Davanee POV

Dad had to work late that night so Uncle Soda got to watch us. I always liked it when uncles Soda watched. Between you and I, he was a lot more fun than uncle Darry. Uncle Soda told us a lot of stories even though he says Dad was the one with all the stories.

I was helping him with the dishes one night after dinner when I noticed he had a big scar on his arm. It looked kinda funny because it was in a perfect circle.

"How'd you get that?" I asked, pointing to the scar.

"I was, uh, in an accident" he said.

"What kind of accident?"

"The kind that you don't need to know about."

"Is it from the war?" I asked. That made him stop washing the dishes. People think I don't remember when uncle soda when off to Vietnam, but I do. I read over his letters some times when Dad's not looking. At the time, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to ask about what happened.

"Yeah" he said, "it's from the war."

"Did ya get shot?" I asked. He nodded yes.

"What's it feel like?"

"Like something bit you" said Uncle Soda.

"How come you never talk about it?"

"Well, for some people war isn't something they like to talk about, but if you ask about it I'll tell you."

"Was it scary?

"Oh yeah, it was very scary but hopefully you won't have to go through something like that" he said, smiling.

Looking at uncle Soda's scar made me think of a bruise that I got once. It was on the same arm, in the same place. It was even in a perfect circle. Thinking about that scar made me think about my nightmares. Dad thinks I don't remember any of them but the truth is I remember almost all of them. They were almost all the same.

"The people that you were fighting, did they have short, black hair?" I asked.

"Yeah, but sometimes you couldn't tell 'cause they wore hats a lot" explained Uncle Soda.

"That boy that shot ya, he was about your age?" I asked.

"Yeah. How'd you know that?"

"You were held captive, weren't you?"

SODA'S POV

I had never told anybody that. When I was over there, a couple Vietnamese soldiers held some of the boys in my platoon captive. They would torture us. They would try to get answers out of us but we didn't know anything. We had no idea what was going on. One of the soldiers, a boy about my age was forced to shoot me. He was aiming for my heart but somehow he missed and got my arm. A couple of days after that, we were free. I went home almost a week after.

"How did you know about that?" I asked again.

"They held me captive too."

"What are you talking about?"

"In one of my nightmares. I dreamt that they caught me and did stuff to me. See." She rolled up her sleeve to show me a scar on her wrist. I had the same scar on the same wrist. This was layer upon layer of creepy. I dropped the plate I was holding. It fell on the floor and shattered. Pieces of glass went everywhere.

"They aren't gonna hurt me again, are they?" asked Davanee, tears filling her eyes.

"Of course they won't. I won't let them" I said, wrapping my arms around her. I told her to go play while I picked up the glass and fished the dishes. She wiped the tears away and went to go play with Dillon and Bo. I was babysitting 5 kids that night so you can imagine how crazy everything was. Normally the kids where pretty well behaved but I made the mistake by giving them coffee. I should've known better than to give Scotty Curtis and Bo Winston coffee. Those two girls where the most hyper kids I had ever seen.

They all fell asleep around 10:30ish. Pony, Maddie, and Dallas had to work late that night. Scotty and Mercy slept on the couch. Davanee and Bo were curled up in Darry's chair and Dillon was asleep on the floor. I covered them with blankets and went to work on some paper work stuff for the DX. I was almost done when I heard Davanee moving around in the chair. At first it was nothing, but then she started whispering. The whispering went to talking then to yelling. She started moving so much she practically pushed Bo out of the chair. She landed on the floor with a loud thump.

"What's wrong?" asked Bo.

"She's having a nightmare" I said, walking over to Davanee. I started shaking her slightly so she'd wake up. She did wake up but she pushed me away. After awhile she realized what had happened and she ran over to me in tears. I just sat there and rubbed her back.

"Is she ok?" asked Bo.

"Yeah, she'll be ok. She just had a bad dream. Go back to sleep."

Bo climbed back in the chair, covered herself with a blanket and closed her eyes. Davanee on the other hand didn't go back to sleep. She stayed up until Ponyboy came.

"What's she doing up?" asked Pony once he got back.

"She had a bad dream and she couldn't go back to sleep" I said.

"Oh. Is she ok?"

"Yeah, she's ok.

"Thanks for watching them" said Pony, picking up Scotty.

"No problem" I said, picking up Mercy. I carried Mercy out to the car and put her next to Scotty. Davanee followed and climbed in next to Mercy. I watched as they went off down the road. I kinda missed not having Pony around so much. But I suppose it was bound to happen one day. I walked inside and waited for Dallas and Maddie. Maddie didn't come till 12 and Dallas never came so Bo spent the night at our house. That's usually how it went.

I didn't have to work that day which was a relief because I hadn't had a day off in a long time. I did have to baby-sit though. Ponyboy said he had to work all day at the country club and he wouldn't get off until after dinner. Pony dropped the kids off early that morning. I was still half asleep when they came. The girls played outside while I made breakfast. They came running in when breakfast was ready. After breakfast, they played in the living room.

I was busy with the dishes when Mercy came running up to me.

"Uncle Soda let's play Beauty Parlor" said Mercy.

"I can't right now. I gotta finish up these dishes" I said.

"But I want you to play Beauty Parlor with me."

"But I don't wanna play beauty parlor" I said. I wasn't trying to be mean or anything but I really didn't want to.

"Yes you do" said Mercy, smiling from ear to ear.

"No I don't."

"Yes you do" said Mercy, making a sad face.

I sighed and gave. No man was strong enough to resist Mercy's sad face. I followed her into the living room and she made me sit on the floor. Davanee and Scotty were already sitting there with their toenails and fingernails painted. They were allowed to use nail polish just as long as they put a towel down first.

Mercy grabbed the scissors off the coffee table and started pretending to cut my hair. Everything was going ok until I heard Mercy say "oopps."

"What do you mean oopps?" I asked.

"Nothing" said Mercy. I stood up and looked at her. She was hiding something behind her back.

"What are you hiding behind your back?" I asked.

"Nothing" said Mercy smiling.

"Mercy Jay are you lying to me?" I asked.

"Yes" said Mercy, looking down at her feet. She took her hands out from behind her back and showed me what happened. There in her little hand was my hair. My hand immediately went to the back of my head. She cut a lot of hair, which meant there was a big spot on the back of my head.

"Are you mad?"

Of course I was mad but I wasn't going to tell her that. "Of course I'm not mad." Mercy started smiling when I said that.