*Darry's Narration*
Coming down from the last step of the old wooden ladder I was balancing on, I wipe away the sweat from my forehead. It's my lunch break, but I'm not hungry. I'm never hungry any more. Not even for our usual chocolate cake in the mornings. I sigh, I guess I should go home to have something to eat, if Soda finds out he won't say anything to me but he'll give me that expression. The expression that shows hurt and worry inside, and the last thing I want to do is make him worry even more. Every time I see that face, his eyes losing a bit of color, followed by glassiness from unfallin tears, while his mouth is set in a sharp frown. His handsome face washed over by that expression breaks my heart a little inside each time I see it. I don't even know how that's possible seeing how there's nothing left in my heart to break. After pony died-. I stop myself mid sentence. No. He's not dead. He's just asleep, that's all. In a peaceful sleep in the hospital dreaming of mom and dad and Johnny. I quickly wipe away a couple tears that escaped my eyes. Ponyboy has been in a coma for the past two and a half months. The doctor said it was a mixture of loosing to much blood, internal damage, and shock that put him in it. They patched him up during surgery, but by the time they got him to the hospital he was already to far deep in sleep to wake up. All of the doctors that have talked to me and looked him over tells me the same thing: "just pull the plug, son. There's nothing more we can do for him. And the hospital bill will be to much for you, you don't need to worry about financial problems right now in a time like this." I don't ever give them an answer I just look at them, whisper something to Pony, kiss his forehead, and leave. The gang visits him when ever they can, but lately they too, have tried to talk to me about pull the plug.
It's always starts the same with Two-Bit bringing the subject up "Darry, we all love Pony and none of us wants to see him die but…" his voice trails off.
"But what?" I ask in a hard voice, clinching my jaw in annoyance of what he's about to say.
"You see, Two-Bit is trying to say he's not…he's not going to-" Steve breaks in.
"Not going to what?" I raise my voice louder trying to make my anger clear.
"Derry…he's not going to wake up, and you know it too. You just don't want to admitte it to yourself. You need to let go, just let him go Darry," Steve finally gets out what they're thinking. Soda is in his room, where he is most of the time anyway.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH Y'ALL?" I yell at them, standing up from the table quickly so I'm looking down at them and they're forced to look up at me. It makes me feel more dominate and stronger, that's how I like it.
"Darry, listen…" Two-Bit tries to talk again.
"No, you listen, bud. That's my kid brother in there, not yours. You have no clue what I'm going through right now. And I can't believe you guys are telling me to give up on him. He's Ponyboy! I promised him I would stay with him to the end." I pound my fists on the table, "and damn it I will! I don't care how long it takes I'm stayin with him." with that I throw my dishes in the sink, not caring if they break or not. And march into my bedroom slamming the door shut, not even so much as glancing back to Steve or Two-Bit.
I still haven't visited Dallas yet. I don't think I can right now. Dallas is back in prison for robbing, I don't even know how long his sentence is. But right now I could care less. Dallas is the one that was being fired at not Ponyboy. If Dallas hadn't robbed that store or took out the heater Ponyboy would still be here. He's sent me and soda letters, but I haven't read them. I'll get to it eventually, but not now. Right now I need to put some space in between us, so I don't get to hate him.
By now I'm back at the house, I guess my train of thought put me on auto pilot. While I search through the fridge and cabinets for something small that would keep me going for the rest of the day, the phone rings. I glance at the clock, it's just about 12:48 p.m Sodapop is still working his shift, so is Steve. And Two-Bit has no reason to call me, he's still in school. But I answer is anyway.
"Hello, Curtis resident," I say in a monotone voice.
"Hello, is this Darry Curtis Jr.?" a female voice answers from the other line. I grunt in reply.
"This is Nurse Sue, from the hospital…" as soon as she says that line my hands get wet and shaky. Oh God, I think. This might be it, this might be the end. I always thought I was prepared for when I got the news that Pony had finally passed away, but here and now in the moment, I realized that nothing could prepare me if Pony died.
