"What are you doing out here? You think you're gonna play?"
"Maybe I want to play. You got a problem with that?"
"Maybe I do."
"Who says I can't play, Darrel Curtis? You the captain of this team? Huh? You run this thing?"
"Maureen, I can't let you play. No girls on the team, alright? Get off the field. You're distracting the guys."
I glared down at the girl in front of me, and she glared back, her doe-eyes like ice. Maureen was feisty. Stubborn. Horribly tempered. She wouldn't leave for anything, but I didn't have the time or patience to deal with her, and I needed to get her to get out of here.
"Maureen, you leave now. This is the last time I'm going to warn you. Go home."
She smirked, running a hand through her hair. "What're you gonna do if I don't leave, Darrel?"
"For God's sake, little mouse. Get off the field and go home."
"'Little mouse'?!" She spat, her brow knitting furiously. "I am not a 'little mouse', Darrel. I am every bit as mighty as you and your big team of blockheads."
I snorted.
"You don't look too mighty."
"I might surprise you one day, Darry."
Those last words came out with such venom that the phrase stuck with me for years to come.
It was sunny the day of Dally Winston's funeral.
Not many had attended. At first, it was just the gang - what was left of it, at least. Cherry Valance, the red-headed Soc girl my brother still dreams about showed, and Sylvia, the girl who two-timed Dally while he was locked up. Sylvia cried real tears today, and not one of us said a word of consolation.
Buck Merril came to the graveyard, along with Dally's other delinquent buddies that the gang knew of but never bothered with. A few girls came along with them. None of us could figure out who they were.
Everyone said their last respects to Dally, shoveling a bit of dirt over his coffin with each phrase. Flowers were placed by a few people onto his grave shortly afterwards. Some straggled off to visit the headstone of Johnny Cade, whose funeral had taken place earlier in the week. My brothers went off to see them. I almost followed until I caught sight of a girl lingering at Dally's headstone.
Something about her felt very...familiar. Maybe it was her hair, fluffy waves that were just a shade or two too dark to qualify for blonde. Maybe it was that the long black mourning dress she wore didn't seem to fit her quite right, showing that she wasn't nearly as full-figured as most girls I knew.
She turned as I neared her, and in a hoarse voice said,
"Darry Curtis?"
It was Maureen Hawley, the biggest pain in the rear end I had ever dealt with. I hadn't seen her since I was a junior in high school. But, that's why I recognized the hair. None of the other girls in our class, the class of 1964, had a color like it. But when had she lost so much weight? Sure, she was slim back when we were in school. Maureen had practically looked like a boy next to our curvy female classmates. She was never this thin, though. Her face was never this drawn, her arms never this bony.
"What'cha doin' here, Maureen?"
She stared at me, nibbling her lip nervously. "Dallas - Dally, I mean - was my cousin. His mom sent him down to Tulsa to stay with us. Reform, or somethin'. He didn't stay at our house, nothin' like that, but he did stick to our family sometimes. Sometimes. We used to play together, Dally and me. We used to play..."
Those doe-eyes got real sad and I couldn't help but look away from her.
"You been doin' alright, Darry? How's your brother been? Sodapop, the handsome boy? How's he been? He still in school?"
I tried hard to not focus on her big, sad eyes. "I'm alright. Sodapop dropped out, works at the gas station. You never see him down there?"
"Don't have a car to put gas in."
For some reason, I couldn't seem to quit fidgeting. Clasping and unclasping my hands. Tapping my feet. She picked at the frayed hem of her long sleeves before either of us spoke again.
"Where did you go, Maureen? One day you're in school, the next day you're gone forever."
She got real serious.
"Beauty school."
"Beauty school? That's good. That's real good. I hear beauticians make a nice living."
"Ha, I'm sure they do." Maureen snorted. "Too bad I can't get a job as one. No salon will hire me. 'We're sorry, but we can't take you on, Ms. Hawley. It's just...we fear that we might lose customers. People here don't always trust women of your...background.' That's what all of 'em say. It burns me up sometimes, you know? It don't feel so good, Darrel."
It made me feel some kind of awful hearing her say that.
"What'd you do when they said that?"
"Spit in their shampoo bottles when they weren't looking."
I couldn't help laughing, and neither could she. It felt good. It'd been a while since I had really laughed.
"Is that my big brother Darry smiling over there? It can't be Darry! My Darry never laughs."
I glanced over to see a grinning Sodapop walking towards me, Ponyboy close on his heels. I smiled back at him, waving him over to where I was standing with Maureen.
"Darry, who's your, uh, your...lady friend?" Pony asked, trying to stifle a laugh.
"This is Maureen." I rolled my eyes, mussing his hair. Was it that rare that I spent time with a woman that my kid brother was amused to see me doing just that? "We went to high school together."
"Shoot, I knew I recognized you!" Soda interjected suddenly, grabbing Maureen's hand. "How've you been, Miss Hawley? It's been a long time since I saw you last. How come you never come see me down at the DX, darlin'?"
She laughed, but became serious shortly after. "Soda, why'd you drop out of school? You had potential. You're a bright boy...well, you've grown into more of a man these days now, haven't you?" Her smile returned. "Look at that handsome face."
Sodapop glanced down at his shoes, digging the toes into the hard earth. "I ain't that bright, Maureen. 'Sides, I needed to help Darry with the bills. But I work the counter at the DX most of the time, and all of your math help really...helps, y'know?" He smiled brightly at her, and she laughed again.
The amount of interest Maureen took on my brother suddenly became apparent to me, and I quickly put two and two together, regarding what they were saying now.
"Maureen, you used to tutor my kid brother?"
She nodded. Soda laughed. "Maureen's the smartest girl in the neighborhood, Darry! Who else would I have gone to?"
"Where'd you get the money to pay her?"
Maureen quickly waved my comment away. "He didn't, but I didn't want him to. I just wanted to help him out."
She said it so firmly that I knew she wasn't going to say any more about it, so I bit back whatever frustration I was feeling towards Soda for hiding this from me. But, this raised even more questions in my mind. If Sodapop hadn't ever told me, had he mentioned his being tutored to Mom and Dad?
I was beginning to wonder what else I didn't know about Maureen Hawley, and even more so my kid brother.
