Seeking nip and tuck, p.1
Seeking Nip and Tuck, page 1
SEEKING NIP & TUCK
By Barbara Brooks Wallace
Pangea Press
Seeking Nip & Tuck
This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First Pangea Press edition.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9995214-1-0
Copyright © 2017 by Barbara Brooks Wallace.
All rights reserved. No reproduction rights are granted without permission, unless referenced and attributed in excerpt form for a review or book report. Cover Design by PANGEA. Edited by John Schulte.
An imprint of Pangea
Dana Point, California 92629
DEDICATION
For Little Urchins Everywhere!
Seeking Nip & Tuck
DEDICATION
DROWNED!
SCARED TIMES TWO
THE IDEA
HOME SWEET HOME
OH NO!
ANOTHER IDEA
WHY?
SPIED ON!
AUNTY
GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT
TRAPPED!
REVELATIONS AT NIGHT
MORE GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT
THE TWO FOXES
THE IDEA
YET ANOTHER SEEKER
GONE!
DECEPTION
BETRAYED!
PROOF POSITIVE
THE TRUE EXPLANATION
AT LAST!
DROWNED!
Amurky fog, in some parts heavily laced with the smell of rotting fish and rotten wood, hung over the river. At one place in particular, a single gas lamp made no pretense of doing much but lighting a few feet of the dock under it. The very weight of the fog seemed to discourage the filthy water along the shore from doing more than sucking sluggishly at the dock’s splintered bulkheads. This melancholy sound was now almost the only one breaking the deep silence.
Almost, yes, but not quite. For besides the occasional scuffle of rats’ feet scribbling and scrabbling their way across the dock, there was the sound of voices. It required a very sharp pair of ears to hear the voices, however, what with the care given to muffle them. The voices, the property of two boys, came from behind a half dozen oil-blackened barrels stacked near the end of the dock.
“Why aren’t they coming? Do you think they won’t come?”
“They’ll come. You think policemen aren’t going to come checking all this stuff off the ships? You think they’d leave it just sitting around down here waiting for someone to come lift it?”
“But what are we going to do if they don’t come?”
“All we do is hide what we brought behind the barrels. Then we do this again tomorrow night.”
“What if the barrels get taken away? Where are we going to hide anything?”
“Lots of other places to hide stuff. Anyways, by the looks of these barrels, they’ve been here forever. I don’t see how they’re going anyplace lest they grow legs and walk away.”
“All right then, what if Hike doesn’t send us out with the tin pitcher? What if he doesn’t end up snoozing until it’s dark so we can get away? What then?”
“How many times lately hasn’t he sent us out with his precious tin pitcher? It’s so precious we even both get sent, one to carry, one to be guard. So name how many times?”
“None, I guess. But I’m scared. Don’t you say you’re not!”
“I won’t say it then. But it’s going to be all right. It’s got to be. We got it all planned out, don’t we?
“I guess so. But I still don’t like it that we’re leaving Molly. We promised Mama. We promised!”
“Look, I know what we promised. But Mama wasn’t thinking right then. She might have guessed Hike wouldn’t take care of her. Only how would she have guessed we wouldn’t be there to do it? So for now she’s got to live with Mrs. Peeby.”
“More like die with Mrs. Peeby. You know what Mama used to say about baby farms.
“Well, Molly would most likely die all by herself, too, if we were at the glassworks all day, wouldn’t she? Isn’t that what we decided?”
“What if we can’t fix it so we can get her out soon enough?”
“There’s another ‘what if.’ We got enough to deal with now without...S–s-s-s-t! Here they come! Told you, didn’t I?”
The voices behind the barrels fell silent as the boys listened to footsteps approaching. Looking out through the cracks between the barrels, they saw two bobbing spots of light drawing near with the footsteps. The lights came from bullseye lanterns carried by the policemen the boys were expecting. Hoping for, at any rate. The footsteps stopped at the dock, and one of the policemen shone his lantern over it.
“Nothing here, Bert,” he announced.
The footsteps started up again.
“Oh no!” breathed a muffled voice from behind the barrel. “Come on! Come on! Look some more, you two!”
As if in answer to the request, the footsteps stopped, and then returned to the dock. This time two lantern lights shone over it.
“Told you, Sam, there’s something there. Let’s have a look.”
The footsteps thump, thumped out to the end of the dock. “So what have we here?”
“Looks like some clothes to me. Two shirts and two pairs of trousers. Belonging to two boys, I think. How old would you say?”
“Who knows? Maybe ten or eleven...somewhere in there. Question is, why are their clothes here, Bert? Boys stupid enough to go swimming, maybe?”
“I’d say that. Trying to cool off in this murderous weather.”
“But look here, Sam, see what’s wrapped up in this shirt...a book. This one’s been pretty much read, too, by the looks of the cover. Hmmm, Ragged Dick. That’s a Horatio Alger book I practically read the cover off, too, when I was a lad. This one says, ‘Property of Matt and Mickey Deacon’ inside the cover. Brothers, looks like.”
