Prologue to the Outsiders
I awoke to the dark confines of my room. To my left was Sodapop, sitting in a chair by the window looking out into the sunlight. I couldn't help but think how perfect he looked just then. The sunlight danced in his dark gold hair and sparkled in his dark brown eyes. As I stared I began to realize something strange about the contours of his face. There were deep bags under his eyes and a solemn look on his face. I slowly turned to my right where Darry was leaning against the doorway. His muscles were flexed. He seemed tense and his bright blue-green eyes were now cold. This was a side of Darry I had never seen before. He had always seemed loose and carefree, bright and charming. His spirit was always so light. Now he had the same bags under his eyes that Sodapop carried. They both looked dead. "What's eatin' you guys?" I asked in a strange hushed voice.
Soda and Darry both turned towards me as if a gun had gone off. "You don't remember?" Darry asked in the same hushed voice that I had. "You don't remember...they're dead."
The sun was resting high above our heads Sunday morning. Soda and I were tossing around our football while Darry and Dad packed up the car. "We're going to be in the country for a few days," Dad had said flashing a warm smile at us. I watched him and Darry load bag upon bag into the old convertible. Dad would stop every minute or two to look around the neighborhood and smile. My Dad loved our neighborhood. The Grease didn't bother him, neither did the Socs. He may not have liked how dingy it was with all the trash scattered on the streets, or the rumbles every other night, but he did like the people, and that was all that mattered. After all the bags had been packed into the convertible, my mother appeared. She was wearing her beige floral dress, brown shoes, and a white headband to hold back her hair. She walked towards my father who was still looking out towards the neighborhood. As she got closer to him he reached out his arms to embrace her. In that moment I could see all the love they had for each other. The sun reflected off of my father's white teeth, and the wind was blowing through my mother's hair. They looked out towards our neighborhood one last time before my father stepped into our convertible, and my mother kissed all three of us goodbye.
"We love you all," my mother sighed as my father started the car. "We love you all so much." My father slowly drove away down the road from our house. We watched as our gray convertible disappeared not knowing it would never return.
It was Tuesday night, the night they were expected to return. I sat in front of the television watching some cartoons and eating cereal. Soda was leaning against a wall stuffing his mouth with chocolate cake our mother had made before her trip. Darry had himself spread out across the couch. He had gotten into a fight with a Socs on the way home so he was beat. We were all together in our living room waiting for Mom and Dad to return. Knock Knock. We all turned towards the door. We knew it couldn't have been our parents, they know we never lock the front door. " Is anybody in there? This is the police!" We all sat down frozen. What could the police want from us? I thought to myself. Finally we shook ourselves out of our frozen state of being, and Darry ventured towards the door. I held my breath as Darry turned the doorknob and opened the door.
" Hello officer. Can I help you?" he said in a calm voice. I don't know if he was scared, but if he was he did a good job of hiding it.
"Are your parents Darrel and Jane Curtis?" the officer had asked. I watched as he fidgeted with his hands and rocked back and forth. Something wasn't right about the way he was rocking.
"Y-yes?" Darry stuttered looking very bewildered. "Why do you-?"
" I'm sorry young man about your folks..."
"What!?" Darry yelled. I could hear him breathing from where I was seated. I looked to Soda for comfort, but all I could see was fear, the same fear beginning to grow in me.
"...they were driving down the highway, there was a drunk driver..."the officer mumbled as quietly as he could. I shot up from the floor. I was hoping, praying he wouldn't say what I was thinking. Let them be in the hospital, in a coma, in anything that's not what I'm thinking, I prayed. They can't be what I'm thinking, they just can't.
"Oh no God, please..." Darry wailed. Tears began to roll down his cheek.
"...the drunk driver...he was speeding down the highway in the wrong direction..." Darry was now sobbing, crouched down against a wall. The officer had been looking down at his feet the entire time he talked to us. He finally looked up. He looked me straight in the eye, straight into my soul.
"I'm sorry son...they're dead." I stumbled back a bit. I held my head as the world began to spiral around me.
"Ponyboy?" Soda's voice wavered as he called out my name. "Pony!" And the ground rushed up to greet me.