From Crutchie To Wheels (And a Little Les Trouble)

The Accident- Jack's POV

Jack's POV

I get back from a long day of selling papes at home with the rest of the boys. It's getting late and Crutchie's the only one not back yet.

"Anyone seen Crutchie lately?" I ask.

Just a bunch of "No's" and "Haven't seen him."

We're all getting ready for bed and I'm starting to get worried about him. He's never out this late. I sit there in bed thinking of what could be keeping him out. Then an unmistakable scream pierces the air.

Almost in unison, all of us newsboys scream "Crutchie!" We all raced downstairs, scrambling to put on our shoes and shirts so we can go outside and help find him. Moments later another scream, even higher pitched this time, comes wailing from outside.

"Guys we've gotta go find Crutchie!" I wailed. "Move it move it move it!"
Les came bolting downstairs.

"Guys did you hear that little girl scream?" he says looking tired, obviously having been woken up by it.

"That's not a little girl, Les, thats Crutchie!" I scream as I bolt out the door in the direction of the scream.
The rest of the newsies followed close behind me, except for race, who was right beside me the whole way.

We arrive at a set of steps and see an unconscious Crutchie laying at the bottom. I let out a scream as I run down the stairs. When I get close enough to see him right, I see that his crutch is broken and his arm is snapped in two and surrounded by blood. "He's loosing blood fast!"

Romeo ripped a piece of cloth off his shirt and Davey snatched it to tie around Crutchie's arm.

With Race and Romeo on his legs, and me on his good arm, we carried him back to the lodge to hopefully fix him up. Davey fell behind us when he went back for Crutchie's crutch laying in two pieces.

We arrived back at the lodging houseand everyone gathered around as we set Crutchie down on his bed. Davey immediately called a doctor, him being the wealthiest newsie and all.

The doctor arrived within 10 minutes because he lived so close by. He took one look at Crutchie and said "Oh my gosh! Crutchie! What happened to him?"

"How do you know him?" I asked very confused as the doctor went straight to work on his arm.

The doctor replied, "Well, because of his leg, he needs to get a checkup every once in a while just to make sure nothing is getting worse. He comes to me for that."

After a while he continued, "Ok, boys. I'm going to need to reset his arm, so if you are squeemish, I suggest leaving now." He looked around to see if anyone was going to leave. No one was except Davey and Les ran down the stairs. He proceded to pop Crutchie's arm back into place.

The sound was almost unbearable to listen to. I looked at his face as the doctor rolled him over and saw there was a big blue bruise on the back of his head. It was covered in blood and dirt.

After the doctor finished wrapping his arm up, he then inspected the gash on his head.

"Ooh this is pretty bad." The doctor mumbled to himself. "Boys it looks as if he may have hit his head pretty hard on something, so he may have some memory loss for the next few weeks. If it doesnt get better within 3 weeks, then call me."

I nodded as the doctor left the room and went out the door of the lodging house.

Crutchie had never been in this condition this before. What if he wakes up and doesn't remember me or anyone or anything? What if he forgets he's a newsie? But the big question is, how is he gonna walk now? His leg is still bad and now his arm he uses for crutching is destroyed. This is a big problem.

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