Dallas walked us downstairs, on the porch, we were standing together, Ponyboy and Johnny had walked a few feet into the distance of the train-yard, I turned my head looking at Dallas. "You sure this is a good idea?" I asked him seriously, making his eyes look down to me from Johnny and Ponyboy who moved slowly.
"No." He said seriously, "but I do know, if they're anywhere around here man, they wont last long." He pointed out the obvious. I had to nod to agree with him. "And it is the best plan we've got on short notice." He tagged on.
"Well, alright." I slipped the tops of my fingers into my jeans front pockets, biting the corner of my lip. "Don't tell Tim or Curly anything." I found myself saying without thinking, making his eyebrows knit together in confusion.
I half shrugged unsure of what to say to my pervious statement. "What exactly do I tell them than?" Dallas asked, crossing his arms over his chest, holding onto his biceps. "Nothing, but if you have too, make up a story - Dallas, you're good at that." I pointed out, he kind of grinned but it was a half-grin, the grin he put on when he didn't know how something was going to turn out.
"Be careful." He said seriously, "you might think you're invisible but you are fifteen, not that age has anything to do with anything! But, just be careful." He finished.
"Oh relax, I can handle my self." I flashed a tiny smile, patting the side of his arm before I turned, walking off the porch quickly, running across the field to catch up with Ponyboy and Johnny.
And from then on, not a word was spoke except a few, one words as we climb onto the freights car, hid from the yard-workers checking the cars for rail-riders - They didn't catch us. We sat down against the back of the car.
The long whistle whined as the train started to rattle around, slowly we started moving, slowly everything started become even realer. We were actually on our way to hide out a murder. My hands were flat against the cars floor, my back against the wall. Slowly rocking back and forth with the movements of the train, the darkness. I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be.
You don't really know speechless until you have to sit through three hours of silence after someone has committed a murder. I bit the corner of my lip, looking up as we crossed over a bridge. I peaked over the open sides, seeing the rocks and the shallow water below. The mist hung high in the early morning sky.
Pastel pink and purple colours of the sky was mixing with blue and silver clouds, to conceal the sun that was starting to rise up in the Eastern horizon - it looked like a still photograph or a painted picture. It was calm and still, everything was perfect - well it should've been according to that amazing sunrise starting.
I personally saw nothing amazing about it, but then I didn't much enjoy the simpler finer things in life. "Wake up, Pony." I said softly, my hand touching his shoulder shaking him lightly - the only one of us who managed to fall asleep.
"We there?" He asked in a tired tone. "Almost, we gotta jump." I pushed myself up against the cars wall, standing, I held my hand out for Ponyboy who'd sat up rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He reached up, taking my hand and I stepped back pulling him up with an ease.
"Ready, on three we go." Johnny said standing at the edge of the open box car, watching the tracks and open fields passing us by, it didn't seem so fast, but they were passing by quicker than we knew.
"Three." Johnny said skipping one and two without notice, I felt myself airborne for a fraction of a moment, before inhaling sharply when I landed side first into the ground, the cold dew was like a sharp slap across the face.
I kept my eyes closed for a moment as the impact feeling of hard Earth disappeared from my body. Opening my eyes I looked around, I could see Ponyboy laying beside me rubbing his eyes and face of the same dew.
Turning over I pushed myself up brushing my hands against my arms, "right, lets go." I muttered starting to walk upwards on the hill over the long grass before seeing a dirt path and changed where I was walking.
I turned to glance behind myself, seeing Ponyboy and Johnny following behind not to far back. They were both looking forward with their hands in their jeans. Turning on my heel, I waited for them, we still didn't speak as we walked in a flanking line.
Getting the the Church seemed to take hours upon hours. But really it was probably only forty-five minutes not including the time we lost making Ponyboy go ask a Framer for help.
"This is the Church." Johnny pointed out in a rather low voice as we all stood looking at the old Church that had a slight lean to the left.
I felt like making some kind of comment about seeing another other churches around but I kept that to myself. Just to keep things simpler, plus I knew it wasn't the time. My fingers felt half numb when I helped pull some plywood off a boarded up back exit.
"Home sweet home." Ponyboy had said stepping into the Church that looked exactly like that - a church, old pews with spider-webs and a podium where I assume the Preacher gave summons on a concrete level a few inches higher off the ground than the pews. Old stove in the centre of the room to keep the place warm. All in all I guess it looked Churchy? - Personally I had never been inside a Church, not my type of thing.
Finding a place on the ground I cleared my throat by have coughing, it felt like I had a cold coming on, but it was just from lack of sleep. I yawned and I lent back against the wooden wall that squeaked. Pulling my knees up against my chest and I crossed my arms, resting my head against my shoulder, I didn't think I'd drift off as quickly as I did. But before I could protest it - or even realize, the darkness had taken me over…
… Half of me expected to turn over in my bed but I remembered where I had gone, I sat up straighter and opened my eyes quicker, looking widely around. "What the…" I muttered to myself, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I could've turned over in the dirt I was sitting on and pass back out, but the blur that became clear presented me when Johnny who stood tilting his head at me.
