I should let you all know that I wrote the first three chapters as one big one and it was hard to break them all up, but hopefully they make sense.
Oh, and thanks for the futures of the Outsiders, Liz. You may notice I had some fun with Steve.
Dedication: Did everyone know that Thursday the 5th was Darry's Birthday? Well, I kind of let it slip my mind, so happy birthday to him and to Chronic Sarcasm who had her birthday today. One I figure is around 60 and one is a lot younger, so both of them can enjoy that!
Disclaimer: I own Pepsi-cola and the plot. S.E. Hinton owns the outsiders
On with the show!
Chapter 2: A day at home
I knew Darry should have gone into work and so should Soda, and now Ponyboy, but they all wanted to be with me and I couldn't really object. I'd been more in my own thoughts for the last few weeks than I thought could ever have been possible. I needed some human interaction, to a point. I didn't know if I could ever tell them about the Mekong or the boys who lost their lives fighting on the banks of it. I could tell them about the Leeches, the heat, the mosquitoes, the blood, the muck, the lack of comforts and Saigon. All four of them listened intently to whatever I was talking about. I supposed it was a whole other world to them. It should have been, for me, too.
"It sounds like…" Ponyboy trailed off trying to describe Nam in one word
"Hell," I ended for him
I could tell Darry had a million questions to follow up that statement, but he restrained himself. I was grateful.
"Well, you're home now," Soda pointed out
"Speaking of which, I don't suppose anyone stopped time here," I hinted and Two-Bit smiled
"Hell no. You missed some good times. Ponyboy here got a job over in a real store, Superman got a raise, Soda discovered how to cook normally," he paused so Soda could take a playful swing at him "And I, Two-Bit 'I love blondes' Mathews-"
"You won't believe this," Soda cut him off
"Hell, we didn't either," Darry put in
"But we were happy once we got used to it-" Pony added
"Would y'all let me tell him already?" Two-Bit griped, but went on anyways "I met a lovely brunette by the name of Rachel and I am so in love!"
"That's great," I commented smiling "I always knew you'd fall for a brunette."
"How come everyone but me knew that?" he asked "I would have stopped worrying over blondes years ago, if I'd have known."
I just shook my head wondering how to explain to him that blondes where boring him and he was enticed by a brunette? I sighed and decided I couldn't.
I rubbed my arms together and tried to get some warmth back into them. Darry eyed me suspiciously, but didn't say anything as he got up and came back with a blanket. I nodded my thanks and wrapped it around my shoulders.
"It's a jungle over there," I answered their curious looks "Humid, hotter than hell and green like you wouldn't believe. Makes Tulsa seem pretty damn cool at the moment."
I noticed Two-Bit had stopped fanning himself at my comment and looked over at where Soda, Darry and Ponyboy where barely wearing anything. It was hot for them, I supposed.
"So, I overheard Steve and Evie want to marry."
"Yep." Darry nodded his head "It was to be our first celebration in a while and we were all looking forward to it."
"Your funeral is still pretty painful," Soda offered what Darry did not "We were looking forward to just forgetting about it and having a good time."
"Hell, man. Anytime with me is a good time," Two-Bit yelped
I smirked at him and nodded to what Soda said. I couldn't imagine how it must have been for them. They thought I was dead and gone in some foreign country where the natives would probably keep my ears as trophies and mutilate the rest of my body beyond recognition. There were other stories I knew that floated around and I didn't envy my brothers. If they had seen the different booby traps the VC used, then they would have known I died painfully and gruesomely at the hands of a brutal enemy. I'd seen people impaled by spikes sprung from the ground, crushed by swinging logs and torn to pieces in general. It was bloody and a hell of a way to die. The thought sent shivers up my spine I couldn't attribute to the cold.
