Chapter 34
I awoke the next morning to the sound of people running around outside. My mom and little brother were already up. I was about to get up myself when little Soda came running in and jumped on my bed.
"Tashey save me! They gonna git me!" said Soda, hiding behind me.
"Who's gonna get ya, buddy?"
"Twavis and Tex" said Soda. Just then, Travis and Tex appeared in the doorway.
"Y'all leave him alone" I said.
"We did. He wanted to come in here and wake you up and we were trying to stop him because there's nothing worse then a crabby 16 yr. old girl on a Saturday morning. I had to learn that the hard way" said Tex.
I said "get out" to every boy that was in the room. I jumped in the shower and put on some of my old clothes. Somehow, they didn't have that old, musty smell. They smelled like I had just worn them. Since I was starving, I ran downstairs and to the kitchen. I could smell someone cooking breakfast in the kitchen. When I walked into the kitchen, I saw my mom and Tori cooking breakfast together.
"Mornin, Kelsey. How did you……" Tori stop mid sentence, "oh my God."
"What?" I asked, sitting down at the kitchen table. Nobody had to tell me this time. Tori turned away hurriedly, but I could still hear her soft sobbing.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Those clothes" was all Tori could manage to say. I hadn't thought that it might be painful for her to see me in these clothes again. She was the one who had to deal with all the aftermath of my death but then again, the things I had been through since were equally painful. Just then Soda came into the room, dressed and ready for the day to start.
"Something smells good" said Soda, sitting across from me at the table, "I can see you've gotten into your old clothes again. The retro thing is a good look for you."
"Thanks. I was actually thinking about putting in some hair grease this morning but I thought that might be overdoing it a little" I said.
"Yeah, just a little" said Soda.
"Soda, how do you like your eggs?" asked mom.
"With grape jelly, chocolate cake, and chocolate milk or is your breakfast somewhat normal now?" I asked.
"Old habits never die" said Soda. I guess I had gotten it right. Mom just looked at me funny but went to the fridge to find the grape jelly and chocolate cake. Pretty soon, the rest of the kids joined us at the kitchen table. This breakfast reminded me of the breakfast scene in Cheaper by the Dozen (the new one), organized chaos. Pretty soon, it was time to leave what I'd like to call the "new" Curtis family.
"You'll come back and see us won't you? You won't let 40 years go by again will you?" asked Soda.
"Of course not. You guys are like family. I'll definitely be back before the year is over" I said.
"You know, it was hard enough to say goodbye to you the first time but I didn't think I would have to do it twice in one lifetime" said Soda.
"It's not goodbye. Not really. We'll keep in touch this time, I promise."
Soda said ok and gave me a hug.
"You come back and see us, you hear?" asked Tori.
"I will" I said, giving her a hug like I had Soda. My mom, brother, and I hopped into the car and drove off. When we got to the end of the drive way, I rolled down my window, stuck my head out, and yelled "bye!' waving frantically like Soda had done to me so many years ago, or at least for them it seemed like so many years ago. For me it seemed like just yesterday.
"You think we could come back out here sometime, Mom? Like for Christmas or something? And we could bring Dad, Stephen, and Jillian along?" I asked.
"I dunno Kelsey. We'd have to talk it over with your father. You know how he loves to spend Christmas at home" said Mom.
"We'd could ask for me. Dad can never say no to me" I said. It was true. I was my dad's weakness.
"Maybe. Let's just get through the rest of summer first" said Mom. The drive back to Tulsa was just as eventful as the drive to Bixby. We arrived back in town that afternoon and we had time to kill before dinner. We drove around a little, wondering around the streets, not really sure what we should do next. Our flight home wasn't until the next day and we didn't have to check out of the hotel until the next morning. Since Soda was starting to fall asleep, we had to go back to the hotel. Mom hired one of the baby sitters that was on the hotel staff to watch Soda for a little while. Mom decided that it might be a good idea for us to go on a little walk together.
