Johnny's remembrance letter ~ Johnnys Pov
Johnny Cade will be a hard kid to forget.
I remember when I first met him. It was late, and the sun had set awhile ago. I was walking down the sidewalk when Johnny came out of a poor, neglected house a little ways behind me. He was about twelve at the time and he had bruises all over. I looked into those big black eyes and saw the hurt and pain he had suffered. We talked until morning.
I respected Johnny, and how he put up with the abuse his old man layed upon him. I never did hear him complain either. Sure, he'd talk about it, but I never heard him complain. I remember watching him save those kids; he never second guessed going in there. The only thing on his mind was the safety of those around him.
I think one word that describes Johnny is strong. He was a fighter. To us he was little Johnny, the poor, abused puppy. However he sure looked tough to the folks who didn't know him. Johnny is strong because of what he put up with. The pain not only physically but emotionally would have broken anyone else. Love would have been beaten right out of them. But Johnny? Johnny was love itself and Johnny was a fighter. I should probably explain why Johnny only wanted to see us, the gang to his family. We were his real family. We supported him, when you kicked him out we were there to take care of him. Why, you were too drunk to even notice when he walked in the door! That hurt Johnny more than being hit. All he ever wanted was to be loved. It made him feel awful that his own parents couldn't love him and didn't care enough to even notice when he didn't come home at night. I thought Johnny would want to make that clear.
I remember laying in the parking lot and just staring at the sunset, and the church. Johnny was so entranced by Gone With the Wind. He never got to hear how the story ended. I recall him always looking up to Dally. Dallas was Johnny's idol and luckily he never got to live up to him. Johnny was so easy to fall in love with. He was so caring that even Dally Winston, who was as hard as stone, loved him. He was the only person
Dally would ever love, and now he's gone.
When we were together Johnny and I didn't have to do anything special. Just sitting side by side was enough. Johnny didn't talk much and that was fine by me. Just one look into those big, black eyes and you knew what he was thinking. After awhile I didn't even have to look at all. He was smart too. Understood more that I ever did. I'd like to recite a poem that his last words referred too.
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest Hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Johnny's last word was "gold". The color gold is short-lived like innocence, like Johnny.
This is just a one chapter thing so there won't be any posts. I do not own any of the characters in The Outsiders. The poem is Robert Frosts, not mine.