They're doing research. :)

So I'm back, don't know when this chapter will be posted.

I got like...10 hours of sleep. It was great. 

And I woke up to snow! I'm writing this right now and I can see snow out my window.

So I did have a plan, kind of, then I took a break, so this will be interesting.

Sorry for taking so long to publish this.

Anyway.

Enjoy! :)

-----------------------------

Freaking finally, it's New Year's Eve.

They've all been wanting this for some time now.

Not only because this year has felt like it's taken forever, but now they're all together to try to figure out who they were in their past life.

And in the moment, absolutely nothing is more interesting than the newsies strike of 1899.

Tony is still proud that he was the one who figured it out.

Right now, they're all in Jack's living room, with their devices out, trying to find anything online that they can.

They agree to look at any and all articles that mention the newsies and/or the strike.

They start with the first article that Tony found; The Newsboys Strike of 1899 on editions.covecollective.org.

"So there was the Spanish-American War in 1898," Tony states. "That's why the newspaper company changed the price of the papers. Then on July 18, 1899, that's when the strike began."

And that feels right. To all of them.

There's one name there that stands out to Louis.

One paragraph of the article says:

July 24, 1899: a rally was held at Irving Hall and almost eight thousand newsboys from all over New York attended. Many people made speeches, the most notable being Louis "Kid Blink" Baletti who was seen as one of the leaders of the strike...

The sentence drags on, and mentions a David Simmons, but all Louis can focus on is Louis "Kid Blink" Baletti. Because whoever that guy was, that guy shared a name with Louis.

Of course, it could be a mere coincidence.

Or it could mean something else.

Nick, being Nick, notices the name too. "One of the strike leaders shared a name with you, Louis."

"That could mean something," Charlie says.

"Yeah," several others agree.

Louis is sort of tuning all of their voices (except Nick's) out right now. He just reads the paragraph over and over again.

He opens a new tab and looks up louis kid blink baletti 1899 to see what happens.

He clicks on The Untold Story Of The Newsboy's Strike Of 1899 on grunge.com, not knowing what he'll find.

The intro paragraph seems good.

He sends a link of it to Nick, who in turn sends it to the rest of them. All of them start concentrating on reading.

And then there, in the section titled The Main Players of the Newsboy's Strike, in the second paragraph, it read:

The initial leaders of the Newsboys' strike ... were 18-year-old Louis "Kid Blink" Baletti and 21-year-old David Simmons. At one point, Kid Blink was even awarded a floral horseshoe during one of their rallies for giving the best speech, having roused the crowd with the words, "Ten cents in the dollar is as much to us as it is to Mr. Hearst  the millionaire. Am I right?"

That last sentence resonates with Louis.

Ten cents in the dollar is as much to us as it is to Mr. Hearst the millionaire. Am I right?

Those words.

He mouths the words subtly.

And something about those words...he remembers saying that.

Nick must have found that part. "He was as old as you are now, Louis."

This can't be just a mere coincidence. They all know that.

Tony sits up. "What if that's why we're all remembering this now?" he asks. "because usually, kids remember past lives when they're two or three or something like that, which makes sense, but supposedly after that it's either very little or nothing at all. We're much older than that. What if we're remembering things because we're the same age that our past life was during the time of the strike?"

"Oh my gosh that's genius!" Sean exclaims all in one breath.

"You know, Tony, I think you're on to something here," Jack says, sitting up too.

Finally, some recognition. Tony leans back a little, satisfied.

Another sentence that stands out to them later on in the article: Although neither Hearst nor Pulitzer took the strike seriously at first, soon they realized the effect that the newsies could have. The World's press run, for example, fell from 360,000 to 125,000.

These newsies...they were just kids.

And they toppled New York City's highest power.

These kids were powerful.

And we did that.

Well, not them; their past selves.

Close enough.

That makes them feel good.

"Wait," Tony mutters out loud. He just glanced at the paragraph before that, but there was a name that caught his attention. The name Racetrack Higgins caught his eye.

"What?" Sean asks.

Was it just a cool name? It's only mentioned once. And there are many times where he focuses on things when he should be focusing on other things.

Tony shakes his head. "Nothing." He keeps looking at the paragraph that all of them like so much.

