In the morning when I woke up my face felt like I ran into the side of a truck and every muscle in my stomach ached. I laid in bed for a long while before I managed to use my sore muscles to head to the bathroom. I walked slowly down the hall and looked into Ponyboy's room where he was still asleep in bed. I continued into the kitchen and looked into my old bedroom, Johnny was asleep out in the living room and Dally was stretched out on the sofa so I quietly wandered into the bathroom. Looking into the mirror I was shocked to see the purple bruise on my cheek and the black bruising underneath my right eye. I stared at myself and recorded the image in my memory.
"How are you feeling this morning?"
I jumped at the voice and twisted around to see Darry standing in the bathroom doorway in his jeans and white tank top. "Darry! What are you doing home? I thought you had to work today."
Darry walked in and shut the door behind him so our conversation wouldn't wake any of the boys. "I took the morning off. I wanted to be sure you were going to be ok." He put his hand to my head to check for a fever.
I thought about what a missing day of pay would cost the family and answered with guilt. "Yeah, I'm going to be ok?" I thought about how I had felt the night before and how confused my emotions were regarding Darry. "I just won't be eating any steak for awhile." I offered up a painful grin knowing we couldn't afford steak anyway.
"Got any loose teeth?" My brother asked.
I ran my tongue along both rows of teeth. "They all feel fine." I looked at Darry's blue eyes, this morning they seemed sincere. Nothing like the way Pony would describe them in his poems. "Hey you didn't have to stay home to check on me. One of the other guys could have done it."
"No." Darry sat down on the edge of the bathtub. "I needed to. I promised mom I would." I looked back at my brother a little confused as he continued. "I remember the day that day you and Ponyboy came home from the hospital and Mom had you in her arms." Darry smiled, "She was so happy to have a girl in the family. She sat me down on the couch and had me hold my arms out. You were wrapped up tight in a blanket and all I could see was your tiny face and one tiny hand. I remember being amazed at how small you were. Mom knelt down in front of me and handed you over. I held you all by myself and she said, 'you know what you have in your arms Darry? That's an angel. Little sisters are angels from heaven and it's going to be your job to take good care of her. You're the oldest and she's the youngest so you be sure to watch out for her and protect her.'" Tears filled my eyes as I listened to the story. "And I promised her I would, but I didn't do a very good job of it yesterday, so I am going to today."
I wanted to weep, but Darry had told the whole story and never let out one ounce of sorrow or one little tear. I didn't know how he could be so stoic all the time. I didn't want say speak for fear that I might bawl and Darry knew it so he changed the subject. "The boys went out again last night looking for the guys that jumped you. Dally was really stirred up about the whole thing."
"Did they find them?" I asked full knowing the socs had retreated to the safety of their own domain.
"Nah," Darry looked up at me. "When they came back home Soda told Dally it didn't matter much because he, Two-Bit and Steve had already worked them over good." Darry and I both grinned, Soda had that effect on us. "Dally didn't care though, he wanted to bash someone's head in for what they had done."
I looked up at my brother. "Did you go out with them?"
"No, I stayed her. Don't you remember?" Darry asked and stood up. "You got up shortly after you went to bed and walked into the living room saying you didn't feel well." Darry waited but my face stayed blank. I had no recollection. "I walked you back to your room and put you to bed. You had a fever so I stayed up with you for awhile."
I tried to think hard, "No I don't remember."
Beyond the bathroom door we heard a knock at the front door. Darry walked out of the bathroom to answer it and I stood half in the bathroom doorway and half in the dining room. I wanted to know who it was, because most of the people we know don't knock, but I didn't want to be seen with a black and blue face either.
I glanced over at Dally who was still sound asleep on the couch. He never looked tough when he was sleeping. Actually he looked young, he looked his age. I heard the guest greet Darry in and overly jolly voice. "Well hello! My name is Louise Dillard I am a social worker with the State of Oklahoma."
Darry straightened up and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Darrell Curtis. What can I do for you?"
The lady was an older woman in a floral pants suit and curly brown hair. She was short, chubby and inviting. "Well, I recently received your case when Mrs. Martens resigned. She and her husband are moving to Arizona, you know." The woman commented as if Darry and Mrs. Marten knew each other on a personal level. I read your file and when I saw the names Scout. Ponyboy and Sodapop I just couldn't wait to meet everyone." Darry stood aside and invited the new social worker into the house. I ducked back into the bathroom and quietly shut the door. She stepped in and looked around noticing Dally sleeping on the couch. "Who do we have here?"
Darry looked nervously at the juvenile delinquent. "That's Dallas, he's a friend of ours." My brother looked around the living room for a place to invite the lady to sit down. "Sometimes some of the boys in the neighborhood don't get along well at home and they need somewhere else to sleep."
"That is just fine…" The woman's pleasant voice almost sang, "why don't we meet at the dining room table."
Darry walked the lady to a chair and pulled it out for her. His palms began to sweat as he heard the shower in the bathroom start up. He knew if she insisted on meeting with me there was no way he was going to be able to hide my face from her.
"I see you did very well in school. It is a shame you weren't able to afford college." Mrs. Dillard looked over at Darry. "You know I believe things would have been different for lads like you if President Kennedy hadn't been killed. His untimely death is just a shame."
"Yes Mam'" Darry said, more to let her know he was listening, then in agreement with her.
The lady seemed more interested in getting to know Darry then telling him how to raise his siblings. "Do you remember where you were when President Kennedy was shot?"
Darry thought about how the question had nothing to do with his life now, but he answered anyway. "I was at school."
"Did you cry when you heard the news?"
Darry thought for a moment. "No, I didn't. But a lot of the other kids were crying." Darry grinned a little at the memory in his head that he had forgotten until now.
