Tulsa had changed during the last fifteen years. Then again, how could I expect things to remain the same? Even I had changed over the years. Of course the herion didn't help much. Who would have thought that I would come out of Vietnam a drug user? Before the war, I only smoked cigarettes. I never imagined that I'd get into the heavy stuff. But, that's what happened over in Vietnam. It was what you did to pass the time and to forget what you were seeing in battle. However, nothing could really make you forget what you saw. Those images seem to stay with you and nothing you do can make them go away.

I arrived at the old vacant lot where the gang used to play football and have rumbles. There were a couple of kids there, along with a parent who was standing across the lot from me. Actually, the side he was on was only about a block away from where Soda had grown up.

"Daddy, Matthew won't let me play!" The only girl in the group yelled. She was a cute little thing with brown hair that was in pig tails.

"Matthew, let your sister play," the man yelled and from the tone of his voice, I could tell that he said it often.

"But dad, she'll just get in the way!" Matthew objected.

"It's only for a little while," the dad replied. "Your mother should have dinner ready soon."

"Let her play, Matt," another boy said. "It's not like we're going to tackle her or anything. We're just playing touch football."

"Well, I suppose," Matthew replied. "Alright, Anna you can play with us."

Anna ran over to the boys, making sure to stick her tongue out at her brother while the dad walked across the lot to me.

"Do you have any kids?" He asked.

I shook my head. "My exwife had a baby almost two years ago but it was stillborn. It was a girl."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said.

"Yeah, me too," I said. "We had been looking forward to bringing her home. But had to bury her instead."

I briefly recalled the night that my daughter was born. The doctors and nurses had done everything they could to revive her but nothing worked. I was allowed to touch her and to say good-bye to her. She looked so tiny and there was nothing I could do but stand there and stroke her tiny cheek or hold her little hand.

"I don't know what I would do if I lost either one of my kids," the dad told me. "That has got to be a hard thing to go through."

"It is," I said softly aware that he was looking at me carefully.

"Steve Randle?" He asked.

I looked at him. How did he know who I was?

"You don't recognize me do you?" He asked.

I took a closer look at him and saw that he had pale blue-green eyes and brown hair that was already starting to get gray.

"Darry?" I asked.

"That's right," he replied with a grin. "Wow, I haven't seen you in..."

"Fifteen years," I finished for him.

"You left right after Soda's funeral," he said quietly. "So did Ponyboy."

"Ponyboy left then, too?" I asked.

"Well, not right after," Darry replied. "He stayed through Christmas. But then he found out that he could end up getting drafted, too and he went to live in Canada where there was no draft."

"So, you're the only one left?" I asked.

"Oh, Two-Bit still lives in the area," Darry told me. "Only he doesn't go by Two-Bit anymore. He goes by his real name now."

"Keith," I said absently as Anna joined us.

"Who's that?" Anna asked pointing at me.

"This is my old friend Steve," Darry told her. "Can you say hi?"

She waved at me before hiding behind Darry's leg.

"Cute kid," I commented.

Darry grinned with pride. "She's definately daddy's little girl. Matthew on the other hand is a mama's boy."

"I bought Ponyboy's book," I said as Darry picked Anna up. Again, he grinned with pride.

"He did a good job, didn't he?" He asked. "It's on the New York Times best seller list this week."

"That's amazing," I told him. "No wonder you look so proud."

"Hey, I raised him through his teen years," Darry said. "To see him make something of his life and be successful at it means a lot to me. Now I can understand why he was daydreaming so much when he was younger."

"I actually came over here to Tulsa because of Pony's book," I admitted.

Darry raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Well, when I saw his initials on the cover in the bookstore, I just knew it was written by him and reading it reminded me of the gang and growing up here," I said.

"You know, Keith's coming over for supper tonight," Darry said after a minute. "Would you like to join us? I'm sure he'd like to see you."

"I'd like to see him, too," I replied. "I take it you still live in the same house?"

Darry nodded. "I have done some work on it over the years."

"You always did enjoy fixing things," I commented. "When should I be there?"

"Around five is good," Darry told me.

"Sounds good," I said. "I'll see you then. I want to walk around and see some of the other old hangouts while I'm here."

I waved good-bye to Anna who managed to smile at me and walked away. I hadn't expected to run into Darry like that even though I was close to where he lived and now I was going to see Two-Bit in just a few hours. Darry had seemed kind of glad to see me, but what was Two-Bit or Keith as he was now being called going to think when he walked into Darry's house and saw me?