His thumbs hooked in his jean pockets, he made sure we had eye contact before he cocked his head toward the door we had made however long ago, before he took small steps to walk outside. I pushed myself to stand and my legs that were half asleep didn't much like that, but who really cared about legs anyways?
"What the hell?" I asked him as we stood outside, the sun was higher up in the sky that was now just different shades of blue. "Supplies." He said factually. "Oh right." I clued in, man I really was tired, possibly hung-over?
Walking down the hill I had walked up with just Johnny was a different feeling and I couldn't exactly explain it either, I was just to tired, but how many times did you have to hear that? "You know the store?" Johnny asked half-way down the mountain and I bit the inside of her cheek, ",'course." I lied smoothly, how many stores could there possibly be in Windrixville?
The silence remained the same all the way down the side of the mountain, I'm sorry but it wasn't a real blast - it was more, 'Oh jeez I hope The Fuzz don't bust us.' kind of time, you dig? We didn't talk about to much, in fact it was rather… Eery.
But I couldn't help myself when I opened my mouth and said; "Kinda feels like you don't know exactly how to feel right? I mean you feel bad 'cause you hurt someone but at the same time you know you did it for the right reasons - to protect someone and you can't quite figure out how to feel, right?" I stopped myself and I side glanced Johnny who had stopped walking and his eyes had widened just a little bigger then they had been before.
I shifted to put my hands into my jean pockets and we continued walking down the hill, I didn't say anything and Johnny never said anything until;
"The store." I raised my Index finger to point at the only thing not dirt, grass or a half dead bush for kilometres. "Oh good." Johnny said brushing his fingers into his black greased hair, "my feet hurt." He admitted as the two of us got closer to the tiny, tiny store on a dirt road big enough for one car.
There were power lines around here, but they seemed to go a long, long time without being connected to a house, how did this store survive? I would've been pissed if we got to the front door and it was boarded up with 'Abandoned' written across it. But no, thankfully we were greeted with an 'Open' sign. I opened the screen door and let Johnny go in first. Our sneakers made hollow stepping sounds on the stores wooden paint chipped floor.
"Good morning!" The cheerful shop-keep smiled at us and I flashed a quickly smile at him as Johnny and I ducked into an aisle. "Bread?" I said grabbing two loaves of it, "chocolate bars." Johnny picked up several of them,
"peanut butter." I picked up a jar of that. We grabbed some-more chocolate bars and put them down on the counter. Johnny disappeared again. "A feast." The shop-keep said, he was an older man with silver-reseeding hair and large glasses and I smiled again. "Naturally." I had to remind myself, no one knew me around here. Around here I wasn't a Shepard. I wasn't anybody and it felt … Kind of good.
"Where y'all from, don't think I've been you around these parts." He grabbed a box to put the vast amount of supplies in as Johnny returned with stacks of bologna. "Uh' Texas." I smiled, "visiting our aunt." I exhaled. "Oh, I see! Oh I think Maybelle did say her nephew and niece was going to visit soon! Are you related to Maybelle?" He asked.
I could feel Johnny fidget nervously while he added some peroxide to the mix, which I didn't pay attention too. "Yup! Maybelle!" I nodded, knowing at any moment this little made up story could crumble into a million little pieces.
The man smiled, pleased with himself he got it right, he packed out stuff into an air pop popcorn box as he rung it up at the same time and I'd stopped paying attention again, I turned to the side glancing around the shop once more, he spoke but I wasn't listening.
"Ready?" Johnny asked lowly holding the box in his arms, I hadn't even realized he paid, "oh? Yeah..." I walked to the exit with him and held the door for him as he walked out. "Bye now!" The shop-keep said with a smile.
"Bye." I said flashing him another slightly forced smile and disappeared out the screen door with Johnny.
Be instantly became silent again, it was starting to become a routine a routine that made things drag out for a very long time, the walk back seemed six times longer then the walk to the small store had been.
The entire time we walked, I tried to have a conversation with myself in my head like I could usually do... But no avail this time, distraction kept setting in. I exhaled gladly when the church came back into view.
My lips curved into a perfect 'O' shape as my tongue touched the back of my front bottom teeth, I inhaled through my nose before I exhaled in a long low whistle before ending off with a sharp high note.
The two of us paused and I glanced at Johnny when we didn't hear anything back at first, until a long three seconds passed and the whistle was returned. We continued into the church.
"Hey." Ponyboy broke the silence between all three of us now and I looked at him. "Hi." I said as Johnny put the box down on the table, which he refused to let me carry at all the entire way back.
"Went okay, I assume." Ponyboy looked over Johnny's shoulder into the box pulling bread and peanut butter out.
"I think we did good." Johnny finally spoke putting bologna and chocolate bars down beside the bottle of coke.
"Gone with the wind!" Ponyboy exclaimed holding the paper back book with pages almost pink. "I remember you mentioned it, thought it could pass the time." Johnny only have forced a smile looking at Ponyboy who flipped the pages quickly, putting it down on the small table with a smile. "Thanks Johnny." He said.
I yawned and stumbled my way eyes half closed to the back of the church, stepping out the hole filled door. "Wake up... Come on." I slapped my face back and forth with my hands, must not sleep... I told myself, before yawning again and leaning back against the old wood, "just a minute." I closed my eyes still standing up...