I watched Darry collapse onto mine and Pony's bed. He looked as sad and scared as I was.
"He . . . thinks we . . . hate him?" He asked.
"I guess so." I said slowly. I didn't want to believe it, but it appeared that it was true.
"Why would he say all those things? We're his brothers. He's got to know we love him. He has to!" Darry said.
"I know, I know. But, Darry, I think we didn't do a very good job of showing it when he was away."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Pony's right. We didn't send him letters. We didn't call. Well, we did, but we never actually came in contact with him. We had no way of getting through to him. I can imagine that he thought we deserted him because he hadn't heard from us in so long a time."
"That's true." I saw the sadness in Darry's eyes, and I knew what he was thinking.
"Darry, Pony was wrong to have said that about you. I know you didn't do what you did out of pity. You did it because you love us and because you didn't want to see us get split up. Pony was just upset. I know he doesn't believe it." Or at least I hoped he didn't.
"You're right. It still hurt, though."
"I know. But Pony's hurting the worst right now. We need to take care of him, and make sure he knows how much we love him."
"You're right. I still can't believe he thinks we hate him."
"It's because we seemed to 'ignore' him when he was gone. We didn't mean to, but we did. We should have been more demanding of them. We should have made it our top priority to see Pony, instead of fighting it by working all day long. Pony needed out of there, and shouldn't have gone in the first place."
"You're right." Darry said after a brief silence. "I don't know how we could have been so blind."
I looked at Darry, and I realized something. "Hey, didn't you listen to me? We know you didn't take us in out of pity. I know it and Pony knows it. We're your brothers, and we know how much you love us. Please, believe me."
"Sure, little buddy. I believe you."
I patted his arm and then said, "We'd better go after him."
"Let's go." Darry said, and we ran outside.