When we were walking, we talked about everything there is to talk about. I hadn't even realized that we had drifted into the east side until I noticed my surroundings. Instead of walking along a busy street, my mom thought it best if we walked in one of the quiet neighborhoods. We were walking along and lost in conversation when I noticed that some of the houses looked familiar. I soon found myself upon the old Shepard house.
"Have you seen this house before?" asked Mom.
"Yeah. I stayed in this house for two weeks with the Shepards. Tim and Curly. I told you about them didn't I?"
"You said that you and Tori went on a date with some boys but I can't remember their names" said mom.
"Yeah, that was them. Dallas got mad at us for going on a date with those two. He thought they were nothing but trouble" I said. I didn't want to go back inside the house so my mom and I kept walking. Pretty soon, I found myself upon another familiar site. I stopped suddenly and stared at the house. It was abandoned now. Almost all the paint was gone and the shudders where hanging by their last hinges. The front yard was nothing but dirt. The chain link fence was rusted and it had weeds growing up the poles. The windows were boarded up and there was graffiti all over the boards. I struggled with the lock on the gate but somehow I managed to get it open.
The pathway that use to lead up to the porch was almost gone, along with the porch steps.
"Be careful Kelsey" warned mom, "I don't want you getting hurt." Mom helped me up the stairs to the porch. The furniture was still there but I wouldn't sit on it. It looked like it was about to collapse any second.
"What is this place?" asked Mom.
"This is the Curtis house" I explained. The door was hard to open, but with my mom's help we pried it open. Everything inside had about 15 inches of dust on it. But everything was as I remembered it.
"You stayed in this place?" asked Mom.
"It was in a lot better shape back in 1966" I said. While I was dusting off the couch a little, I found blood stains. Those stains were from the last time I had gotten hurt. I remember the first time I had gotten up off the couch and seeing blood where my knee had been. I walked around a little more till I noticed Darry's chair still sitting in the corner. I dusted the chair off a little. I thought for sure he would take that thing with him whenever he moved out but I guess not. But then I took a closer look at the newspaper that was sitting in the chair. I couldn't make out the exact date but the year was 1966. I dusted the paper off and held it up to the light so that I could see it. There was a picture of me on the front page. The headline said "Girl dies in heroic attempt to save Friend."
There was a whole article about how I had stopped Bob from shooting Dallas but ended up getting shot myself.
"Let me see that paper, Kelsey" demanded Mom. I handed the paper over to her without saying a word. She read over it quickly and then looked up at me.
"I'm proud of you" said mom.
"What are you talking about?"
"You risked your life to save that boy. It says here that Bob was sent to jail for two years" said mom.
"I wonder whatever happened to him. I'm going to keep looking around, Mom" I said.
My mom said ok while she herself started to look around. The kitchen was different. There weren't any dirty dishes in the sink and there was no chocolate cake in the icebox but I think half of me was expecting to see a cake as soon as I opened the icebox. Of course, I was wrong. I walked out of the kitchen into the hallway. The bathroom was the same. It smelt strong of cologne and grease. I walked down the hall to Darry's room. Even though I hadn't spent much time in there, it still looked the same aside from the cobwebs and dust.
There was actually an old letterman jacket sitting on the bed. It was Darry's high school football jacket. I dusted it off and put it on. The jacket nearly swallowed me up, it was so big. I took the jacket off and put it back in it's rightful place in the closet. It's funny because, the closet still had some of Darry's clothes in it.
I stepped back into the hall and walked into Soda and Pony's room. The only odd thing about the room was that the bed was made. Neither Soda nor Ponyboy ever made the bed unless Darry was standing there watching them. Then something caught my eye on Ponyboy's desk. There were papers spread all over and what looked like an English Journal. It was one of those journals that you use to write your daily journal entries in in English class. The papers and the pages in the journal were brown and turned up slightly at the edges. Since Ponyboy wasn't there to stop me, I decided to read the journal.
November 17, 1967,
Question: Have you ever lost someone close to you? How did you deal with it.?
That was bit too personal for a English Journal entry in my opinion. Anyways on with the entry.
