Everybody cheered as the fourteen year old track star crossed the finish line, but nobody cheered louder than his brothers and friends who were all in attendance. It was the championship track meet and they wouldn't miss it for the world. Darry Curtis, the boy's oldest brother, and Sodapop Curtis, the middle child, had a very large and proud smile on their faces as they watched their brother recover from the race. Ponyboy had been pushing himself in order to do good at his races and he had won everything he had participated in. His older brothers were relieved because they knew how much time and effort Ponyboy had spent to better himself and if he lost he'd probably have a mental breakdown. He had been through too much in that year; he deserved some sort of break.
Down on the track field, Ponyboy Curtis put his hands on his knees and took slow, deep breaths. He hadn't thought that he'd even stand a chance in any of his races so winning was a nice surprise. The coach of his track team had come up to congratulate the youngest member on his big win as well as many of his teammates. While not every member on the team liked him - some were scared of him and others judged him just because he was a greaser - they all had to admit that the youngest Curtis brother had skills and a lot of speed. Even though he was internally celebrating his victory, it was hard for him to be happy when he was thinking of all the people he had lost.
As the boy stood up straight and went to join the rest of his team for the awards, he froze. He could sense somebody watching him and it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He hated attention that wasn't people watching him run. His brothers and friends watched in slight confusion as he scanned the crowd. Thinking that he was looking for the four of them, the eighteen-year-old friend, Two-Bit, raised his hand and waved it around. Ponyboy's eyes never even looked towards that area which made his brothers and friends frown. "Wonder what's up with him," Two-Bit said with a shrug.
Finally, the young boy shrugged and jogged off in the direction of his track team. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the feeling off that somebody was watching him. It made him uneasy to say the least. The boy tried to ignore it as much as possible as the judges came by and handed out awards. However, as everybody was leaving the field to go find their parents or guardians, he met the eyes of a woman. She was standing near the entrance to the school watching him. When they met eye contact she began walking towards him. He wasn't sure if he should turn the other way and go look for his brothers or if he should walk towards her to meet her halfway. In the end, he stood in the same spot as she walked up to him.
"Are you Ponyboy Curtis?" she asked him. She had a look on her face that Ponyboy couldn't place. He liked to consider himself good at reading facial expressions but he couldn't read this woman's. She looked sad but she also looked happy. What threw him off the most was the guilt that she wore.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, trying as hard as he could to swallow his nerves. That's when he noticed the young girl beside the woman. The child wasn't looking up at Ponyboy. She was clutching the older woman's hand with her eyes on the ground. He assumed that she was the woman's daughter and that she looked to be about eight years old.
"My name is Barbara Ramay. This is my daughter, Amy," the woman said as she motioned down to the young child. "I don't know if you'll recognize her," she started, her eyes filling up with tears, "but she was in that church." Ponyboy felt his stomach drop as he took in a sharp breath.
Ponyboy's brothers, who had been watching the encounter from the stands, noticed how tense he had become and became worried. They started making their way to their brother but they were too far away to do it quickly. Sodapop was angry as he thought of all the things the woman could have been saying to Ponyboy. Steve, Sodapop's seventeen-going-on-eighteen year old best friend, got overly protective of the boy whom he had never gotten along well with. Two-Bit and Steve were like brothers to the Curtis' so whenever one was in a problem they all usually got apprehensive and worried. They all tried to make it down to the field as quickly as possible as they continued to keep an eye on the boy and the woman.
When Ponyboy didn't say anything, Barbara pushed Amy so she was standing in between the two of them. "I just wanted to say thank you for saving her life, and I'm sorry for what happened to those friends of yours...I am so, so sorry and so grateful for what you boys did," she said as the tears flowed down her face.
Amy raised her eyes up to meet Ponyboy's. They both recognized each other. He couldn't get the picture of any of the children out of his head. The only thing that prevented him from losing his mind over what happened was the fact that they saved those children. He wouldn't be able to live with the guilt if any of the children didn't make it. The young child never forgot his face, either. She remembered the other boy's, too. Johnny Cade. She found out his name, along with Ponyboy's, from the newspapers even though her mother tried to prevent her from seeing anything relating to the fire. She had dreams of the fire nearly every night since it happened and she always saw the two of them come to save her. Seeing her savior standing right in front of her made her cry along with her mom as she threw herself forward and latched herself to Ponyboy's waist causing him (along with the four boys still making their way towards them) to freeze, Pony in shock and his family in confusion.
"Thank you," she said, sounding younger than Ponyboy could have imagined. Her voice was so soft despite the tears.
After a moment of hesitation, Ponyboy pulled the girl off of him in order to kneel down in front of her. He studied her face. Her brown hair was done in two braids that went down past her shoulders. At the bottom of each braid was a small, red bow. Her eyes were bright blue with a hint of green near her pupils. Her skin was paler than most people's and she had small amount of freckles around her nose. Slowly, Ponyboy reached forward to wipe away the tears that were falling down her face. He never encountered a crying child before and didn't have a clue on what he should do, so he just did whatever felt natural. "Hi, Amy," he whispered.
"I'm really sorry about your friends," she said, lowering her head once again.
The fourteen year old gently put his finger under her chin and raised her face so they were looking at each other again. "Don't be sorry about that," he said as tears came to his eyes as well. He couldn't believe what was happening. He never thought he'd ever meet any of the children again. "I'm real glad we got you outta there."