Except the next paragraph, Louis doesn't like it as much.

"No," he murmurs out loud. He shakes his head.

Just one week into the strike, rumors started floating around that Kid Blink and Simons had been bribed and bought off by the newspaper publishers. Although they denied the charges, it was noted that the boys were wearing much nicer clothes than they usually would've worn.

This amazing Louis "Kid Blink" Baletti wouldn't do that.

Would he?

It can't be true.

Louis searches elsewhere on the internet. Surely someone says that Kid Blink wasn't actually a bad guy.

Nick sends him a link to this other website: cityhallpark1899.com.

With the link comes the text message Kid Blink did good things too <3

Louis smiles at it. He squeezes Nick's hand as a show of gratitude.

The home page of the website says: During the strike-filled summer of 1899, the newsboys of New York City and its environs went on strike against Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. For two weeks, the newsdealers boycotted the evening editions of the two papers in what one competing newspaper called "the only tie-up in town." This is their story.

Yeah, this seemed like a good place.

Especially since it's using direct sources from the time.

Nick sends the link to everyone. This website should be helpful for all of them.

Except there are so many articles. Most of them aren't that long. It's just the number that's over whelming. 

Where should they start?

Chronologically? Titles that catch their attention? Those from the days that they felt something about?

This is going to be long.

And so, everyone goes through different articles, just looking for any details that catch their eye. There's a lot of kids ages 11 and 12, and a lot of very very bad grammar when quoting the newsies. 

"Wait," Nick says randomly.

"What?" Louis asks.

Nick flips back between tabs he has open. "Louis Baletti is referred to as both Kid Blink and Blind Diamond."

"Why was that?"

Nick shrugs. "It says that he wore an eye patch, too. And you notice how both nicknames about eyes?"

It's ringing a bell, but Louis is still missing the point.

"And...?"

Well...you know how you're sensitive about your eyes?"

Louis finally sees what Nick is getting at.

If there was a specific reason why Kid Blink wore an eye patch...and Louis freaks when anything comes near his eyes...

"You are Louis Baletti," Nick tells him. "I mean, you have to be."

"Tony, did you find anything about how names are connected between different lives?" Louis asks.

Tony shrugs. "I found some cases where the person shares a name, and others where it doesn't. I don't know how much significance there is, but I believe that if there is a connection, it's got to be more than just coincidence."

"You couldn't be more right," Nick says.

Louis turns back to Nick. "Why do you say that?"

Nick shows Louis his latest google search: adamas greek.

Adamas, from ancient Greek and meaning unconquerable or indestructible, is the root of the word diamond.

"Don't you think it means something that your last name is the Greek word for diamond?" Nick asks. "And that another of Kid Blink's names is Blind Diamond?"

"Everyone just thinks that we spell Adams wrong," Louis murmurs. "I mean, I knew it was Greek. I just forgot it meant diamond."

"But you see what I'm getting at, yeah?"

"Yes I do."

Everyone's paying attention now.

Because this is going somewhere.

Tony turns back to his phone. "I gotta look more into that now." Except it turns up the things he got last time: nothing relevant to the question he's asking.

He sighs. "Nothing." He turns to Louis. "So your situation is completely unique, you know that, yeah? Out of all the millions of possibilities that could have happened..."

It's like...

It was meant to be.

Somehow, something aligned.

Meanwhile, Charlie is going down his own rabbit hole, having been intrigued by "Crutch" Morris. He's finding very little though, which is frustrating. Whoever he was, he's only getting a couple mentions on this website.

Jack is just trying to piece together what happened. What happened each day, who was involved with what. It's very complicated. Especially since there are days that contradict each other. Finding out that fact-checking wasn't 1899 newspapers' forte was also annoying.

Sean is more interested in what was happening in Brooklyn. He's reading a lot of articles from the newspaper called The Brooklyn Eagle. And any articles with Brooklyn in the title. He feels like he's so close. To what? He doesn't know exactly.

Due to accidentally clicking what he didn't want to click, he's on an article without Brooklyn in the article title or newspaper title: "The Strike That Is a Strike" published by The Sun on July 22nd. Not that The Sun doesn't seem like a reasonable source. So he keeps reading, wondering what he'll find.

