Chapter 12
Thank you guys for the reviews and follows! Sorry I didn't get a chance to respond to each one of you individually like I have been doing. Work has been a little rough. But I have been reading them and loving them!
And yes, you did catch a hint of a little something-something with Darry and the house manager… but this story or the next? I'm not sure…
As always, I'd love to hear thoughts, opinions, and ideas!
(Darry)
Rain has a very distinct smell, especially late in the spring when the world is still waking up after winter. I could smell the rain before the clouds even moved in. It floated to me on the breeze, intermittently smelling stronger like waves crashing against a beach. I considered waking Ponyboy so he could watch the storm roll in with me. He would love the light violet color that the sky was turning, and the way the very last remaining boundaries of the sun looked like a flickering flame against the horizon. Streaks of purple were painted behind the forming dark clouds.
But I couldn't bring myself to wake him.
I couldn't face any more of his questions.
I didn't have the answers.
I couldn't handle the grey that had clouded across his green eyes when Sodapop had walked out the door.
I couldn't handle the way his lip quivered when he begged me to go after him and bring Soda back to him.
So, I let him sleep and watched the clouds roll in alone, thunder rumbling across the sky.
I don't really smoke a whole lot, usually. But I did now. And when my hand started to shake, I convinced myself it was the amount of nicotine coursing through my system.
Two Bit and Steve arrived just as large droplets of rain began to pepper the ground. Their shoulders were hunched against the cool wind and coming downpour, and their footsteps quickened to get to the cover of our porch before the sky completely broke.
Two Bit instantly pulled a beer bottle from his jacket. "Brought Pony a welcome home gift!"
His smile died on his lips when he looked at me. "Jeeze, Dar, I was only joking. It's for me. I won't give it to the kid."
I shook my head. "It ain't that Two Bit…Sodapop…is…gone."
Two Bit's eyebrow shot up so far it almost met his hairline.
"Gone?" Steve eye's searched mine, and I held his gaze for a second before fumbling for yet another cigarette.
"With Tim Shepard." Suddenly the peeling paint on the post in front of me was very fascinating and I scraped at it with my nail.
"Tim? But Pony just got home, he would never…oh...ohhh." Steve's eyes were round. He turned on his heel and was halfway down the steps almost before I realized it.
"Steve where are you…?" I called after him.
He turned, walking backwards a few steps, and pulled up his collar around his face. "I'm going to Tim's. Pony is my brother too."
I don't know why Pony ever thought Steve hated him.
He slouched back around, pace quickening beneath the heavy rain.
I wanted it to be me.
I wanted to be the one to find that little shit that hurt Pony.
I wanted to hurt him back.
I wanted it to be me.
"Steve, wait!" I yelled after him. I pulled Two Bit back under the safety of the roof to stop him from following Steve and looked at him. "It has to be me, Two Bit. It's got to be me."
Two Bit nodded. We gave him a lot of grief for his constant jokes, but he felt things deep down, understood them maybe better than all of us.
"All right, Superman. I dig. I'll babysit the kid. Just get a hit in for me, will ya?" He lightly punched my shoulder.
I don't know if I ever answered him.
I was in the rain, my hand digging for my truck keys before I'd even realized that I had decided to go.
"Steve, get in the truck."
Tim and Steve had walked.
We could catch them.
Not knowing where else to go, I headed for Tim's.
If there was a God in Heaven, we'd find them.
(Pony)
A thin crack crossed the yellowing white paint on our ceiling. I stared at it for a minute, wondering when it had appeared and why I had never noticed it. Maybe it had always been there but I hadn't noticed it cause my head was in the clouds.
I rubbed at my puffy eyes.
I must have cried myself to sleep. For a greaser I sure ain't very tough.
Maybe I could blame the crying on my head. It made me say funny things sometimes. Maybe it could make me cry too.
I tried not to let Darry see, but I think he knew anyway cause after I buried my face into the couch, he sat on the coffee table rubbing circles on my back like Soda usually does. It only made me feel worse, though, cause it reminded me that Soda was gone.
He thought he needed to go after James for me. He didn't. I'd rather have him here with me instead of maybe getting himself hurt or in trouble. Darry said it could get him taken away. Maybe both of us taken away. Possibly breaking up our family again on my account wasn't worth it. Not to me.
I just wanted to be home. Home with my brothers.
But if it were Soda laying here on the couch, I'd have done the same thing.
I heard voices outside on the porch. I didn't even know Darry was out there until he spoke over the low rumbles of thunder.
I could hear Two Bit and Steve answer him. I couldn't make out what they were saying. But they sounded hyped up.