"Are you hungry?" Darry asked pulling me out of my thoughts yet again
"Yeah, I'm starved," I added
"Sorry we didn't wait on you, but we didn't even know you were…alive," Ponyboy tried the word tentatively
"If Two-Bit here would learn how to use his indoor voice, I would have probably given all of you a heart attack at the end of the day instead of the beginning. I still feel like I haven't slept in a week, but I'm glad I caught y'all."
Ponyboy and Soda smiled at me and I wondered if they had done much of that in the last few months. I decided they hadn't and smiled back at them. Darry brought me out a plate of eggs and a dusty jar of salsa from the cupboard a minute later. I never remembered him letting us eat anything in the living room, but I wasn't planning on getting up anyways. I didn't even know if I could get up. I was comfortable where I was.
"Have I mentioned this morning how much I love you?" I asked the salsa jar
Darry smirked at me and I grinned back at him, offering him the jar so he could open it.
"We didn't get much of a food selection over there," I offered, "Mostly lived off of glucose bars."
"You poor bastard!" Two-Bit seemed generally offended that they would feed us that
"No beer, either. Bases had beer, when you could get there, but that was pretty rare," I added
"No beer?" Two-Bit was giving me the same look I figured he'd give a Martian "That's just cruel!"
"Yep. Then there was the fact people shot at you…" I trailed off
"Yeah, but no beer? You could've stayed here and got shot at and had beer and real food!" Two-Bit pointed out
"Yep, but the judge decided I could get shot at over there," I answered smearing salsa all over my eggs
Darry looked lost in thought while Soda smiled at my old habits. Two-Bit watched me smear the salsa over the eggs and shook his head.
"If I didn't know you did this before you left home, I would say those glucose bars gave you odd tastes," he commented
I smirked at him and shook my head. Let him say what he wanted, I was hungry. Over the last week I'd had enough change in my pockets for the odd burger or thing of fries, so this was a feast and I was going to enjoy it.
Two-Bit went on talking about how things had changed while I was gone and I listened with half an ear. He always talked about everything so fast that I never was able to soak it all in and always got my facts mixed up. Soda would fill me in later if Ponyboy didn't first. It was interrupted when Steve walked in, letting the door close behind him. His eyes flew to me like he was seeing a ghost, but the look turned to one I knew well, before we left home, where he wasn't stoned out of his mind.
Steve had gone to Vietnam, but his choice wasn't forced or pressured, like mine was. I hadn't even known he was there until my 15th month. He was in Bein Hoa at one point when I was there. He'd discovered Opium, and most likely a few other things, and it had done some crazy shit to him. He'd broken down when he'd seen me from across the street. I had thought at the time 'Just what I need. It looks like it'll be an early morning tomorrow…' I'd crossed the street anyways and dragged Steve to the room he claimed to be renting from a very cantankerous looking woman. He couldn't get it through his head that I wasn't Soda and I had given up after a while and just let him call me what he wanted. He rambled most of the time about things the two of them had done back home and how they where going to do more of it once he got home next month and about Evie. He'd cried, he'd laughed and I let him, figuring I would count this as a favor owed from either him or Soda. By the time Steve seemed to be coming down I got tired of the situation and yelled at him for being stupid enough to pass his whole tour on drugs. He'd told me he was never high before a mission, which was smart because no one wants a hophead watching their back when the Viet Cong where aiming for your front. It didn't matter. I had yelled at him until my voice was hoarse and he was reduced to a shocked state. I had finally told him that he and Soda could never be friends again unless he got his act together. That was the last time I had seen Steve Randle until now. He looked clean and he seemed to be back to his old, grumpy self. Maybe I had had an affect on him, after all.
"I'll assume he's why I had to lie to the boss this morning?" Steve asked not looking at me
"I forgot to phone in!" Soda said as if it he'd just remembered that
"The boss says if you're not on your death bed or in that garage before one, then you're fired," Steve informed him
Soda threw me a look that basically said this was beyond his control and I nodded in return. I knew how his boss was.