And then there it is:

Earlier than usual the newsboys were on hand in Park row yesterday morning to contrive plans for the bedevilment and confusion of the foe. Reports of the most encouraging description were received from various localities. An envoy from the Brooklyn union brought this good word:

"District Master Workboy Spot Conlon says here's lookin' at youse noble strikers, an' he can't bring his forces over to-day like he said he would, 'cause he's got an engagement to break scab heads over dere. De hull push is out, an' de kid wot tries to sell Woilds an' Joinals gets his slats kicked in. Dat goes. By order of de union"

Sean looks up from the article, taking a moment.

On the outside, he looks like he's just staring off, but on the inside his mind is an explosion of thoughts.

Spot Conlon.

That name, and Brooklyn, stuck out to him more than any other word. The talk about Spot Conlon felt like it was in the right language--which was kinda weird, considering it was all in English--and all those words said about him is giving Sean chills.

He's got an engagement to break scab heads over dere.

Sean knows that violence is never the answer. There's just something about the phrase that he can't put his finger on. He feels ... how does he feel about that? He feels excited reading those couple of paragraphs.

He nudges Tony. "You gotta look at this."

He more or less shoves the phone in Tony's face, thumb over where the two paragraphs are, indicating what he wanted to show him. After he's pretty sure Tony's done reading it all, he takes his phone back. Tony looks at him, silently urging him to say more; very intrigued by Sean's wild eyes.

"That name, Spot Conlon," Sean breathes, "it means something to me."

Tony's eyes widen too. "Do you think...?"

Sean nods. "Yeah. Yeah I do."

They didn't even need to identify what they were talking about. But they both knew.

Tony squeezes Sean's hand. "Then I hope that there's more information on this Spot Conlon figure."

Sean squeezes back before he lets go and searches for any more mention of Spot Conlon. He's excited. He's never felt closer to the strike than when he heard that name.

Except, his excitement slowly evaporates when no articles written after July 22nd mention Spot Conlon. Maybe he needs to look at articles before July 22nd?

He finds one by The Sun July 21st, called "The Only Tie-Up In Town". And there's Spot Conlon, in the second half of the article:

About 8 o'clock the newboys observed the imposing figure of a 14-year-old youth, wearing pink suspenders, approaching from the Brooklyn side. He asked for General Masterboy "Blind" Diamond, to whom he introduced himself as Spot Conlon, District Master Workboy of the Brooklyn Union.

"We bring youse greetings an' promises of support," he said to the boys who quickly gathered around him. "We have tied up da scab sheets so tight dat y' can't buy one fer a dollar in de street. Hold out, me gallant, kids, an' tom-morrer I meself, at de head of t'ree t'ousand an' fair play."

This speech was greeted with tremendous cheers, and the envoy with the pink suspenders, after a constitution with the General Master Workboy, was escorted half way back to Brooklyn by a guard of honor. he said that his cohorts would probably come over in the morning.

So this is what the other article was talking about when it mentioned Spot Conlon and bringing over a bunch of Brooklyn newsies.

The things is, Spot Conlon could have been a big deal. Not as big as Kid Blink, but still. Sean feels a connection.

He wants to urge the Spot Conlon in the article, don't leave. Stay here were they'll write about you. I want to know more about you.

And pink suspenders? That's pretty cool.

The only thing not sitting right with him is that Spot Conlon is described as 14 years old. Louis Baletti was 18, as their Louis is now. But Sean is sixteen. Is this an accuracy error? Or was this kid actually 14 years old?

Of course, there are no set rules of reincarnation and past lives. Which is kinda nice, but kinda unhelpful with all its ambiguity.

Maybe Sean can find an article contradicting that Spot Conlon was 14.

Except...as he learns from glancing through many articles from many newspaper companies, he finds not a single other mention of Spot Conlon. None at all. 

But there's gotta be more. There has to be more. Right?

"What are you looking at now, Tony?" Sean asks, a little deflated, trying to distract himself from this dead end. He was on to something. He truly was.

Tony shows Sean the article he just clicked on. "This one called Newboys Act and Talk from July 25th." He remembers July 25th having some importance, so he thought that this might help some.

Sean nods in acknowledgement and goes back through some of the articles, trying to find if he missed something.

