Forgetting Tabitha: An Orphan Train Rider Read Online Free PDF Page B

they got too many rules and they whip you good if you don’t follow ‘em.”
    “Well at least they fed you there, right?” I was already wondering about my next meal.
    “If you can call it food! I just gotta be careful not to get caught, I’ve been seen with the Roach Guards and if I get picked up it’s a for me.”
    I didn’t really think Scotty was a delinquent but he did steal us some bread for dinner and gloves for my freezing hands. Tommy and Scotty both swept the streets and sold Sunday papers for coin but sooner or later they would have to join one of the gangs for protection. Neither knew what it really meant to be initiated, but both looked hopefully at the prospect.
    “I can help you get a job you know.” Scotty whispered in my ear, his stinky breath hanging thick between us like fog.
    “Thanks, but I am going to try to get a job tomorrow doing laundry, I am good at that. I did it with my mama. Plus Miss Marianne said as long as I was clean I could still go to school.” I picked at my fingers, pulling at the hangnails until they bled.
    “Awe isn’t that swell, she did laundry with her mama, guys.” Tommy threw the crusty heal of his bread at my legs. “You better grow up fast, your mama ain’t here no more,” then he cracked his knuckles one at a time before pulling on holey brown gloves that covered his scabs.
    “You’re just jealous she had a mama you prick, Tommy, leave her alone.” Scotty moved in front of me ready to pounce on Tommy if he kept at it.
    “You really think you can go to school and work?” Scotty asked. Of the three scoundrels under the stoop with me, he was the only one with any hope and still held a gleam in his eyes.
    “Well, it’s my plan and I have to try. Where can I get cleaned up in the morning?” I asked, remembering my promise to my teacher.
    Before the sun lit up the morning sky the Sisters of Charity were at the stoop ushering us kids out with offers of dark bread and hot tea. Sister Agnes was not among the flock. Their offerings were tempting but Scotty grabbed my hand pulling me to my feet and together we ran for it until we mixed in with the city dwellers, adrenaline on high gear.
    “What do you need to get cleaned up?” Obviously Scotty hadn’t cleaned up in a while so he did not know where I could go for a fresh water basin and some baking soda for my teeth. It had been a full day since I brushed and my teeth felt slimy already. I decided to talk to Miss Marianne about this, begging for a clean basin of water to wash with at the beginning of school and in return I would gladly clean the chalkboard and erasers.
    Miss Marianne agreed this was a good idea, she asked me then as if it just dawned on her where I had been sleeping and right then I told my first lie. I told her I was bunking on Mrs. Canter’s floor for now and explained there were too many people in the small house for a fresh water basin or bath so this would be easier.
    After school I began my search for a job doing laundry. Heavens knows I knocked on all the doors I had with my mama one year earlier in hopes someone would remember me, but on account of my short bristly hair cut nobody did. I was shooed away and swat at like a pesky fly, so I decided to head towards the docks and asked the sailors and workers if they had laundry but they sent me away too thinking I was just another beggar boy.
    It became clear that laundering wasn’t going to work. So the second day after my mama died I went around town with Scotty and asked store clerks if I could sweep for them and keep their storefront clean for a penny. Five stores turned me away abruptly but the sixth was owned by a matronly woman who took pity on my poor soul and gave me the job even though she called me, “boy.”
    I encountered a problem immediately; I had no place to store my nice school clothing and primer while I was at work sweeping and conversely no place to keep my work clothes while at school. I knew that speaking to Miss