Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Shucks darn. Oh well. Don't sue.
I reached down and grabbed a handful of snow. Packing it tightly into a snowball. Perfect if I hit accurately it would leave a mark. I loosened up my arm and looked for a target. Behind the house I saw a flicker of a shadow. I moved in for the shot. Slowly I raised my arm ready for throwing. The shadow came around the corner of the house. It belonged to Sodapop my brother. I took aim at his heaving chest and threw with all my might. It landed smack on his shirt. He stopped dead in his tracks.
"Ponyboy! You arte going to pay." He yelled in mock fury. I ran. He stooped to pick up some snow packing it hard. I looked over my shoulder. He was coming fast. I ducked behind a bush and started packing another snowball. Soda raced around the side of the house. I leaped out from behind the bush snowball in hand. Soda threw though his snowball at me. I ducked and it missed me smacking right into my brother Darry who was at the moment coming outside to call us in to dinner. The snowball had slammed right into his leg with bruising impact. I turned pale, Darry turned pink, and Soda just laughed.
"Oh you're in for it now young mister." He roared. Soda and I ran as fast as we could. Darry could break bones with his snowballs. We hurried around to the back of the house. As fast as we could be packed snowballs. I could hear Darry getting his boots, jacket, and gloves on inside the house. We probably had around two minutes before Darry came out and started pelting us with snowballs.
We stood up. We could hear Darry running around the house. We got our snowballs ready; once he came around the house we were going to do a running retreat around the house. I would throw two snowballs, and then grab two more while Soda threw two. Our plan was foolproof. Darry came pounding around the corner and we set our plan into action.
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Half an hour later the three of us walked into the house covered in snow, slush, and ice. We took off our jackets and walked into the kitchen. I got out plates and started to set the table for dinner. Darry put noodles in some water for pasta. 'Mom and dad should be home soon,' I thought to myself. I heard a car pull up in front of the house. "Hey guys," I yelled, "Mom and Dad are back." I raced to the front door and pulled it open. Standing before me was the last thing in the world I would ever expect.
Two policemen walked in. They took of their caps and asked us to sit down. "We have some horrible news." One said. "I'm sorry boys. Your parents were killed in a car crash coming back from the other end of town. A speeding pick-up hit them, they were killed instantly." I gasped. Soda sat down hard beside me on the couch. Darry griped the doorframe with white knuckles. "There will be a trail a week from now to decide the home of the younger two boys." With that the two policemen left.
It was at least fifteen minutes before anyone moved. The loud bubbling sound of boiling water brought us back to the present. Darry walked over into the kitchen and turned the stove off. I got up and walked to my room. I sat down on the bed and curled up in a tight ball within the sheets. The tears that would not come before came now. I cried and cried until there was nothing left. I got up and walked to the bathroom. Turning on the cold water I grabbed a facecloth and wet it. Scrubbing my face quickly I walked back into the living room. Soda was still sitting on the couch and Darry was sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands.
I don't think anyone slept much that night. Darry stayed by the table, Soda stayed on the couch. I wandered from room to room. Finally I lay down on my parent's bed and cried. In the morning Darry got up to go to work, Soda was sleeping peacefully on the coach. I don't think anyone cared if I went to school or not. All day I just sat with my best friend Johnny and smoked. The days before the funeral passed in a daze, no one really was doing anything.
On the day of the funeral all of the gang dressed in their best. The only person who wasn't there was Dally. He was in jail. The minister droned on and on, Darry just stood there like silent stone. Soda broke down halfway through sobbing into his hands. I let a few tears escape, but I was all cried out.
Two days after the funeral was then trial. I was scared; I didn't want to be separated from Darry and Soda. They were the only family I had left in the world except for some far of distant cousins in Mongolia. The day of the trial Darry, Soda, and me walked into the courtroom dressed in our best clothes, we needed to make a good impression. We were the only people in the courtroom accept fro the judge. He was looking through each of our files.
"Sodapop Curtis," the judge said in a loud voice, "I have looked through your file and have come to the conclusion that you are old enough to stay in the guardianship of your brother Darrel until you reach the age of twenty-one. Then you will be old enough that you will not need your brothers guardianship." I was relived, Soda was happy, Darry smiled. Soda would be crushed if he were taken away from us.
"Now in the case of your little brother Ponyboy Curtis," the judge looked down his long, hawk like nose at me, "I have concluded that it would be better if you stayed in the guardianship of your older brothers on the condition that you stay in school and are not arrested." He slammed his hammer down on the wooden block. "Court adjourned."
I was so happy. Now I wouldn't have to go stay at a boy's home or in Mongolia with my distant cousins. Darry actually broke out in his first real happy grin since mom and dad had died. Soda did a back flip of the courthouse steps. The security guards stared at us suspiciously so we calmed down. Darry treated us all out to ice cream sundaes. Then we headed over the DX station to tell Steve and Johnny.
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The memory of mom and dad still hurts me sometimes. Once in a while I wake up at night in a cold sweat. Most of the time though I am okay. Every Sunday Darry, Soda, and me drive down to the graveyard where mom and dad are buried. When we go we leave moms favorite flowers, tiger lilies, and dads favorite flowers. The ones he always gave to mom on her birthday, lily-of-the-valley. They eventually blow away, but the fragrance and their memory stays planted firmly in our minds forever.