Dear Darry,
Me and Sodapop are gona catch a train from windrixvil back home Sunday morning. This trip was one of the saddest of my life so I'm glad we're going back home. Sodapop wants to know if you could bring him some food to the train station when u pick us up 'cause he aint planning to eat in the morning till we get back. He thinks he has the stomach flu and no one wants to see him throw up on the train. I hope Dally and Johnny think we did the right thing, sending them up here. Anyways we'll see you real soon Darry.
-Ponyboy and Sodapop
Well, at least Darry will know we're ok, I thought, especially me. I was defiantly getting tired of people asking if I was really ok and not going into shock, possibly going crazy. Everyone was thinking the same thing and I knew it. That poor boy has lost his mind… But people don't seem to get that I definitely owed both of them their day in the sun. The only place where both their lives meant something to the people of Windrixvil, is where they deserved to stay forever. People who honored their deaths. People who saw them as the great and selfless hero's they really were. "Man I hope Sunday comes fast." I told Sodapop, trying to get Johnny and Dally out of my head for the millionth time. "I'm not doing too well with the whole funeral thing. I could really use a decent bath… and a smoke." I licked my stamp and slapped it on the front of my letter. "Sorry Pony, I took the last one."Two-bit said with a grin. "Besides, we're almost home, and you should be happy you this for them. Maybe it was expensive but hey, because of you, Johnny and Dally are going to be remembered by other people than just us." Two-bit raised his smoke at me like he was making a toast."Yea I guess you're right." I still couldn't get rid of the feeling I had deep down that wanted to cry out for both my friend's deaths. Guess that won't be going away for a while, I thought."Now quite mopping Ponyboy and get some shuteye. I don't want Darry thinken I can't take care of you when you show up at the train station half asleep." "Cud you wait a minute? I have to put my letter in the mailbox." I had forgotten that we were staying in a small little motel off the side of the road. All of us were cramped into one small little cubical room… sharing only one bed were we planned to fit all 4 of us. Steve opened the bathroom door brushing his teeth and took one look at Sodapop. " Hey that's my pillow! You give that back Sodapop or ells you gona be sleeping on the floor." "Oh yea? Who's gona make me?" Soda said playfully, swinging the pillow in his face. I decided to leave before they started a fist fight in that cramped little room. I grabbed my letter and slipped out the door. Now where is the mail room supposed to be? I though. Then I heard the door open again, and saw Two-bit walking after me. "Hold up Pony, ill come with you." We walked silently for a few seconds before he said, "Ponyboy I don't get it. Why was this funeral so important to you? I mean I know Johnny was a good friend to us but why Dally too?" I thought about it for a while as we kept walking. "Well," I finally said. "You might not think of it as such a big deal as I do, and I know Dally and I didn't even get along well most of the time," I paused and looked down at the letter in my hands. I stopped and looked straight at Two-Bits face. "but everyone deserves to be remembered. Everyone wants to be thought of as someone important. Not remembered by the wrongs and rights they've done, but by their story and what they died for." Suddenly it felt like Two-Bit didn't see me as some little boy who really missed his friends. He looked back at me with the strangest look on his face. "Ponyboy you sure are something" he told me with admiration. I laughed a little and we kept on walking, just thinking… and thinking. My friend Johnny was definitely very important to me, and I had the feeling that I owed him a decent funeral. Dallas on the other hand, was not my closest friend, but Johnny had brought us closer than I could imagine. In the very short time that we mourned over our lost friend, we had shared something in common. We shared the same deep and crushing pain that took your true feelings and shoved them out to the world. Pain was defiantly not something I thought was possible for Dallas Winston. My mind snapped back instinctively, trying to suppress the night I would forever remember. I hadn't noticed where we were walking. Suddenly I remembered we were supposed to be looking for the mail room… and not the girl's bathroom. "Ponyboy, where are you taking us?" Two-bit also seemed to notice that I lost track of where we were going. "Dang it, this ain't the mailroom," I muttered. Two-bit chuckled. "I swear pony, sometimes you're head spends half the day in the clouds. You could have just asked me, you know. Mailroom's this way," He grinned and pointed to the directory sign that said "MAILROOM" and an arrow in the opposite direction from where we came, right under the sign that said "GIRLS LAVATORY".