Johnny slept for a few hours and woke up when the phone rang. His stomach lurched a little remembering the last time he picked up the phone when he was alone in the Curtis's house. But if it was one of the guys and he didn't pick it up, they'd wonder if he was OK. So he sat up carefully and dragged himself over to the phone. He was feeling pretty rotten.
"Hello?"
"Hey bud, how ya doin'?"
Johnny breathed a sigh. It was Steve. "I'm OK, Steve."
"Soda told me you weren't feeling to great. He's busy with a customer and he wanted me to call and see how you were... It's a blonde customer, by the way." Johnny could almost see Steve smirking on the other end of the line.
"Ooohh." Johnny said, making a half hearted attempt to play along.
"Good ol' Soda, always the ladies man... Anyhow, kid, he says he's gonna try to stop by in a bit. OK?"
"He doesn't have to," Johnny wished he hadn't said that. He really wanted someone to come home soon.
"He knows, but he's coming anyway. Gotta go, kid! Feel better!"
"Thanks, Steve," Johnny said and hung up the phone.
Johnny headed off to the shower, hoping that would make him feel a little better.
When he came out, he heard whistling from the front yard. Soda was home.
"Hey, Johnnycake!! You're up and about! Doing better?" Soda grabbed him in a choke hold and ruffled his wet hair.
"I was," Johnny replied, which was not entirely true. The shower had helped a little, but not much.
Soda laughed and plopped down on the couch.
Johnny sat down too.
Soda looked at him, his face suddenly serious. "Johnny, how come you're not sleeping?"
Johnny looked down. "I don't know..."
Soda moved over next to him and slung and arm over his shoulders. "C'mon kid, it's me, Sodapop! You can talk to me.... what's eatin' you?"
Johnny looked into his eyes. Aside from Pony, Soda was probably the easiest one to talk to of the gang. But this situation....
I will kill your friend Ponyboy.....
No! Johnny thought to himself. You are not going to tell anyone. He's going to leave, he's probably already gone. You are not going to risk Ponyboy's life.
He'd seen the news. He knew the score. This guy was very dangerous.
"I've just been having nightmares.... I don't know."
"But-" Soda stopped when he heard the screen door open. Darry had come home over lunch as promised.
"Hey, you two. Johnny? How are ya?"
"All right," Johnny replied.
Darry went into the kitchen and got a quick glass of milk and let Soda and Johnny talk for another minute. He'd decided that he'd send Soda back to work and confront Johnny about his recent behavior. He'd gotten a call at work from Pony's track coach about a couple of missed practices. Darry hadn't had a chance to talk to Ponyboy yet, but he could only assume that Johnny knew something about it.
Darry went back into the livingroom. From what he could tell, Soda was trying to get him to talk too. "All right, little buddy. Back to work with you."
"Aw, Darry, I just got here!"
Darry gave him "the look".
Soda rolled his eyes. "All right. You get some rest, Johnnycake. I'll see you tonight!"
Johnny waved to Soda as he bounded out the door.
Darry went over to the couch. He sat down on the edge and looked at Johnny. "No sign of Dally yet, huh?"
Johnny shook his head. He was getting nervous. He had a sneaking suspicion that Darry was going to press him for information too.
"Johnny, I gotta ask you... Things haven't been ...quite right lately. You haven't been getting any sleep, you haven't been eating, and Dally told me about the cut. "
Darry tried to keep his tone soft. He knew he was making Johnny nervous even though he didn't mean to.
"And I got a call about Ponyboy's track practices..." he didn't accuse. He didn't need to. He knew he's be able to read Johnny's expression.
And Johnny looked absolutely devastated.
"Johnny, if he misses too many of those, he'll be off the team! What's going on? You need to talk to somebody, kid. You're really scaring us... Dally hasn't slept since this all started. He's so worried about you...."
Johnny looked at him curiously. That seemed like a strange thing to say. Dally didn't worry. Dally wasn't even there, which Johnny was glad for. He hoped he was off getting some sleep. Johnny had been feeling guilty for waking him up every night.
"Something's wrong, I can see it in your face- I know that look. It's the look you had on your face the first time I saw you and you didn't want to tell anybody what had happened to you..."
Johnny drew in a quick breath.
But there was no mistaking it. That's what Darry had seen in Johnny's face then. Not just fear, not just pain, but a secret. Something he didn't want to tell anyone. That had been so long ago. Eleven years ago. Johnny had been five years old. Darry had just turned ten......
*************************
Mrs. Curtis had been looking out the window for the past five minutes. She never just stood looking out the window. She didn't have time. As it was right now, there were dishes to be done, laundry to be folded, and Soda was asking her a third time for some chocolate cake and he was starting to whine. It was the expression on her face that had caught Darry's attention. She looked worried and a little sad.