"What?"
"Well there was this girl next to me who was sobbing at her desk, so I took her in my arms while she cried."
"That is so sweet." Mrs. Dillard smiled at Darry. "Do you remember the girl's name?"
"Yeah," Darry grinned some more. "Kathryn."
"Well I bet she sure appreciated you taking the time to care for her." The social worker sorted her file folders on the table. "Just like I am sure your brother's and sister appreciate you taking care of them now. I tell you it is a real tragedy you all losing your parents like that." Mrs. Dillard looked up from her papers to catch Darry's eye contact. "It is just wonderful that you kept the family together. I have a son a few years older than you and a daughter who is seventeen and there is no way he would give up college and work full time to raise his sister. And that would be just one year, you have four years to go with the two youngest."
Darry sighed heavy realizing he would be twenty four years old when Pony and I turned eighteen years old.
"So tell me about Sodapop. Where is he working? Does he enjoy it?"
Darry sat up because he knew the answer to all of her questions. "Yes mam' he works at the DX gas station over on Milton Ave. and he is really happy there."
The lady wrote down the information. "Well I will stop there after I am done here and have a quick chat with him. How is it raising the children?"
Darry shrugged. The woman was asking personal questions that he hadn't ever considered and he wasn't sure how to answer them. "Well…. I guess it's fine. I aint ever raised anyone before so I don't know if things are going well or not. Um… we do a lot of things together, dinner, chores…." From the spare bed Johnny heard the conversation with the stranger. Quietly he got up from the bed and walked past Darry headed to the front door to leave. "See ya later Johnnycakes." Darry caught Mrs. Dillard making some notes and he cleared his throat. "That's another boy from the neighborhood. He's Ponyboy's best friend."
Mrs. Dillard could tell Darry was nervous and she wanted him to be reassured that she was nothing like the past social worker. "Don't you worry none about me knowing those boys are here. It doesn't bother me in the least." Darry shook his head happy she wasn't going to hold the family's generosity against them. "Are Scout and Ponyboy home?"
"Yeah, Ponyboy is in bed and …" Darry remembered where I was and how I looked. He wasn't sure what to tell the lady. He stumbled a little in his response stalling as he thought. "… Scout is in the shower right now."
"Oh good, I will need to meet briefly with both of them before I go." The kind lady read through her notes and questioned Darry. "Are you having any trouble with any of the children?"
Darry thought about Soda's speeding tickets, Ponyboy's forgetfulness, and my troubles with James. "No, not really."
"It says here that Scout is a little bit of a handful." Mrs. Dillard looked at my brother in a way the tried to convince him to tell the truth.
Darry's face filled with surprise. "Excuse me?"
"These notes say that Scout is an incorrigible child with a bad temper and disrespect for authority."
"Mrs. Dillard I would disagree with that." Darry leaned forward in conversation. "Scout is a sweet girl. She get good grades, has good manners. I don't think I would ever call her incorrigible." Darry heard the shower turn off and new in a few minutes I would be coming out of the bathroom and he still hadn't thought of how he would explain the bruises, especially after I was just labeled as a handful.
Inside the bathroom I could hear Darry talking outside the door and I knew there was no way I could get out of the room unseen and I couldn't stay inside all morning. I grew nervous thinking the social worker would take one look at me and deem Darry an unfit guardian. For one second I thought that if she did feel that way it may all just be for the better. Then reality hit me again that I would be alone without my brothers. I put my clothes on and ran a comb through my wet hair. I looked in the mirror and thought the bruises looked even worse with my combed back.
"It sound's like Scout will be headed out of the bathroom soon." Mrs. Dillard sat back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap to wait.
Darry clasped his hands together in his lap and knew he had no choice but to tell the truth. "Mrs. Dillard…. See…. last night Scout was coming home from the library and … a group of boys, not from this neighborhood, well… she got beat up by them pretty bad."
"Oh my!" Mrs. Dillard looked toward the bathroom door and then back to Darry. "Is she going to be ok?"
Darry shook his head yes. "She's ok, but she does have a black eye and a bruise on her cheek."
Mrs. Dillard was very sympathetic to the incident. "Oh the poor dear. That must have scared her to death. Does that happen a lot in this neighborhood?"
"No, if it did I wouldn't have let her go out alone. In fact I told everyone last night that I don't want them going anywhere alone at night anymore." Darry defended his neighborhood and his ability to be a fit guardian.
With nothing else to do in the bathroom I reluctantly stepped out into the woman's view.
"Oh you poor thing, that is much worse than I had imagined."
The lady stood up and introduced herself to me as Ponyboy strolled into the kitchen not knowing the social worker was waiting to meet him too. "My name is Mrs. Dillard and I will be replacing Mrs. Marten as your social worker."
I smiled so big it made my sore cheek hurt. I introduced myself and right away I could tell this lady wasn't there to judge us. She just wanted to check on us to make sure we were happy and healthy in our home. I looked over at Ponyboy as he flattened his greasy hair down with his hand and walked to the bathroom.
Mrs. Dillard joked to Darry. "Well it looks like you have two kids who aren't looking so good this morning. Darry laughed and told Pony to brush his hair and teeth and come out to join us. The four of us talked about casual stuff like our favorite class at school and who in the house was the best cook. Pony and I both agreed it was Darry. We talked about the other boys in the gang and how they were family to us. She asked if we knew what we wanted to be when we grew up. Ponyboy said he wasn't sure, but I told her I wanted to be a family court judge. She was very impressed with our conversation and just before she left she whispered to me that I don't seem incorrigible at all. I wondered why she would say that but I didn't ask. I liked the new lady from the state. She seemed to care about who we were and she made me feel comfortable with who I was and what I had.
