St. Patrick's Day at the Curtis House
Soda, age 18, was singing in the kitchen "Galway Bay" along with the cassette tape.
Ponyboy, age 15, was blissfully awaiting breakfast and a Spring Break Monday of drawing and creative writing.
Darry, age 21, who had just gotten dressed for work, walked out into the dining area of the kitchen.
Soda, still singing, served himself and his 2 brothers their hot plates of breakfast.
Darry pokes at his omelet and looks at his drink, then, even, more suspiciously, over at Ponyboy's food and drink.
"Soda, what is this?" he inquires, more than a little annoyed.
"It's St. Patrick's Day, Darry. That's why I put green food coloring in the eggs and coffee. Like with Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham, and last year with the green pancakes (see the original Outsiders novel), only today, I wanted to do something new and original."
"It all tastes great!" exclaimed Ponyboy, taking big bites of his scrambled eggs and sipping his coffee. He was finally putting on a growth spurt.
"Soda, Soda" Darry said shaking his head.
Now while Darry and Soda were at work later that day, Ponyboy entertained himself with a Portable Ireland book, drawing pictures of leprechauns and writing poems about them. After a relatively short period of time to him, but a long day for his elder brothers, especially Darry, they walked in at the end of their shifts.
"Hey Ponyboy!" called Soda.
"Have you been all right today here by yourself?" asked Darry.
"Sure! Would you like to see what I did today?" Pony said, showing off his creative samples.
Soda: "You sure can draw and write well."
Darry: "Good job little buddy."
He smiled, though a bit weakly, and tousled Ponyboy's hair.
"Now who's for a trip to the bakery besides me?"
A chorus of "Yaa!" and they headed off.
Once inside, they looked at white and green cakes with clovers on them, chocolate and vanilla petit fours decorated in the same fashion, and clover shaped cookies. Yet, when Soda and Ponyboy said they wanted to sample some of everything, Darry responded firmly, "We are not buying out the whole bakery."
Finally, they decided on a big green iced cake with a large green clover in the center of it, after a middle aged lady ahead of them purchased 3 vanilla petit fours with clovers on them.
That night, they all eat in great quantities and settle in to watch The Secret of Roan Inish.