"Work's work." I shrugged and Soda grinned
"I'll sneak a Pepsi home for you," Soda offered grabbing his cap off the table and darting after Steve
"Just go and save you job," I yelled
"Bye!" Soda hollered back laughing
I smiled myself and looked over at where Darry was sharing my smile. I knew he'd called in and Ponyboy didn't work today, so I had some company. I was looking forward to escaping them for at least a quick shower, though. I said as much to Darry who seemed to have noticed I didn't smell very fresh.
"I have to go shopping for diner anyways," Darry explained "Any requests?"
"Anything but fried chicken and glucose bars."
/-/-/-/-/-/
I hadn't had a hot shower in months and it was just what the doctor ordered. All of my stiff muscles where relaxing under the hot water and I was enjoying it immensely. I was going to have to ask Soda to get the knots out of my shoulders when he got home, though. A fair few of them where too stubborn for the hot water and the stretches I set myself to doing in front of the mirror. I winced occasionally as I found one that didn't like being pulled, but I felt better for it.
Shaved, washed, relaxed and happy, I wrapped a towel around my waist and made my way into the kitchen. I was still hungry, but there seemed to be little enough to eat in this place. Darry'd gotten a raise, Soda and Ponyboy where both working, so there seemed to be no way they were out of grocery money, but Darry had said he was going to the store. Speaking of money, I was broke. Maybe next weekend I would talk Buck into letting me ride. After everything, it would be a ride to see.
I was thinking of some of the ornery beasts I had half broke for the Slash J when I heard a feminine voice in the next room. I would have Recognized Lily's voice anywhere and I was a little disappointed it wasn't her. I was considering going through the other side for the kitchen and putting on more than a towel when Two-Bit walked in the room with a pretty brunette on his arm. Well, I guess they where going to have to take me as I was.
"Hey, here's the guy I was telling you about!" Two-Bit grinned "Rachel Clark this is Pepsi-cola Curtis, recently of the great beyond."
"Stop that," I ordered, "I was never dead."
"According to the tombstone and the US government-"
Two-Bit was going to say something more, but Rachel skillfully elbowed him playfully in the side. She was pretty, not strikingly so, but she had nice eyes and a good smile on her. She also seemed a little shy. I guess I'd always thought only a bubbly, outgoing girl was going to nab Two-Bit Mathews. I guess I was wrong.
"It's nice to meet you," she offered "I heard good things about you."
"Likewise," I answered "I'd like to talk more, but it's a bit too chilly in here for only a towel."
She blushed three different shades of red while Two-Bit laughed.
"You certainly did change over there! There was a time when we couldn't get this kid dressed!" He laughed
That made Rachel blush even harder and I decided to take that opportunity to sneak down the hall and look for some of my clothes. There was only one problem: there didn't seem to be any. Sodapop seemed to have taken up what closet space was left and Ponyboy must have nabbed that stack of shirts I'd found in the closet because they where all of the clothes I seemed to have left.
"Two-Bit?" I called "What did Darry do with my clothing?"
"Donated most of it," Two-Bit answered, "Everybody kept something. I have you lucky pair of socks at home!"
"Very funny," I answered then a bit quieter "This is just great."
I went straight to where I had dropped my duffle the night before and pulled out some pants and underwear. They were in horrible condition, but I was not walking around the house naked all day. The clothes I had worn here and the shorts I had slept in weren't worth the washing to get all the dirt and grime out of them, so I'd figured to go back to wearing what I used to, but that thought was out the window.
"Hey, man, we gotta split," Two-Bit said when I came back into the living room "Rachel's shift starts in about half an hour and I promised her we'd get a bite to eat."
"That's fine with me. It was nice to have met her," I said not seeing her in the room
"She's in the car. Doesn't like to be late because her boss yells at her. I told her if Tompkins did it again I would clean his clock-"
"Tompkins?" I asked
He was the boss down at the diner Lily works at...