So this one Tony is reading now is about a big rally happening in a place called Irving Hall. After a quick google search, Tony learns that means they were able to some how assemble in a huge and well known theatre. He has even more respect for them now.

For the most part, Tony has just been glancing through the articles, nothing really calling for hyperfocus. This one, however, he actually tries to pay attention to.

The striking newsboys held a rousing mass meeting in New Irving Hall, on Broome Street, near Norfolk Street, last night. They were to have had a parade with a band of music prior to the meeting, but for reasons explained at the meeting by "Racetrack Higgins" this feature of the demonstration was abandoned. 

Tony sits up taller, then leans in a little.

There's the name that means something.

Racetrack Higgins.

Then he reads the last sentence of that paragraph before moving on: Chief of Police Devery had refused to give the necessary permit.

"Hold on," he murmurs out loud. He quickly switches back to the last article they looked at before finding this website. And there the name was again: Racetrack Higgins. But he was mentioned only once in that article. This one has his name a lot more.

Tony reads the rest of the article, taking it all in.

"Racetrack Higgins," known to race-goers, got the floor at the meeting toward the middle of a programme which developed no little oratorical talent among the boys. "Friends, Ladies, and Fellow-Strikers," the lad began. And then he related how he had gone to the Chief of Police for a permit to parade with band music.

"Mr. Devery says to me," said he, 'go away, you slob,' and I says, 'Mr. Devery, don't call me a slob. I'm trying to make my living. I ain't so high in office as you, but some day I might be higher.'"

If the newsboys present could have had a vote last night, "Race Track Higgins" could have had any office in their gift, unless, perhaps, Dewey should have wanted it. Pandemonium of the kind that 2,000 newsboys, packed like sardines in a close hall can make, broke loose.

That right there is something.

Who's Dewey? Tony's mind files that away as unimportant.

Then there's no mention of Racetrack for a while.

"Hey Nick, there's a Nick Myers in this article," Tony says out loud, eyes still glued to his screen, sending Nick the article for him to do whatever he wants with it. Tony's hyperfocus has definitely kicked in. The fire alarm could go off and Tony wouldn't leave until he finished this (kinda long) article. Well, that's probably not true, but it's close enough.

And there, in the second to last paragraph:

It was pretty hard to tell whether "Kid Blink" or "Race Track Higgins" should get the horseshoe. Higgins threw some humor into his speech. He told how the Journal offered a boy $2 a day if he would sell papers, but he said "the kid wouldn't take it because the Journal refused to contract to pay hospital expenses."

Woah. That's intense. And awesome.

Good for him, Tony thinks. And even though the last paragraph doesn't mention Racetrack Higgins again, he wants to read it anyway.

The meeting broke up after a two hours' session, without a single fight and amid enthusiasm. Policemen kept order outside, but they seemed in sympathy with the boys, who appeared to give them more amusement than trouble.

Tony smirks. Oh yeah, that's a me thing to do.

But Racetrack Higgins...

That name.

Tony has never been so sure of anything.

He was Racetrack Higgins.

Any time it directly quoted Racetrack Higgins, Tony was in awe of everything that guy said. And it excited him. All of this excited him.

In the summer when they were looking for information on what could have happened on any of the days they felt déjà vu, he didn't connect to what he was finding.

This is what he connected to.

Racetrack Higgins is what he connects to the most.

Finally, I'm going somewhere.

He starts tapping Sean's shoulder rapidly and repeatedly. Sean, unfazed, grabs Tony's hand to make him stop, totally used to everything Tony does. "What is it, Tony?"

Tony grins. "I found me." He says it loud enough to get everyone's attention. "Racetrack Higgins." He looks at Louis. "I found an article about Racetrack Higgins and Kid Blink on July 25th."

He watches Louis's eyes widen, recalling how they both knew something was up that day.

Tony sends everyone the article link.

True, they're all on the same website. But direct links are super helpful.

"I need to know more about him," Tony announces, then looks everywhere he can on the website.

And he's finding so many mentions of him.

"Sean! He was-I was?-but mostly he was-important!" he exclaims with glee.

Sean smiles as Tony's smile grows as he finds more information.

But, Sean can't help himself from feeling the first hint of jealousy. Tony's right: Racetrack Higgins was important. Meanwhile Sean can't find more than two references on Spot Conlon.

