I woke up to the freezing wind, and rolled over, noticing Soda and Two Bit were just starting to wake too.
"Hey Two Bit- what happened last night? Did we all just come down here to chat and fall asleep?" I asked hopefully. I didn't want to believe that what happened last night was real- I wanted it all to have been a nightmare, which I could just forget.
"Ponyboy, it's no use pretending. Yeah, the house burnt down. Darry- Darry's gone." Two Bit replied haltingly, not wanting to hear the words he spoke.
Noticing a police car, I automatically nudged the Soda awake, and bobbed my head towards a few trees- it wasn't good to be spotted by police, and this car was driving pretty slowly- they must have been looking for something, or someone.
Soda woke, and looked about groggily, but Two Bit grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of sight of the car.
We sat behind a row of trees that lined the car park, and listened to the police in the vehicle as it meandered round the car park sluggishly.
"We're looking for three boys spotted at the scene of the crime, last seen sneaking away before police could apprehend them. Witnesses have informed us that those three were seen throwing petrol in bottles through the front window of the house. Here's a picture of two of them."
The policeman speaking held out a scrap of paper to his patrol partner, who looked startled.
"Weren't they those two involved in that whole burning-church fiasco five years ago?"
"Yeah, seems that this "Ponyboy" kid probably wasn't a hero after all- first a church burns down and he's right there, and now two houses in the area where he lives burn down within a week, along with a handful of cars- and he's seen outside both burning houses -if that ain't suspicious then I don't know what is."
The police car cruised off out of the car park and down the road, while Two Bit, Soda and I sat in stunned silence yet again. The police thought we burnt the houses and the cars down? I wondered if maybe I should have reported that burning car when I saw it, but shrugged- what's done is done.
Soda was the first to speak, hesitantly.
"Maybe we should leave town or something- those Socs that set fire to everything must've been those "witnesses"- and the police aren't going to take our word over theirs again- we were lucky enough the first time, but this time we have no chance."
Soda was trembling slightly- he hadn't gotten used to the fact that Darry was gone yet, and it was painful to talk about him so nonchalantly then.
Two Bit made some sort of grunt, which I took to mean yes, and I nodded. I had no idea where we could go- the church was gone, and we couldn't ask Dallas if he knew anywhere else- not now he was dead. I queried Soda on this, but he just shrugged.
"We'll find somewhere. We just have to leave right now, before the cops start having really serious searches, and we get caught."
Walking away, Soda motioned for us to follow him.