Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders
A/N Thanks again to all my reviewers. I'm putting up the next 3 chapters. They kind of go together so I'm putting all 3 of them at once.
iheartponyboy33 I'm glad you are back. Yeah, I know you didn't expect it. I wanted the reader to be as surprised as Ponyboy was:) I'm glad you liked it. It just wouldn't be the same without Johnnycake :)
Whispers of a Fallen Angel I like plot twists too. That's why I wanted to try to write my story this way. Thanks for sticking around ;)
ItsallAboutPonyboy I'm so happy you liked the idea of Johnny being alive. I thought Pony deserved to have his best friend back.
DreamerandReckless thanks for sticking around. I hope you can warm up to the idea of Johnny being alive :)
greasertwin I'm glad you liked that Johnny is alive.
Anyway, here we go:)
Johnny took a deep breath and began his story:
"You remember how you came to visit me last time," he paused, "with Dally."
"Yes," I nodded.
"Well, that's the last thing I remembered too. I swear I thought I was dying. Everything started to get blurry and fuzzy and that was the last thing I remembered. The next time I opened my eyes it was real cold and I remember thinking that I was already dead. Then I saw this woman, a nurse actually, and she was screaming and running out of the room. Everything was still fuzzy and I couldn't move and it was really, really freezing. Then I realized that there was a plastic bag over my body, and two belts - one around my chest and one around my ankles. I was so shocked to realize that I was alive. I was sure that I was dying that day, when you came. And the doc was saying that all along, that I would die. I overheard him say that to the nurse like a million times."
He paused to take another deep breath.
"I guess I went to a coma or something, I don't know. It smelled awful in that room, and it was freezing. I was in a morgue, Pony, I was in a morgue. There were freezers with dead guys everywhere and even though they were in freezers, it still stunk awful in there. I kept throwing up form all that stink. At first, I was so shocked I didn't' even scream for help or nothin' , but then I started yelling for help. But noone showed. There were these huge fans in there, to ventilate the place, I guess, and they made an awful lot of noise. Imagine you are stuck in the morgue all by yourself surrounded by dead folk Pone, plastic bag over your whole body so you can't even move." He tried to smile, but it came out as a very weak, sad smile. I froze inside, "Didn't the nurse that brought you there come back?"
"Naw, I guess she got scared or something. Thought I was a ghost."
"That's ridiculous."
He just shrug in response.
"So, what then?" I asked.
"Then? Then I kept calling for help until my voice got hoarse, but noone showed. Then I wished I was dead. I swear, Pony, I did. I tried to close my eyes and make myself pass out hoping I wouldn't wake up and I would just die, but it wouldn't happen." He gasped for more air and continued. "You know how they said I was paralyzed below my waste 'n all?"
"Yeah," I said eagerly. I was still waiting to hear how on earth he's able to walk.
"Well, I thought then my whole body was paralyzed 'cause I couldn't' move at all. Not even my arms. It was hours before I realized it was just 'cause it was so freezing and 'cause of those stupid belts. I was lying there for days, Pony. I don't know how many - a few. I wished someone came to even pick up the corpses to burry them or whatever, but noone did."
"You must've been starving."
"Yeah, well actually at first I didn't even think of food, you know, but later yeah. Never mind food, Pone. I couldn't even take a leak, you know. Try that for a few days."
I stared at him - the image clearly appearing in front of my eyes. Johnny on a stretcher, big white plastic bag over his body, strapped with those belts, just like he said. Starved and unable to even use the bathroom. "God, how long have you been there?" I asked - my voice unsteady.
"I dunno, proly 4 or 5 days."
"And then?"
"Well, I couldn't take it no more. I started turning and tossing on the stretcher and I finally untied the top belt with my teeth, and got a hold of my arms. Then I was able to take the other belt of my ankles. I couldn't stay there for another second."
He paused, remembering how it all went down.
"Johnny," I shook him by the shoulder slightly.
"Well," he continued, "it was pretty awful, and I still couldn't move my legs."
"And?" I was getting impatient.
"And... I fell off the stupid stretcher, Pone," he said.
"Stupid, you could've hurt yourself even more."
"It's not like I had any choice. I figured it couldn't get worse than it already was. I couldn't feel anything below my waist anyway. I figured I'd drag myself to the exit using my arms. I had to either get out of there, or die already. I couldn't be in between life and death no more. You know how they said how the nerve in my spine was completely dead. Well I guess it wasn't completely dead, 'cause when I fell off the stretcher I felt pain. And I knew then that my spinal chord wasn't completely dead, you dig?"
For a moment I wished his story was over already. It was getting a bit too much.
In the meantime Johnny continued, "When I fell, I passed out for a while and when I came back to senses it was night already. I was able to use my arms to drag myself out of that awful place. Thank God someone left a wheel chair in the hallway by one of the doors. I was able to use that."
"You know," I said, "you could've called us. I don't understand why you didn't let us know."
He looked down, the expression of guilt returning to his face. "After all I was through," he said somewhat annoyed, "I wasn't thinking straight. I just wanted to get outta there. And besides, I didn't have no money for a phone call."
I decided not to interrupt him anymore and just let him go on with his story.
"So, like I said," he continued, "I just wanted to get outta there. Using the wheelchair was pretty hard, but I was able to get down to the train station. I met a bunch of homeless guys over there. There are always a few over there, that sleep on the benches, you know. They recognized me. They knew all about the fire in the church 'n all. I guess the word really gets around. They told me about Dally." He stopped talking and glanced at Dally's grave. "You know," he said, "it's been a while and I still can't get over it." There were tears in his eyes, but he controlled himself right away.
"I guess, you never quite get over stuff like that" I said. If only he knew how I almost lost my mind over his own "death". There was so much I wanted to tell him, but I realized that now wouldn't be the right time.
"After they told me about Dal, I just came here and stayed here since." Johnny said.
I wanted him to tell me how he got to walk again, but I didn't feel like asking him directly.
"After a month or so," he continued, "I lost my wheelchair. That was the best thing that happened to me. If not for that I probably still wouldn't know that I could walk. At first I was just lying here for days . No food or nothin'. I didn't feel like eating anyway. But one night I remembered this thing I saw on the news once, long time ago. Back when I was still a kid. About this guy, James Johnson. He was a swimming champ, and he busted his back while working out. He was paralyzed and in a wheelchair. And everyone was predicting that he would never walk again. But his wife was expecting a child, and he said that for the sake of his child he would walk again. And he did it, he really did it. (A/N: true story that I read in a magazine long time ago. It took him several years to be able to walk again though:)) So if he could do it, I decided to try too. At first I could only crawl on my knees. It would take me about 3 days to crawl from here back to the train station or anywhere else to get food. I've been able to walk like this only for about a month." He stopped talking, ending his story abruptly. I guess that was it.
He went through all of that all alone. All by himself.