I sat up when I heard the truck doors close.
I was expecting Darry, but it was Two Bit that slammed the door open.
"Hey Ponyboy."
I stared at him for a minute.
"Hey Two Bit."
Both my brothers were gone.
And it was my fault.
(Soda)
We was leaving Tim's when I heard the distinct rumble of our truck's engine. I'd recognize the hum anywhere. And sure enough, it pulled up in front of the Shepard place.
I shouldn't have been surprised. There was no way Darry was gonna let me go through with this. He was too much a parent now. Sometimes it seemed like he forgot what it was like not being in charge and responsible for two little brothers. Sometimes he forgot that doing the right thing didn't mean doing the legal thing.
I tried to stay out of trouble. I really did. But there are some things in life that you just got to do, and you won't rest easy until you get them done.
Like this. I owed James. I owed Pony.
I slouched as Darry and Steve walked through the overgrown yard, past piles of discarded car parts. I could feel Tim and Curly stiffen beside me, ready to defend what I was doing.
But Darry just reached out his hand and shook Shepard's as Steve came to stand by me.
"Tim."
Darry never has been much for words.
He looked at me then. "We are coming with you, Soda."
"Darry, I…"
He interrupted me. "We are coming, Soda. I want to be there. Pony is our little brother too, and I aim to protect him. I sat with him a long, long time, Soda. I thought we lost him. And I swore to God I'd kill the bastard that hurt him."
I smiled. "Well you'll have to stand in line then."
I didn't ask Shepard where he got the tuff black Charger. It for sure wasn't his. No greaser could afford a car like that. But it didn't matter, as long as it couldn't come back to us.
I wanted revenge, but I didn't want to go waving no flags that said it was me who did it. James would know it was me, but I didn't want the fuzz to tie us to anything if it came to that.
Shepard knows the score though. He's a doer, a problem solver. He's a tuff hood that knows how to hide his tracks. This is the kind of thing he does. His gang ain't like ours. They're real hoods. Tim has connections all over town. That's why I'd went to him.
That, and you can always count on a Shepard to back another greaser.
He'd seemed to take a liking to Ponyboy since Pony and Curly had pal'ed around together a little. Guess he thought Pony might be a good influence on Curly.
I guess he wasn't, though, since Curly was sitting in the front seat, flicking a blade in and out. His jaw was set like Darry's when he gets mad. His eyes weren't like Pony's neither. They were hard like Tim's.
Darry clenched and unclenched his fists beside me. He stared straight ahead so I couldn't read him real well, but I could read the tension in his muscles, and a little vein on his forehead pulsed with his heartbeat.
Steve rapped his fingers against his knee, and I saw him feel for his blade in his back pocket once or twice.
I bounced my leg and willed Tim to drive faster.
I'd been waiting for this.
I was surprised when the houses started to look real nice. Tuff cars sat in paved driveways that crossed green manicured lawns. Even the windows in the houses looked expensive and clean.
"I never pegged James for a Soc."
I hadn't realized I'd spoken until Tim's eyes met mine. I felt the need to continue.
"They don't let you grease up in there, and everyone has to wear clothes they tell you to wear. I knew he wasn't a greaser, but I didn't think he'd be a Soc."
I knew he had more money than we did, but I always thought he was more middle class than Soc. He sure acted enough like a hood. How could I have buddied around with a Soc? A Soc. Glory, did I feel stupid.
Darry kept quiet but put his hand on my shoulder.
"How do you think he got out of going to the reformatory, Sodapop? Socs like him don't get sent there. That's why he was at the boys home in the first place. Doing his time there instead of behind bars. It pays when daddy has money."
"I still shoulda known," I whispered. But I don't think no one heard me.
The way he walked should have clued me in.
The way he talked should have told me.
The way he acted like no one could touch him.
Tim kept driving, past all the nice houses until the houses started to get less and less and we drove into a more ritzy part of town. I don't think I've even been through here before.
Finally, Tim turned off into an alley and cut the engine.
Brick buildings surrounded us on both sides so I couldn't see much except for overflowing trash cans and sticky pavement.
Tim turned to me.
"The private school is having a dance tonight." He nodded at the end of an alley, and far down I saw what could only be the stone of a fancy school building. "We'll get him there."
"In the parking lot?" Darry spoke for the first time since getting in the car. "Won't that be a little...public?"
"Not exactly," Tim answered for me, his eyes meeting mine once again.
"Now don't get mad, Darry." I said.
"Mad? Why the hell would we be mad that we finally get to get this son of a bitch?" Steve piped in.
"Because," Tim said. "We're dressing like Socs. And we're going to the dance."
