Chapter 3

Oh god, I thought. Soda's dead, isn't he? I think Dr. O'Hara caught on that I thought my older brother was dead, because he put his hand up, shook it and said
"Oh no, he's not dead. He's woken up, we were actually a bit surprised, to tell you the truth, that he woke up so soon after the accident, but nonetheless we were much more relieved then surprised. He doesn't really have his memory, so with your permission tomorrow we will be taking him to a counsellor, it doesn't include going out of the hospital itself, it's just up on the next floor. Then we will see how he's doing, and if he feels up to it he will go to a class for the afternoon, many people like him have taken this class before and it does help them. Even some people in conditions worse then Sodapop's have taken this class and it's worked for them, but we are almost positive that it will work on him."
"Sounds okay" Darry agreed, nodding. "How about his injuries? Did you find anymore"
"We havne't found anymore, he seems to be very annoyed by the neck brace, but I don't blame him for that one bit. He takes a variety of pills every three to four hours
, he took one last about three hours now, so make sure that when the nurse comes to give him his medicine he takes water with it. Anything else" We all shook our heads and left to Soda's room.

There he was, my 16 year old brother, lying there in the hospital bed staring at the ceiling. It looked like he was talking to himself in his head, only his lips were moving but making no noise. I looked around the room, a couple of vases of flowers were on the headboard, cards beside them. On the cart that his food lie on, there was a card open. I smiled at the fact that my brother, as handsome as a movie star was getting alot of attention, but why for this reason? What did he do to deserve this? Why did we have to be in here to visit him? Why can't we go and visit him at the DX instead of the hospital? Why couldn't today be the early morning, Maybe Steve and Two-Bit would come in and tickle us to death until we finally woke up, Chocolate cake on the table, each with something we liked. Then Soda and Steve would drop me off at School on their way to work, then maybe he and Steve would come home for dinner and we would all stuff our mouths like we always did, then we'd watch TV.

"Hey, little brother." Darry said, he always used to say that when he'd pick both of us up from school on our way home, before Mom Dad died. Sodapop just tried to turn his head but didn't succeed. He didn't say anything? Did he even know who was here?
"Hi..." He said.
"It's us, Darry Pony, Steve, and Two-Bit." His eyes went wide
"Oh, hey guys." He whispered. His broken arm slowly went up, and he pointed to the card that lay on the cart. "Read it."
I picked it up, it said
Hey Soda,
I got a phonecall from Steve the other night, he told me that you were in the hospital. I'm so sorry to hear that, everything okay? Well - I guess that's kind of a silly question to ask you, I'm doing good and bad, I'm getting more pregnant now. Look, Soda, I just want you to know - I might be coming back to Tulsa just to see you and your brothers. I want you to be there when this baby is born, hospitalized or not. But we all know you'll be out of the hospital in five months.
Love,
Sandy
I passed it on to Darry, Two-Bit, and Steve. They all gasped when they read it.
"What do you think about it" Darry asked Soda, who tried to shrug but once again failed.
"I dunno, it'll be good to see her, and bad because she broke my heart. Steve, thank you for phoning her." Steve nodded and laughed.

"Meds" A voice made us jump, a rather excited looking nurse with curly brunette hair and big glasses came into the room, holding a tray. A cup with at least 5 differnet pills in it was on the tray, and a glass of water with a straw. Also some paper and a pen. "Here you go Sodapop, all of your pills, the water, and that pen and paper you asked for." She put the tray down, smiled at us and walked out of the room, she was pushing a big cart full of trays.
"Soda? You need us to write a letter for you or do you want to" Two-Bit asked, willingly.
"Uhh, well right now I gotta take my medicine and that glass or water, and then I'm gonna go to bed. Then, if your here I will get one of you to write it, if not I have no problem writing it." Had he planned this? It sounded like he did, he took the pills and the glass of water. "See ya'all." And went to bed.