The smell of fish was overpowering in Moira's nostrils. It was
always like that when she first started walking along the harbor.
Everyday she would ask herself why she walked through the harbor,
then she would reach the corner. 


"Baby born wit' two heads!" The boy at the corner yelled. Moira
felt her cheeks turn bright red, and possibly her whole face. "Two
heads?" Moira asked, locking her blue-gray eyes to his brown ones.
"Yeah. So you wanna buy a pape?" "I would love to," Moira said
smiling. "Dat'll be a penny, ma'am." The boy replied, with the
sweetest smile Moira had ever seen. Reaching into her skirt pocket
Moira took out a penny and handed it to the boy as he handed her his
last copy of the "World." "You knows what?" The boy said, "I've been
selling you papes for two months and I still don't know your name."
Moira blushed even more, "uh, M-Moira. Moira Matthews. And you?" It
was the boys turn to blush now. "Crutchy," he said. "Well, its a
pleasure to meet you, Crutchy," Moira said. "Youse, too," Crutchy
replied in his New York accent.

"So wheres you headed?" Crutchy asked. "Just home," Moira
replied. "Which is where, exactly?" Moira gave her address to
Crutchy, who then smiled. "That's right by the Lodging House! Do you
mind if I joins ya?" "I would love that," Moira said smiling as
Crutchy took her right hand in his left.

Once the two of them had left the harbor, Moira took in a deep
breath of fishless air, which made Crutchy laugh. "I'm guessing that
youse don't like fish?" "Not fish, just the smell." "I knows whatcha
mean, but you gets used to it afta standin' in da harba all day." "I
bet you do," Moira replied. "I can barely stand being there for a few
minutes, but you do it all day, everyday! You're amazing!" Crutchy
smiled sheepishly. "I'm just doing my job, but I will admit that
sometimes it does stink." Moira giggled slightly. "Funny and cute."
Both of them blushed. "Well, uh," Crutchy said rubbing his neck. " I
better get youse home, its gettin' dark."

♥♥♥♥♥

"So I'll see you tomorrow?" Moira asked Crutchy outside of hr
apartment building. "Yeah. I'll meet youse in da park outside the
Lodging House," Crutchy said, running his hand through his curly
brown hair. "Okay, I'll see you then," Moira replied. For a second
she considered kissing Crutchy on the cheek, but decided against it.
She had only known Crutchy as Crutchy for a few hours, so a kiss was
probably the last thing on the agenda. "Bye," Crutchy said smiling.
"Bye," Moira replied, smiling back. "I love you," she whispered as
she watched Crutchy walk off, his crutch making a soft click with
every other step.

♥♥♥♥♥

"Sorry I'm late," Moira said as she walked into her small
apartment. Her brother Thomas looked up from his copy of the "New
York Sun," which he was a newsie for. "Don't worry 'bout it," he
said. "Bryan Denton took us to dinner at Tibby's" Moira rolled her
eyes. Bryan Denton was always taking the newsies out to dinner. "Did
you have fun with your boyfriend?" She asked jokingly. Moira always
bugged Thomas about dinner with Denton. "Hey! At least I got youse
somethin!" Thomas exclaimed. "Its on the counter." "You know I was
joking with ya, Tommy boy," Moira said walking over to the counter.
"Sure, sure," Thomas said going back to his paper.

On the counter was a square shaped object wrapped in paper.
Opening the paper, Moira saw that it was one of Tibby’s world famous
grilled-cheese sandwiches. “You know that I don’t deserve you as a
brother, right?” She asked. “You are just so nice, and I’m just eck.
I don’t even deserve to eat in your presence.”

Thomas laughed. “You are such a ham.”

“Would you love me any other way?”

“Nah. Go get changed and we can go up onto the roof.”

“I’ll meet you up there,” Moira said, scarfing down the
grilled-cheese as Thomas climbed out onto their fire escape.

Moira pulled on an old pair of Thomas’s pants and climbed onto
the fire escape. She paused for a second and pulled a hat over her
light-brown hair to stop it from blowing into her face while she
climbed. The rings on the ladder were ice-cold as Moira pulled
herself up onto the second to last landing before the roof. Stopping
for just a second, Moira rubbed her hands together to warm them up.
From the window to her left, she heard mumbling that sounded like,
“come back my lovey-dovey baby, and coochey-coo with me.” Moira let
out a small chuckle as she started climbing again.

Once she was at the top, Moira burst out into a laughing fit
that startled Thomas so much, he fell back off of the ledge he was
sitting on. “What’s so funny?” He asked, rubbing his head. “Well,
first of all you, and secondly, Les Jacobs. When I climbed past their
window Les started singing in his sleep. I have a feeling that David
took him to see Medda or something.”

“Probably,” Thomas replied, lying down on the roof. “Wow. Youse
can really see the stars tonight.” Moira walked over to Thomas and
lay down next to him. “They’re beautiful,” she sighed. “Yeah. Wanna
knows the best part? Each one of them tells a story.”

“Really?” Moira asked. “What does that moving one mean?”

“That’s a shooting star,” Thomas replied in awe. "If you makes
a wish on it it'll come true."

"So I can wish for anything?"

"Anyfing."

Moira took in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and made her wish.

"You knows what?" Thomas asked after a minute. "I don't thin
dat any story I tells ya would be nearly as exciting as that. I think
I'll head on inside now."

"Okay, I'm going to stay out for a few more minutes."

"Have fun," Thomas said as he dropped down onto the nearest fire escape.

Moira walked over to the side of the roof and looked out on the
city. She focused her attention on the building that was only a few
blocks away. In a window of the Lodging House was the silhouette of a
boy her age with curly hair and ears that were a little too big for
his head, but Moira thought that made him that much cuter. She
unconsciously waved at Crutchy, even though she knew he couldn't see
her. She was proven wrong as Crutchy waved back. Moira's face turned
bright red, like it did whenever she talked to Crutchy. Crutchy was
probably nervous, too, because he was rubbing his neck again. Crutchy
jumped slightly and turned around. After a second, he turned back and
shrugged apologetically. Moira shrugged back and blew him a kiss.
Crutchy "caught" the kiss and put it on his cheek before closing the
window and walking away.