Finally, she looked away, as if coming out of a daze, and she turned to Soda. "All right, Sodapop. Go sit down at the table and I'll bring you some."
She glanced out the window one last time and walked over to the cupboards and got out a plate and a fork. "Darry," she called, trying to be heard over Soda who had made up a song about how much he liked chocolate cake.
Darry got up from the floor where he'd been where he'd been working on building a model airplane. "Yeah, Mom?"
"Darry, would you do something for me?" she asked glancing towards the window and absently placing a piece of cake in front of Soda, who immediately stopped singing and started eating.
"Sure, what?"
She started walking towards the window again. "There's a little boy out there in the lot. He doesn't look like he's much older than Sodapop. I think he's crying...."
Darry went over to the window too, to see what she was looking at and, sure enough, there at the edge of the vacant lot was a small, dark haired boy sitting in the grass, hugging his knees to his chest.
"I saw him out there another time too... Darry, honey, would you go and see if ..... well, maybe he'd like to come in here for some cake? Could you do that? And come right back. "
Darry shrugged. "Sure, Mom. I'll go get him."
Darry headed down the porch and across the street to the empty field. As he got closer, the boy looked up.
He had cuts and bruises on his face and arms and he was crying, just like his mom had thought.
Darry was afraid for a minute that the kid would run off, he looked really scared. He had huge black eyes, almost as dark as his hair. He was small, and he did look to be about Soda's age.
"Hey, " Darry said, stopping a short distance from the boy and waving a little. He approached him like he might a wild animal. He figured if he moved slow enough and didn't get too close, the kid might not run off.
The little boy didn't say anything. He was still choking on tears, but he tried to stop once he saw Darry. In his hands he was clutching a small, tattered stuffed dog.
"Are you ok?" Darry asked softly.
There was no response.
"My name's Darrel, but everybody calls me Darry. What's your name?"
There was a long pause and finally, the boy whispered "Johnny."
"Oh. I live over there," Darry said pointing back to his house. "My mom said to tell you that we have chocolate cake and that you can have some if you want."
The boy now looked more confused than scared.
Darry wasn't sure what else to say. "I'm building a model airplane. I could show it to you and you could have some cake. What do you say?"
Johnny looked at him for a minute. "Will I like chocolate cake?"
Darry stared at him. What kind of question was that? "Everybody likes chocolate cake," he said finally. "C'mon."
Darry held out his hand. Johnny hesitated, then finally he stood up and took Darry's hand.
He was limping slightly.
"How old are you?" Darry asked.
"Five."
"Aren't you a little young to be getting in fights?"
Johnny didn't say anything.
Darry eyed him curiously. He had a look on his face like he'd done something bad and didn't want to say.
He probably gets in trouble for fighting, Darry thought. He knew that he and his brothers did. But somewhere in the back of his ten year old mind, something was telling him there was more to all this that he thought.
But Johnny was not a talker so Darry just held his hand and walked him up the front porch steps.
Mrs. Curtis held open the door. "Well, hello!"
She smiled warmly, but Darry didn't miss the fleeting look of shock on her face. She got down at eye level with Johnny, not that he would look at her.
"We thought you might like to join us for some cake! What's your name?"
"His name's Johnny, Mom." Darry answered for him, sparing the boy the apparent difficulty of talking to strangers. He could feel the small hand trembling in his.
Johnny stood there looking at his worn out shoes and holding the stuffed dog up close to his chin.
"Oh! Well that's a nice name! I'm Mrs. Curtis. Johnny, how old are you? Four?"
Johnny looked up then. "No, I'm five."
Mrs. Curtis smiled even more. "Well, then you'll have to come in and meet my son Sodapop. He's five too! You two will be going to school together in the fall."
Johnny looked curiously at her. "Sodapop?" he asked, tilting his head to one side.
Mrs. Curtis laughed. "Yes! That's his name. Can you believe it? His Daddy picked it out. Now who is this?" she asked, patting the stuffed dog in Johnny's hand.
Johnny took a deep breath like he was about to make a speech. "That's Snoopy, only it's not the real Snoopy because Mama says she can't 'ford to buy me the real Snoopy- he's too 'spensive. I found this one outside in the dirt."
That dog's not even white, Darry thought. But he figured he wouldn't mention that to Johnny.
"Oh, I see." Mrs. Curtis was giving Johnny her full attention as though he were telling her the most important thing in the world. Darry always admired how she did that. He knew she'd be able to get Johnny to talk.
"Well, would you and Snoopy like to come in? I'll bet you're hungry."
Johnny nodded, almost eagerly.
Darry had noticed how skinny the boy was and he figured he probably was hungry. Johnny was still holding onto Darry's hand as they followed Mrs. Curtis inside. Darry wondered why his mom hadn't said anything about the cuts and bruises.
