Chapter 17: Just A Little Thinking
Darry was at work. He was on a quick break so he decided to think for a second. He wondered his brothers would be doing. He knew Ponyboy was in school. His brother was a lot smarter than that. Soda always said he was too strict on Pony, but he couldn't help it. He didn't want any of his brothers to be sent to a home. He knew being their guardian would be hard. He wished he could be like his parents. It seemed like they raised all three of them with ease.
Then he began thinking about Louis. He was glad he was friends with Johnny. Johnny needed that. Especially after he had gotten jumped. Johnny was real quiet. Louis barely said anything to anybody except Johnny. He thinks.
He wondered if Louis told Johnny about what happened to him. He wondered if anyone even thought of his past. Dallas was hanging around Sodapop and Steve a lot more. Dallas was usually a loner. He sometimes hung out with the Tim Shepard gang. But that's only because him and Tim Shepard were good buddies.
"Darrel!"
Darry's head shot up and he looked at one of his co-workers.
"Break's over," he said.
"Alright," said Darry getting up. It was time to focus on work.
Meanwhile Steve, Soda and Dally were still thinking of what could have happened to Louis. Suddenly, Soda then put his finger up and said,
"Maybe a giant beer that drove a car attacked him with toxic beer and burned his leg."
Steve and Dally looked at the second oldest Curtis brother. Soda just put on a wide grin. Steve and Dally couldn't help but smile. It was just something about Soda that could make anyone smile.
Pretty soon, Soda and Steve had to get back to working and Dally left to find Louis and Johnny. He had to find out more clues.
As Dally walked through the town, he said hi to some other greasers that were walking around. He also saw his girlfriend Sylvia, and she started at him. She was saying that she should get money from him.
"I'm not made of money," he said.
"I don't care. You're supposed to support your woman."
"I'll tell you what. I'll run by Merril's place tonight. I'll get some money from some drunk greasers. Okay?"
Sylvia smiled. She always fell in when Dally put on his charm. When Dally felt like it, he would turn on any lady. He rarely did this though.
After he finished with Sylvia, he went back to look for Johnny and Louis. As he was walking, he saw a couple of socs talking to someone in a car.
"Drugs," said Dally to himself.
Dally wasn't sure what they were doing, but he knew socs always had been getting drugs from other people. They had to do that in order to keep their reputation. If they had been seen getting drugs from some old bum, they would have looked exactly like greasers. And that was one thing that the socs would never do.