Sorrow
Chapter 2 ~ Journeys

Sodapop had come to a decision after a lot of thinking. He would go and find Sandy and win her over to be his. The hole at his heart was eating away at him. He knew that he and Sandy were meant to be and it was his destiny to find her.

So now he was sitting at the kitchen table with his Greyhound bus ticket and a huge backpack filled with food, clothes and necesseties for his trip. He was writing a letter to Ponyboy and Darry his two brothers explaining what he was doing and why he was doing it. He also told them not to worry and not to try and stop him. Sodapop was taking matters into his own hands and running away from home.

He wasn't like a young child who'd been told to go to his room and had rebelled. This was real and true and he had carefully thought it over. He would take a bus from Oklahoma City to Sarasota and once he was there he'd find Sandy and she would realize her mistake in letting him go. He wasn't sure of all the small details, but he was so wrapped up in grief and sadness he hadn't really thought his plan over carefully and right now he firmly believed it would work.

He left the note on the table, hoisted his pack onto his shoulders and locked the door behind him. He pushed his younger brother Ponyboy who would be home from school any minute now out of his mind. He also pushed Darry his older brother who worked two jobs to put food on the table out of his thoughts. He needed to focus on one objective. The immediate one was to get away and the long term goal was to marry Sandy.

Soda walked along the streets to the first bus stop he found. The streets were quiet at this time of day, most kids were either at school or hanging out at a bar and most adults were working diligently to make enough money to pay the rent. The neighbourhood was deserted. Soda passed the time until the next bus came by whistling the tune from "My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean".

Finally he heard the distant roar of a diesel engine and smelled the smoky gasoline fumes of a bus and it turned the corner. He gave the driver his ticket and found a comfortable window seat where he could watch the scenery from.

As the bus pulled away from his neighbourhood, then passed out of his city, his state and everything familiar to him he reflected on his rather short life. It had been filled with relatively little happiness but Soda, always an optimist had made the best of the times using little jokes and stories to help his family through difficult times. Now he was on his own.