When I woke up, I was back in my crib again and daylight was seeping through the closed blinds draped over my window. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I was then staring at the colossal white door straight ahead of me through the tall crib bars that kept me from getting out. I stood up and tried to climb the bars, but I failed; I always try doing that when waking up in the morning. I was going to try again, but I didn't have to, because the golden door knob started to turn slowly. Soda peeked through the crack in the door and smiled at me.
"Hi baby boy! You ready for breakfast?" He asked as he walked to me, this time wearing a thin undershirt.
"uh!" I held my arms eagerly out towards Soda, standing on my tippy toes. He laughed and picked me up, throwing me in the air and then catching me. I let out shrieks of laughter. I loved it when Soda and Darry did stuff like that with me! It made me feel real special a lot of the time(and at that time, I didn't know that I was more precious to them than anything else). After dressing me in blue jeans and a dark green shirt, he put me on his hip and walked out to the front, still smiling brightly.
Soda made funny faces at me and pretended to drop me, always catching me before I hit the ground as we entered the small room we called the living room. The whole gang was out there already, laughing, making jokes, wrestling with each other, and I thought I could hear the faint theme song of Mickey Mouse on the television set. Soda walked into the kitchen, where Darry was frying eggs in a pan, whistling happily as he cracked another white oval shaped thing into it. He looked at who had entered, then smiled as brightly as Soda did, then jogged the few feet there was between us.
"Good morning Ponyboy!!" Darry said.
"Daddy!" I squealed as I practically jumped from Soda's hip to Darry's outstretched arms. Darry spun me around a few times before giving me back to Soda and getting back to cooking breakfast. Soda went out to the front and put me down. Then he walked off back to his room to finish getting ready for work. Johnny came and sat down right beside me waving his hand and smiling.
"Hey!" He said softly. Johnny had a record for being quiet, but I was still the undefeated champion. I smiled, then tried to stand upright. I hadn't really learned how walking worked out(the gang made it seem so easy, and was able to make it into their own version!), but I was getting closer to mastering it. I leaned on Johnny's shoulder. Two-Bit(Who I call keet, since his name was too hard for a one-year-old to say correctly) then kneeled on the floor putting his arms out towards me.
"C'mon squirt!" He said. I then took one step after the other, slowly, trying not to fall on my butt. "DARRY!! SODA!! Come and look at this!!" Two-Bit said excitedly. I hadn't fell yet, and I was almost to Two-Bit. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Darry, Soda, and the rest of the gang, all watching me as I walked and fell in Two-Bit's arms.
"Good job!!" Two-Bit said running his fingers through my reddish-brown hair. I laughed and played with his face for a little bit, then sat down and took the wooden letter blocks that were scattered all over the floor and started to spell out my last name: CURTIS.
"WHOA!!" Steve said shockingly as I finished up. Darry and Soda both turned to face him, then their eyes went wide as they looked in the direction that Steve was looking in. I pointed to each letter as I pronounced them out loud.
"See, You, Awe, Tee, Eye...uh....Ess!" I said, thinking harder about how to say that last letter of my last name. Then I smiled and clapped my hands. Soda knelt down beside me, he had pulled on his light blue work shirt that had the DX Gas Station symbol on the pocket, and stared at the letter blocks, as if they had spoken by themselves; then he looked at me.
"Wow, Ponyboy, that's very… good!" He said in disbelief. I stood up again and hugged Soda. He picked me up and kissed me on the forehead.
"Uh!!" I said, pointing out the doorway. I wanted to go to the park. I loved going on the swings and playing on the silver slide, even though it was stained with other baby's drool and sometimes bird poop. And sometimes there was other tots there that were my age who played with me!
"Oh! Okay, Johnny, you and Dally wanna take him to the park today?" Soda asked. Johnny and Dally both exchanged glances then nodded their heads. I squealed with delight and clapped my hands. "okay, then! You behave Pony? Ya hear me?" I wanted to answer him correctly.
"ya!" I screamed. Darry came over and held me for the little bit of time he had left before going to work.