SE Hinton owns the Outsiders.

Tulsa Queen

Four-

I signed the checks and caught up to Two-Bit because I needed to get a little high, and I knew he'd be holding. He was waiting for me, as I'd figured he would be, sitting on the hood of his car and peeling the bark off of a stick he'd found. We went back and forth over whether or not I had to smoke a joint with him or could I just pay him for it and go home. I gave in because I didn't feel like going home and being high around my mother.

We got in his car. I rolled while he drove.

"I ain't seen much of you. What's shaking up in Brumly?" He asked.

"Is anything ever? Christ, half the town burned down last summer. Grass fire, bootleggers, kids with matches. I don't think anyone even cared to ask."

"What about your boy- the one you get sent away over? Must be the whole population of your fair city shows up to rodeo and rumble now and again, but I ain't seen him."

"He's in Atoka. I guess. He was there. I don't really know now."

"What was his name again?"

"Hartley. Hart."

"Yeah, Hart. That's cute."

Two-Bit took the joint from me, inhaled, and held it. He'd no sooner exhaled before he was asking me another question I didn't want to answer:

"So, Hart. Yeah, so what does a girl do when she gets her heart broke by a guy named Hart?"

"Take a look. I'm doing it."

He grinned and handed the joint back.

"Here. Do some more. Maybe it'll make you more congenial."

The sun emerged from behind the clouds so suddenly that it spooked us both. Two-Bit squinted and cursed. He put on the brakes what I thought was a little premature for the upcoming intersection. The car coasted a few yards, though, and stopped right where it should have. Two-Bit looked both ways down the cross-street, and then asked me:

"You need another drink, Lettie Rae?"

"I thought we were looking for Ponyboy."

"We can do both."

"Pony don't drink. You ain't going to find him in any bar. I think you're meant to be headed to the bowling alley."

"There's beer at the bowling alley. If Pony and Johnny ain't there, then we'll hole up and have a drink. Regroup, come up with another plan."

I mumbled, "Whatever you say."

I was trying to keep my mind on finding my cousin, but my thoughts were starting to float every which way drifting towards anything more to do with Two-Bit. Since getting knocked up and put down in quick succession by Hart, I was gun shy about boys. I still wanted their company, but the idea of anyone touching me the way Hart had felt like a death sentence in a way that I couldn't explain without going into the reasons why.

Kids in Tulsa did pretty much everything but bowl at the bowling alley. There were a few pinball machines, if that was your thing. There was a bar to hang around and try to get someone who was old enough to buy for you. There was the actual bowling alley itself, the back half of which was covered in dark green carpet. It was like a landing strip where packs of kids prowled back and forth looking for a fling or a fight.

The air was hazy with cigarette smoke. Two-Bit took my hand and pulled me through the throng towards the pinball players. My first reaction was to jerk my hand back again. Two-Bit turned back to look at me. I expected some kind of guilt trip for my resistance. Instead, he put a finger to his lips and pointed- first to the pinball machine where I saw Ponyboy standing around with his friends, and then in a circular motion to signal we should flank them and take them by surprise.

I rolled my eyes at him, but half-heartedly began to circle around to the right. Two-Bit reached them before I did. He pounced on the kid playing pinball and shook him by the shoulders. The dark-haired kid let go of the bumpers and lost the ball.

"Dang, Two-Bit," I heard him say.

"Serves you right, Johnny Cade, you miscreant. You're contributing to the delinquency of a minor even more minor than yourself."

Johnny looked confused. Ponyboy saw me, though, and pushed himself away from the wall.

"Did Darry send you?"

"Hi to you too. No, Darry sent Two-Bit. I'm just along for the ride."

When I said it, I became aware of how stoned I was. I wondered if my speech sounded slow to them, or if it was just me. I felt like they were all staring at me. Turned out, aside from Pony, the only person staring at me was a short, bottle-blonde girl who was hanging on the shoulder of a mean-looking, little goatroper. I recognized him from around my cousin's house.

"Who's she?" The girl asked her cowboy.

I only halfway wondered the same about her. Everything about her was little except for her hair and her tits. Most likely, she could bring the claws out for a cat fight, but I'd done a whole lot more than that at the Girl's School. I could throw real punch. I couldn't bring down guys like Two-Bit or Darry, but I figured I could knock a little girl like this one into the stratosphere.