"Mr. Curtis we need you and your Brother, Sodapop if I'm correct, to come to the hospital admittedly," she says.
"Yes ma'am, will do," I say as I hang up on her. As soon as the phone touches some what of a surface I bolt to get my keys, run out the door and am pulling out of the drive way in record time.
As I pull up to the gas station where Soda and Steve work at I don't even get out of the car, I just pull up next to where Soda is standing, open the door and order "Get in." Soda doesn't disobey, he just turns to Steve and tells him to take over his shift. Steve doesn't even bother to question me or him. He can tell something's serious.
"Darry, what's wrong? What's going on?" Soda asks me while I speed up pushing nearly 70 mph.
"I don't know, I just got a call from the hospital telling me to get up there admittedly," I reply back to his question. He doesn't answer back so I sneak a glance from the corner of my eye. I can already see the tears welling up in his eyes, he must be thinking the same thing that I am. By the time we get there, we might be looking at a dead body of our kid brother. I put an arm around his shoulder and pull him in closer to me.
"It'll be okay Pepsi-Cola," I say his nickname dad used for him in an attempt to comfort him.
"This is it Darry, this is the end," He's whispers to me, his breath already shaky from soft sobs. I just clinch him tighter and force my own tears back. I'm the older one. I have to be tough for Soda's sake. And for my sake.
I park the car in the closest spot I could find and speed walk into the hospital with Soda by my side. When we come up to the front desk I speak up. "I'm Derry Curtis Jr., this is my brother Sodapop Curtis, we got a call from a nurse to come here."
The nurse types in something on the computer, looks up at us with a sad expression on her face and tells us to go to his room number. The look on her face pretty much confirms my thoughts. I hear Soda give a slight cry but we just keep walking to his room.
When we get there, his door is shut so I can't see anything inside. Even the curtains on the hallway windows are drawn. Just as I start to turn the handle the doctor stops me.
"Hello, Derry," He says in a smile. I just nod my head in acknowledgement.
"I'm glad you're here… as you know these last ten weeks have been hard ones, on all of us," he says very slowly drawing out each word.
"With all due respect, Doctor, can I please see my brother?" I say in frustration.
"Sure go right ahead, he's been asking for you two," with that he walks away. I didn't even have time to process as soon as he said sure I had already turned the door knob and bolted up the door with much more force then I intended.
When the door opened, all I say was Ponyboy sitting up with his back hunched over while a nurse was listening to his heartbeats. The scene seemed unreal to me. I just stayed in the doorway staring at him while I watched as Soda pushed off from the wall sprinted over to Ponyboy and hugged him in a mixture of tears of joy, sobs escaping both of them, and telling each other how much they love them. I swear the nurse was about to slap Soda clear across the face if he didn't stop being so close to Pony.
"Darry…" I heard a soft voice whisper my name. Such a familiar voice that I thought I would never hear again. As I walk over there it starts to hit me. Ponyboy is alive. I had thought that I would never see his eyes open again, or hear his sweet voice. As soon as I made my last step over to him, I plopped down on the side of his bed and wrapped him in a strong yet gentle hug. Afraid that he will break if I hugged him to tight. I could feel him crying into my chest, I also felt myself crying down his shoulder.
"Oh God Ponyboy. I thought… oh God I really thought you where dead, Pony," I say through big breaths and rivers of tears.
"I know, Darry, I know. I did too. I'm sorry," he rubs my back slightly trying to comfort me.
"Don't ever say your sorry again, Pony. You did nothin wrong," I tell him. As we hold each other I grab Soda and bring him into the hug also, so I know that we're all here together. All three of us, and I will keep it that way no matter what.
END OF CHAPTER 3
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I thought it was fun writing it to show what different emotions went on while Ponyboy was in the hospital. Again please please please keep the reviews coming, I love them so much. And tell other people about my stories so I get more feedback :D again thank you sooooooooo much for reading my stories, I think the next chapter will actually have Dallas in it, but I'm not sure yet! Please tell me what you think I should do! Thanks so much! Love ya3