Soda was still working on his cake and he'd made a complete mess.
Darry took Johnny over to the table and showed him where to sit. Then he sat down across from him.
"Hi!" Soda said loudly. "What's your name?"
"Johnny."
"Johnny what?" Soda was banging his fork on his glass of milk.
"Johnny Cade." Johnny replied softly.
Soda stopped banging his fork and looked at Johnny. "Johnny Cake? Your last name is Cake? That's the best name in the world!" Soda yelled, before Johnny could even correct him. Then he started banging his fork again and making up a song about a boy named Johnny Cake.
Johnny wasn't sure what to make of all this. If it had been anyone else, it might have seemed like they were making fun of him, but not Soda. Soda seemed genuinely thrilled with the name he'd just misheard.
"Sodapop... Soda, stop." Mrs. Curtis took his hand that had the fork and held it long enough to talk to him. "He said his last name is Cade. Not Cake."
Soda put the fork back in the cake and took another bite and looked over at Johnny. "Oh. Well, you could just tell people that your last name is Cake. It sounds almost the same."
"You can call me that if you want." Johnny said quietly.
"OK!" Soda beamed. Then his expression changed. He looked suddenly concerned. "Hey, What happened to yo-"
Mrs. Curtis put a cloth napkin up to Soda's mouth and began to wipe his face. "You're a mess! Would you like more milk?"
"OK!" Soda said. "I think Johnny Cake would like some too."
"All right," she laughed and set out another glass and a plate of cake for Johnny.
As Johnny was reaching for his fork, he accidentally bumped the glass that Mrs. Curtis was pouring milk into so that she ended up pouring some on the table.
Johnny gasped. "I'm sorry!" he said softly looking up at Mrs. Curtis, his eyes filling with tears, and the most terrified look on his face that she had ever seen on a child of his age.
Mrs. Curtis was startled by his reaction. "It's all right, sweetie, it was an accident! Don't cry!" She got down beside him and dried his face with the towel she'd had on her apron.
Darry saw his mother's extreme concern over Johnny's reaction and he wondered about it vaguely. And Johnny... Johnny was shaking and cowering in his chair. Darry had never seen anyone behave like that.
But then Mrs. Curtis smiled brightly and picked up the glass of milk and to Johnny's amazement, dumped a little more on the table. Johnny just stared at her.
"Things like that happen a lot in this house," she said. "It's OK!"
Soda grinned and picked up what was left of his milk. "Yeah, see, Johnny Cake? Mom doesn't get mad!"
And with that he poured his milk over his cake and laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen in his life.
Mrs. Curtis cringed. What have I started, she thought. She would talk with Soda later.
Right about then a very small boy wearing nothing but a pair of underpants came toddling down the hall carrying a blue blanket and a stuffed bear.
"Oh, hello, Ponyboy!" Mrs. Curtis walked over and picked him up. "Did you have a good nap?"
Ponyboy... Sodapop... people dumping milk on the kitchen table and laughing about it...what kind of place was this? Johnny wondered to himself. And he hadn't been there 5 minutes before he, too, had acquired a nickname. But he said nothing.
"Ponyboy, this is our new friend Johnny. Can you say hello?"
Ponyboy just looked at Johnny and then buried his face in his mother's shoulder.
"His name is Johnny Cake, Ponyboy! Isn't that a swell name?" Soda announced.
Ponyboy lifted his head and laughed. Johnny couldn't help but laugh too.
After he finished his cake, Darry, Sodapop, Ponyboy and Mrs. Curtis walked him home.
"Now, Johnny, anytime you want to come over, our door is always open. You stop by any time, OK?" Mrs. Curtis said.
She had such a warm smile, such a sincere way about her. Johnny would certainly take her up on the offer. He wished he never had to leave. The whole way back to his house he wanted to cry. He didn't want to go home. He didn't want these people to know where he lived. Or worse, who he lived with.....
******************************************
"Mom cried for half an hour after we took you back," Darry said. "She knew what you were hiding. Unfortunately, I'm not as perceptive as Mom was. I know you're not telling us something, but I don't know what it is...."
Johnny wouldn't meet his gaze, but something inside him warmed when he remembered that day. It was the first day in his life that he remembered feeling safe, feeling like someone cared if he lived or died.
"We just want to help you, kiddo. But you need to tell us how. We all care about you.... Look, I gotta get back to work or I'll be in big trouble. Dally should be here any minute.You get some sleep and think about what I said, all right?"
Johnny nodded. Right then and there, he almost told Darry.
But this isn't about me, he reminded himself. They don't know what might happen if I told them... He couldn't even imagine what would happen if the Curtises lost Ponyboy.
Darry patted his shoulder and headed outside. He hoped Dally would be there soon.
