Benches

[Administrator]

Relax..

[Cheater Hollander]

In retrospect, Cheater didn't know what she had expected when she purchased the paper. She certainly hadn't expected the story being advertised, because the likelihood of a robbery of that magnitude were fairly slim, but she had been hoping for something that actually justified her actually sitting down to read the paper in the first place. It was her first day off in weeks, for Christ's sake, and she was spending it reading about things that didn't interest her at all.

If she was really honest with herself, the entire transaction was pity-based. The made up headline was poorly constructed, the child was selling the paper in a (nearly) deserted location, and Cheater really couldn't help herself. That, and she missed interacting with the newsies. It wasn't as though she missed the life itself, because she would take actually living in her current location over the lodging house any day, and the job actually paid a bit better, too, but she missed the people and the feeling of community. Waitressing didn't offer her that.

Cheater frowned down at the paper. There wasn't even anything worth reading, save the obituaries, which often contained messages that allowed her to construct whole scenarios of how the person 'really' died. However, upon turning to the section she found nothing of interest, nothing that sparked her imagination. Resisting the urge to throw the paper upon the ground and stomp on it, she resigned herself to reading the business section, grumbling to herself all the while.

Some day off.

[Milo]

With the exception of a few good friends like Gwennie, Rhoda and Vaclav, Milo didn’t really try to play with a lot of other kids (actually, he didn’t really play much with Rhoda or Valclav either because Rhoda worked too much and Vaclav was too old), but he always thought that, when he tried, he wouldn’t be turned down. It really didn’t seem like it would be so hard to just add one more person to a game. The younger kids in Vaclav’s neighborhood must have thought so, though, because, when he’d asked them, after he finished selling, if he could play war games with them, they’d said no.

He didn’t even really like war games and he didn’t really know the kids, but he couldn’t help but feel a little bad about it. He could have gone to Brooklyn to play with Gwennie to make up for it, but he really didn’t feel like playing anymore. Instead, he just walked around, away from little Germany, towards central park. He figured there were enough places to walk around there that he could go around until it got dark and then he’d go back to the lodging house and go to bed.

He felt a little better by the time he actually got to the park, but after he walked pretty far down the footpath, he realized that he didn’t really know what time it was and he should probably find out so he wouldn’t end up too far into the park to get out and back to the lodging house before it was dark. He glanced around, looking for someone who might have a watch. There were a couple of other kids running around not too far away and, there was also a man and a lady kissing under a tree even farther away, but he didn’t think any of them would tell him the time even if they did have watches, so he kept watching, keeping an eye out for someone else.

Finally, after walking for at least ten more minutes (or maybe less…or more. He didn’t really know because he didn’t have a watch.) he saw someone sitting on a bench, reading a paper. Most folks who bought papes from him usually had enough money for watches, so he thought this guy might be a good bet. He didn’t want to bother him, though, so he walked over silently, close enough to realize that the person was actually a lady, one that he knew too. She worked at Tibby’s and he saw her selling papes sometimes too, so maybe she wasn’t rich enough to have a watch after all. He thought it was worth waiting around for awhile, to see, though. He’d ask her when she finished reading her paper or noticed that he was there, whichever came first.

[Cheater Hollander]

How anyone ever read or understood the business section was beyond her. The information was dull, the numbers were too large to be of any significance to her or any normal individual, and the terminology was confusing. All of these, when combined, made for a difficult read and Cheater found herself almost dosing off as she attempted to understand the facts presented before her.

She was just getting ready to give up on her newspaper-reading adventure, when she felt the odd sort of prickling sensation one often gets when someone else is watching them. Cheater froze, fingers tightening slightly on the newspaper, the material crinkling under the pressure. Surely she hadn't done anything to warrant a confrontation... at least not yesterday, and certainly not today considering the fact that she had only been to a handful of places before she took a seat on the bench.

After a few moments of pretending (badly) to read the newspaper, Cheater decided to face the other individual and whatever criticisms they might have brought with them. She slowly lowered the paper, peering over the top and seeing... a boy.

He looked familiar but, then again, she could say that about a lot of people. Nevertheless, Cheater lowered the paper the rest of the way and gave the boy a friendly smile. "Somethin' I can help you with?"

[Milo]

It didn't take the lady a long time to know that he was there. If he didn't watch people so much, he would have missed it because she didn't turn around for awhile. Maybe she was still reading or something like that and she didn't want to stop just for him, but she definitely knew he was there. She got that look that people always got when they were trying not to look at something or someone; that really still look that was almost kind of like they were afraid of what might happen if they peeked even a little. People did that a lot when they wanted him to go away, but, like he always did, he stayed anyhow. He knew he wasn't trying to do anything bad to her, so it wasn't his fault that she was a little scared, really, and he shouldn't have to find someone else to ask because of it. Besides, she always seemed nice at Tibby's so he didn't think she'd be mad at him for scaring her.

After awhile, she finally looked up and, just as he thought, she didn't look mad at all. If fact, she looked pretty glad to see him. Still not in a great mood he gave her only a momentary flash of a forced smile before tapping his wrist as an answer to her question. He knew it was kind of rude to do that and Mrs. Schultz always scolded him for it when he lived with her, but most of the time, he really didn't want to talk, so he did that kind of thing all the time, even with people he liked. He thought it was probably still okay for him now anyhow because he was a kid and people mostly didn't take things kids did so seriously.

[Cheater Hollander]

The boy's lack of verbal response was a bit surprising, but not at all uncommon. Understanding the boy's request, Cheater began to dig through the pockets of her dress. She had purchased a fairly inexpensive watch in the hopes that it would help her arrive to work early, or at least be on time, but so far the watch had failed to fulfill its purpose. In the mornings she dropped it into one of her pockets, promising herself that she would check the watch before she left in order to determine the route to take to Tibby's, and yet she never remembered to do so. More often than not it resulted in her getting to the restaurant, out of breath and looking frazzled, only moments before her shift was supposed to begin.

But, it seemed as though the watch was not in her pocket today. She frowned, going over the morning's series of events in her head. Putting the watch in her pocket had become a routine, one that Cheater tended to follow because it made her feel like she at least paying attention to the watch, if nothing else. Surely she wouldn't have left it at home, even on her day off. With this thought in her head, she began to search again, turning her pockets inside-out but coming up empty handed. Still frowning, she turned back to the boy and shook her head. "Sorry... guess I must've left it at home today... or something," she added the last part under her breath, still patting the pockets as if hoping that it would magically drop into one of them.