It is summertime. Darry Curtis sits reading the newspaper in the living room armchair while Soda tosses around a koosh ball. Ponyboy, meanwhile is reading Country Magazine. Suddenly, he calls out:
"Hey, you two need to read this story. It's about a man who goes out raft riding in the woods with his cat and dog."
"Ooo-a nice refreshing lake under the trees-thinking of that makes me feel cooler already" Soda responds.
"Oh so the dog leads the way swimming while the cat rides the boat that the man is paddling? That's nice" says Darry.
Ponyboy's face takes on a special knowing grin.
"Actually," he says, "it's the other way around. The cat is swimming while the dog is riding the raft."
Sodapop laughs.
"Oh sure," Darry states in somewhat amused sarcasm. "Plus there's a pink unicorn with purple polka dots swimming in that water hole too, just like in that last creative writing sample you made up."
"Now that was a swell idea!" Soda says.
Darry then turns to his buddy Mark who is lounging on the sofa.
"You'll have to excuse my youngest brother," Darry tells Mark. "He has a very wild imagination."
Ponyboy then smiles very broadly and reveals the magazine photo he had been hiding behind his back.
To everyone else's astonishment, there really is a photo of a cat swimming with a dog riding the boat of sticks.
"Wow! It's for real!" Soda exclaims.
"Now that's weird" Mark states.
Darry is the most confounded of them all. His jaw drops slightly, then he rubs his eyes to make certain that he's actually seeing the picture in front of him.
"Whoa-you really meant it this time, didn't you little buddy" he says when he is finally able to recover his voice.
And Ponyboy grins as if to say "See I told you so."