“Well, Burt, doesn’t look like they’ll be reading the book again. Poor little buggers. Bodies’ll probably wash up somewhere down river. Meantime, we’ll hang on to their clothes in case someone comes looking for the owners.”
“Think that’s likely?”
“Who knows? Sometimes they come right away. Sometimes not for weeks. Sometimes never. One thing odd, though, Sam, no shoes.”
“They don’t all wear shoes, Burt. Not if they live on the street.”
“I’m not so sure these boys did, though. Clothes look a little too clean and cared for, wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes, I’d have to say that. And then there’s the book, so we know they can...could read. I think maybe somebody really cares about these boys.
“I think so, too, Sam. Beats me why they were doing anything this risky. You’d think they’d been warned. It’s sad. Hope I’m not the one to have to tell whoever comes claiming them.”
“I don’t want that job either, Burt. But no use standing around here. The bodies sure aren’t going to come floating back to claim anything. Not tonight anyway. We might as well get these back to the station house.”
The footsteps went thumping off, and in moments the lights from the two policemen’s lanterns became pinpricks, and finally vanished into the fog. A small whoop went up from behind the barrels.
“We did it! We did it!”
“No more us. We did it, didn’t we?”
“Yes we did. Matt and Mickey Deacon drowned forever. It’s Nip and Tuck now.”
“We did it, didn’t we, Nip?”
“Yes we did, Tuck! Nip and Tuck, that’s us now.”
“So what do we do next?”
“Just what we said. Get away from here fast as we can. We can’t be sure no one will be back here tonight snooping around. But we can be pretty sure they’ll be back tomorrow, checking to see if our bodies come sloshing around under the pier. Just think, Mickey...I mean, Tuck, pretty soon we’ll go find a place to get our boxes and brushes. After that we’ll be in business just like Ragged Dick.”
“What if Hike never believes it’s us got drowned, and he’s out looking for us?”
“There’s ‘what if’ again. The policemen think it, Tuck. Why wouldn’t Hike?”
“I don’t know. They saw there was no shoes there with the rest. He’ll see it too. Maybe we should just have left our shoes.”
“Maybe. But we didn’t.”
“Could we leave them now?”
“Don’t be stupid. Suppose they come back tomorrow and there’s our shoes sitting there. You think they’d think the shoes walked there all by themselves with no feet in them? Anyway, Mama wouldn’t have liked us running around with no shoes like street boys.”
“Maybe Mama wouldn’t have liked us doing what we’re doing, Nip. Maybe we shouldn’t be doing it at all.”
“Well, what do you want to do, give up? You want us to give up after we just went to all that trouble to get our little selves drowned?”
“I guess not. But I’m scared, Nip, I’m really truly scared.”
“You got nothing to be scared of, Tuck. We have it all figured out, don’t we? So what could go wrong? I’m asking you. What?”
SCARED TIMES TWO
Nip was scared, too. Cripes! He was just as scared as Tuck, if truth be known. But he knew better than to say so. Scared times two was never better than scared times one, and could have had them both turning and high tailing it home. Well, what had been passing for home, anyway. And as for what could go wrong, had something not already gone wrong? They left their shoes on their feet instead of lying on the dock with their shirts and trousers like they should have done. Who goes swimming with their shoes on? No one, that was who!
Their mama had bought each boy an extra shirt and pair of trousers. They had been kept in a drawer so far, and Hike had never seen them. But each had just one pair of shoes, the ones on their feet. It was Tuck’s idea that they ought to keep the shoes. But the boys never, never said, “Told you so” about anything stupid the other one did. What Nip said about their Mama not liking them running around like street boys was only to make Tuck feel better about what was his idea. Anyway, Nip could have argued about keeping their shoes to begin with. All he had done was say they could practice shoe shining on each other. But not leaving their shoes with their clothes! How dumb could that be?
Nip thought it was pretty clever of Tuck to think about leaving their favorite book with their clothes, though. If Hike had any thoughts about their not drowning, he might have guessed they would never just run off and leave a book behind they almost always had their noses buried in. Then they stupidly went and never left their shoes behind with it! Cripes!
Nip hated losing that book, though. It was Tuck’s and his favorite, and what gave them the idea for what they were doing. Well, it was more like Nip’s idea at first, but Tuck had gone right along with it. They just about always went along with each other’s ideas.
Anyway, it was Ragged Dick, who was their hero, that gave Nip the idea. It wasn’t that Ragged Dick had any thoughts about drowning himself, or jumping off a bridge, or doing himself in by some way or another. But he was brave and clever, and ended up on top making his way in the world, starting from the bottom. He would never have just let himself get led like a bleating lamb to die in the glassworks.
That is what Hike had in mind for the boys, and why they had made up their minds to do what they had just done. That was get out while the getting was good, meaning while they were still breathing. From all they had heard when they were lucky enough to be in school, glassworks could do a good job of putting an end to breathing.
