“Will you stop it already?”
Davie swallowed a sigh and lowered his eyes. He was making them stick out like sore thumbs.
“Only tourists and amateurs look up,” Bessie admonished, kicking a dry piece of sidewalk gum. “Real New Yorkers have already seen everything.”
Perhaps, but he had yet to. And he wanted to notice. Everything. Who lived in the tall building? Whose shoes were tied overhead? Why? Was it a memorial? A gangster’s territorial?
“Raise plow,” he read, imagining. He was looking up again.
“If we’re caught,” Bessie hissed,”the only raise you’ll get is welts from belting.”
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Photo prompt: © Roger Bultot
Na'ama Yehuda 
I wonder what Davie and Bessie are on their way to do
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I have a feeling it is not something they are allowed to do but perhaps something they ought to have been allowed to do …
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You use some nice hooks to leave the reader wanting more.
I bet Bessie isn’t half as streetwise as she lets on!
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I daresay you are right about Bessie. But bless her, she doth try!
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Oh dear, but newcomers always stick out even when they think they know. Hope they both find a way to make it!
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Yep, I think so, too. … And it is okay to be a newbe and to stick out a little. Just one must use discretion as to who to trust …
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Na’ama Y’karah,
It’s a challenge not to look like a tourist when you are one. 😉 Bessie’s certainly passionate, isn’t she? I am curious about the “Raise Plow” sign myself. Fun story told with dialogue.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Ah, glad you liked! Yes, I am guilty of probably looking like a tourist in my own city sometimes, given how I love everything interesting … 🙂 And … I probably can put on the ‘disinterested NY’er if I need to.
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Nicely done Na’ama
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Thanks, Sadje! 🙂
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You’re welcome
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🙂
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It is so exhausting pretending to be something you’re not! I have to say I often look like a tourist in my own town, photographing all sorts of stuff, looking up 😉
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Yep, me three, and I don’t mind one iota! 🙂 Now, get better fast and come lets both of us behave like tourists in NYC! 🙂
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Yesssss!!
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😀
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Even if you are local it’s wise to keep an eye out, especially in a city – you never know what might happen next!
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Totally! There’s always so much to see!!! And, yeah, sometimes a bit to watch out for, too …
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Oh yes. What is it they say about the most painful lessons? Best remembered? 🙂
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Or best repressed …
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That too. 🙂
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🙂
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Nice observation: “Real New Yorkers have already seen everything.”
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Or so we’d like everyone to think … 😉
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I wonder why they are so keen to blend in and who would punish them so cruelly if they were to be found out. I sympathize with Davie, I also want to see everything, familiar place or not.
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Ah, one does wonder about that. Perhaps runaways from an institution or a ‘reformative’ school, perhaps from an abusive home. Perhaps from a cult or restrictive group. Either way, it seems something one would be keen to avoid being punished by. Perhaps they are also taking care to not call attention to themselves lest they be returned to wherever it is they fled from.
And … yeah, I’m with the ‘see everything’ crowd. 🙂
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I hope Davie gets to see all the sights and avoids a belting!
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I think Davie hopes so, too!!! 🙂
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in a way, it’s wise to look up once in a while and avoid pooping pigeons. 🙂
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Hard to avoid pooping pigeons in the city. And … looking up risks getting poop in your eyes … just saying … 😉
But, yeah, looking around is good. Just not thinking it’ll save your hair from being fertilized by pigeons … 😉
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An intriguing situation. So many possibilities to think about. I like how the dialogue gives such a strong sense of the characters and their relationship.
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Thanks, Margaret! Glad the dialogue worked! 🙂 Now, which one of them did you relate to more? A kid I know likes the gal, thinks the dude is too mushy to not get them caught. Another kid I know thinks the opposite, and that a strung up girl is more of a tell-tell. 🙂
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I guess the possible welts would be motivational. Wonder what they’re up to!
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Ah, motivational, eh? That’s what they call this now? 😉
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