"Bye, Pepsi!" Two-Bit said making a beeline out the door as Rachel leaned on the car horn
I was going to ask him about Lily, but I didn't get the chance. I figured he wasn't lying when he said he was in a hurry. I sighed; it was just another thing in life that had changed while I'd been gone. Maybe it wasn't the same old Tulsa anymore.
I didn't have long to think on it when Darry and Ponyboy got home. They where carrying groceries and my stomach thanked them. Darry found this amusing, but put me to work putting them away before he would let me eat anything. I wondered when he'd become such a stick in the mud, but that was Darry for you. He hadn't changed much at all.
Ponyboy, on the other hand, was as tall as I was now. He was built a lot like Soda and me, but I knew he would get taller than the both of us and put on a bit more muscle, too. He wouldn't be Darry's size, especially through the shoulders, but he would fill out a bit. I vaguely wondered when he had started shaving and if he liked girls yet? I knew the girls would like him. He wasn't movie star handsome, but he wasn't far off. Maybe he was what girls would call 'hott'. I had heard one girl tell another a few years ago that Ponyboy had the 'grooviest' eyes. I wondered if she would still think so. They had gone deeper green since I was gone, but there were still flecks of grey in there. I knew one thing hadn't changed about Ponyboy; he still ate like a horse. His stomach was rumbling as much as mine while we put things away. Darry grinned at us, but kept putting things away, promising we would have some lunch in a few minutes.
All three of us put away a few sandwiches each before we decided to try some conversation.
"Hey, Darry. Two-Bit mentioned you'd donated my clothes," I started
"Yeah, I did. About a month ago," Darry sighed "If we had have known…"
"It's fine. It's just that the clothes I have at the moment have either fallen to shreds or they're about to," I explained showing him the rips in my pants
"Well, we kept a few things we knew no one would want," Ponyboy put in "Stuff that was ripped or torn or that was just too…you."
"Like what?" I asked
"Your Slash J jacket, the one from when…" Ponyboy sighed and I knew which one he'd meant "Then there were some jeans with holes in the knees and a couple shirts and stuff."
"Perfect." I smiled "Any boxers?"
"Nope, but we would buy you new ones anyway," Darry added "After lunch you should show me what you have for clothing at the moment and I'll have Ponyboy bring up your box from the basement."
I thanked both of them and helped myself to another ham sandwich. Mustard was something I had missed, too. Bread even! It was the little things and I knew I would always be aware of them from now on.
It was a while later that Ponyboy finally did manage to dig up that box Darry was talking about. A lot of my favorite clothes where in there along with that Slash J jacket that I had sewn after the fire. I was surprised it was in there. I knew for a fact it brought back a lot of bad memories, for Ponyboy especially, but there where a lot of good ones in there, too. I had got it after a tough ride that had dislocated my shoulder, but it was worth it. It was the night my riding career really started. I was too damn stubborn to back down and it had given me something I loved, in fact two some things. I had met Lily after that and I had let her wear it on our first date and many after that. Hell, I had gone into a burning church with this jacket to help someone. This jacket was as much a part of the good as it was of the bad and I was happy to see an old friend.
I got up and went into the bathroom to change. My jeans where a little loose, but I figured a belt would fix that. They where in danger of falling down around my ankles without it and I knew few people would want to see that. I grabbed a pair of Soda's socks off the dryer and re-joined my brothers. Darry was going through my duffle bag and frowning.
"Most of these clothes are garbage," he pointed out
"Yeah. I haven't had a new uniform since I go out of the hospital," I explained "And even then it wasn't all that new."
"Why where you in the hospital?" Ponyboy asked
"Dehydration, mostly. They treated me for malaria as well and doctored up my calf," I explained showing him the lightening bolt-shaped scar
Ponyboy glanced at it for a minute and turned his attention to the carpet. I knew it was a gruesome scar, but I hadn't looked at it in so long that it slipped my mind. I didn't see how it could have. It hurt like a bitch when I got it. Then having nothing to help it because we where so low on supplies, I'd had one of the guys cauterize it for me. Probably saved my life, but I'd almost rectified that situation by shouting loud enough for the damn VC to pin point our position. I distinctly remember passing out and waking up with a rag stuffed in my mouth. That move probably saved the guy's lives, too. Not that it mattered. It only bought them three days…Anyways; I'd torn it open again and gotten it infected before I actually had a real doc look at it. I don't know which hurt more, getting the wound or having that doc clean it out for me.
