Undisclosed Desires by Bridget Kathleen (websites to read books for free txt) 📖

one. "we'se just wanna see yet knew hair do."

"Go away." She told them, but they wouldn't listen. Soon the youngest brother yanked off her hair and waved it into the air. "Give that back!" she yelled.

"Nah. Ya gotta jump for it foist." he held her hat up high into the air. Sophia glared up at him and then jumped. The two brother laughed at her. She was being completely humiliated by these jerks!

Sophia had just about enough of it and needed to get to a store to find some medicine for Tommy. "You son of a bitch!" she yelled and punched the youngest brother in the stomach. He dropped the hat and Sophia quickly picked it up and started to run for it.

Just as she was about to reach the Brooklyn bridge, the oldest Delancy brother grabbed on to her short hair and yanked her back so hard to fell flat on her back. He then took her by the arm and dragged her to an alley. There she met up with the younger delancy brother. They shoved her around a bit, back and forth and then started to check her pockets. What had she ever done to those boys to deserve this? The oldest Delancy brother then grabbed out her five dollar bill.

"Well looky here. Seems like dis young lady cut her hair her money. That's too bad. You looked better with your long hair. Now ya just look ugly." The words shot deep into her skin but not as bad when he started to rip up the bill in tiny pieces.

"No! Stop it!" when she tried reaching for it he let go of the money and it blew away with the wind. Sophia dropped to her knee's. Tears forming in her eyes. The youngest brother then dropped Sophia's hat and it plopped on her lap. The two brother then walked away, leaving Sophia there in the alley. When they were gone she picked herself up and put on her new hat and ran all the way back to the lodging house without stopping.

when she got back all the newsie boys were gone. She sat down in a chair and removed her scarf. She was completely hopeless now. She had no money. Her beautiful hair was gone and the word 'ugly' rang through her ears over and over again.

"Where have you been?" Spot asked her, walking into the main room.

"I took a walk."

"Hmm. Where ya get the hat then?"

"Nowhere that concerns you." she placed the scarf on the back of the chair.

Spot ignored her rude brush off and walked up to her. "Let me see ya hat then."

"No!" but it was too late, Spot had pulled it off her head. Silence filled the room for a moment.

"What the HELL did you do to ya HAIR?" he yelled.

Spot's hard words was what did her in and she fell to her knee's and cried her eyes out. "I'm sorry, Spot. R-really. I am. I o-only wanted t-to get some medicine for Tommy." Spot instantly felt terrible for yelling at her. He knew how bad she felt. Spot picked her up bridal style and carried her to his bed room and placed her on the bed. He sat down next to her waiting for her sniffles to subside and then spoke.

"So how much money did ya get?"
"Five dollars..." she answered, hardly making a sound.

"Really? Well that's great, Smalls!" he rubbed her soft little hand that was closest to his. "So where is it?" he then asked and that was then when her bottom lip started to shake and the tears formed in her eyes and thus she began to cry again. She covered her face and turned away from Spot. Spot leaned his head over her and rubbed her shoulder.
"Hey tootsie. What's da matteh?"

Sophia controlled her crying long enough to get three words out. "T-the Delancy brothers."

Spot then said, "What did they's want with ya?"

"They...they t-took the money, Spot...and ripped it u-up."

Spot sat up straight. "What?" he was furious. He stood up fast and started walking towards the door.

Sophia realized this and sat up quickly. "Spot! Where are you going?" she called out to him.

Spot stopped and walked back to her, grabbed her chin with his pointer finger and thumb, pulled her face in and kissed her hard. "Ise gonna go give those damn Delancy brotheh's what they deserve fer messin' with my woman! Youse got that, babe?" with that, Spohia was left speechless and watched as Spot left the room.

By the time Spot got out of Brooklyn it was just about dark. The wind was colder and it stung his cheeks a little, making them turn pink. He kept his eyes wide open for those damn Delancy brothers. He was gonna make them pay for what they did to Sophia. He checked some of the bars but didn't see them there, but he was about to give up. Spot walked to the street where had his newspaper shop. He circled the block a couple of times, and sure enough he caught sight of one of the brothers. It was the younger one. He made his way over there in long strides and soon the oldest appeared. Great. He thought. I gets ta soak 'em at the same time. A smirk appeared on his face.

