Untitled

This is my only chance to get out of here! They’ll be back any moment!! Iris Louise McDury thought. She was standing in the alley between the house where she had lived for the past year and the baker’s next door. It had been a year of hell for Iris, and she was eager to start her escape.

She left as quietly and unnoticed as possible, making her way among the thong of people that had come to the weekly market for their groceries. Scenes of the last year played over and over again and again in her head as she walked further and further away from her home. One scene played continually in her mind, over and over yet again.

This scene happened to be the one that made the last year so unreal. It was the scene in which she was kidnapped. It all started back on that faithful day in May, one year ago…….

“I’m going down to the Market for some fresh eggs and such. I’ll be back in a while. You two girls stay here, and if Uncle Michael comes back, tell him were I’ve gone to, he shouldn’t be to mad if he gets some food out of it.” Iris informed the younger two girls as they continued to scrub the tenement apartment as clean as possible. The girls just simply nodded know that she had spoken the truth. Michael wasn’t the kindest man, but he did proved for the three girls, and they were thankful to him for it. Iris and Katrina the most, for they were only his nieces, and for him to take them in as he had, was extremely kind of him. For Molly, it wasn’t such a big deal, for he was her father, though he still denied. It was a hard life.

As Iris walked through the market, looking at the produce and other items, she was unaware of the watchful eyes that followed her every move. These eyes belonged to non other than Gilbert Booker, the man who all police looked for, but could never catch. He decided that it was her, and singled to his thugs. They all picked it up, and before anyone even knew what had happened, Iris Louise McDury was gone, thought never to be seen from, or heard form ever again.

“Get your hands off of me you ugly baboon!!!” Iris screamed at the man with the jet-black hair that was holding her in her seat, while they waited for Gilbert to come back. He just looked down at her and stared, like as if he didn’t know what she was saying. The apartment that the men had taken her to was lightly furnished, and in the deep heart of the tenements. Or at least that’s what Irish drew by the sounds going down in the streets below. A few seconds later, the door to the apartment opened and a man of about 6’ 5” walked in. It was a cocky walk, full of confidence. Iris didn’t like the look of him, from his trim, muscular build, to his deep blue eyes and chestnut colored hair. She just had a bad feeling about this man. It wouldn’t take long to prove this feeling to be true.

“Well, well, what do we have here? How’s the ‘princess’ doing? She holding up well, Thad?” Gilbert’s questions were directed to the man standing behind Iris, keeping her in her chair. The man looked up & grunted. Can’t he talk! Or are these men so mean that they mutilate themselves?!?! As Gilbert came closer to Iris to get a better look at her, she could see the humor in his eyes. He thinks this is funny! Oh, is he going to get it! Maybe not today, but one of these days! Someone will toy with him!

“Well now ‘princess’ how do you like your new home? You can leave as soon as ‘daddy dearest’ pays up!” Gilbert’s comment so stirred Iris that she couldn’t even cry. She wanted to, for her dad was dead and that met she would be there forever. But instead, she just yelled at him. Letting her Irish temper live up to it’s reputation. “’Daddy dearest’? What ‘daddy dearest’? My father is dead!”

“What!” Roared Gilbert. “Aren’t you Valerie Duvall?”

“Who?”

That was just the begging. For the last year she had incurred Gilbert’s wrath over picking up the wrong girl. It was slavehood. And Iris was ready to leave, and that’s just what she did… And, after some VERY careful considering on what to do…she decided to become a newsie. After all, they where people in a somewhat similar situation…all unwanted-like her. The pay wasn’t much, but it was better than what Gilbert was giving her (witch was nothing but pain and loneliness). Plus, Gilbert would never think that she would be so public, no, he’d guess that she would hide. It was the perfect solution.

So, off Iris went to go join the newsies for the buying of the afternoon papes. She met newsies on her way, and though they where all nice and pleasant to her, she was still withdrawn.

After her first day of selling papes, she knew that her life had just taken a turn for the better…and for the worse. Life was never going to be as comfortable EVER again, but it would be a lot safer. After she had gotten permission to stay at the lodging house, Iris went to bed. Her last thoughts were of her dear little sister in the abusive home of her drunken uncle. Was she dead? Was she still there? Did Duncan come back for them while she was away? So many questions remained, but she’d have to wait until the morning to start on her quest for the truth.