tomorrow, or maybe warn someone about this. He wished he could have heard the entire plan, so he knew exactly what he had to do. Maybe he could figure it out in the morning.

He knew Crutchie would get hurt. Hours had gone by, and he still hadn't slept at all. He knew Oscar and Wiesel had already been asleep for a while. 

He didn't want to go to work tomorrow. He'd rather do anything else. Maybe he could find some way to get out of it...

He ran down to the cellar, making sure to be quiet. He hated it down there. Just the sight of it was enough to upset him. But he had to do this. For Crutchie.

After some searching, he found what he was looking for. An empty bottle. He threw it across the room as hard as he could, taking all of his anger over this situation out on the bottle. He flinched and covered his ears at the sound of the glass breaking, then ran over to get a piece of it. He started cutting wherever he could reach. When he finished, he went outside and laid on the ground. Maybe they'd think it was a fight. This would be enough for him to stay home, right? He heard that people could die from blood loss, it happened at the refuge once. Maybe it would happen to him. Normally that would scare him, but it didn't right now. All that mattered was that he wouldn't have to hurt anyone.

It wasn't long before Oscar ran out. He heard the glass breaking and saw the front door wide open. "Morris, what the hell happened?!"

He sounded angry. He usually wasn't the angry one, at least not to Morris. He quickly sat up, which made him a bit dizzy. "Well...I went for a walk, and...and this guy..."

"No, what happened right now?"

"Beat me up, and..."

"What was the glass breaking?"

"Window..."

"The window isn't broken. A glass bottle in the cellar was. Did you break that?"

He'd have to change his story. "Dropped it. I was moving it, then...I tried cleaning, and... I got cut, then... Then I fell... Then...I wanted to walk."

"I don't think so. Did you cut yourself or something?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Why?"

"Crutchie." He didn't think to explain that he didn't do it because of Crutchie, he did it for him.

"Alright... Alright." Now Oscar was actually mad at Crutchie. "We're gonna go in now, okay? Get you cleaned up, then put you back to bed." He was back to the normal, gentle tone he used with Morris. He carefully picked him up, cleaned his cuts, then got him new pajamas and brought him back to bed.

While they were walking to work, Oscar and Wiesel were far ahead. Morris was usually faster, since he was always so excited to see Henry. But he didn't want to go today. He ended up falling so far behind that Oscar had to carry him the rest of the way.

Morris felt bad when he heard that the newsies didn't have any backup. He wanted to help them. They were right, they deserved it. 

Eventually, the scabs showed up. Morris didn't want to sell to them, so he stood back and watched everything. He was secretly happy when the scabs joined the strike. He wished he could do the same.

Then the fight started. It was just Oscar, Morris, and Wiesel against all of the newsies. Morris didn't do much. He mostly watched. He was a bit scared, but the main reason was a fear of hurting someone. He eventually ran, and the others weren't far behind.

He watched from the side as the newsies got their picture taken by a news reporter. He couldn't help but smile. Maybe this strike would be better than everyone expected.

Before he knew it, he was being pulled back into another fight. This time, the police were there, as well as some extra backup. This wouldn't end well. Was there any way he could get out of this? They wouldn't need him.

Something seemed a bit off during the fight. Morris didn't realize until he was about to hit Jack, when Jack pointed out someone preparing to hit Morris from behind. And it wasn't a newsie, it was someone who was supposed to be on his side. After that, he stepped back and watched.

Eventually, Morris felt someone pulling on his arm. He squirmed at first, then calmed down a bit after realizing it was Oscar. Then he saw he was being pulled towards Crutchie.  He knew what he had to do. He didn't want to, but he did. All he did was push Crutchie to the ground. Then, after Crutchie hit him, he ran away. He could feel his heart breaking when Crutchie called for help. He wanted to help, but he knew he couldn't.

He was trying not to cry and scream while watching two bulls come over, and eventually drag Crutchie to the refuge. 

Morris didn't follow Oscar and the bulls. He was too scared to move. Then a third bull picked him up and carried him with them. He buried his face in his shirt. He didn't want to watch this. He eventually fell asleep, then woke up in the refuge. He stood up and looked around. Why was he in here? He hadn't done anything. Maybe the bull was confused and thought he was a newsie. He waited for someone to come over. He'd tell them who he was, and they'd let him go. Well, that was what he hoped for. 

He waited all night, and nobody came. He wanted to go home. Anywhere that wasn't here. He cried and screamed, and the only thing that came out of that was him getting shushed by everyone else. He fell asleep again. He'd be out by morning...