He tries to stop the jealousy before it can take hold. Tony is happy. Really happy. Sean knows that identity is important to Tony. By finding out more about Racetrack Higgins, Tony is finding another part of his identity, and any mention of him gives Tony validation. Sean can't be jealous of that.

For both their sakes, he can't be.

Except by now, nearly everyone is burnt out from so much information at once and still so many gaps.

Jack checks the time. "Hey everyone? It's almost 10:00 pm. How about we take a break? Maybe take a walk outside, then come back in and watch a movie. How's that sound?"

No one's arguing with that.

They need fresh air.

Well...as fresh of air as they can get in New York.

Refreshed and reenergized, they come back inside, and since humans are creatures of habit, sit in nearly the same exact spots as they did before; which is pretty much where they sit any time they're here as a group.

"Alright, any suggestions?" Jack asks as he grabs the remote.

"Encanto  just came to Disney+," Charlie suggests.

No one has any objections.

It's exactly what they need.

By the time the movie's over, they have eight minutes till midnight. Jack switches the channel to the one broadcasting the ball drop in the city.

This is it.

The last moments of the year.

"I don't know about all of you, but my New Year's resolution is to find out all I can about the strike," Jack announces.

There's a lot of agreeing.

"I'm going to learn more about Kid Blink," Louis contributes. He may not agree with everything he did, but this is his past life that they're talking about. He wants to know everything he can.

"And I am going to learn everything I can about Racetrack Higgins," Tony adds. He's found his new hyper fixation. Except one thing's for sure: he's not letting this one go.

All of them have New Year's resolutions, whether they say them aloud or keep them in their mind, whether they're about the newsies' strike or just anything.

It's the last minute.

A minute turns into 30 seconds, turning into 15 seconds, turning into...

"TEN!" they all shout. "NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!"

Then somehow even louder, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Well, Charlie and Jack shout Happy New Year while Louis and Nick as well as Tony and Sean start kissing when it becomes midnight.

Charlie and Jack exchange glances and roll their eyes.

"You would look like that too if David was here," Charlie points out to him with a little mischievous grin.

"Ah, come on," Jack complains good naturedly. "Why can't anyone give a guy a break?"

The only thing that is stopping Tony from saying sarcastic and/or witty is kissing Sean.

And so now they are in the New Year.

So many possibilities.

And in this New Year, they will learn everything they can about the newsies.

And once they do that, they will tell their story.

-----------------------------------

:)

I think this is one chapter that I need a lot of commentary for haha.

So the main website used is a real website called City Hall Park 1899; all articles and websites used throughout this chapter are real and I am directly quoting them--for the most part anyway. And writing them exactly as I found it, so all those "typos" are just how I found it. Unless if I did miss something haha.

I found one description of Kid Blink being 13-14, but if he died in 1913 at the age of 32, he would have had to have been born in 1881, which is 18 years before 1899, so I decided to go with the ones describing him as 18. No matter what he's described as small for his age haha.

There really are only two mentions of Spot Conlon that we know of. And he did wear pink suspenders. And I don't know if he was actually fourteen or if he was just "small for his age" like Kid Blink.

Adamas being Greek for diamond is what made me choice modern Louis's last name.

Charlie and Nick are going to find out more info on Crutchy and Mush when I find more mentions of them haha.

With ADHD, you can't tell what is important or what to prioritize, so that's why with Tony reading it I nearly cited the whole article, because all of it could have been seen as important.

Me not knowing what's important when citing really annoys all my English teachers haha.

Tony getting excited over Racetrack was so wholesome.

I love Christmas chapters and New Years (Eve) chapters. They're just so fun to write, okay?

And since I already put Luca (a 2021 movie) in there, I might as well just say that Encanto came to Disney+ December 24th too. So much for not putting a date on my story haha.

But that means that this could be read as this is happening now. Like, they're experiencing the new year with us, which I don't know about you, but I like that vibe.

You don't know how excited I was to actually put direct information that I found in the story as they do research along with me. It's so fun. It's exhausting at times with just how much research there is, but fun.

I hope you all liked this chapter as much as I loved writing it.

Please, no homophobia or transphobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who really liked writing this 4300+ word chapter)