Have I lost someone? Well, that all depends on what you mean by the term. Physically? Yes. Mentally? Yes. I lost one of my best friends when I was 14. Her name was Kelsey. She was the best girl friend a guy could have. But she really wasn't my girlfriend, I mean we weren't going out or anything but I wish we were. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen but you can't just tell someone that. She didn't think she was beautiful but I did. She was special to me and the rest of the gang. She and Tori brought a mood to us that wasn't there before. She even got Dallas Winston to dance which is a big accomplishment for anybody. I think Dallas thought she was beautiful too and he would of married her if she hadn't left. To answer the mantel part of it, I in a way, lost myself and everyone around me. I was so unhappy about Kelsey's death that I turned to drugs and hurting myself. Not only was I hurting myself but I was pushing away those I loved. It took 2 years of therapy, seven guys, and one girl to pull me back in. I guess you could say that my response to the death was somewhat normal.
But that's just the thing. Ponyboy wasn't just some normal 14 year old kid. There was something about him that made him different from everybody else. I always thought that it was because he didn't have the same advantages other kids had but I know that's only part of it. He had something a lot of kids don't have anymore. He had a family that loved him and a family to go home to every night.
He also had this sensitive thing about him that most boys didn't have. He wasn't afraid to cry in front of other people and I respected him for that. He was an artist and he could write. I guess you could say he was a guy after my own heart but he was like my little brother. It would be weird to date someone who was like a brother to you.
"I wonder what happened here" said Mom coming up behind me.
"I don't. It looks like they just up and left" I said, taking a look around Pony and Soda's room. It looked like the same way the last time I had seen it. Except for all of the dust and cob webs that is. Tears where starting to form in my eyes but I wouldn't let them go. I was afraid that if I started crying I wouldn't be able to stop until the day I really died.
"Come on sweetie. Lets go. I think we've seen enough here" said Mom, helping up from the chair. Once I was back on the sidewalk, I took one last look at the house. So many memories, both good and bad, where in that house.
My mom and I continued to talk for a little while longer until we came across cemetery. I don't remember ever seeing the cemetery before but I decided to go in anyways. Most of the tombstones were cracked and there was moss growing over most of them which made it hard to read the name. Then, I saw 4 headstones on top of a hill, under the shade of an oak tree. Something was telling me to go up there, so I did.
The first and oldest tombstone read:
Stephanie Samantha Randle.
May 26, 1950 - October 9, 1964
Beloved Mother and Sister
Rest in Peace dear Stephie.
That must have been Steve's sister. My mom's mother.
"Hey Mom, come here!" I called. She ran up the hill, thinking that there might have been something wrong with me.
"What is it, honey?" asked Mom, a little out of breathe.
"That's your mom" I said pointing to the grave stone. My mom got on her knees to inspect the stone. Almost instantly she began to cry.
"It's ok, Mom" I said, trying to comfort her as much as possible. After 10 minutes or so she got herself together. I went on to look at the other two graves. The second one wasn't nearly as old as Stephanie's. It looked newer then the rest of them. It read:
Steven Joseph Randle, Sr.
September 11, 1925 - December 1, 1985
Husband and Father.
R.I.P
I figured there wouldn't be much on his grave when he died. Quite frankly, I'm glad he died. He abused his kids and killed his daughter. That just didn't cut it in my book. But it did make me wonder if they had a funeral for him and if they had did anyone show up? I know I wouldn't have if I had been around. I moved on to the next tombstone though something told me not to. This headstone wasn't as new as the second one but it wasn't as old as the first. It was right in the middle.
Kelsey Lynn Lewis
October 10, 1966
Best friend anybody could ask for.
You are my rock and my hope.
That was just creepy. I wanted to cry but I couldn't. To mourn your own death was just plain pathetic and weird. But the phrase that was on my stone made me think. I had been there to help different members of the gang through different situations. Like when Soda got the letter from Sandy or when Ponyboy got drunk or when they all went to jail. They had become closer then my real family.
The fourth and final headstone was a little hard to read. I couldn't tell how old it was but I could make out a "P" where the name should be. A very scary thought dawned on me. I hadn't seen Ponyboy yet and nobody talked about him. Could it be?