"You're not mad at me?" she asked, her face portraying the same confusion as her voice and words did.
He was just as confused as Amy was. "Why would I be?"
"We were playing in the church," she whispered, shaking her head to try to move Ponyboy's hand away so she could lower her face again. It didn't work because he didn't want her to keep avoiding his eyes. "We weren't supposed to be there. If we weren't doing that..."
Ponyboy pulled the child into a hug. She clung back to him almost as tight as he was hugging her. "None of that was your fault," he said, shutting his eyes. He suddenly understood his brothers. They continuously told him that Johnny and Dally's deaths wasn't his fault, but he never believed them. Now he was in their shoes as he told the little girl the same thing his brothers told him. "Nobody blames you. I'm glad you got out of there, and I know my friends are glad, too."
After a long moment of them clinging to each other, the two pulled away. "Thank you for saving my life," Amy said quietly as Ponyboy stood up. He turned to Barbara, the little girl's mother.
"I owe you so much," she said, wiping the tears away from her own eyes. "I can't imagine what would have happened if you and your friends weren't there." She smiled at him, reaching out to hug him. The hug felt motherly and it was something Ponyboy missed dearly. It had been a little over a year since he felt his mother's arms around him. He allowed himself to melt into this hug. "I know the full story behind what happened," she said into his ear before she pulled away, leaving Ponyboy wanting more. The woman was so gentle with the way she hugged him. It was so familiar to his mother's hugs. His heart became heavy once again over his parents, not just Johnny and Dally.
"I...I'm sorry," Ponyboy said, stuttering slightly. He didn't know if the entire story changed any of her feelings towards him.
"Don't be. I know none of it was your fault," she said, reaching out to grab his hand. She squeezed it gently before letting go. "I'm the one who's sorry. I know you've been through a lot...I'm sure you probably didn't want anybody to come and remind you of it again. I just needed to thank you for saving my daughter's life."
"I'm glad we got her out in time. I'm glad we got them all out in time," Pony said as he tried to clear his mind of his parents. It hurt less to think about Johnny and Dallas than it did to think about his parents, but it still hurt a lot.
"I think we better go now," Barbara said. "You did great today, by the way," she said, giving him one more quick hug before smiling. "I'm sure they'd be very proud."
That sentence made more tears appear in Ponyboy's eyes. He wasn't sure if she was referring to Dallas and Johnny or his parents. Perhaps she was referring to all four of them. It meant so much to hear that they were probably proud of him. He liked to think that despite his mistakes, his parents were still proud of him, as well as Johnny. When it came to Dallas, well, he almost chuckled when he imagined all the things Dallas Winston would say when he was alive if Pony had even thought about asking him if he was proud of him. "Thank you," he whispered sincerely.
Once Barbara and her daughter were out of sight, Ponyboy turned to look for his brothers. He couldn't find them amongst all the people and it hurt his heart. Since the fire, he had separation problems. When he didn't know where any of them were, his chest would tighten in fear. His brothers knew about this problem and did their best to ease his worries but they weren't there to help him at that moment. Ponyboy was already close to an emotional breakdown. If he didn't find them soon, he'd probably panic.
Luckily for Ponyboy, he caught sight of his brothers making their way towards him in what seemed to him as a hurry. Instead of waiting for them, he took off running in their direction and right into Darry's arms. The fact that he ran into Darry's arms instead of Sodapop's confused and worried everybody. Sodapop was the primary comforter, so whatever the woman said to him must have really shaken him up to the point he needed his oldest brother, protector, and guardian. The tears fell from Pony's eyes and he let out a little sob. "Shhh, Pone, what is it? Who was that?" he asked, tightening his grip on his youngest brother before looking at Sodapop. He was met with worried eyes that were very similar to his own.
"One of the kids from the fire," Ponyboy mumbled into Darry's shirt.
"Oh, Pony," Darry sighed sadly, rubbing his youngest brother's back. The subject of the fire was still too fresh for his brother even though it had been about six months, and he felt horrible knowing that Pony had to meet the woman without him there to be able to help him in some sort of way. He knew that Ponyboy had constant nightmares of everything that had happened and was also convinced that he had flashbacks during the day.
He noticed changes in Ponyboy's behavior since the accident. Ponyboy stopped smoking altogether which had everybody shocked. They teased the boy for it but Darry had a feeling it was because of the fire. He also took note that Ponyboy took quicker showers. He used to take between ten and fifteen minutes in the shower but ever since the events that happened he was out of the shower in about five minutes at the most. The biggest change was that his brother stopped going to movies. He knew that Ponyboy was still suffering from what happened more than he would ever admit. It didn't take a genius to know that having somebody else bring up the fire would only cause the boy more misery.
"She thanked me for savin' her daughter...the girl thanked me, too," he said through his quiet cries. "Darry, I don't feel too good. I wanna go home."
"We'll go home right now," Darry said, carefully pulling Pony away from him in order to get a better look at him. Something was different about him. He looked heartbreakingly sad, but there was something else. It didn't look like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders anymore. He looked less guilty. Whatever was said to Pony made the guilt go away, and Darry was already grateful for that woman. Maybe she said exactly what it was that Ponyboy needed to hear. "Okay, Lil Colt? Let's go home."