But reading about something was not like doing it. Already they had found out they were not Ragged Dick in a book. Besides, what would Ragged Dick have done if he had been twins, and had to hide from everyone, especially someone like Hike? What if he had been one of twins who looked as much alike as twins ever could? Twins like Nip and Tuck.
When each of them looked in the mirror, it could have been the other, easy. They were exactly alike except for a mole or two in places that never showed. Same noses. Same split in their front teeth. Same almost curly hair, too, with the same stupid straight piece standing straight up in the back like a little flagpole. Same brown color. Same blue eyes. It would have been much easier to disappear, like Ragged Dick, if there was only just one of them, or even two who did not exactly match each other. There probably was no pea pod in the whole world with two peas in it who matched like Matt and Mickey Deacon, now become Nip and Tuck.
Well, matched except for their clothes. Much as their mama would have liked them to dress alike, she could not manage it. When street peddlers was where you did your shopping, and the only clothes you could buy once belonged to other boys, any matching ideas went out the window. So if anyone looked at their clothes, they were not twins. But all anyone had to do was look up at their faces, and that was that. Twins!
Nip had told Tuck they would have to wait out for two or maybe three days before they started their shoe shine businesses. He hoped two or three days was all that was needed to be sure everyone believed they were good and drowned. Especially Hike. But those two or three days they were going to have to be careful. Really careful. Really, really careful. Two twin mice escaping a big cat is how careful. They could not even be seen walking down the street together. Well, even if one of them shaved his head, anybody with eyes and a brain could see they were twins.
Walking to their hiding place, Nip decided he was not going to think about what Tuck said: “What if Hike never believes it’s us got drowned.” He was not even going to think about how Hike might believe they got drowned, and then someone maybe from The Bloody Cow could see them and report it to Hike. He could just as easily un-believe them drowning. Nip was not going to think about it enough to say something and scare Tuck even more.
He was not going to think about it. He was positively not going to think about it. So all the time they were walking up one street and down another to get to our hiding place, he was not thinking about it. Especially every time they passed someone, or got lit up under a gaslight, he was not thinking about it. Oh cripes! He never stopped thinking about it.
And he was scared. No matter how many times he turned and grinned at Tuck, he was scared.
THE IDEA
Tuck would have turned tail and run back home, even if it meant going back to Hike, if Nip had not been so sure they had nothing to be scared of. He would have taken his chances with the glassworks Hike had his eye on for them. Hike had already talked to someone there about the boys, lying about how old they were, and telling them he would beat the living daylights out of them if they told the truth and made a liar out of him.
They always had helped their mama after school with her work making candy boxes and sorting beads for her beadwork. Her money helped because their papa was only a drawing teacher. Sometimes he had nobody to teach drawing to, their mama explained. So she did boxes and beads. They would have gone on doing them after she died, but Hike said it was not enough.
“You two weasels are going to go and earn some real money!” he said, and banged his fist on the table to let them know he meant it.
Hike was someone their papa met when he started visiting the saloon called The Bloody Cow almost every night. Their mama and papa argued about that. They argued a lot anyway. The boys could hear their voices at night as long as they could remember, but the voices were never loud enough for anyone to find out the reasons for the arguing. Then their papa started bringing Hike home with him, and Hike seemed all right to their mama. Their papa’s health was not doing too well, and Hike cheered him up. He always laughed and patted them on the head.
Their mama must have been fooled, though the boys were not so sure about him. All they knew was right after their papa died, their mama found she was going to be a mama again with Molly, and Hike still kept coming around, until in the end he came to live with them.
Most times he never bothered to go to The Bloody Cow after that. He sent the boys there with a tin pitcher instead. He would drink some from it. After dinner, he would sit and finish what was left in the pitcher. Then he would put his head down on the table, and start snoring, big fat, wet, loud snores. They watched spit drizzle down his beard. Their mama would carefully draw the boys over to the corner table where all three sat quietly doing boxes and beads until bedtime. Then Molly came. Their mama was never well after that. Then she died. The boys guessed she must have died from having Molly.
Long as their mama was alive, Hike never hit either boy. Then he started right away doing it if he did not like something they said or did. He hit worse and worse, especially after he had been at the pitcher. They whispered at night about running away, but they both knew it was just talking. Nobody meant it. Anyway, they could not run off and leave Molly. They had been taking care of her when Hike went to his job at the docks. So they just went on whispering at night about running, because it made them feel better just to think about it even if they knew they would never do it.
Then Hike came in one night, packed up Molly and took her out. He came back and said he had taken her to someone named Mrs. Peeby, who kept babies. That was when he told the boys what was in their future.
“You two little weasels are going to the glassworks,” he said. “I’ve already talked to the manager about it. It’s all settled.”
Then Tuck went and popped out with something he probably might never have dared to do if he had thought about it for five seconds.
“I won’t go,” he said. “Mama wouldn’t like it.”