"Their cousin," was all her boyfriend told her. He didn't know much more about me, but he more than likely knew my name. A guy like him remained evasive to keep his girl jealous and paranoid.

"Aletta," I said to the girl, just for the sake of ruining the game. "I'm Pony's cousin. I'm down from Brumly."

The girl made a face. The mention of Brumly didn't exactly bring out the smiles.

"Ain't you got a name?" I asked her. "I know y'all think we're a bunch of hillbillies up there, but at least we're polite enough to introduce ourselves."

"Sylvia." She damned-near spit it out.

"Nice to meet you, Sylvia."

I turned to Ponyboy and Johnny.

"How long y'all been here?"

"Maybe an hour?" Pony said.

"Or maybe not?" I asked him.

He shrugged and exchanged glances with Johnny. Wherever they'd been and whatever they'd been up to, it had involved the cowboy. I could only guess he was the Dally that Darry had wanted them not to be with.

"Y'all eat?" I asked Pony.

They answered me in union: "No."

I shot Dally a look to let him know that he was on his own there. I tugged Ponyboy away from the pinball machine and motioned for Johnny to follow me. Two-Bit hung back with Dally and Sylvia, and I was relieved for it. I didn't have enough cash on me to feed all of them, and I didn't feel real inclined to put what I had towards feeding a girl who looked at me the way Sylvia did. I knew a little of Johnny's history, though, and I had no problem buying him a burger.

I let them order their own food at the bar and then added on a bottle of Grain Belt. A look back towards the pinball machine told me Two-Bit and Dally were talking about me. Sylvia did not appear to enjoy the conversation focused on any girl other than her. She excused herself to go, I guessed, to the ladies room. Neither Dally or Two-Bit acknowledged her going.

I told Ponyboy to wait at the bar for the food and to keep his mitts off of my beer. He grumbled something to Johnny about not getting between me and a bottle.

I poked a finger in his direction and winked as I walked away, telling them, "And don't you forget it neither."

Without being too obvious (although what the hell did I know, I was pretty stoned), I followed Sylvia into the ladies room. I found her standing at the mirror, adjusting her hair. In my state of mind, I was tempted to poke it over to one side just to make her have to do it all over again. I forced myself to behave and to remember why I'd followed her in the first place.

"Sylvia, right?"

She wrinkled her nose at me without actually turning away from the mirror to face me.

"What are you on?" She asked.

"A little of Rogers County's finest, I'd guess," I said and brushed the comment aside. I asked her, "How long y'all been here?"

"If you're checking up on your little cousin, why don't you ask your little cousin?"

"Because I'm asking you. Because he's standing out there in the shadow of your old man and Two-Bit. He's not going to give up his buddy."

"You think I'm going to give up my boyfriend, though?"

"The thought had crossed my mind. I don't need a blow-by-blow account of your entire afternoon. I just want to know that Ponyboy ain't getting up to anything unbecoming."

"Like you've obviously been doing?"

"Pretty much," I said. She was getting on my nerves something awful, but I was beginning to suspect that she was dragging it out because she didn't actually have anything to tell me; she just liked playing at holding something over me.

I told her, "Of course, if I was to find out that Pony was headed down the wrong path, I'd have to take him back with me for sure. Then you could have Dally all to yourself."

"I'd still have Johnny. He sticks to Dally like glue. I swear, he likes Dally better than I do most days."

"Yeah, Dally looks like one hell of a charmer."

"Says the girl who blew in here with Two-Bit."

I shrugged. "What me and Two-Bit are doing ain't your business, little girl. Just like what you and Dally...and Johnny...do ain't mine. I only care about my cousin."

"Well, put your worried mind to rest," Sylvia said. She let her hair be, and opened up her purse to look for lipstick. I could see a flask inside. When I stood back and crossed my arms across my chest, she continued: "That? Yeah, don't worry about that. Ponyboy does not partake in that or anything else. He's such a child."

I skipped the obvious retort about the pot calling the kettle black because it suddenly made me very sad to remember what sixteen was like- when you had to work to get someone to buy you a beer, and when nothing bad had happened yet so you didn't think it ever could.

"Thanks," I told her. "Let's keep it that way."

I left Sylvia to her make-up and went back out into the bowling alley.