The youngest Delancy brother turned and saw Spot coming. "Oh hey. It's Spot Conlon." The oldest then turned around and nodded his head with a little sly smile on his face. This didn't scare Spot one bit though. He grabbed out his cain and quickly hit the oldest brother in the face with it. The youngest was about to punch spot right then, but Spot was too fast and kicked him the knee. He fell to his knees and Spot raised his Cain and hit the youngest Delancy brother's back with it, making him fall the rest of the way.
"You BASTARDS got SOME nerve messin' 'round with MY woman!" Spot yelled at the top of his lungs and started to kick the crap out of them and occasionally he would hit them with his Cain again to keep them down. By the these two bone heads woke up after getting a beating from Spot they wouldn't remember that he was the one responsible.

Not all the luck was on Spot's side though. A whistle sounded through the air. A police man had caught him. Spot cursed and quickly searched through all the brothers' pockets and found a good wad of cash and went on running.

"Stop!" the police man called out. Spot wasn't stupid though and kept on running and made his way on to the Brooklyn Bridge, but as dumb luck would have it, more police man made they're towards him on the bridge.
"Ya gota ta be kiddin' me!" he yelled. Spot was now trapped on both side. He couldn't run back and he couldn't run forward. The police came closer and closer. Spot then ran to the side of the Brooklyn Bridge and jumped off.
"No!" yelled one of the police.

"That's suicide!" yelled another.

"He's long gone now boys. It's best we forget about him for good." said the fattest one of all of them.

Spot reached the surface and gasped for air. The current was strong and water kept splashing into his face so it was hard for him to get a good look at things or even get a good enough breather and the cold fall water wasn't helping at all. He followed the motions of the water to figure out where he was going. He then started to swim to his left, the side where Brooklyn was. It was a long swim, but he did it and just about passed out when he reached land. He never thought that running from the cops would be so difficult.

Spot picked himself up and walked the rest of the way back to the lodging house. When he got there his newsie boys were already asleep. It was high time for him too to get to bed and he slugged the rest of the way upstairs.

"Spot? What happened to you? Why are you all wet?" asked Sophia, running up to him and helping him walk the rest of the way to the bed. Spot flopped down and started taking off his wet clothes. Soon he was only in his underwear. Sophia couldn't help but blush.

"Smalls." he said quietly. "Look in my pants pockets."
"Why?" she asked.

"Just do it goily."

Sophia sighed and picked up his wet pants and started searching through the pockets. She then grabbed out a whole thing of cash. She gasped. "Spot, where on earth did you get this?"

A smile crept on his face. "Delancy brothers sure carry a lot of money on 'em." he then turned over and fell fast to sleep.

There in Sophia's hands was twenty dollars in cash. "Spot." she said softly. "I think I really do love you." but he was too deep in sleep to hear her words.

The next day, Sophia and Spot went to the store to find some good medicine for Tommy. All they could find were some ointments. All in all, everything ended up costing them five dollars. They then made their way to medda's by slipping in through the back door. Sophia walked up to a man who was cleaning the floor and said, "Sire. Could you tell me where Medda is? It's very important that I see her."
"Here I am child. What do you need?" asked Medda coming down the stairs from the stage.

"Oh Medda! Thank goodness! I need to know where Tommy is. I have stuff for him that can help him get better."

Medda looked down at the poor girl who wanted so desperately help her older brother. Medda looked past Sophia and at Spot. When he nodded Medda looked back at Sophia. "This way child."

The two followed Medda to where Tommy was being kept. Sophia's heart just about broke when she saw the condition her brother was in.

"Hey Tommy." she said softly, walking up to him and taking a seat on a chair next to the bed.

"A lot of newsie boys keep coming by to see how he's doing." explained Medda. "Racetrack, Blink, jack, David and even less come by every single day. Everyone is so worried about him."
"What did the doctor say?" asked Sophia.

"He didn't say much."

Tommy then opened his eyes, seeing his little sister next to him warmed his heart and brought him joy. He had wanted to see her the most. "Anna Sophia." he said slowly as he reached out his hand. Sophia quickly grabbed it and rested his hand on her lap. It was so cold. His whole body seemed to be shivering, but it looked like he had plenty of blankets. "Medda? Could you get me some warm water and a rag, please?" asked Sophia.

"Sure darling." with that Medda left the room to get the water and rag. A few moments later she came back and placed the tin bowl on the bed with the rag inside it.

"Hand me the medicen gab, will you Spot?" Sophia asked him. Spot handed her the bag and Medda and him watched and she went through it and put little droplets of clear medicine in the water and then crunched up some dry leaves and sprinkled it all in there. She let it set for a while and then took the rag and squeezed it. She