Darry met my eyes and I turned down my pant leg again. He looked like he was thinking back to a different lifetime, like I was, but he still met my eyes. I tried to smile at him and he nodded to himself.
"The one on your shoulder is worse," Ponyboy offered after a bit
"It sure is," I agreed "I had every unit I was with convinced that I took on a mountain lion."
Ponyboy smiled at me, probably remembering the days before Mom and Dad died. I had told big, exaggerated stories for the hell of it and Ponyboy had been my most avid listener, even though he knew most of them where pure bullshit. He was a good kid. Lord, he was getting too old to be a kid and too tall, too.
"Are you shaving yet?" I asked
"Yeah," his ears started turning a bit red
"Just before last Christmas he started showing hints of a beard," Darry explained "So I bought him his own razor and gave him lessons over the holidays."
I could picture the two of them standing in the bathroom, elbow to elbow with white cream all over their faces. Darry would be showing Ponyboy where to start (right to left as he always did) and Ponyboy would have just nodded. I imagined it would have been something special for Darry and Ponyboy, but they both would have been missing Dad then, Soda, too. It was something he'd taught Darry and then later me and Sodapop - separately, of course. It was something special. Dad had smiled at me at the end of the lesson and proclaimed I was on the road to being a man. I was sixteen at the time and figured I was as much of a man as I was ever going to be. After he and Mom died, I learned there was more to being a man than shaving and getting hair under my arms. Dad knew it and I learned it. I used to wonder sometimes if somehow he would let me know when I was really a man.
"He still nicks himself every once in a while, but he'll do," Darry commented grinning at Ponyboy
"Thanks, Darry," Ponyboy sighed smiling back at him "I do better than Pepsi and Soda did when they started."
"You can at least stand still," I commented smiling "That's mostly why we nicked ourselves."
"Soda still can't stand still," Darry added "But he learned how to shave on the move I suppose."
I nodded thinking that was the way Sodapop did most things.
"So, have you guys seen Shepard?" I asked cautiously
"Yeah. He got back into town a few weeks ago and held one hell of a party," Ponyboy answered and I was relieved "Did you meet up with him over there?"
"Yeah."
The truth was Shepard had met up with me. I knew he shipped out a few months before I did, but I hadn't expected to see him. Vietnam was a big place and then there was Laos on top of that. My second unit was camped out on a hill when none other than Tim Shepard wandered into our midst. We nearly shot him before he put his arms up. I said I knew him and that was good enough. The boys pointed their guns at the ground, but kept them close enough to use just in case. Tim had sauntered over like the jungle was his turf at home and looked me over, declaring I looked out of place in a uniform and like shit in general. I'd laughed and we shook hands and spent a long time just talking about home. It kept the pair of us sane for the three days he was with us before we found his unit. I was happy he was home, now that I knew he hadn't gotten himself killed over there. I guess you could thank the stars for something good, even if Tim Shepard generally wasn't.
"I'm glad he made it home," I said simply
Darry put a hand on my shoulder as he stood up. I'd missed my big brother while I was over there. He had become my best friend again before I'd left…and I was glad he was still there for me. Some things changed, but home always brought you around again.
Ok! Well, that's the end of that one! I hope everyone enjoyed! Damn, I have nothing to say here when there aren't review thankies. I am definitely leaving another letter with the site…(I will not call it a stupid site, I will not call it a stupid site…oh, hell with it. Stupid site).
Any comments at all are welcome and flames are accepted.
See ya in the funny papers!
Tens