Out of Town: A Spot Conlon Story

XLI

"Are you okay?" I hear Spot say, pulling me from my sleep. My eyes flutter open as I make eye contact with Spot from across the room. "I don't want you doing whatever you did last night again. I will do whatever I can do to stop it" Spot says, "because I love you"
"I love you too Spot, but I want to go back to bed" I say throwing his duvet over me. As soon as the blanket hits me again I am already being pulled out from under it.
"You have rehearsal today".
"But Freddy is mad at me".
"He is going to stay mad until you face him again". He is right, I hate it when he is. Luckily he is normally wrong.
I throw on a skirt over the slip I have on, before walking out the door. "I'm going to walk you" Spot says as my hand touches the handle.
"Don't you have to sell papers?" I ask.
"My spies say the Manhattan Newsies aren't playing. I have to see for myself" he explains. However I can see though Spot's lie, and he knows it, "I also want to see you rehearse".
"Nope, you can wait to see it until tomorrow" I say.
"I'm still going"
"Okay"
With that we were on our way. We almost made it out of Brooklyn before I encountered my catcaller, only a wolf whistle but it made me uncontrollable. In addition to catching Spot's attention, he instinctively pulls me closer and wraps his arm around me. Spot keeps his arm around me for the rest of our walk. After what feels like a century we finally reach the theater. Walking though the doors I see Freddy and Claire working together on the stage. She has always practiced before me, something about how it works in her schedule better. I take my opportunity to take off my flats and lace up my Pointe shoes. I disguard my skirt too before walking closer to the stage. Spot takes this moment to leave, so he doesn't intrude on rehearsal. Almost seems to easy.
"Enough for today Claire you look and sound fabulous! Just make sure you push backwards first on the swing" Freddy says wrapping up their session. Claire nods and turns away, not even a wave to me. However when Freddy turns around it is a different story, "nice of you to show up". He is mad.
We are about a half hour into practice when Aunt Medda makes her first appearance, "I've decided to keep your room downstairs as your own dressing room".
"From the top" Freddy says, showing no mercy. I haven't been drinking enough water and it is catching up to me. "One more run though and then you can break"
This run though was the slippiest yet, I have been making simple mistakes all day. I have not been practicing this routine for a about a week, some technical errors have been occuring. I have my break and then I went though more runs. It felt like nothing is changing no matter how hard I do it. My mind keeps wandering to see stupid things, like the creeks in the floor boards.
"I don't think you are ready to perform it tomorrow" Freddy says. My heart crushes, I mean I knew it was coming though. If you can't perform the routine up to standard, you don't perform the routine. "I will have another rehearsal for you before we open tomorrow. Prove yourself there and I will tell Medda you can perform" he is making an exception for me. Freddy never makes exceptions.
"I won't let you down" I say beaming off the stage to get some water.
"I hope not, practice tonight".
I put back on my shirk and change my shoes before leaving. Spot is in the middle of the square squatting in a tree.
"Having fun" I say looking up at him.
He simply puts a finger over my mouth and whispers in he deep voice, "I don't want the other newsies to see us. Get up here".
"Better idea" I grab his wrist and we run into the alley behind the theater. The one where he asked me on a date. A smile appears on my lip as I remember the not so distant memory. This will be a nice place to camp until the Newsies stop roaming
"I like your thinking" Spot says, climbing the fire escape. That is a better idea, I am going to let him think I came up with. I begin to climb the escape too until we reach the roof. An excellent view of New York is awaiting us at the top. "Brooklyn is joing the strike. They showed the scabs who is boss today. Brooklyn can stand behind that" Spot says. I hope he is making the right decision.